My academic training is philosophical first and theological second.  That is, in undergraduate school (the University of Michigan) I cut my rational teeth on Western philosophy, from Socrates to Nietzsche, while focusing on logic and epistemology (the theory of knowledge).  Subsequently, having decided to enter ministry, my graduate studies (Harvard Divinity School) required a shift from the study of philosophy to that of theology.  Predictably, I focused on biblical studies, but also became intimately acquainted with Eastern thought (especially the Vedas, the sacred texts of the Hindu tradition).
    After graduating from Divinity School I formally entered ministry with the Unitarian Universalist Association.  To date I have been in Fellowship with the Association for 20 years, actively serving Unitarian Universalist congregations for 18 years.  While doing so, I returned to school and achieved a second Masters degree, as well as studied conflict management, mediation, and organizational communication theory.
    Woven into my practice of ministry and continued educational pursuits has been an ongoing and ever deepening study of the spiritual texts and practices of the world's religious traditions and history's most noted spiritual figures.  Consequently, my spiritual journey has been interspiritual in nature, reflected in the fact that there are a number of traditions in which I ground my religious thinking in equal measure: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Sufism (I also turn to other religious traditions and philosophies to ground my religious thinking, such as Judaism, Taoism, Western philosophers, and poets (especially those that represent the mystical stream that is the source of the world's great religions), but these four remain primary for me.).  As you will see if you look at the Spiritual Practice page, the spiritual practices in which I engage also equally reflect these traditions: silent meditation, mantra, chant, walking meditation, and gentle turning exercises.
    Despite my thorough academic training, my passion lies in my interspiritual journey, which I continue to deepen by means of the continued study of the spiritual texts of these great religious traditions and engaging in the spiritual practices they have developed to help one realize the essential truth contained within them, that truth being embedded in what Wayne Teasdale called “the universal stream of mystical consciousness.”  Put otherwise, my passion lies in returning to the mystic.
      With this in mind I invite you to take a look at both the Spiritual Study page and the Spiritual Practice page on this site, and consider joining me in returning to the mystic. For it is in this experience, I believe, that we we ultimately discover the truth and meaning in life that we seek, making life what it was meant to be for each and every one of us.

• Work Experience

20 years of ministry within the Unitarian Universalist Association, to which I am gratefully indebted for its creedless religious stance and encouragement to pursue spiritual growth according to the dictates of one's own conscience (see the Association's Principles).  We're it not for my discovery of Unitarian Universalism, I think it highly unlikely I would have followed the path that lead me to the interspirituality that now grounds my spiritual journey (see the Association's Sources (appearing beneath its Principles), which encourages Unitarian Universalists to pursue truth and meaning by means of exploring all the world's religions and philosophies).

2001 – Present:     Minister – Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington, Farmington Hills, Mi.

1996 – 99:               Assistant Minister – First Church in Boston (formerly First and Second Church),                                  Boston, Ma.

1993 – 96:              Minister – First Parish Unitarian Universalist – Canton, Canton, Ma.

• Education

1985 – 88:             University of Michigan –   B.A.  (Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy)

1988 – 91:             Harvard Divinity School – M.Div.  (Masters of Divinity)

1993 – 95:             Harvard Divinity School –  Th.M.  (Masters of Theology)

• Further Credentials

2005 – Present:    Co-director and Founder of the Inner Enneagram Center

2004:                      Certification through the Trifold School for Enneagram Studies (with Helen Palmer                                 David Daniels, and Associates)

1999 – 2000:         Organizational Communication Studies (Action Science)

1998:                        Mediation Certification through Sam Leonard (Executive Director of the Institute                                   for Mediation and Training)

1994:                        Conflict Management Training through The Alban Institute