Rev. John Cullinan departs Unitarian Church of Los Alamos after 17 years. Photo by Thomas Graves
UNITARIAN CHURCH OF LOS ALAMOS NEWS RELEASE
In the spring of 2007, the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos invited a minister fresh out of seminary to take its pulpit. This summer, 17 years later, a bittersweet parting is at hand, as Rev. John Cullinan departs for Reading, Penn., to become the minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County. His last day in the Los Alamos pulpit will be June 16; Rev. Tina DeYoe, the church’s current Director of Lifespan Religious Education, will assume the pulpit in August for at least two years as minister pro tem.
The intervening years have seen the Los Alamos congregation through marriages and memorials, winter holidays and autumn in-gatherings. Their new building, dedicated in 2016, is a center not only for the Unitarian Church but the Los Alamos community as a whole. Like many churches, the COVID pandemic impacted attendance and participation, even many months after the doors re-opened. But COVID days are in the rear view mirror, leaving Rev. John confident that he leaves behind a congregation that is strong and growing, serving both young and old.
Rev. John is a graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. He holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a minor in Theology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. He currently serves the Unitarian Universalist denomination as a Good Officer for their Ministers’ Association. Outside of church, he is a performer and faculty member at Santa Fe Improv.
He became as Unitarian Universalist (UU) because of a deep need for church community. Growing up in a denomination that did not fit him as an adult, he found a new church home in the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee. Sept. 11, 2001, inspired him to do something meaningful in a hurting nation, so just 4 years after walking through the doors of the Unitarian Society, he was a seminary student on the path to ministry.
Being a minister has shaped his life, bringing him to embrace an ever-deepening path of spiritual growth. His ability to know his audience and get his message across has grown with time. Rev. John says that his “relationship to the divine is always in flux,” and that his job as a minister is to “live his spiritual human life and report back on his progress,” putting his humanity into his ministry, and keeping at the core of that ministry the eternal, beloved, gracious source of all life and all love.
When asked why members of our community should join the UU church, Rev. John stated simply, “because Unitarian Universalism puts love at the center for what is stands for. This church is a laboratory for how we build a community, putting ‘e pluribus unum’ into living practice.”
His first decade in Los Alamos was spent shepherding a building project, involving a successful $4 million capital campaign, and a “year in the desert” in a rental facility. As challenging as the project was, its completion left the congregation without the glue that bound it for several years. It took some time to pivot to the next steps, re-focusing from raising a building to helping the congregation take its next steps forward.
Rev. John said he will miss everyone dearly: the congregation, his circle of friends, and his improv team. He will also miss the joy of living in the mountains, and an awe of living in the Los Alamos landscape that has not dwindled in 17 years. And not to be forgotten, green chili bagels at Ruby K’s.
His advice and blessing to those he leaves behind is “believe in the mission – else nothing matters.” Take some intentional time to refine that mission, and let the new minister, an imperfect human being like all ministers, be the minister, a spiritual leader of a congregation and a partner of a strong lay leadership. Focus on what is of value inside the congregation and the larger community, and do not fear of challenges, like the inevitable differences of opinion and approach within the congregation, and the financial challenges of running a church.
The challenges for his next ministry are not dissimilar for those faced by Los Alamos congregation that he leaves behind – seeing what one can create together, finding inspiration, and drawing on the spiritual depth of individuals. The Los Alamos congregation will miss Rev. John, but has full faith for its bright if separate futures. All are invited to join the Los Alamos Unitarians in their community of compassion and inquiry.