The Rev. Megan Dowdell will be joining the Unitarian Universalists of Santa Clarita Valley as their new minister on Aug. 1, but she’ll have the chance to visit her congregation as a guest on July 21.
“I think it’s an exciting place to be,” Dowdell said about Santa Clarita. “It’s a different place to work from than West Hollywood.”
Following the Rev. Peter Farriday’s retirement, a team of Unitarian Universalists looked for candidates to fill in his absence. Dowdell was chosen to serve as the congregation’s minister working on a part-time basis.
“Those individuals on the search team found her and just thought that she would really be an inspirational minister to our congregation and a good fit for the spirituality we are seeking as a congregation,” UUSCV co-founder Rich Jaffke said.
Dowdell was ordained in May and received her ministerial training at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. As a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of California, San Francisco, she expects to receive her doctorate next year.
Jaffke said he was excited about Dowdell joining as someone with “great potential and the skills to be an inspirational leader to our congregation.”
Dowdell, who identifies as a lesbian, said she hopes to connect with other faith leaders about equality for the LGBTQ community, one of UUSCV’s core tenets.
“I believe together we can be more powerful than just one person and one belief system,” she said.
To learn more about Dowdell, visit her blog at www.copingincommunity.com/immersed.
