We are happy to welcome Reverend Patrick McLaughlin as our full-time contract minister for the 2023-2024 church year. Patrick comes to us from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, NH where he served as the settled minister from 2013-2022. He has served the UUA as a Board Trustee and as Secretary of the UUA. He is a native of Denver, but grew up moving around the western US, as well as in the Australian Outback and Brussels, Belgium. He holds an MDiv from Meadville Lombard Theological School.
His former careers include a wide range of writing and editing jobs (spacecraft operating manuals, diving equipment, commercial electronics, computer hardware and software, and presentations for Congress, as well as journalism), and homeschooling two sons.
As a lay UU, he held a wide range of positions in his home congregation (Palomar UU Fellowship in Vista, CA), including co-chair of the search committee and president of the board.
He follows only one sport — politics — but has a wide range of hobbies, which include reading, computer games, gardening, board and role-playing games, home renovation (a friend says it’s more of a bad habit or obsession), and many other things.
He and his wife, Barbara, reside in Chester, NH, and have two dogs and an elderly cat (all of them rescues). They have two adult sons.
Please do not try to feed him dairy products. Patrick loves dairy products, but has become seriously lactose intolerant and is now obliged to appreciate them at a safe distance.