Reverend Bryn Smallwood-Garcia
Senior Pastor
The Rev. A. Bryn Smallwood-Garcia began her ministry with us as our senior pastor on January 22, 2007. As a creative and incredibly spiritual fellow traveler, Bryn has brought a fresh eye to our ministry. She asks probing, thought-provoking questions, and has begun several new adult Christian education initiatives, such as prayer classes and spiritual journey groups, as well as continuing our weekly (Thursday morning) Bible study.
Bryn began working in senior high youth ministry at First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California, in 1988, starting a new position in youth and campus ministry there in 1994. From 1998-2006, she served as the associate pastor at the Orinda Community Church, the United Church of Christ in Orinda, California. In that family-oriented suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area, she reorganized and restarted youth ministries, childrens choirs and pageants, parish callers, and prayer and adult study groups. She also created multigenerational retreat programs and support groups for parents. She wrote and directed liturgical drama on a regular basis, and helped to lead creative worship with a new Family Choir as well as The Dancers Circle -- a regional liturgical dance group based in the church. She was active there in many outreach projects, mission trips, homeless shelters, and the domestic violence task force of Contra Costa County. Prior to her work in Christian ministry, she worked for McKinsey & Co., an international consulting firm in San Francisco, and as a newspaper copy editor and film critic in Raleigh, NC.
Educational Information:
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, B.A. Journalism, 1981
- American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco,CA, S.T.C. 1984
- Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA, M.Div 1992
- Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA, M.A. 1998
Contact Reverend Bryn Smallwood-Garcia by email here