Meet the Ministers!
The Rev. Patricia Brennan, Sabbatical Minister
The Rev. Tricia Brennan is a graduate of Holy Cross College and Columbia University School of Social Work, and was a social worker for 15 years prior to entering the ministry. She studied for the ministry at Andover Newton Theological School and worked as a hospital chaplain before coming to King's Chapel in January 2002 as Assistant Minister. In 2005, Rev. Brennan and her family left King's Chapel to spend a year in Mexico. She rejoins us this year to be Sabbatical Minister while the Rev. Holt is away.
The Rev. Joanne Giannino, Assistant Minister
Prior to arriving at King's Chapel in August 2007, Rev. Joanne Giannino served for three years as, first, Ministerial Intern, and then, student minister, at the First Universalist Society in Franklin, Mass. Prior to that she was, for seven years, Director of Religious Education at the First Parish UU Church in Bridgewater, Mass, her home church. She attended both Northeastern University and the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, earning a BFA in visual art, writing, and performance. She received her MA in Expressive Therapies from Lesley College in Cambridge and taught writing there for six years. She earned, with blessings, her Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School in May of 2007, and was ordained in June of the same year.
Prior to her work in congregations, she was an expressive arts therapist, journalist, and managing editor of a group of weekly newspapers. She loves music, and has played guitar and drums, and sung for many years. She has also written poetry and prose, and been published! Her book Meetings at the Moon: a six-session spiritual journey for preteen girls and their mothers is sold at the UUA Bookstore and, so far, has been used in over 200 congregations. Since coming to the ministry most of her writing takes the form of sermons and prayers.
Joanne shares her life with her husband and two sons, and her hobbies include travel, reading, gardening, and spending time with her large extended family and good friends. Her passion for ministry arises out of two deep wells: spiritual practice – individually and in community – and service to one another.
The Rev. Earl K. Holt III, Minister (on Sabbatical until June)
When elected the 15th Minister of King’s Chapel in Boston in December of 2000, Earl Holt was serving his 27th year as Minister of the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis. A native of New England and life-long Unitarian, he grew up in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Brown University in 1967.
Among many denominational responsibilities, he served as Chairman of the Board of Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, California, where he received his M. Div. in 1972 and which awarded him an honorary doctorate during the School’s centennial in 2004. He recently completed a term as Chair of the UUA Commission on Appraisal, which presented its latest quadrennial Report, Engaging our Theological Diversity, at the 2005 General Assembly in Fort Worth.
Currently, among other community activites, he serves on the Boards of the UU Urban Ministry and the MGH Institute of the Health Professions, and is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Bible Society. Mr. Holt broadcasts a weekly radio commentary Sunday mornings at 8 o’clock on WCRB 99.5 FM.
Read some of Rev. Holt's sample sermons.