Rowan (he/they pronouns) is extremely excited to be joining the First Church Berkeley team! He lives in Oakland with his fiancé Mateo – who is a librarian for the City of Oakland Public Library (you can find him at the Cesar Chavez branch in the Fruitvale neighborhood!) – and their pets Franky (dog, 90 pounds, afraid of the cat) and Precious (cat, 10 pounds, afraid of nothing). He was born and raised in a small Bay Area town of Dublin and has lived in Oakland for five years. In his spare time, he loves to listen to music, read nonfiction books, work in his garden, and take his dog on walks at Joaquin Miller Park or down at Albany Bulb. He is an avid lover of ice cream and loves to bake. He is a stationary fiend and can always be found with his planner.
Rowan is an alumnus of UC Santa Cruz, where he graduated summa cum laude in June 2019. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science with honors and specialized in defense theory. Like many other Class of 2019 graduates, Rowan found himself entering a workforce unlike anything he had prepared for in the 16 years of schooling he had done previously. As the COVID pandemic raged, Rowan found himself unsure of what to do next. When he graduated college, his plan was to take a “gap year”, get his teaching credential, and perhaps eventually go to law school like his friends from his undergraduate program. The pandemic had forced a lot of things into perspective and the social chaos of the summer of 2020, during which Rowan served his community as an organizer at the 924 Gilman Street project, served as a mirror to society that Rowan could no longer ignore. He wanted to be a part of the solution, not the problem, and at 24 he decided to surprise everybody in his life by announcing that he would be going to seminary school at the Pacific School of Religion. There were multiple reasons that people were surprised; Rowan, with his number of tattoos in the double-digits and multiple facial piercings, did not (and does not) look like what most people thought a Christian man in his twenties looked like, not to mention his preference for punk rock music.
To those who knew Rowan personally, his decision to attend seminary school was a surprise for more reasons than just his presentation, appearance, or what kind of music he listened to. At the time of his decision to attend seminary, Rowan had not gone to church in a couple of years. He had not attended a single Sunday service anywhere. He had not taken communion, talked with a pastor, or even prayed, a far cry from his relatively devout lifestyle growing up. The reason was simple and all too common for gay men like Rowan. He had been excommunicated from his home church at 21 years old after multiple years as a member and 3 years on ministry staff because he had come out to a member of the church as gay. It was made clear that Rowan was no longer welcome at the church, and Rowan assumed that he was no longer welcome at any church. His decision to apply for seminary was largely influenced not only by his desire to learn and to strengthen his faith but to prove that queer people belonged in the world of divinity.
PSR was like an entirely new world. For the first time in his life, Rowan met multiple queer people who served as church leaders. He was a part of a cohort of queer + transgender seminarians studying to become pastors, reverends, and other faith leaders. He could talk about having a boyfriend and going to Pride without omitting details or hiding things. He studied under the incredible professors at PSR until a cancer diagnosis, a major surgery on his neck/throat, and the resulting post-operative complications that hospitalized him forced him to press “pause” on his studies. He hopes to return to complete his degree someday; although pastorship/church leadership is no longer his goal (he prefers the behind the scenes), he cares very deeply about the radical lessons of Christ and can testify firsthand to the empowering joy of a supportive church space. Community is extremely important to Rowan, and as the number of third spaces dwindle, he feels very lucky that he gets to be a part of this one!
Rowan is looking forward to meeting each and every one of you at First Church Berkeley. Look out for him on Sundays or come around the office during the week to say hello!