Peter Freedman Bowden

I'm a lifelong Unitarian Universalist and believer in the power of our faith to bring diverse people together, change lives and transform our world. I have been a leader in UU congregations since the age of 15. My entire adult life I've been volunteering and working in our congregations, including working for the Unitarian Universalist Association and my home district.

My passion for congregational life led me to consider entering seminary. While deciding the best path I worked at the Unitarian Universalist Association for several years. My love of small group ministry, lay leadership and desire to grow our faith grew during this time and led me not to seminary, but to an alternative ministry and consulting practice.

When I was considering the "traditional" div school plan the seminaries I researched were not offering training in cell ministry, small group minsitry, or church planting - all the areas I was interested in. Uh, I don't think so...

Instead of seminary I started the UU Small Group Ministry Network website in 2001 and began supporting this ministry nation wide. Not funded, but hey, you have to start some where. This led to a growing consulting practice and UU PLANET.

While I was feeding our associations Small Grou Ministry revolution I worked as a television producer, something I continue to do to this day. I work on two nationally syndicated children's television shows. More on that here.

In 2004 I married the Rev. Amy Freedman. As you might imagine, the notion of having two parish ministers in the family wasn't very appealing. This tipped me further in the TV and UU consulting direction.

In 2007 I studied digitial film and television production through Boston University. This was for two reasons - to build on my secular TV work and to develop the skills to produce high quality UU video.

So there you have it! I am a lay UU consultant, television producer, and minister's spouse. Ah, the best of all worlds! I get to work with congregations, guest preach, lead trainings, play with bugs and spiders, inspire people of all ages, and read Rev! Magazine while Amy is at board meetings.

If you are a minister, lay leader or UU revolutionary of any kind , I invite you to subscribe to my e-newsletter, keep in touch, and let me know how I can be of service.

Update: In Dec. of 2008 Amy and I had a daughter, Liza.