Members and friends of the Morgan Hill United Methodist Church
welcomed a new pastor into their midst recently. The Rev. Patrick
Davis came to the historic church, which has been a downtown
landmark for more than a century, on July 1.
Members and friends of the Morgan Hill United Methodist Church welcomed a new pastor into their midst recently. The Rev. Patrick Davis came to the historic church, which has been a downtown landmark for more than a century, on July 1.
Davis was born in Munich, Germany, while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army.
After retirement, the family lived in northern Alabama. Raised a Southern Baptist, Davis was introduced to the United Methodist Church by a former girlfriend and immediately was impressed with how a lively faith could flourish in a spirit of openness.
In 1976, he graduated with a degree in secondary education with a major in biology and began teaching science at a private high school. While attending college he had worked with choirs and the United Methodist Youth Fellowship. As a result, his desire to enter the ministry increased.
In 1985, he entered seminary at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. Upon graduation with a masters in divinity degree, he was ordained in the North Alabama Conference of the UMC and came to California in 1989.
Davis has served a number of churches in the Bay Area, mainly in the fields of Christian education and youth ministry: Pleasanton, Alamo, Campbell and San Jose.
Davis founded a social service agency in 2002, the Bay Area Alliance for Youth and Family Services. This non-profit organization addressed some alarming statistics in Contra Costa county:
n 13,500 homeless people
n 7500 of them children
n No residential care facilities for girls aged 10-17.
His group focused on abused and neglected girls and founded the first residential care facility for teen girls in the county. Eventually they were able to house 18 girls.
As the economy worsened in the recession, a different model was developed to address their needs. The Bay Area Alliance morphed into a foster-family agency devoted to finding homes for homeless teens. The agency now provides financial, psychological and social support for both the foster children and the parents who take them into their homes.
“Group residential living situations are not the best way for teens to grow up, so the foster home approach offers some clear advantages,” Davis said.
His new appointment to Morgan Hill is part-time, allowing him to continue working with his agency three days per week.
Another project Pastor Patrick is involved in is the Interfaith Peace Project on whose Board of Directors he serves. Its mission is to provide education programs to people interested in developing or enhancing their appreciation of the world’s many faith traditions.
The Morgan Hill church began hosting dialogue sessions on Aug. 31, continuing at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 and 14 with Father Tom Bonocci from Antioch as guest facilitator.
Davis has been very impressed by the community of Morgan Hill. He says the local congregation practices a “progressive spirituality while being well-rooted in their historic faith.”
He looks forward to getting connected with the other clergy and hopes to begin cooperating in joint ventures that can serve the whole community.
“Enjoy your faith and join us in a dialogical encounter of what it means to experience the reality of God’s love in the world,” Davis said.
The Sunday morning worship service is at 10 a.m.
For more information, go to www.mhumc.com or call (408) 779-4044.
