Rev. Judy Brennan will begin this role on October 1, allowing an essential overlap with our soon-to-be-retired DEM, Deacon Dianne Johnson who retires at the end of October.
She was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 2004 and was called to the Indiana-Kentucky Synod. For the first 9 years of ministry, she served three congregations around Louisville, KY. Pastor Judy moved to the NW Washington Synod in 2013 and served two congregations in Bellevue. She loves hearing about where people encounter the sacred in their daily life and partnering in both traditional rituals and new ventures.
Judy grew up in Minnesota as a pastor’s kid, living in Le Center, St. Paul, and Winthrop. She graduated from Wartburg College where she designed an interdepartmental major combining Political Science, History, and Religion to study international and multi-cultural issues and has always enjoyed learning about people from around the world. During college, she traveled on service-learning trips to Jamaica, Appalachia, the South Bronx, and Tanzania. After college she spent a year teaching English in Japan, a year serving in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps in MN, and another working in a health care accounting and consulting firm before heading to seminary in Berkeley, CA.
She and her husband, Dan, have three kids and love living in the beauty and diversity of the PNW. Judy likes playing board games, reading, drinking local PNW beer, walking/hiking, watching movies, and baking. The Brennan household also includes two cats and a yellow lab.
