Rev. Mike Morran grew up a city kid from Chicago, attending the Unitarian Universalist Church of Evanston. With an atheist father, a mystic mother, Catholics in the extended family, and friends who were Jewish and Greek Orthodox, comfort with religious diversity has always been a part of life. Unitarian Universalist churches were caught up in social activism in the 1960s, and Mike remembers thinking that religion is what happens when you pitch in with your friends and family to help someone out. Recycling drives, serving soup to the poor, visiting nursing homes, and cleaning up city lots with rakes and garbage bags were early and formative church experiences. Teen trouble and a strong independent streak led him to drop out of high school for a few years of itinerant manual labor. To this day Mike appreciates the saying by Mark Twain, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Facility with math and mechanical things eventually took him to engineering school and a decade of productive industry, much personal searching, and some dark and groping places of the soul. In 1990, he went back to church and some light found its way in. Church was a lifesaver, and religion again happened when friends pitched in to help him out. Called to the ministry in 1993, seminary in 94’, married in 95’, first child in 97’, ordained in 98’; a bright and busy time with abundant blessings. Settled at 1st Unitarian Church of Denver since 2002 with a second child and a strong marriage, he finds serving this thriving congregation a joy and a privilege. These days Mike is on fire with a vision for Unitarian Universalism for the next generation, Unitarian Universalism as a spiritual path, Unitarian Universalism as a transformative faith for troubled times.. This great journey of the mind, the heart, and the spirit, is an open invitation to all people of good will.