Our Director of Faith Development, Anne Principe, is a credentialed religious educator and ordained interfaith minister who brings years of experience working with children, families, groups in congregations and the community. She is a graduate of Suffolk University where she studied communications, was granted status as a Credentialed Religious Educator in 2005 by the Unitarian Universalist Association, and in 2010 was ordained an interfaith minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine.

Anne has served the congregations of Melrose Unitarian Universalist Church as the Director of Religious Education and Youth Director, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn as Youth Coordinator, and First Parish in Brookline as the Director of Religious Exploration. In each position she has guided the formation and strengthening of vibrant faith development experiences and programs grounded in spirituality, community building, and faith in action. In Anne’s words, “it is through fostering personal spiritual growth, developing important relationships in our congregation, and cultivating compassionate community initiatives that we find ourselves in a place that we can call home, together.

She likes playing games when it is not known ahead of time who might win, is an occasional artist, a music lover, and travels near and far looking for footpaths that might lead her to new friendships.

She has frequently been a workshop leader and presenter on mission work in our association. Her social justice involvements include many years of border ministry in the El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juarez, Mexico area, relief work in New Orleans, a friendship trip to El Salvador, and most recently with teens and adult learners in Lynn, Mass. She co-authored Journeys of the Spirit, published by Skinner House Books. Over the years she served on the Mass. Bay District Executive RE-Team, the North Atlantic LREDA Chapter and the Intergenerational Program coordinator for Religious Education week at Ferry Beach Park Association.

Anne’s children – Cassie and Jarryd – are young adults and were raised Unitarian Universalist. They are contemplating writing a memoir on the experience of growing up with a parent who talked about church just a little too much. Anne co-houses in Swampscott with her partner Mike, his sons Christopher and Jackson, and Daisy the cat.