Pastor Nunes
The Rev. John Arthur Nunes, PhD, began in March 2022 to serve at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Santa Monica, California on a part-time basis during its pastoral vacancy. On September 11, 2022, he accepted the call to serve as Pilgrim’s sixth pastor.
Ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1991, John has served in a variety of capacities in local congregations and for the church-at-large. Currently, he is a Senior Fellow for the think tank, the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy.
Nunes served previously as the President of Concordia College New York, as the President and CEO of Lutheran World Relief, and as a professor at Valparaiso University. Recent books are, with Alberto Garcia, Wittenberg Meets the World: Reimagining the Reformation from the Margins (2017) and Meant for More: In, With, and Under the Ordinary (2020).
Born in Montego Bay Jamaica and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, John is a graduate of Concordia College, Ann Arbor MI (BA), Concordia Seminary, St Catharines, ON, Canada (MDiv), and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (ThM and PhD). He also has three honorary doctorates.
John is married to Monique Nunes, a graduate of Concordia University Ann Arbor (BA) and Webster University, St Louis (MA). Noted for her inspiring gift of song, Monique has served in the classroom and administratively in Lutheran schools and public schools at the elementary, high school and higher education level. She is currently the Director of Diversity and Student Success Coaching at Concordia University Irvine, California.
John and Monique have six children and twelve grandchildren.
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We pray that Pilgrim becomes your home church!
