The Reverend Alison J. Buttrick Patton
Pastor
Alison comes to us from First Church Simsbury in Simsbury, CT, where she has served as Associate Minister for Parish Life and Outreach since 2007. Her responsibilities in Simsbury have included worship leadership, mission support, pastoral/congregational care, adult education and new member support. She has launched a lay caregiving network and overseen a local, affordable housing rehab effort. She lists mission trips to Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi; four annual women's retreats; work with the Welcome Church Ministry Team and leadership of the Stewardship Team among her other First Church ministry highlights.
Alison is also active in the wider United Church of Christ. She will serve as the conference preacher at the CT Conference Fall meeting in 2012 and co-lead high school camps at the CT Conference summer camp, Silver Lake Conference Center, in 2010 and 2011.
Prior to being called to First Church, Alison was Dean of Community Life and Director of Admissions and Recruitment at Chicago Theological Seminary for eight years. While working at Chicago Theological Seminary, Alison also served as an interim co-pastor at The Peoples Church of Chicago, a small, diverse, urban congregation on Chicago's north side. Alison preached and led worship, hosted "urban immersions" and ministered with homeless residents in the neighborhood.
Born in 1970 and raised in New England by two UCC ministers, Alison graduated from Bates College in Maine in 1992. Following graduation, she spent a year in Chile as a Global Mission Intern through the United Church of Christ's Wider Church Ministries Board. On returning to the States, Allison worked as a Resident Organizer in a low-income neighborhood in Hartford for two years. (Ask her about the community garden she helped to establish there!)
Alison is married to Craig Patton, who also grew up in New England and attended Bates College. After marrying in Hartford, CT in 1996, they moved to Chicago so Alison could pursue her Master's in Divinity degree. They lived in Chicago for 11 years and had two sons, Tobey and Ian. Craig is a stay-at-home Dad and a writer. Tobey (age 9) received his first baseball glove when he turned two and never looked back. He loves reading, math, nature, writes stories, plays bass in his school orchestra, and is a Webelos in Cub Scouts. Ian (age 6) loves stories, puzzles, science and building, talking to people and climbing… everything. He is a Tiger in Cub Scouts. The whole family loves reading, hiking, exploring and playing games together.