This story appeared in the Aug. 25, 2016 edition.
By Richard Price
Grafton News Editor –
Reverend Daniel Gregoire began making his mark as a spiritual leader somewhat by accident.
In June he was in Grafton interviewing to be the next minister at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Grafton and Upton. The Orlando shootings, which killed 49 and wounded 53, were less than a week old and it was all over the news.
The social justice committee from the church approached Gregoire and said, “We have to do something.” They asked him if he wanted to play a part. He quickly said yes and was one of a few religious leaders who lead a candlelight vigil on the Common. Over 100 supporters arrived on that June 15 night and Gregoire said he was compelled to take a leadership role.
“Our task is not to despair and not let fear win,” he said.
Soon after, Gregoire was invited to lead the church’s congregation, replacing Rev. Tom Bozeman.
Last Sunday, Gregoire lead a sermon held in the parlor of the church, located next to the Common’s Town House. In a casual setting, about 15 members sat in a circle and shared personal spiritual stories. A slender build, Gregoire was dressed in a button down shirt, his head shaved and beard trimmed. He spoke about the meanings of rituals as the sun poured in the windows and floor fans buzzed. He cradled notes in a three ring binder but rarely looked at them. Barely a month into his new role, the members seemed at ease with him.
And Gregoire felt the same. “The thing that really attracted me here was that the congregation wanted to reach out,” he said in an interview. “And I want to spread the word about this faith.” He calls Unitarianism “a saving faith” that welcomes people from all walks of life. “There are people lost in this world, lost in despair and it doesn’t have to be that way,” he said. “And it doesn’t have to be … where the only good that can come will be after you die. There is another way.”
He calls Unitarian Universalist a progressive religion that does not have a creed but has Christian roots going back to the late 19th century. Congregations in general are a melting pot of beliefs including agnostics.
Gregoire said many in his church believe in the “interconnectedness of lives” with interests in vegetarianism, social justice and the environment. “All of that comes from the idea that we are all interconnected,” he said. “It’s up to us to live a life of love and service.”
The new minister is a Brooklyn, New York native. Before landing in Grafton, he attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2009. He performed student fieldwork at the Community Church of New York while also completing one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at St. Luke’s, Roosevelt Hospital. He then received his Master of Divinity in 2012. Before moving to the Grafton area, he was Assistant Minister at the Unitarian Society of Germantown in Pennsylvania.
Born in the 1980s, he was raised by his paternal grandparents in a Pentecostal household. His grandmother, Lauraine, was the pastor of a small storefront church which she founded two years after her grandson was born. Gregoire said he was deeply influenced by his upbringing but admitted that the Pentecostal faith was very conservative compared to Unitarianism, including its interpretation of the Bible with a belief in the “end times” where God’s judgment was coming.
But as Gregoire entered his teenage years he began to ask questions and explore different paths. He briefly moved in with his father, who also lived in Brooklyn, but had a falling out. He then moved to Brockton to live with his mother, a nonpracticing Catholic. While there, he attended his senior year of high school. He also found himself attracted to the modern architecture of the local Unitarian Church. He then visited and the seeds were sown.
He said his upbringing was rocky. As a child he was encouraged to only be with friends from the Pentecostal faith. But he also said there were opportunities that helped mold him to who he is today. “Our struggles make us who we are,” he said. “It would have been nice to have grown up in different circumstances but there is so much I like about myself that I would not have been the same if I had not had the struggle.”
As he completes his first month at the Grafton-based Unitarian Church he said growing up in a Pentecostal household shaped his philosophy. “Wouldn’t it be easy if I could say, ‘the Bible says so,’ and then have that be the end,” he said. But then, he said, that ease would come at a cost.
“It’s better to have the freedom and allow people to go on their individual spiritual journeys. But still be part of communities supporting each other,” he said. “There is an intense optimism in the Pentecostal faith, in the life hereafter. I feel I’ve kept that optimism, it is just in the here now.”
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