Rev. Molly Vetter — MVetter@fumcsd.org
Justice and Outreach

Rev. Molly Vetter is passionate about many things: building community with unlikely and diverse people, making the church more boldly welcoming, and caring for the earth. With this in mind, she guides our congregation’s response to our Gospel call: to work for justice and peace as we reach out to the community. She leads our congregation in local outreach and global missions through simple acts of mercy and a global perspective. She is also the primary preacher in Water's Edge worship.

Molly became a pastor at First Church immediately after graduating Claremont School of Theology in 2001 and has served an ordained elder since June of 2004. Her appointment at First Church allows her to use her gifts and passions for social advocacy in the context of a faith community.

Molly also serves as Co-Dean/Spiritual Leader for Strength for the Journey, a retreat for adults living with HIV/AIDS in San Diego County. She helped found and assists in leading a contemporary, multimedia, multi-sensory worship gathering, called The Water’s Edge. Molly has also served as a leader at the San Diego District Junior High Camp.

As a pastor, Molly enjoys teaching. She leads a Bible study each week at the San Diego Rescue Mission’s Women and Children Center. She’s also guided Bible studies and taught classes for the California-Pacific Annual Conference and San Diego State University.

Her involvement beyond the local church includes working with National Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission and the World Council of Churches at their 1998 Assembly. This year, she will lead the delegation from the California-Pacific Annual Conference to General Conference.

As an undergraduate, Molly studied Art History at Boston University. While abroad in the West African country of Niger, she learned to speak a bit of Zarma and weave wedding blankets.

Molly, who graduated North Platte High School in Central Nebraska, is grateful to her parents, now living in Grand Island, NE. Her grandpa, aunts and uncles live on an organic farm just south of Marquette, NE.

Molly and her husband, Matthew Parker, live in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. She enjoys music, the visual arts, reading, gardening, making stuff out of trash, blogging, and being with friends. Though she looks forward to the finished product one day, she (mostly) enjoys spending a lot of spare time fixing up her house and building a family cabin in Julian.

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