Susan Quinn Bryan began as pastor of Mount Auburn on the first Sunday in Advent of 2005. Previously, she had served for 20 years as pastor at A Community of the Servant-Savior, the only More Light Church in Houston, Texas. The summer of 2011, marks the 25th anniversary of her ordination, however, she served three churches as a Director of Christian Education prior to attending classes at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

Susan is a native Houstonian, although she has lived in various places in Texas, as well as Indianapolis, Indiana and Atlanta, Georgia. She is an avid reader, a movie buff, a ‘foodie,’ and enjoys theater. She likes art, museums, travel, cooking, baking bread, sewing, crafts and lively discussions. She is delighted to be in Cincinnati, rejoicing in the seasons and the cultural offerings here.

Her progressive theology can best be described by an old story told about Karl Barth, the prolific theologian, who said he imagined arriving at heaven’s gates with a wheelbarrow filled with the many books he had authored. “So, what did you learn about God from all that time and energy spent doing theology?” he imagined St. Peter asking. After a few minutes, Barth found himself saying, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Susan believes in an inclusive, forgiving God of grace, who loves diversity, and longs for us to embrace that love for ourselves and extend that love to all others. Susan says, “Karen Armstrong recently said something with which I agree: ‘Anyone who uses scripture to exclude or hurt anyone else has missed the plot!’”

Marcus Borg uses a term with which Susan resonates: ‘panenthiest.’ That is to say, everything exists within the womb of God, where we live and move and have our being. To love ourselves is to love all. She also believes that the church is called to truly be the body of Christ in the world, which means being involved in the world and continuing to proclaim and work with God toward the Reign of God here and now -- a world where ‘justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.’ She believes strongly that with God all things are, indeed, possible.

Susan is the mother of three daughters: D'Arcy Bryan-Wilson, an actress (married to Kevin Murphy, an ethno-musicologist and law student) who lives in Pearland, Texas; Dr. Julia Bryan-Wilson, a professor of Art History at UC, Berkeley who lives with her partner, Dr. Mel Chen (also at UC, Berkeley) in Oakland, CA; and Rebecca Clark, a director of a Mother's Day Out and student working toward her MSW degree (married to Craig Clark, who works for FedEx, races motorcycles, and sails) who lives in League City, Texas. Susan is also the proud grandmother of four: Seth, born in 1998, and Trent born in 2001, (sons of Becca and Craig), and Abby, born in 1999 and Lulu who was born in 2005 (daughters of D'Arcy and Kevin).