Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church - Staff Profile

The Rev. Joan Huff - Parish Associate

Joan Huff came to Seventh Avenue Church during the summer of 2001. She and her husband Gene (Honorably Retired Presbyterian minister, now deceased) were looking for a More Light church that could become their faith community during Gene's treatment for cancer. In 2002 Joan became a Parish Associate responsible to preach, preside at the Eucharist occasionally, help out with pastoral care as needed and assist with the Mission Committee and Adult Education program of the church. Following Gene's death in 2003, Joan continued as a Parish Associate, adding to her responsibilities the availability to provide spiritual direction for individuals as requested.

An ordained Presbyterian minister Joan has served pastorates in Oregon, California, Ohio, and Indiana. She has been a campus minister at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, and a social worker, Director of Family Development for West Side Ecumenical Ministry, also in Cleveland. In that position she worked with individual mothers who wanted to leave welfare for school or training and eventual employment. Most recently she has served as interim pastor for two congregations in San Francisco Presbytery: Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco and Northminster, El Cerrito.

You might call Joan a perpetual student. She earned a BA in English Lit at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, NY; an MA in Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ; an MDiv from Claremont School of Theology, CA; and a teaching credential from Cleveland State, OH. 1997 found her beginning a study of Viniyoga with teacher Dawn Summers, a practice Joan continues. In 2001 she completed her training as a Spiritual Director at Mercy Center, Burlingame. In 2005 Joan completed an MA in English Literature at San Francisco State University. Her thesis is entitled "'I know where wells grow - droughtless wells': Reformed Mystical Theology in Emily Dickinson's Poems."

In addition to work and study, Joan thoroughly enjoys life in San Francisco where all of her immediate family live: parents, two sons, one grandson and both her siblings with their spouses. Joan has been known to call herself a Catholic Presbyterian. She carries deep appreciation for the Catholic tradition in which she was raised, but also treasures the democratic governance of the Presbyterian expression of the faith and its commitment to rigorous study and daily application of ethics in the world in which we live. Roots are important to her but also space to test her wings, try new things, respond to new possibilities and find her way into God's tomorrow.