Meet the Pastor

Rev. Dr. Mary Maaga has a diverse background in education and ministry which you will hear reflected in her preaching and teaching.  Pastor Mary, as she prefers to be called, has a Bachelors Degree from UC Davis in Political Science/Public Service and worked as Administrative Assistant to the Mayor of Sacramento in her early twenties.  After experiencing a call to ministry, she attended San Francisco Theological Seminary, where she met her husband Rev. Boikanyo Maaga, who was a visiting seminary student from South Africa.  After receiving her Master of Divinity, and serving as a youth director in Sacramento and Walnut Creek, Pastor Mary studied at Drew University in New Jersey, where she received a PhD with distinction in Religion and Society.  Her thesis on the Jonestown massacre was published as Hearing the Voices of Jonestown: Putting a Human Face on an American Tragedy.  In addition to serving as a Pastor in local Churches in New Jersey and California, Rev. Dr. Maaga was a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland.  She is a fully ordained Elder in the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.