“In the Spotlight”. . . Meet Owen Edwards
-submitted by Jan Crane

So forty-four years ago my Mother named me Owen D. Edwards, I was the second child of four. I grew up here in Salt Lake City but have also lived in Atlanta Georgia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Guerneville, CA.
For the bulk of my adult life I worked as an Esthetician and Massage Therapist but retired from such work a couple of years ago when I decided to head back to college. Just a bit over a year ago I moved back to Salt Lake City to study at the University of Utah. The main reason I chose the U of U was the fact that they offer Coptic as a language at the undergraduate level. Currently I am working towards a dual BA in Religious Study and Gender Studies.
I am the only member of my family who is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I resigned from the LDS faith in 2001, triggered by the LDS Church supporting Prop 8 (a change to the California family law that banned same sex marriage.)
Beyond school, I work with a charitable organization, The Zion Curtain Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (www.thesisters.org). The quote I try and use as my personal mantra is “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it” -Ernest Holmes.
When I lived in Atlanta I was a member of the First Existential Church of Atlanta, a UUA Congregation. When I moved to Salt Lake, it was a logical for me to join our Congregation. I don’t have a good answer to how I participate in the Church; I am still getting my feet under me from the move and school. I hope to grow into a more active role, but at the moment I have yet to make that happen. I felt the call to sign the book, because the UUA is where my spiritual heart is. In a similar thought as to why I’m not more active in the Church is why I am not currently pledged with the Church. As a student, I don’t have the ability right now to give to the Church, but starting next semester, I will be paying resident tuition, so I expect at that point to be able to give a regular tithe.