In June 2004, The Rev. Dr. Pat Youngdahl, Ph.D., said a resounding YES to the Spirit’s call to ministry at Downtown Presbyterian Church. Since then, the congregation and Rev. Youngdahl have journeyed together into a deeply fruitful and creative spiritual partnership in ministries of worship, caring, learning, and justice.

Worship services are crafted to interweave scriptural wisdom, exploration of the questions we wrestle with as human beings, and Christ’s call to love one another as we seek peace within our own souls and around the world. We stand with each other in times of trial and laugh together in times of joy.

A Welcoming Ministry Team is active each Sunday in responding to the interests and needs of new attenders. Visitors often let us know how friendly and welcoming we are, and are drawn to us as a congregation that delights in the synergy of Word and music, and simply "knows how to be church." Many new members also find spiritual enlivenment in our book groups, Bible Studies, justice projects, and Sunday Forum gatherings.

Upstate New York is familiar and beloved terrain for Dr. Youngdahl. Her first call after divinity school was as Associate Pastor at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester. A strong believer in co-ministry, she collaborated with members to design a comprehensive program for adult spiritual exploration and growth. Dr. Youngdahl next answered a call to become Pastor and Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Here she worked with members in a process of biblical and theological study, goal-setting, and implementation that resulted in increased membership, growth in monetary giving, and expanding involvement in the congregation's inner-city neighborhood.

Before her return to Rochester to become Co-Pastor of the Downtown Church, Dr. Youngdahl earned her doctorate in rhetoric and taught writing and literary interpretation at the University of Arizona in Tucson. During these years she won a Jacob Javits Fellowship for her research in the rhetoric of liberation theologies and received the Johnnie Raye Harper Award for distinguished teaching. She was also a frequent guest facilitator of the weekly group meeting at Casa Paloma, a transitional housing program for homeless women.

Born in Chicago, Dr. Youngdahl graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, with a double major in English and creative writing, and a double minor in psychology and religion. Her senior thesis won the Star Prize for the best honors thesis in the English department that year. She went on to win a three-year North American Ministerial Fellowship for outstanding promise as a pastor-theologian, and earned her master's of divinity degree through studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville and McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

Dr. Youngdahl's book, Subversive Devotions: A Journey into Divine Pleasure and Power, was published in Spring 2003. She is also the author of two essays, "A Way to Hope Now," in the 2003 edition of The University Book and "Sacred Erotics in Louise Erdrich's The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" in the Fall 2002 issue of Red Ink, a magazine devoted to cultivating Native American intellectual and cultural expression. Dr. Youngdahl's current writing focuses on the interplay of spiritual practice and social transformation.