R. Michael Cullinan

Robert George Cullinan
[Michael Cullinan]

Born: November 22, 1937, Dear­born, Mi­chi­gan.

Cullinan pre­pared for the min­is­try of the Lu­ther­an Church - Mis­sou­ri Synod at Con­co­rdia The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary in Spring­field, Il­li­nois. He was or­dained in 1964, and served par­ish­es both in Os­we­go, Kan­sas, and West­land, Mi­ch­igan.

After half a dozen years as a Lu­ther­an pas­tor, he left the par­ish min­is­try to work on a mas­ter’s de­gree in Guid­ance and Coun­sel­ing at Wayne State Un­i­ver­si­ty in De­troit, Mi­ch­igan. He con­tin­ued with post-Mas­ter’s cours­es there, and served on the ac­a­dem­ic fa­cul­ty.

Cullinan con­tin­ued to feel drawn to the min­is­try, though, even af­ter a de­cade or so in ac­a­dem­ia. That sense of call­ing and a cer­tain wan­der­lust en­ticed him west, where he joined a small Church of the East mon­as­tery in south­ern Cal­i­for­nia. There he was or­dained as a priest on the Feast of the Dor­mi­tion, Au­gust 15, 1982, and took the re­li­gious name of Mi­chael.

That com­mun­i­ty ul­tim­ate­ly dis­band­ed, and sev­er­al years later, Cul­li­nan and other priests or­gan­ized the Ho­ly In­car­na­tion Mon­as­te­ry in Al­pine, Cal­i­for­nia. This small group of bro­thers in­volved it­self in the min­is­try of pray­er and char­it­a­ble serv­ices. Cul­li­nan him­self worked among de­vel­op­ment­al­ly dis­a­bled adults. Af­ter a few years in Al­pine, it be­came evi­dent Cal­i­forn­ia was too ex­pens­ive a place for those few monks to live fru­gal­ly, and the mon­as­tery dis­band­ed.

Cullinan stayed in the San Di­e­go area for a cou­ple of years, liv­ing the life of an asce­tic on Mount Pal­o­mar. In 1993, he left for Or­e­gon, where he be­gan work­ing among adults with de­vel­op­ment­al dis­a­bil­i­ties. Dur­ing this time, he wrote sev­er­al hymns while serv­ing as priest for a lo­cal Ang­li­can par­ish.

www.hymntime.com/tch