Rick Hoyt-McDaniels is a writer, artist, composer and an ordained minister fellowshipped with the Unitarian Universalist Association. He served Unitarian churches in the Los Angeles area for thirty years. Prior to entering seminary, at the height of the AIDS crisis, he worked for ten years with the AIDS Project Los Angeles. He received a Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition from California Institute of the Arts in 1985. He lives with his husband in Los Angeles.
About Me:
I grew up in Santa Monica, California. I learned to play piano from my grandmother. I inherited my love of reading from my parents. I found my love of art on my own.
I attended Santa Monica public schools and played clarinet in the bands and orchestras. After graduating from Santa Monica High School (1980), I attended Santa Monica College and UCLA before receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in music composition from California Institute of the Arts (1985). After graduation, I worked as a musician with the Lo Cal Composers Ensemble and at a bookstore in Hermosa Beach.
From 1987 to 1995 at the height of the AIDS epidemic, I worked for the AIDS Project Los Angeles. During this time I participated in the APLA Writer’s Workshop and published a few pieces of short fiction in magazines and in the book collection titled From A Burning House (St. Martin’s Press, 1996)
In 1991, I began attending the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Santa Monica. Two successive ministers (Doug Strong and Judith Meyer) encouraged me to consider the ministry as a career. In 1995, I enrolled at the Claremont School of Theology. I received a Master of Divinity degree in 1998. I was ordained and fellowshipped as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1998.
My first pastorate was with the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills in La Crescenta, CA (1998 – 2003). While there, I helped to found a new congregation in the Santa Clarita Valley and worked with that congregation for 10 years (2001 – 2010). Toward the end of my ministry in Santa Clarita, I began to consult with the historic First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles, which grew to a full-time settled position (2009 – 2017). That was followed by an interim ministry with the UU Church in Long Beach (2018 – 2020) and a year as a contract minister with the UU Fellowship in Kern County, Bakersfield (2021 – 2022). From August, 2022 through June, 2025 I served as interim minister with the UU Church of Studio City where I had previously interned during my ministry training (1996-1998).
Highlights of my ministry career include serving on the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California, two terms as the President of the Pacific Southwest chapter of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, and co-founding an In Care program to assist the formation of new ministers that became the model for the UUMA’s national program: the Ministerial Formation Network. I received the Pacific Southwest District Distinguished Service award in 2011.
I retired from parish ministry in June 2025. Over my 30 years in ministry, I wrote nearly a thousand sermons and created worship utilizing my artistic skills, while also continuing to paint, draw, and occasionally write music as time permitted. I live with my husband, Jim Hoyt-McDaniels, in Los Angeles.
