Vivian Varela (she/they), was born in East Los Angeles and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. As a child she attended a Presbyterian Church with her immediate family but was drawn to her grandmother’s devout Roman Catholic faith. In her late teens Viv converted to the Roman Catholic faith but in a move to Kern County (Taft CA) in 1975 she was unable to attend and eventually went to a variety of Pentecostal churches. In 1994, her family started attending All Saints Episcopal Church in Bakersfield. It was a wonderful time that ended when our priest left to become a Bishop in Northern Indiana. In 2002, she left All Saints to go to St. Phillip the Apostle Catholic Church where she was active in multiple ministries of the parish. Viv came north to Ukiah in August 2007 to work at Mendocino College as a Sociology/Ethnic Studies Professor and Distance Education Coordinator. Since then she has attended both Episcopal & Roman Catholic churches until she followed her son and his wife to Good Shepherd in November 2024. Viv is also a Benedictine Oblate with St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, CA.