The Reverend Peter Webster, who maintained both UU and Roman Catholic affiliation after 10 years of UU parish service, died on 17 October 2018, aged 67, after a long illness.

On 14 October 1979 Peter participated in the first National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights and would eventually witness the deaths of over forty friends from AIDS. He was a volunteer at Massachusetts General Hospital and sang with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. Peter enjoyed discussing theology, spending time with family, and he was a “consummate knitter.”

Peter Wood Stein was born on 5 July 1951 in Sarnia, Ontario (Canada), to Dorothea (Wood) and Curvin H. Stein. After his father’s death in 1959 and his mother’s marriage in 1961 to Edward Webster, who adopted him, Peter took Webster as his own surname. The family settled in Lexington, MA, where Peter was active in high school drama and played starring roles in several productions. He went on to earn a B.A. in Anthropology from Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) in 1973 and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School in 1981.

Mr. Webster was ordained on 1 November 1981 by the First Congregational Society, Unitarian (now First Church, UU) in Jamaica Plain, MA, while briefly serving there. In 1983 he was resettled at the First Unitarian Congregational Society, Wilton Center, NH (1983–86), followed by an interim ministry at the First Unitarian Parish in Woburn, MA (1987–1988) and an extension ministry at the UU Fellowship in Wilmington, NC (1989–1991).

Thereafter, while retaining his membership in the UUMA, Mr. Webster joined the Saint Cecelia Parish Community in Boston’s Back Bay, where he was active in AA. He was a founding member of Dignity/Boston’s weekly dinner- discussion Men’s Spirituality Group that was started in 1993.

At his death, Peter was survived by his mother Dorothea, brothers John, Edward, and Mark, sisters Anne Wolfe and Susan MacPhee, several nieces and nephews, and his beloved cat, Kashi.