Father Daniel Pinti

Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ!

                As priest-in-charge at St. Peter’s, I welcome you to our website and invite you to learn more about our congregation.  If I can be of any service, please feel free to reach out to me.

                To tell you a bit about myself, I’ve been a priest since 2011, and have served several different parishes in our diocese, including three years as canon priest at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  I came to St. Peter’s in January 2020, and what a blessing it has been to be part of this faith community!  St. Peter’s people not only love and support one another, but also reach out to the community to share God’s love with everyone.  It really is a special place!

As a teenager I believed I was called by God to the priesthood, as a younger adult I thought I’d been wrong about that, and as I got into my 40s I realized I’d been right about the call but just not ready to answer it.  What helped prepare me to answer God’s call were two other calls:  the call to be a husband and father, and the call to be a professor.  These experiences were integral parts of the growth I needed in order to live into my priesthood.  I love being a priest, and the description of the ministry of priesthood in our Episcopal ordination rite resonates with me deeply and sums it up pretty well: as a priest, “In all that [I] do, [I am] to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and the life to come.”  For me, the nourishment especially comes through teaching, preaching, pastoral care, and above all the administration of the Sacraments.

                As for the husband and father part of it, my wife Maria and I have been married since 1988.  We have three children (who of course aren’t children anymore).  Maria and I grew up in Ohio but moved to New Mexico after I finished graduate school to take my first teaching job.  We fell in love with the Southwest, and I still enjoy visiting there whenever I’m able.  All three kids were born in New Mexico, after which we moved to Western New York when I accepted a job at Niagara University, where I am on the faculty as Professor of English.

                My vocation to be an academic and a teacher is as strong as my vocation to the priesthood—in fact, I might fairly be described as a “bi-vocational priest” (a bit of a clumsy term, for sure).  I’ve been an English teacher at NU since 2001, where my research and teaching range from subjects like the English Bible as literature to comics and graphic novels to literature of the American West.

                My main hobby is playing guitar—a subject you’re welcome to ask me about, although I can’t promise I’ll ever stop talking 😊.  I play every chance I get, at home, and with others in bands, and I LOVE it, and love music generally!   I also read a fair bit, watch too much TV, play some serious table tennis (not “ping pong,” mind you—table tennis!), and follow the Bills and the Sabres when they’re worth following.

                Thank you again for visiting us online.  I hope our website gives you a sense of what St. Peter’s is about, and please know that you’re always welcome to learn more.  Perhaps there is a spiritual home here for you!

Peace and Blessings,

Fr. Dan+

The Rev. Dr. Daniel Pinti