Introducing Father Peter Lawrence

My name is Father Peter Lawrence and I am very excited to serve at St. Mary’s as your associate pastor! I am 32 years old and my home parish is Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor. I am the second oldest of 8 children. I have an older brother who is married and he and his wife have 4 children of their own. I also have a younger brother and 5 younger sisters.

I was born in Ann Arbor, and when I was 4 years old our family moved to Kalamazoo where I grew up. My family eventually moved back to Ann Arbor after my second year in college which is when I first seriously started thinking and praying about the priesthood. I thought about entering seminary at that time but eventually decided to wait as I wanted to take some more time to pray and discern God’s calling. I took the next few years to finish up my bachelor’s degree in history at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant.

During my time there I was blessed to be involved with an outstanding young adult group called Corpus Christi which enabled me to grow a lot in my faith and actively discern my vocation in a more intentional way. During my time at CMU the sense that God was calling me to the priesthood continued to grow.

After graduation from CMU in the fall of 2009, I entered seminary for the Diocese of Lansing and from 2010-2016 I studied for the priesthood at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. I was ordained a priest on June 10th of 2016 and then was assigned as associate pastor to Queen of the Miraculous Medal Parish in Jackson and Our Lady of Fatima in Michigan Center where I served for 2 ½ years. In November of 2018, I was asked by Bishop Boyea to be the associate pastor of Holy Family Parish in Grand Blanc and St. Mark’s in Goodrich where I have served for the past year and a half. I feel extremely blessed and humbled that God has called me to serve him and the people of God as a priest and I am very much looking forward to serving all of you at St. Mary’s! Please know of my prayers for all of you and please keep me in yours as well!

God Bless you!