Pastor Jen

Pastor Jen has been serving Union Church (UCC) of Tekonsha since August 2016.  

A native of Maryland, Pastor Jen graduated from Ridgway High School in Ridgway, Pennsylvania.  After high school, she attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania.  While in college, Pastor Jen was in the marching band, university chorus, student theater, Council for Exceptional Children, IUP Pride, Phi Eta Sigma Honor Fraternity, and Mortarboard.  She graduated in 2009 with a BS in Education of Exceptional Persons, with certification in Elementary Education and a minor in Educational Psychology.  

Pastor Jen got her theological education at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  While attending seminary, she founded the Disabilities Awareness Committee, a student group that advocated for the inclusion of disabilities theology in the academic curriculum and the institutional inclusion of disabled persons.  Her student ministry assignments included the VA Hospital in Coatesville,  Hamilton Park UCC in Lancaster, and a Clinical Pastoral Education unit at Phoebe Retirement Home (Berks County).  She graduated in 2012 with a Master's in Divinity with a certificate in Youth and Young Adult Ministry. 

Pastor Jen was ordained as a pastor and teacher of the United Church of Christ in October 2012.  Pastor Jen has served churches in Pennsylvania, Kansas and Michigan.  Pastor Jen is a full member of the Order of Corpus Christi and the Mercersburg Society.  Pastor Jen is active in both the Association and the Conference levels of the United Church of Christ and currently serves on the Association's Committee on Ministry.  Pastor Jen is committed to ecumenism as a member of the Tekonsha Clergy Association and other local groups.  Pastor Jen's interests in ministry include advocacy for the disabled, people of color and the LGBTQ community, as well as environmentalism and the study and practice of Mercersburg theology.  

Outside of pastoral ministry, Pastor Jen's interests include music, theater and film, as well as hiking.  She enjoys traveling, and some of more notable trips were a student teaching assignment in the Netherlands and a seminary cross-cultural trip to Thailand.