WE HAVE CALLED A NEW MINISTER

The Reverend Patti V. Weikart is our pastor.

Patti, her husband, David, and their daughter Julie have arrived at our church.

Patti commenced her pastorate with us on May 1, 2007.

Let us rejoice as we begin our church life with Patti.

Biography of Rev. Patti V Weikart

      I was raised by wonderful parents in the small town of Bristol, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three daughters.  The defining moment for our family was the illness of my youngest sister, Peg, who suffered severe brain damage from a misdiagnosed ear infection at the age of nine months.  This devastating circumstance can either separate or galvanize a family; it strengthened us in God's love.  I didn't understand it at the time, but our struggle was the incubator for my pastor's heart.

     I knew I was called to ministry from the time that my middle sister, Pam, and I replicated Vacation Bible School, for the neighborhood kids, in the basement of our home when she was six and I was nine.  Yet, I never felt that I was worthy to answer God's call.  So I pursued a number of careers that have shaped me and given gifts  of skills and experience that God continues to use.

    As a political science major at Albright College in Reading Pa., and as a graduate student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, I learned how all kinds of government programs work on the local, state, and federal level.  This has helped me to equip congregations to embrace opportunities to respond to local and global challenges such as homelessness, food security, illiteracy, and inadequate health care.  As a Client Executive for IBM Corporation, I learned how to help people reach their potential and how to break difficult, multi-layered problems down into manageable consensus-based solutions.  In 1994, with God's help, I decided that I would never be worthy for ministry, but God through Jesus Christ, was certainly worth of my life. I began Seminary part-time at Princeton, left the corporate world in 1997 and ultimately graduated from Drew Theological School.  I was ordained to the office of Minister of Word and Sacrament in March 2000 by the Presbytery of Elizabeth.  I served as Interim Associate Pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church  in Summit, NJ and Associate Pastor for Mission and Congregational Care at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, Basking Ridge, NJ.

     My husband David and I have been married for 18 years.  David is Principal in the Weikart Group, a computer-consulting firm that serves small businesses and non-profit organizations.  We are blessed to be the parents of our nine-year-old daughter, Julie, whom we both consider to be God's greatest gift to us.