|
Reverend Neil O'Farrell
The Reverend Neil O’Farrell has been pastor of St. John Lutheran Church since
June 2003. In addition, he serves as the dean of the Baltimore City Conference
of the Delaware/Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;
and sits on the board of directors of the Brooklyn/Curtis Bay Coalition, a
community development corporation that serves the neighborhood where St. John
Church is located. For two years, while pastor of St. John, he also served as
the headmaster of the congregation’s Christian day school.
Pastor O’Farrell’s master of divinity degree is from Harvard University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. He completed his clinical pastoral internship in
the emergency department of Massachusetts General Hospital. His pastoral internship
was served at the Lutheran Church of the Newtons in Massachusetts, where he was
ordained in July 2003. While in seminary, he served a three-year discipline of
field education at First Lutheran Church in Lynn, Massachusetts. He also participated
in the Church in Society Committee of the New England Synod, and served as president
of the student government of Harvard Divinity School. His primary academic interest
at seminary was early New Testament development, and his senior thesis was on the
theological implications of America’s miscegenation laws, both before and after they
were overturned by a Supreme Court ruling, Loving vs. Virginia, in 1967. He presently
is pursuing a doctor of ministry degree at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia.
Ministry is his second career. For twenty-five years, he was a lobbyist and marketing
communications professional in Washington, DC. His fields of interest included
entrepreneurship, health care, and higher education. While in Washington, he was a
clinical volunteer for Hospice Care of the District of Columbia, where he also served
on its board of directors and executive committee. His hospice volunteer work in the
inner city of Washington led directly to his pursuit of ordained ministry in an urban
setting. He moved to Washington, from post-baccalaureate studies at The University of
Iowa, by means of a management fellowship at the National Endowment for the Arts, and
served a stint as the acting staff director of the international Fulbright Scholar
Program.
A West Virginia native, his undergraduate degree in journalism magna cum laude is
from West Virginia University. Because he has family there, he visits his beloved
Mountain State as often as possible. In his spare time, he is an avid gardener and
a very “challenged” musician.
Doris
Anderson,
Ministry Assistant
A Baltimore native, Doris Anderson has been a baptized member of St. John since
she was six-weeks old. She began working in the church office as a full-time volunteer
in November 1978, and became a paid staff member in April 1979. Doris serves as
ministry assistant, and in that capacity works with the pastor (having served during
four pastorates and intervening interim periods during pastoral transitions), deacon,
and lay leaders to further the congregation’s mission of worship, word, and service
to the community.
Among her duties are serving as office receptionist, publishing the weekly bulletin
and monthly newsletter—the newsletter being one of the best designed and most widely
read parish newsletters in the area—maintaining records, and serving as recording
secretary for the congregation council. She is the "face and voice" of St. John for
the many visitors who drop into the office or who do business by phone. She also serves
as the chairperson of the Service Committee, which coordinates the social justice
outreach of the congregation to needy families and individuals.
She and her husband Richard live in Brooklyn with Doris’ mother and their two lively
Australian shepherds. In her spare time, Doris enjoys reading, calligraphy, crossword
puzzles, and watching public television. With husband Richard, she was instrumental
in the founding of the Brooklyn/Curtis Bay Coalition, a non-profit community development
corporation that works for the economic development, affordable housing, and overall
healthiness of the neighborhood's the congregation directly serves.
|
