Pastor Deborah is a warm, enthusiastic, outgoing person who is full of great energy to do God’s work. Deborah believes whole-heartedly in honoring the faith of our parents and grandparents as we speak the language of our children and grandchildren – moving boldly into God’s future together.

After teaching 19 years of French and Spanish for a living, Pastor Deborah answered God’s Call to enter ministry. She is convinced that she is called to preach the love of God, to teach the sacred stories of our faith ancestors, and to bring the Bible to life in our times. Pastor Deborah grew up a Methodist and spent 14 years as a Presbyterian, before being led to the United Church of Christ.

Pastor Deborah graduated from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in 2003 with a Masters of Divinity. She earned a Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2009. Upon graduation from Colgate Rochester Crozer Deborah served as Chaplain at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY for the next 12 months. In the summer of 2004 she was called to serve as bridge Interim Pastor at Mountain Rise United Church of Christ near Rochester. In November of that year, she was called as Pastor of Lakeville United Church of Christ, a community she faithfully loved and served for 7 ½ years. Pastor Deborah was ordained by Genesee Valley Association, New York Conference on May 15, 2005. In April 2012 Deborah was called to serve as Interim Pastor of the Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY.

Weaving together liturgy, scriptures and music seem to be God’s gift to Pastor Deborah, fulfilling her passion and earnest desire to create meaningful worship services. She delivers thought provoking and creative sermons. As a visionary leader with an endless supply of ideas, energy, projects, programs and ministry, Pastor Deborah loves to work collaboratively with others.

Deborah’s spouse, Liz Greenberg, is her soul mate and a huge supporter of her ministry. They have four adult daughters and two grandchildren. They enjoy cycling, hiking, bird watching, theater, and camping.

Email Pastor Deborah: pastordeborah@fpc-ucc.org

Christine is a family-oriented animal lover who can carry on a conversation about the canine species for hours. Christine was raised in a Christian home and grew up regularly attending her church’s CCD, youth group, attended many city and state-wide Christian youth events and participated in numerous summer youth retreats. These experiences deepened her love for Christ and her desire to know more. This desire led her to attend Saint Anselm College to pursue a degree in Psychology within a faith-nurturing environment and what proved to be an invaluable educational experience.

Graduating from Saint Anselm College with a Bachelor’s in Psychology she pursued her love of animals and Behavioral Psychology at the University of South Florida. After 4 years, she came home to beautiful NH to be with her extended family, to marry her husband, Ryan, and to start a family of her own. After having worked with animals for ten years, she continued her career as an animal lover by becoming a Certified Canine Instructor, and started her own business. Amongst the chaos and blessings of having two beautiful girls, she also tried on other various hats such as becoming a Licensed Nursing Assistant, Pharmacy Technician and now feels absolutely blessed to devote her energies to being the best Christian Education Director she can be.

As a Christian educator and director, Christine believes that every child was instilled by their Creator with a natural curiosity to discover and understand the world around them. Christine believes it is the job of a Christian educator to cultivate this desire by integrating a Christian worldview into every aspect of his or her teaching. Teaching our students to think critically about the world through the lens of Christianity will help our students to make decisions rooted in Biblical truth and to form relationships based on the love of Christ.  

She is now overjoyed and humbled to be able to share the love of Christ with the students and teachers of First Parish Congregational Church.

Email Christine: cedirector@fpc-ucc.org