Arch Street Presbyterian Church strives to be a teaching congregation and one manifestation of this aim is the regular inclusion of talented seminary students and recent graduates who are actively exploring both their call to ministry and sense of pastoral identity. By participating in the life of this place, ASPC provides room for them to learn the craft of ministry by assisting in worship, leading various Christian education programs and collaborating with our community partners while being guided, encouraged and challenged by more experienced pastors and lay leaders. As part of ASPC’s connection to the worldwide church and recognizing the need for revitalization in the North American church, we believe it is imperative to nourish tomorrow’s theological leaders and walk beside them as they prepare for courageous and imaginative ministries of various forms.
The Pastoral Immersion Program, a joint venture between Arch Street and our sister congregation Broad Street Ministry, offers future theological leaders an uncommon opportunity for vocational discernment and formation for ministries, a challenge to step outside of themselves and into a faith community in Philadelphia, and a taste of the possibilities for the future of God’s people. By embracing the notion that all ministry is contextual, students reside and breathe in the city where their ministry unfolds and are guided by the program’s co-pilots, who also live alongside them, to help navigate the specifics of life in Philadelphia, the elements of urban ministry and facilitates an environment that encourages risk taking, learning and builds mutual respect. Want more information? Visit the Pastoral Immersion Program site.
Cheryl Khyllep
Cheryl was born and raised in a small town in Northeast Ohio, where there is a buggy hook up at the local Wal-Mart, and many nearby high schools have a “drive your tractor to school day”. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, she sought to leave small town Ohio and take her bite out of the Big Apple. There she helped developed literacy programs for youth in central Harlem, designed murals to revitalize New York City parks and schools. After New York, Cheryl went to seminary and also found time to travel and volunteer in India. Cheryl organized a trip for art students to paint murals in a hospital in central India, and she also founded an interfaith network at Princeton Seminary. Cheryl arrives in Philadelphia fresh from visiting her husband’s family in India and graduation from Princeton Theological Seminary with an M. Div. Cheryl looks forward to this year of re-imagining the church and bridging the gap she sees between her religious tradition and where the church must have the courage to venture.
Terra Pennington
Taking a year off from her studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary, Terra enters her year in Philadelphia looking to discern whether her call after seminary lies with new church developments. She has been a chaplain, an English teacher in Japan and led numerous worship services of various styles. Believing that everyone has a story to tell, something she learned from participating in the Vagina Monologues, Terra values the collaborative process when searching for creative solutions and seeks to draw inspiration from this community as well as lead and use her experience to flesh out her theological understandings.
Karen Rohrer
A native of Richmond, VA, Karen grew up a Presbyterian among Presbyterians and the younger of two daughters. As recent MDiv graduate from Princeton Theological Seminary, Karen comes to Philadelphia with an eye to the spirit of a particular place, looking for an opportunity to be a part of conceiving and participating in where the church is going in this city. After rejecting more conventional and lucrative positions within the Presbyterian Church, she felt that locating herself within this context is just the thing for her continued development as a pastor, leader, and human being. She is quite grateful for the opportunity to do so. An English and World Religions major in college and life-long resident of the Mid-Atlantic region, Karen cares about words, nuance, complication, and various other broad categories and concepts, refusing to identify a single interest to consume her free time. She has at minimum a lukewarm interest in everything from avante-garde art to crossword puzzles but nothing that requires serious collecting. Excepting footwear.