After two years of diligent searching, the Pastor Nominating Committee presented Mrs. Anne Mellor Emery to our congregation on December 9th.

 

    Anne led the worship service on Sunday December 9, 2007. A congregational  meeting was then held to accept or reject the recommendation of the Pastor Nominating  Committee to call Anne as the pastor of the Christ United Presbyterian Church. The congregation voted  unanimously to extend a call to Anne to be our pastor.

 

    Anne was examined by the Presbytery of Lackawanna on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 and  was cleared to accept the call. 

 

    Anne Emery's path to the Wyoming Valley actually began with a childhood (ages 4-9) spent in rural Brazil in a Presbyterian missionary family.  They settled in Germantown, Tennessee (near Memphis), and Anne earned a BA in Psychology and Master of Social Work from the University of Tennessee.  Through Anne's career in social work and later in commercial banking, she found an outlet for her desire to more broadly serve the community through Germantown Presbyterian Church.  She served as a deacon, an elder, Moderator of the Board of Deacons, Chair of Children's Education and Nurture, Chair of Community Missions, and worked in the Logos Program and in adult education.

 

    Anne's passion for walking the path of spirituality with others led her to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she recently completed her Master of Divinity degree.  Recruited by churches from around the country, Anne says that "the warmth, depth, and commitment of the people of Christ United and the beauty of the Wyoming Valley has a Brazilian-raised, southern woman excited about moving north."

 

    The most significant happening in her life, she says, is her marriage in June to Greg Emery, originally from Arizona.  Greg was a student at Fuller Theological Seminary in California and they were introduced via e-mail by a mutual friend.  Prior to seminary, Greg spent 20+ years in marketing in the tech industry with an MBA from Arizona State University.  He looks forward to being involved in the business and civic communities of Hanover/Wilkes-Barre, and to supporting his new wife in the ministry of Christ United Presbyterian Church.