As we embark on the upcoming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, let us remember to thank God for our church, our family, our friends, our accomplishments, and all the that we’ve been blessed with. As you gather to carve the turkey or exchange the gifts, share about how God has blessed you.
From Our New Pastor, The Rev Christopher Kurien
Dear Friends,
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ! As I write this message to you in early June, Christy and I are spending the month preparing to move back to the Reading area. Some of you might be traveling over the summer and I pray traveling mercies for you and your loved ones. I want to take this first opportunity to briefly introduce myself and our family.
I grew up in a clergy household in southern India in the beautiful state of Kerala. I completed my Bachelor and Master degrees in India and was ordained in 1985. In 1986, Christy and I got married and a year later we were blessed with twin daughters, Susan and Elsen. In 1988, our young family first came to the United States for my doctoral studies in Chicago. We lived on the south side of Chicago for almost five years and at the end of our time there, our daughter, Ann was born. We moved back to India in the fall of 1992.
In the 1980s and 1990s, I served congregations in India, Chicago, and Detroit. Through a series of God’s blessings, our family moved back to the United States in 2001 to serve St. Matthews UMC in Reading, PA. Since that time, we’ve lived and served in a variety of ministry contexts in the Eastern PA Annual Conference.
Wherever we’ve lived in PA, Reading has been a place we have returned to. Christy has taught math at Reading HS for over a decade, and our kids have friends from their childhood here.
So, our return to Reading brings us great joy!
Our kids are young adults living in various parts of the country. Susan is a clinical pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital living in Boston. Elsen is a professor of pharmacy at St. John’s University and lives in New York, NY, with her husband Manu who’s a professor of physiology at Columbia University. Ann graduated from Yale University with a Master of Divinity this past year and is preparing to go to law school. Our family enjoys traveling, hiking together, and actively engaging in our community.
We’re excited to meet all of you and for this new season in our ministry together. Christy and I look forward to spending time and getting to know each of you individually.
Blessings,
Pastor Chris
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