Staff
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Rev. R. Mark Young - Senior PastorPastor Mark Young grew up in C.C Hancock Church in Springfield and graduated from Springfield High School. Pastor Mark is a graduate of Boston University and Duke Divinity School. He was ordained in 1991. Mark has served churches in St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands), Philadelphia, Holmesburg, Allentown and Lebanon. He comes to Covenant following a full-time Clinical Pastoral Education residency at Lancaster General Hospital, where he served as Chaplain with special responsibility for the neurological and orthopedic units. Pastor Young is also active in social ministry. He has held two terms as president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. During his previous appointments, Mark organized after-school children's programs and worked with prison ministries. He has served as an instructor in the Local Pastors' School. In his spare time, Mark enjoys reading, movies and gardening. |
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Rob Mannix - Director of Ministries to Children and Their FamiliesRob Mannix is a graduate of the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia and brings to his work as Director of Ministries to Children, Youth, and their Families both that training and his experience as the father of four children. Ministry is a new career path for Rob, having been in the US Navy and also presently working as an electrical engineer. |
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Rev. Lawrence R. Bergstresser - Pastor of Visitationlawrence.bergstresser@covumc.com Pastor Lawrence R. Bergstresser has been an ordained pastor of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church since 1965. He has served churches in Reading, Lancaster County, Philadelphia, and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Since his retirement as a pastor under appointment in 2000, he served as the associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Media, and in July 2006 began his work as pastor of visitation at Covenant Church. A graduate of Albright College and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pastor Larry has also earned a certificate of completion of the three-year clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy course of the Pennsylvania Foundation for Pastoral Counseling. He is a member of the Healing the Wounds of Racism Core Team of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and an instructor for their antiracism training seminars. He has served on the Board of Ordained Ministry of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, the (former) Board of Diaconal Ministry, and the (former) Board of Church and Society. Pastor Larry has led numerous home repair mission trips to Red Bird Mission and Henderson Settlement in Kentucky and to several communities through the Appalachian Service Project. Since May 2006 he has led annual two-week Hurricane Katrina recovery mission trips to the devastated areas of Waveland and Gulfport, Mississippi. Pastor Larry is the father of two daughters, Susan Greenfield and Carol Quick, and the grandfather of six fascinating (and sometimes frustrating) grandchildren. |
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Rev. Dr. Dale E. Owens - Pastor EmeritusRev. Dr. Dale E. Owens returned to Covenant Church after a long and distinguished career in the United Methodist Church. His formal secondary education was received in the Upper Darby School District, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, conferred a BS degree in Education in 1958; Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois an M.Div. (Master of Divinity) degree in 1962; and Albright College in Reading, PA, a DD (Doctor of Divinity) degree in 1988. He became a deacon in the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the former Methodist Church in 1959, an ordained elder and member of that conference in 1962. He served the University City Parish (Calvary UM Church) in West Philadelphia, Langhorne UM Church in Bucks County, and Covenant UM Church in Springfield, Delaware County. In 1979, Dr. Owens was appointed by Bishop James Ault as the conference treasurer/director of administrative services of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church, a post which he held until his retirement on July 1, 2000. In this Extension Ministry he was very involved in all facets of ministry, which he enjoyed, as a local church pastor, namely, preaching, teaching, visiting, counseling, and administering (primarily finance and property). In the years following ordination Dr. Owens served on numerous Boards and committees of the Annual Conference as well as being a member for eight years of the General Council on Finance and Administration. On several occasions he represented Eastern Pennsylvania Conference as a delegate to the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference; and in 1988, he was elected by his colleagues as a delegate to the General Conference. Dr. Owens retired on July 1, 2000, from full time ministry. He joined the staff of two United Methodist Churches soon thereafter at Elam on Smithbridge Road, Glen Mills, and Covenant. |
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Sarah E. Batchelor - Director of Music, OrganistSarah Batchelor has been the music director of Covenant United Methodist Church since 1988. She is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, with a bachelor's degree in Church Music, and a Master's Degree in Choral Conducting and Organ. She also holds a bachelor's degree in religion from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sarah is a member of the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists and actively participates in local workshops and seminars. Sarah is married to Covenant's Handbell Director, Kirk Schneider, and enjoys movies, reading, and spending time with her husband Kirk, their twins, and their beagle. |
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Kirk F. Schneider - Handbell DirectorKirk Schneider has been the Handbell Director at Covenant Church since 1991. He is a member of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers and actively participates in workshops and seminars. He is employed full-time as a mechanical engineer for a local company that manufactures aircraft arresting equipment. Kirk is married to Covenant's Director of Music, Sarah Batchelor, and enjoys all kinds of music, working with computers, watching movies, reading, and spending time with Sarah and their twins. |
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Lori Corner - Youth Ministry Coordinator |
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Robin K. Moore - Senior Administrative Assistant |
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Barbara S. Cadge - Data Management Coordinator |
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Dawn Hanrahan - Preschool Ministries DirectorDawn Hanrahan became director of Covenant Nursery School in 2010 after over a decade working as one of our teachers. Not only does she have a solid background in early childhood education, but she and her husband also have three children of their own who provide on-the-job experience in parenting. |
