Biography for Rev. Mary Etta Mest, Pastor

Dedicated, interesting, and inspiring Sunday School teachers and pastors, cooperated with God’s plan and with the Holy Spirit to have Mary Etta feel a call to Christian Ministry while quite young. Mary Etta’s favorite place to be was and is the church. The path to ordained ministry was winding and uphill and downhill but apparently necessary. Everything that Mary Etta learned along the way is now useful in church ministry.

The Secular Track

- earning Bachelor Degree for Elementary Education from West Chester University

- teaching second grade for three years

- having a son, John

- serving as a substitute teacher

- returning to the classroom full-time as a first-grade teacher (teaching children to read was rewarding)

- moving to jobs that allowed more free time: church secretary, secular secretary, real estate relocation services, Christian children’s day care, hospice chaplain, grocery store clerk

The Sacred Track

- serving God with church music continuously from high school forward

- at retirement age, earning a Master of Divinity degree from Palmer University in the Philadelphia area with which many of our UCC pastors are affiliated

- on November 2, 2008 being ordained as Reverend Mary Etta Mest by the Covenant Association of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ while serving as a Christian Education Director in a local congregation as well as Director of Music

- from 2011 through 2017, serving mostly UCC congregations in Supply Pastor roles and Director of Music roles

- from 2018 through 2022, being called to Zion UCC in Womelsdorf as Settled Pastor

- from 2023 to the present, being called to UCC of Robesonia as Settled Pastor

NOTE: Reverend is the personal title that stays with an ordained person for life. Pastor is the title for being an Elected Minister with a congregation.