Rev. Pamela Kelly to be installed at Grace Lutheran Church

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

The Rev. Pamela Lynn Kelly will be installed as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, 162 S. Raccoon Road, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday by Bishop Abraham Allende of Northeastern Ohio Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Local pastors also have been invited.

Pastor Kelly graduated from Trinity Lutheran Seminary with a master of divinity degree in 1988.

She has spent 27 years of ministry serving Northeast Ohio.

She previously served at St. Paul in Berea, where she was an associate pastor.

“In my public role as leader, my preferred approach is to begin with remembering that people are gifts of God to my congregation and the world,” said Pastor Kelly.

“They are not problems to be fixed. Each person’s presence at a given service or event is a gift. I hope to model deep hospitality when people are present. When I say deep hospitality, I mean that I hope to welcome them where they are in faith, and be open to learning from them.”

Pastor Kelly and her husband, John, a software development engineer, live in Twinsburg. They have two sons.

During Advent, the church will conduct a service and potluck starting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays.

Serving on the call committee were Jon Culp and Donna Soich, council members; Lyndsay Leybold, council president; and Caitlin Coble, Jack Martin, Doris VandenBosch and Susan Palmer.