Our Pastor
Our Senior Pastor is The Rev. Sarah Daniels Roncolato.
Dear Friends,
With joy I write to you for the first time as your pastor. Stone United Methodist Church, its people and its ministry, have been an important part of my life. Upon graduation from Allegheny College in 1980 I accepted the position of outreach worker (aka “rec room lady”) at Fairview/Fairmont. In the spring of the following year I joined the church and began serving as a member working with the outreach committee, the soup kitchen and Sunday school (I still sing the spiritual “Whose side are you leaning on?” that John Shields taught me back then). In 1987 the Staff-Parish Relations Committee approved me as a candidate for the ordained ministry and I began the long, exciting (and exhausting!) journey to ordination in June of 1995. During my sixteen years of ordained ministry I have the served the New Richmond/Little Cooley Charge, Grace Meadville, and mostly recently the New Horizon Charge in the Franklin District. Along the way I have also taught as an adjunct professor in Allegheny College’s religious studies department. And now I begin a new ministry back with the community of faith called Stone UMC.
I appreciate this opportunity to serve with you in ministry as your pastor. I am aware of the challenges that face us (well, at least some of them!) and I am also aware of our strengths, most importantly the giftedness of the people and your willingness to serve Christ in and through the ministries of Stone Church. I look forward to hearing the report of the 213 Study and moving forward on the committee’s recommendation.
I imagine some of you feel weary, another new pastor, another set of challenges. I appreciate that sentiment and I honor where each of you are at. I also imagine that God has something incredible in store for us! I join with the writer of the letter of Ephesians in saying; “Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask for or imagine, to this One be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20, 21).
I look forward to seeing you very soon!
In the Christ’s Peace, Power, and Presence,
Pastor Sarah
Content Copyright 2013 Stone United
Methodist
Church
