Rev. Phillip A. Ross was elected the 45th pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical Church, Marietta, Ohio, on Sunday, July 24, 2022. Ross joined St. Paul’s in 2010 and served as Interim Pastor in 2016. Ross holds ministerial standing in the Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches and in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.
Installation service for Pastor Phil: Top (left to right): Rev. David Kimberly, Rev. Kenneth Brown, Rev. Donna Edsall, Rev. John Hood, Rev. David Dake, Rev. Terry Downin, Rev. Rick Lynch, Pastor Rodney Lord, Pastor Gutherie Chamberlain; Bottom (lef to right): Rev. Timothy Debeau, Rev. Thomas Hendershot, Rev. Phillip A. Ross, Rev. Jim Sallie.
Ross was ordained to Christian ministry in 1982 at First Congregational Church, Berkeley, California, and has served churches in Berkeley, CA; St. Louis, MO; Evansville, IN; Bellefonte, PA; Devola, OH; and Vienna, WV.
Ross has published more than 30 books, mostly biblical commentary, continues an online ministry through a Substack channel PARoss Pub, and has lived in Marietta with his wife, Stephanie, since 1996.
2025 sermon series is about who we are as Christians at St. Paul’s in Marietta in the twenty-first century. We (and by “we” I mean all human beings) are not who we think we are. We are who God has created us to be in Christ.
Previous Pastors
Rev. Josef Vasarhelyi III (2017-2021): Graduate of Canada Christian College and School of Graduate Theological Studies in Whitby, Ontario, and Tyndale University in Toronto, Ontario.
Installation service for Pastor Joe: Top (left to right): Rev. Jim Barnes, Rev. Ed Thurman, Rev. Terry Downin, Rev. Phillip A. Ross, Rev. Tomas Hendershot, Pastor Rodney Lord, Rev. Terry Pringle, Rev. Kenneth Brown; Bottom (left to right): Amber Vasarhelyi, Rev. Josef Vasarhelyi, Pastor George Gaston.
Rev. Thomas R. Hendershot (2008-2016): retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant, having served much of his nearly twenty-three years of active duty in the Chaplain Corps, and holds degrees in Technology, Management, Pastoral Ministry, Theology, Counseling, and Divinity; presently (2025) the President of the National Board of Directors for the Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Churches; and currently (2025) serves as Pastor at Jerusalem Church, New Philadelphia, Ohio.