About our Pastors……
As of March 1, 2020 we are in a pastor transition phase due to the retirement of long-time Pastor Ray Hand ‘PR‘ serving for over 36 years. Supply pastors were being provided by the Synod while our church doors were opened. Due to Covid-19, we closed our building after the March 15 service and offered Sunday worship virtually thru Facebook LIVE each week.
A member of our congregation, retired Pastor Guy Grube stepped into the role of our Virtual Pastor or our ‘VP‘ as we worshiped together with our members thru technology. Pastor Guy served us well during these five months with his faithfulness, dedication and thought provoking sermons. He held his last service as ‘VP’ on August 2, 2020. We are very grateful to his leadership during this unprecedented time.
We are blessed to welcome Pastor Jerel Gade or ‘PG‘ as our Interim Pastor who officially started on August 2, 2020 and led his first service on August 9. We look forward to his serving our congregation while we continue the search for a called pastor. He recently retired after serving 25 years at St. Peters in Macungie and is an International Luge Official; he has gone to the Olympics to help organize that activity and has been blessed to travel the globe, in support of Team USA, This passion is shared by his grown son, Joshua who competed in the sport. Being born and raised in the Hudson Valley of New York, he is also a graduate of Wagner College, and the former Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Hobbies include hiking, model airplanes, and most definitely the winter sport of luge.
We pray for faith that our next pastor is out there and we will find each other. Our Call Committee was very busy putting together the necessary documents and is working closely with the Synod office.
If interested in the pastor position, contact the Northeast Pennsylvania Synod.
Other inquiries may be given to our Council President, Nancy Kressley at 610-298-8550.
Church Office – 610-298-2437
PASTOR RAYMOND HAND
January 1, 1984 to February 29, 2020
PASTOR RAY is a native of Tower City, PA, a graduate of Susquehanna University and the former Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He credits the people of St. Paul, Tower City, with putting him on the road to ministry, having been baptized,
confirmed and ordained there, along with his twin brother, Pastor Harold Hand, Jr. who recently retired from serving Trinity Lutheran, Pottsville, PA.
PR has been happily married since 1975 to Gail (Elser) Hand. They have four children: James, Virginia, Stephen and Thomas, seven grandchildren: Tristan, Kinsey, Colin, twins Mason & Alyson, Sean and Declan and also one great granddaughter, Everlee.
He was blessed to serve Jacob’s-Outwood Lutheran Parish, Pine Grove, PA from 1978-1983. He has been thankful to be serving Weisenberg Lutheran Church since January 1, 1984, especially for all who have shared their faith in many and various ways.
PR visits Facebook regularly (some would say too much), loves baseball and the San Francisco Giants (a fan since the early ‘60’s), is fascinated by the Civil War, enjoys politics, has a mind for useless trivia, has more books than he can sometimes handle, and treasures time spent with family.
God has blessed him with a rich, full life, and a faith which is a most welcome companion along the way throughout the journey.
Our congregation will surely miss PR. Several attempts have been made to have a Retirement Celebration Party, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this event was postponed four times. In the meantime, he was presented with a few gifts on his last Sunday service from the Bell Choir and Sunday School, and a surprise virtual presentation of a large screen TV (the warranty was starting to run out), sound bar, briefcase and duct tape (what every retired person needs) was held on August 22 with a drive-by of well wishes by many of our members. We were finally able to celebrate together in person on June 27, 2021. The program hosted by Council President Nancy, included a meal with cake, dinner music by John, speakers Pastor Guy, Pastor Cheryl, Pastor Harold (his twin brother); music by Heavenly Harmony minus one, Retirement Choir with 24 people performing the last of four songs, presentation of quirky and serious gifts, and a slideshow of “PR’s life as a Weisenberger“. If you want to view this slideshow, send an e-mail with “PR Slideshow” in the subject line to “weisenberglutheranchurch@gmail.com” and include your name and email address.
Click here for article/pictures from Pastor Ray’s
35th Anniversary Celebration
Click here for 8/22/2020 video of PR’s Surprise Presentation of Gifts and Drive-by Wishes