- Pastor Susan K. Ericsson, Senior Pastor

Pastor Susan K. Ericsson was born in Washington, DC. She attended public schools in DC and Montgomery County, MD. She graduated from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA with a degree in psychology and continued to Yale Divinity School, New Haven Connecticut, for seminary. As part of her seminary training Pastor Ericsson spent a year long internship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
After completing her Master of Divinity degree, Pastor Ericsson was called to Christ Lutheran Church in Detroit, Michigan. Christ was an extremely vibrant and active congregation serving the inner city. After eleven wonderful years in Detroit Pastor Ericsson was called to serve as the Assistant to the Bishop for Urban Mission in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod. She stayed in this position for thirteen years, serving with two different Bishops. Her primary portfolio involved working with urban congregations and leaders and congregations in the synod’s Redevelopment Strategy.
In October of 2006, Pastor Ericsson was called to be the Senior Pastor of Saint Luke. Her primary responsibilities are to provide vision and oversight for the mission and ministry of the congregation. She serves as the spiritual leader of the community, encouraging the people of Saint Luke to practice their faith so that individually and collectively we can make a difference in the world in the name of Jesus.
“Pastor Sue” is married to Charles (Chase) Ferguson, Jr. They have two sons, Amani and Gabe.
When asked what she enjoys about St. Luke Pastor Ericsson responded, “To be honest, everything! This is an upbeat, healthy and welcoming congregation. People are open about their faith, including their questions. Together we are on a journey to know, love and serve Christ to the best of our ability. We have a wonderful staff that genuinely enjoys and supports one another. I’m having a fantastic time, and I’m amazed at everything we’ve accomplished, and looking forward to what God has in store for us each year.”
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- Pastor Matt Staniz
Pastor Staniz began his ministry as Pastor for Youth, Family and Service at St. Luke in October, 2011. He is an active and committed participant in the ministry of the ELCA and the Southeastern PA Synod. He works closely with our synod’s youth ministry network as an adult advisor to the LYO Board and program staff member at SEPA Synod Jr. and Sr. High Youth Gatherings. He is currently leading the planning team for the 2012 Sr. High Youth Gathering. Pastor Matt has been a featured speaker at several synod events, including synod assemblies in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Pastor Matt has become a leading voice for the ONE Campaign, a grassroots organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
Pastor Matt Staniz graduated with honors from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and was president of the class of 2004. He was the first winner of the Atonement-Asbury Park Preaching Award. During seminary, Pastor Matt served congregations in Camden, NJ and North Philadelphia. He worked with children through Lutheran Children & Family Services and served as a chaplain at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Cathedral Village Retirement Community.
Pastor Matt lives in Paoli, along with his wife Monica and their daughter Amber.
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- Jack Charles, Minister of Music

Jack came to St. Luke in the spring of 1985. In his role as Minister of Music, he directs the Youth and Senior Choirs and Senior Hand bells as well as supervising the assistants who direct Cherub, Junior Choir and Youth Bells. He uses his piano talents playing with the contemporary Turning Point band. He also works with Creative Arts Committee to bring all type of artistic expressions to the congregation.
Jack received his undergraduate and Masters degrees from West Chester University. As well as about 90 credits post masters from Westminster and various other institutions.
Jack has been an organist since age 17, beginning at the Minersville Baptist Church during high school, and Malvern Presbyterian during college. He played at Augustus Lutheran in Trappe for two years and Grace Royersford for 11 years. He also played at St John in Phoenixville before arriving at St. Luke.
When asked what Jack likes about Saint Luke, he replied, “Actually, I never intended to stay here very long. The organ was a terrible plug in when I came here. It was the wonderful people of this church that have kept me here.”
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- Carol O' Neill, Administrative Assistant
Carol has been serving St. Luke as Administrative Assistant since 2010. Her skill, personality and can-do attitude are big assets in the church office.
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- Allen Benner-Smith, Parish Administrator
Allen has been serving Saint Luke as the Parish Secretary since January of 2003. He assists the Pastors and Lay leaders in the wide variety of tasks involved in "To Know, Love and Serve Christ".
Allen enjoys being in the Secretary's chair because “from it, more than many places around this ministry, it is easiest to see the spiritual energy and boundless desire to serve of the Saint Luke community.”
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- Bill Houck, Sexton
Bill has worked for Saint Luke since October 1999. His duties consist of maintaining the interior and exterior of the church grounds, ordering supplies, set up and knockdown of various church events, servicing the church van and a multitude of other duties as needed.
Bill loves working at Saint Luke because of the people and the wonderful environment. “People ask me why I whistle. It’s because I am happy here. This to me is a positive place.”
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- Congregation/Council President, Bill Andrews
Bill and his family first joined St. Luke in 1983. He has served on the St. Luke council as the Councilor for Witness since early 2007. After a thirty-year career in business, Bill retired from Rohm and Haas Company in 2002. Since then he has been engaged with various volunteer activities, including two-years working at the United Way in Philadelphia. In 2004, Bill and his wife, Susan, embarked on a nine-month adventure living in the high desert of New Mexico, where they served as volunteers helping children on the Navajo Reservation. In addition to his work at St. Luke and as a board member at Silver Springs – Martin Luther School, Bill also enjoys spending time with his family (especially his grandchildren); gardening; golf; and bicycle riding.
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- Councilor for Worship for Music, Dawn Heckert
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n has been a member of St. Luke since 1993. She and her husband, Bob Mitchell, have two daughters, Joslyn and Gillian. Dawn is a librarian at Haverford College. After graduating from Muhlenberg College, Dawn served for a year at a women’s shelter in Washington, D.C., through the Lutheran Volunteer Corp. In addition to serving as councilor for worship and music, Dawn served as a member of the transition team and then chaired the call committee that selected Pastor Ericsson. She also serves as an assisting minister, communion assistant, lector and a mentor for the confirmation class.
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- Secretary, Marv Meyer
Marv taught biology at Eastern University for 35 years, retiring three years ago. He still teaches his favorite courses part-time, including an “earth-keeping” class, which reflects his love for God's Creation. One of Marv’s favorite activities is to camp in the National Forests of the Rockies. He’s have been a member at St. Luke for about 15 years and is truly excited about the movement of the Holy Spirit here, seeing new energy and directions.
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- Councilor for Congregational Life, Jodi Donohue
Jodi and her family have been members of St. Luke since 1994. She's been active in the Christian Education ministry of St. Luke, working on the Vacation Bible School team in 2008-2010. She has also been an active member of the 3F team and updating the Saint Luke website. She answered the call to lead Congregational Life Ministries in the summer of 2010.
Jodi works as an Animal Health Product Manager for Wedgewood Pharmacy. She enjoys the outdoors and cooking new creations with produce from her garden.
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- Councilor for Witness, Sean Moir
Sean and his wife Sherri joined St. Luke in 1996. Their two daughters were both baptized at St. Luke. Sean has been involved with Social Ministry since 2004. In 2005, Sean and the Social Ministry team worked with Lutheran Children and Family Services to settle a refugee family from Russia. Later that year he organized a disaster response team to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The disaster response team now works closely with Lutheran Disaster Response on various projects. Sean works as a Geographic Information Systems Analyst for Chester County and has been involved in various local government boards and commissions.
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- Councilor for Support, Liz Harmon
Liz and her husband, Ron joined St. Luke in 2004, when the congregation was meeting in the T/E Middle School after the fire. They came to St. Luke from Christ Lutheran in Bexley, OH, where Liz was on staff involved with Ministry For & With Seniors. The Harmons became involved in Nifty Fifty and Liz got involved with Needles and Pins and Vacation Bible School. She was elected Councilor for Congregational Life in 2006. Liz and Ron have 4 children and 10 grandchildren. She earned an MBA from Capital University, and attended Presbyterian School for Christian Education. She has served in the United States Air Force and worked for Bank One, Columbus OH.
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- Treasurer, David Hughes
Dave is currently employed by Tyco Flow Control, a business segment within Tyco International. During his eleven years with Tyco he has held various positions including, Vice President and General Manager of the East Region, Vice President of Sales, North America and Vice President and General Manager of the United States. He is currently the Director of Global Key Accounts for the Oil & Gas business within Flow Control. Prior to joining Tyco, Dave spent 19 years with a private industrial distributor where he held a number of different sales and sales management roles. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor in Business Administration degree.
Dave lives in Malvern with his wife Janet. They have two children, Jonathan, 23 and Julie, 21. Both Dave and Janet have been members of St Luke for many years. In fact, they were married at St Luke in 1984. Both have served in leadership roles in the past: Janet as the Director of Christian Education and Dave as President of Church Council.
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- Councilor for Communications and Evangelism, John Ailor
Born and bred in Southeastern Virginia, web enabled, database centric and early adopter, John has been a member of Saint Luke since 2002. John's service to Saint Luke includes building and hosting our web site and finding new ways to simply and broadly Know, Love and Serve Christ.
John is married to Wendy Ailor and they have 3 outrageously fantastic children; Christina, Jake and Laura Grace. In his spare time John listens to baseball and, in the off season, stacks wood and shovels snow.
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