Cynthia A. Jarvis, Minister

Cindy Jarvis was born in Canton, Illinois on July 30, 1949. She received her B.A. from Denison University, Granville Ohio in June of 1971. A Rockefeller Trial Year Fellow, she attended Boston University School of Theology 1971-1972 and transferred to Vanderbilt Divinity School where she received a two year fellowship and graduated with the Tillet Prize in Theology in June of 1974. Ordained in 1974 by the Presbytery of Muskingum Valley in Ohio, Ms. Jarvis has served as Associate Minister of Westminister Presbyterian Church in Wooster, Ohio from 1974 to 1979, Assistant Professor of Ministry at McCormick Seminary in Chicago from 1979 to 1981, and Associate Minister of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey from 1981 to 1996. Currently she is Minister and Head of Staff of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also serves as a consultant to the Center of Theology Inquiry Pastor-Theologian Project in Princeton, New Jersey.

While in Ohio, Cindy was moderator of Muskingum Valley Presbytery, chair of the Task Force on Women, and member of the Presbytery's governing board. She was also on the Synod of the Covenant Task Force on Women, the Synod-College Relations Committee and was "theologian- in-residence" at the annual meeting of the Synod. During this time she also served on the General Assembly level as a member of the Council on Discipleship and Worship and on the executive committee of the Major Mission Fund. In Chicago, she was a member of the Candidates Committee of Chicago Presbytery and served on the Synod of Lincoln Trails Synod School. As a commissioner to General Assembly in 1979, she was appointed by the moderator to chair a task force on Conservation of Human and Natural Resources which reported to the next Assembly in 1980. Cindy was a preacher to the General Assembly in 1983 during the reunion of the Presbyterian Church U.S. and the United Presbyterian Church of U.S.A. and was the preacher for the Assembly when it met in Philadelphia in 1989. In the Presbytery of New Brunswick, she has been on Judicial Commission, the Congregational Ministry Committee and a task force on AIDS. She has served the Synod of the Northeast as a member of the planning team for synod's Multiple-Staff Retreat and was part of the synod's Mentor Program for new ministers. She has been the preacher for the Montreat Music and Worship Conference, the St. Olaf Conference on Worship, Theology and the Arts and at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians in tge fall of 2002.

Cindy's writing includes articles in "Interpretation, A Journal of Bible and Theology," "Presbyterain Outlook," "Presbyterian Survey," "Theology Today," and "The Christian Century." She contributed two chapters to book entitled Worship in the Community of Faith and is author of Metaphors and Miracles: A Study on the Gospel of John. Along with her former colleague, Sue Ellen Page, she has published "Until We Rest In Thee," a children's anthem. With Mark A. Anderson, organist/choirmaster at Chestnut Hill, she wrote the hymn text for "Hear Now Our Praise With All Creation," which won the hymn competition sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, and the hymn text for "Love's Mystery," written for the 100th anniversary of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AGO.

When she is not involved with the church, she enjoys sailing, hiking, country music, the New York Giants, theatre, cooking, and her cottage on the coast of Maine.

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