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Pastor Linda Petrucelli

Pastor Linda has worn a variety of hats during her twenty-five year career as a United Church of Christ clergywoman. She served local churches in Iowa, where she was born, Illinois and Indiana. Linda majored in Philosophy and World Religions, graduating cum laude from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She also holds advanced theological degrees from Yale Divinity School and Chicago Theological Seminary.

The majority of her service has occurred in cross-cultural ministries in global settings. For nine years, Linda worked in Taiwan as a UCC missionary, joining with colleagues in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. She remains fluent in Taiwanese and knows just enough Mandarin Chinese to get her in and out of trouble.

In Taiwan she assisted staff at the Fisherman’s Service Center, advocating fair treatment of the region’s exploited fishworkers, both local and migrant. Along with her casework and education responsibilities, Linda was actively involved in the international environmental movement, working with EarthTrust, Greenpeace and other NGO’s at the Earth Summit to ban the use of open water driftnets.

Following her service in Taiwan, Linda was called to the UCC’s national offices in New York City where she served for eight years

as the Executive for Global Sharing of Resources. In this capacity, Linda coordinated emergency relief, sustainable development and refugee programs supported by the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. Nationally, Linda promoted greater involvement of UCC Conferences and local churches in disaster preparedness and response, helping to develop the current National Disaster Ministries program. Her international service included extensive work with UCC global partners and brought her to many places of pain and crisis, including famine-prone North Korea, post-Hurricane Mitch Honduras and war-torn Bosnia and Macedonia.

In 2000, Linda returned to pastoral ministry when she accepted a call to United Community Church UCC in Hilo, Hawaii. There she initiated a 3 ½ year revitalization ministry that included outreach ministry to university students from Taiwan and China. During her first year, major flooding damaged hundreds of homes in her area. Utilizing her emergency response background, Linda helped organize the faith community to respond to local needs and became the founding President of the East Hawaii Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. Governor Benjamin Cayetano recognized her service with a Distinguished Volunteer award.

Since 2004, Linda has lived on the west side of the Big Island, where she renovated a home and focused on her writing. In September 2006, a 6.8 earthquake on her island caused billions of dollars in damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure.

Once again, Linda’s emergency response skills were recruited to assist the faith community, FEMA and the American

Additional staff

Minister of Music

Church Secretary

Red Cross. As casework manager, she counseled over 100 elderly and low-income individuals and families to help them repair their homes and spiritually recover from the quake.

Linda is married to Gary Hoff, a practicing artist and visual arts teacher at Kamehameha High School, a private institution dedicated to the education of native Hawaiians.

Martha Sittler

Minister of Music

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Martha has served as minister of music at St. Paul's since 1984, shortly after she and husband, Mark moved to the area. Martha has a degree in Art education and taught seventh and eighth grade art in southwestern PA. In 1996, she earned an MBA degree in Nonprofit Management from Eastern College.

Martha enjoys working with the choir and choosing the music to enhance the worship service.

In addition to her music responsibilities at St. Paul's, Martha serves on the Worship and Mission committees and the Prayer Chain.

Eryn Heffner is a native of Reading, Pennsylvania. She studied at Reading Area Community College and has worked as St. Paul's UCC Church Secretary for the past year. Eryn's responsibilities include scheduling the building, assisting the pastor and managing the details of our busy church office. Eryn has been married for 5 years to her husband, Suradi. Eryn is an animal lover and is proud of her animals, which includes a cat, birds, and a rabbit.

Eryn Heffner

Church Secretary

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