Our Staff

Rev. John Maine

John is the full-time minister serving our church. He comes to ministry from a varied background spent mostly in counseling and various human services, with “side trips” that included everything from the army reserves to working in retail and hotels to stage managing theatre productions! John also managed to gather a fair bit of experience along the way in the peace, social justice and environmental movements. He did his theological training at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary at Laurier, where he received the university “gold medal” for theology (we’ve never seen it, but that’s what he says) and also at the Swedenborgian seminary in the U.S. John also has a graduate degree in counseling from the University of Toronto.

John says he’s learned a lot of stuff along the way, from a lot of places and a lot of people, but his all-time, smartest move was marrying his wife Catherine (she agrees). They have one son and live in Kitchener.

 

Rev. Alison Longstaff

Alison is our part-time minister in charge of the FORWARD program. She also has wonderful gifts as a singer and musician so she’s taken charge of the choir as well. If that weren’t enough, Alison is also a published author, a blogger and a workshop presenter on subjects such as creativity, spirituality and personal growth. She has a degree in psychology and religion and did her theological training at both Waterloo Lutheran Seminary and the Swedeborgian seminary in Berkeley, California.

Somewhere in there, Alison also found time to marry Phil (who’s glad she did) and be mom to three children. They live in Waterloo.

 

 

Steve Thomas

Steve is a consecrated Lay Leader who serves in many capacities. His primary responsibility for a number of years now has been for our wedding ministry. Couples are always expressing their appreciation to us for “that wonderful man” who guided and supported them through the whole marriage prep and wedding day process. Steve just seems to be one of those people that everybody just loves to pieces. But working with wedding couples is not the only thing he does. Steve is also active with our youth group, our men’s group and he’s in the pulpit from time to time, too.

Steve comes to us from a long career with the government. He is married to Monica, a lovely lady from “the Rock” (where they like to spend their holidays) and they have one daughter.

 

Coleen Snyder

Coleen is our Office Manager, secretary, master scheduler and all-round “power behind the throne” (if we had one). Hers is the pleasant voice you will normally hear if you call us anytime between 8:30am and 2pm, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Coleen is very skilled and all we can say is that we are very glad to have her as part of the team. She takes care of parking rentals, room bookings, wedding information and providing information about events at the church.

Coleen is married to Neil and they are the proud parents of two very active young adults.

 

116 Queen Street North. Kitchener, Ontario N2H 2H7. 519-743-3845.