Rev. Stephanie Anthony

Pastor Stephanie has been in ministry as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 2002, having served urban, small town, and suburban congregations in Nebraska, Wisconsin, and most recently, Illinois. She is a proud, self-described Presby-nerd whose love of God and God’s people was part of her church upbringing in Indialantic, Florida. She can also claim deep Pennsylvania roots on the maternal side of her family tree. Pastor Stephanie has degrees from the College of William and Mary (B.S.) and Columbia Theological Seminary (M.Div.). She is committed to continuing education and spiritual growth that supports the church being a loving neighbor beyond its four walls. Pastor Stephanie’s family includes her husband, Phillip, and young adult and teen children, Karoline, William, and Margaret, as well as their rescued, furry, and four-legged members, Chloe and Rosie. The Anthony family is very musical, and Stephanie herself plays the string bass. For her part, Stephanie enjoys knitting and going to the movie theatre. She also loves to travel and would return to some of her favorite destinations, Lake Atitlán, Guatemala and Scotland, in a heartbeat. Herself-designed perfect day would include: a nature walk, the company of loved ones, hanging out at a pub or coffee shop, maybe a music festival or any quick-friend-making communal experience, and really good, local food.

As we jump into this story from the gospel according to John, I have to start first with a little bit of nerdy Bible history. And this time (because we know I do love some nerdy Bible history) it’s a little less about the history in the Bible and more about the history of the […]

One of the popular service projects my college campus ministry group participated in was Saturday morning gleaning. Gleaning – with a G, not cleaning with a C. I’m not sure I know any college students excited about cleaning on a Saturday morning. But when we organized gleaning trips, we could always get a good crowd. […]

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours to spend at the Presbyterian Historical Society, a small museum or library that on the one hand provides very practical services as the repository for all of the denomination’s official documents and archives.  And on the other it’s general collections of archival […]

Dear FPCA family, Thank you for your flexibility around worship after last week’s storm had us again making weather-related decisions.  For many of us, this one had less of an impact than we worried, but we had to make plans in time to communicate them. I am grateful for your understanding and flexibility. We held […]

The story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding Cana is traditionally talked about as Jesus’ first miracle. That word “traditionally” is really the key to that sentence, because of course we don’t really know.  It is the first action of Jesus that we usually think of as a miracle in John’s gospel, […]

Dear FPCA family, This Sunday we will gather for one unified worship service that incorporates elements and leaders from all four of our usual Sunday services before the Annual Congregational meeting takes place. It is a blessing to get together a few times each year and share in Word, song, and prayer. Afterwards there will […]

The traditional reading from Matthew for Transfiguration Sunday, the story of Jesus at the mountaintop with Peter, James, and John, starts with the first verse of Chapter 17, but as you might have picked up, I can’t just let a verse that starts “Six days later” go unexplored. My curiosity is piqued. Six days after […]

Dear FPCA family, This Sunday we gather on Transfiguration Sunday, one of the liminal days between seasons in the church calendar.  In one story, we are met with the revelation of Jesus’ connection to God and the first deliberate movements toward his passion in Jerusalem, looking back to Epiphany and forward to Lent at the […]

Dear FPCA family, I’m afraid to type it “out loud” with the slight chance of S-N-O-W in the weekend forecast, but I feel pretty certain that we will be in worship together in person this coming Sunday.  Of course, as always, everyone is encouraged to make the decision they need to make for their own […]

Dear FPCA family, Thank you for your patience and grace as I have been learning about snow management across our Lehigh Valley area and how that impacts whether or not we can hold in-person worship services on snowy Sunday mornings.  There has been a steep learning curve for me, and that has left us with […]

While I’ve always been fascinated by the many different languages that are spoken around the world, I’ve also always been terrified to learn to speak any of them.  Case in point –  I was one of 6 people in my high school graduating class that took every level of Latin that was offered. I did […]

I can remember a time when I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those preachers who makes football references every Sunday of the season, so I hope former me will forgive current me today. It’s not really a football reference directly; it’s just about football players. Or even more directly football players who have […]