Meet Our Pastor
Last week, The Governing Board approved the Committee's 
recommendation to hire Rev. Ellen Palmer Marsey as our interim minister beginning September 15th. Currently, Rev. Marsey is in a summer interim position at Westlake Congregational Dover UCC in Westlake, Ohio. She and her husband Jim visited The Villages to see our worship space, our land and our community and engage in conversation with our committee.
Reverend Ellen Palmer Marsevwas born and reared in Chatham, New Jersey. She attended Chatham High School and Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Upon graduation from college she spent two years in Fukuoka, Japan with the Southern Baptist Missionary Journeyman Program where she taught conversational English and worked with college students.
Upon returning to the United States she worked as a secretary and then a staff accountant and office manager. In 1994 she attended Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master of Divinity Degree.
While in theology school she decided to join the United Church of Christ since she agreed with the theological openness of the UCC and its emphasis on living out the
Gospel message of Jesus Christ through mission and social justice.
Since 1997 she has severed two churches in settled positions and three churches in an interim capacity. She is trained by the Interim Ministry Network as an intentional interim minister and holds certification by the Lombard Mennonite Institute as a conflict resolution facilitator.
Upon moving to Cleveland eleven years ago, Pastor Ellen met and later married Jim Marsey. Jim had four children and two grandchildren when they married in 1999 so she likes to say she became a wife, a stepmother and a grandmother all on the same day. Currently Jim and Ellen are the proud grandparents of seven grandchildren who they hope we will all get to meet during their time with us.
In her spare time she likes to exercise at Curves, sing with a civic chorale, read, attend the symphony and the theater, and participate in various volunteer activities. She served on the Department of Church and Education, the Department of Church and Ministry where she chaired the Credentialing Working Group, and chaired the Nominating Committee for the Western Reserve Association. Currently she serves as a trustee for the Deaconess Foundation, an organization that gives grants to non-profit agencies throughout the Cleveland metropolitan area.
Pastor Ellen is very excited about joining us in ministry and getting involved in the community.
Please do ask any of the committee members if you have any questions. They are Diana Bacon, Bob Caouette, Susan Huber, Maureen McCoy and Monica Peidl.