July 26, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Rejuvenation takes on new meaning at old church
by JENNIFER KATZ

Pastor Andrena Ingram

On July 29, Pastor Andrena Ingram will be officially installed at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Mt. Airy, making her the first new pastor the 276-year-old congregation has had in 20 years. Ingram’s ascent as head of the church marks a permanent shift in the direction of the congregation and its role in Northwest Philadelphia.

For most of the last two decades, Pastors Janet Peterman and Violet Little led the church. After both women left in September 2006, the church was without a pastor for a year.

A recent graduate of the Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia, Ingram was appointed for a two-year term by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod.

Ingram moved to Philadelphia from the south Bronx in 2002 to attend the seminary and began her duties as church pastor in February.

With roots dating back to the country’s birth, the church has a somewhat ghost-like aura and even boasts a graveyard with ties to the nations’ forefathers.

“Gen. Washington’s baker is buried there,” said Ingram, seated in a guest chair in her new office.

The church sits just beyond the graveyard removed from the corner of Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street where it is located.

Speaking about her journey from attendee to pastor, Ingram is open about her personal struggles that led her to God.

“I’ve been in recovery for 19 years,” she said. “And I have been living with the virus for 14 years.”

While Ingram said she is in recovery for drug and alcohol addiction, she said her lifestyle in general was a problem.

After her husband of one-year died from complications of AIDS in 1993, she sought refuge in a local church.

“After my husband died, I fell into a deep depression,” she said. “And someone suggested that I attend the Tranfiguration Lutheran Church in the Bronx.”

She was moved by the pastor and his nurturing way.

“I found it to be welcoming and empowering,” said the mother of three. “He sort of nudged me to take a more active role.”

She became involved with the church and when she decided to become a pastor, chose to attend the same seminary as her pastor — LTSP.

Ingram said St. Michael’s is at a crossroads. Desperately in need of raising its membership, the congregation is tired from its long stretch of self-supporting without a pastor at the helm.

And like its building that has been built three times over during the almost three centuries of its existence, the church must now decide whether or not to reinvent itself in its own form or to change, perhaps moving locations.

“I was sent here to walk with them as they decide what they want to be,” said Ingram of how she views her role as pastor at this critical time.

While the church’s membership has remained consistent at 275 for the last seven or so years, the number of attendees at Sunday service has dropped and now averages 35.

To raise membership and attendance, Ingram and her staff have been evangelizing, going door-to-door reminding people that the church is there for them.

Ingram said she believes her unique background will help her serve the congregation.

“It helps people be comfortable knowing that there is nothing they are going through that I haven’t been through,” she said. “On many different levels I can identify with the human condition.”

One of her goals, Ingram said is to become more accessible and visible in the community. She said her calling as a pastor is not confined to the Sunday sanctuary.

“I see it as being with people, being of service to people no matter what station of life to tell them about God’s grace and mercy,” she said. “Being a pastor is not just preaching on Sunday and giving communion. It could be going to the pharmacy with an elderly person or to court with someone who needs a voice.”

Ingram’s installation service will take place at the church, 6671 Germantown Ave. on July 29 at 3 p.m. St. Michaels’ weekly services are held 10 a.m. Sundays during the summer and 11 a.m. Sundays year-round.