John Livingston, Pastor
John has been the Pastor of the United Church of Rowayton since 1986. He began his ordained ministry on Long Island, serving the Garden City Community Church, Garden City, NY as its Youth Minister. In 1986, John and his wife, Judi, his partner in life and ministry, said “Yes!” to the United Church of Rowayton's “Call” to become its Pastor. Since then, the Church has grown and blossomed with young families, and today, more than 200 children and youth participate in its Christian education activities. Music has always been an important part of John and Judi’s life. As a result, UCR has a vibrant music program that continues to energize their life and spirit and the Church's. John is also very proud of initiating a ministry of lay pastoral caregivers to help increase the caring ministries of the Church.
John holds a Bachelor's degree in music from C.W. Post College and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He became a member of the United Church of Christ in 1975 when he and Judi joined The Congregational Church of Manhasset, NY. John has served as the President of the Norwalk Clergy Assocation and currently serves on the Committee for Church and Ministry of the Fairfield West Association. John and Judi have three children: Kelly, who is a Naturopathic Medical Student at the University of Bridgeport; Samantha, who is a teacher at The Children’s School in Stamford; and Michael, who is a junior at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut and working with the football team as a student assistant coach..
Carla Dietz, MA, Div, Associate Pastor
Carla became the Associate Pastor on October 26, 2008 when she was ordained by the Fairfield West Association at the United Church of Rowayton. She has been active in the United Church of Christ since 1992. Carla was a member at and on the Board of Outreach at Greens Farms Church in Westport, CT. In 1995, she became a Sunday School teacher, then became the Youth Director and finally, pursuing a dream, became employed as Director of Christian Education at Trumbull Congregational Church. She had been the Director of Christian Education at The United Church of Rowayton from August of 2002 through September 2008 and a graduate of the A.C.E. program of the UCC. Carla has volunteered as Dean at Silver Lake Conference Center (UCC) and was chair of the Committee of the Connecticut Association of United Church Educators. She is also an MMI in the Global Ministry of the United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ.
Carla’s focus is to serve God in the compassionate and illuminating education of the Congregation through preaching, teaching and pastoral care. She is also passionate about service in the area of both local and global outreach.
Her educational credentials include a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University, an accreditation in Christian Education from Hartford Seminary, a Master of Arts in Special Education from Fairfield University, Clinical Pastoral Education from Bridgeport Hospital and a Master of Divinity from Yale University and a sworn Guardian Ad Litem for the State of Connecticut. Carla lives in Fairfield with her husband John Carroll, who is the Business Manager at the Unitarian Church of Westport (and also a member of UCR's Senior Choir) and her daughter Elizabeth, who is a college student. John and Carla are Lay Delegates for The United Church of Rowayton. For fun, they love to swim, walk, hike, ride bicycles, weight-train, garden and hang out with their two dogs Bella and Rupert and cat Kitty Carlisle. Carla is an avid film and theater afficiando and enjoys frequent trips to New York City art museums.
Marsha Hall, Director of Music
Marsha Hall has been active in church music since her early teens, beginning in Michigan and later in Virginia. In 1978, after moving to Connecticut, she was called to the United Church of Rowayton and has been blessed to serve there for the past 30 years. She has taught in the Norwalk Public Schools for 30 years as high school choral director and is currently teaching in the Academically Talented program.
She has toured as director and accompanist throughout Europe and Russia. Marsha has guest conducted regional festivals in Connecticut and accompanied All State choirs. With thanks to the dedicated musicians throughout her career, she continues to look forward to many more musical highlights yet to come.
Judi Livingston, Children’s Choir Director
Judi received a BFA in Music Education from Long Island University. She taught pre-school in NY for six years, prior to moving to Rowayton with her husband John, Pastor of the United Church of Rowayton. The mother of three, Judi teaches piano to area children and sings both professionally and is a volunteer member of The United Church of Rowayton choir.
Lou Froelich, Business Manager
Lou moved from New Jersey to Rowayton in 1955. He attended Norwalk High School and worked at Rowayton Hardware. Lou married Lois Schilcher in 1964. He and Lois took over the ownership of the hardware store from Jack Harding in 1973 and ran the store until 2004. In addition to working at Rowayton Hardware, Lou was a member of the Rowayton Volunteer Fire Department and served as chief from 1982 to 1987. He was also involved with the Rowayton Civic Association during the 1970s. In 2004, Lou sold Rowayton Hardware and became the Business Manager at The United Church of Rowayton.
Lou joined our Church in 1956. In addition to being an active member of our Family of Faith he served as a Deacon and as our Financial Secretary for 25 years.
Lou and Lois have two children, Laura and Chris, and four grandchildren, Jack, Madison, Haley and Hannah.
Kris Jenkins, Office Manager
In 1984, Kris Jenkins received a B.S. in Public Relations from the School of Public Communication at Boston University. She worked in the advertising department at Market Data Retrieval until the company was bought out by Dun and Bradstreet. She then joined her boss to start up a small advertising firm where she worked until the birth of her son in 1990. She continued to keep herself busy with free-lance projects and as a member of the PTA helped create school directories for the Wilton Public Schools.
Kris married Frank Jenkins in 1985 and they bought a house in Norwalk and later moved to Wilton. They joined The United Church of Rowayton in 1990. She served on the Board of Household Concerns and the Building Committee responsible for the expansion of the Meeting House. She has been serving on the Public Relations Committee and editing the UCR newsletter since 1992.
Kris and Frank have three children. Walker is a senior at Northeastern University, Danielle is a junior at Tufts University and Nicole is a senior at Wilton High School.
Wayne Gamache, Maintenance Manager
Wayne Gamache has faithfully served as Sexton and overseen the property and day-to-day operations at The United Church of Rowayton for a decade. Before coming to UCR, Wayne worked in the service industry.
Wayne grew up in this area and was active in the Catholic Church. He made his First Communion at St. Joseph’s Church and was confirmed at St. Mary’s Church. He was very active in sports, especially baseball and football. Wayne has been married to his wife, Alice, for over 42 years. They have a son, Christopher, and a daughter, Sara, and two grandsons, Mathieu and Justin.
Wayne enjoys watching sports, collecting model trains and cars but most of all, likes to spend time with his family and grandsons.
Sarah Sykes, Youth Group Director
Sarah Sykes joined our staff in October 2011 and currently lives in New Canaan. She graduated in May 2011 from Midway College, Kentucky with a B.A. in Elementary Education and is now studying at Fairfield University for a Master's in Special Education. In addition to working with our Youth Group, she is working at the New Canaan YMCA in the Rainbow Station Nursery School as a teacher assistant.
