Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
525 Main Street, Berlin, PA 15530
(814) 267-5014

Meet Our Pastor

Rev. Dr. John W. Harmon

     I was born January 23, 1947, in St. Paul, Minnesota. My father was a professional photographer and my mother was a homemaker. I was baptized in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, St. Paul, where my family attended services until moving to Northfield, Minnesota, when I was three years old. My father set up a photography studio and camera business there which I helped with while growing up. In Northfield we attended St. John’s Lutheran Church, where I was confirmed and remained a member until leaving for seminary in New York. I attended public schools in Northfield, a college town then of 7,000 population, and graduated high school in 1965.

    The summer after high school graduation I won a Lions Club scholarship to attend the University of Oslo (Norway) International Summer School. That fall I entered Carleton College in Northfield and graduated four years later with a major in art history and a minor in religion. I attended seminary at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, the Divinity School of Columbia University. I earned my M. Div. degree there in 1973. While at Union I interned two years at Hunter College in Campus Ministry, worked as an assistant to the chaplain at Columbia University, and served as a vicar at St. John’s-St. Matthew Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York. Also, while at Union I served my intern year at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin. These varying settings augmented my seminary studies and helped to hone my ministerial skills. While at Union I was certified for call in 1973 and again recertified in 1976 in the American Lutheran Church.

    Following graduation from seminary, there were not enough calls available for first call pastors, so I worked in New York City first as a print manager for an art print house, and then for two years as manager of an art gallery in Staten Island, New York. While there I received the call to serve as Pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Levittown, New York, a suburb of New York City.

    My religious sensibilities arose largely from the influences of my mother, Cary (Vangstad) Harmon. Her father, Severin Olson Vangstad, has been a pioneering Lutheran pastor in Canada and later northern Minnesota. Many of my convictions and areas of interest arose from stories she told of him and her childhood. This religious feeling was further strengthened when I attended Lutheran Bible Camp several successive summers as an adolescent. All of the studies and courses I have taken since then have been to further understand and deepen this spiritual side of myself.

    In my ministerial experience at Good Shepherd on Levittown I performed all the usual activities of a pastor in a busy suburban setting. I baptized, confirmed, married and buried and often counseled my overstressed parishioners. In 28 years I saw the ebb and flow of parish life. There were some wonderful highs and a few desperate lows. I participated actively in conference and Synod life serving in terms of conference secretary, chair of Synod Communication and Mission Support Committee, and in varying roles in education, stewardship, evangelism, and ecumenical relations. While at Good Shepherd I pursued and received two additional degrees: Master of Sacred Theology and Doctor of Ministry, both at New York Theological Seminary. I also received a certificate in pastoral counseling during this time.

    I am married to the former Katharine Leigh Scheferston, a RN of German Lutheran ancestry whom I met while on a religious pilgrimage to Israel. We have two children, Rachel, now 10, and Jonathan, now 9. They attend public school in Berlin. We all enjoy our new life since I have become your 31^st Pastor at Holy Trinity.

Pastor Appreciation Sunday

October 15, 2006

On October 15, 2006, Holy Trinity recognized the 30th anniversary of
Pastor John Harmon's 30th anniversary of his ordination.
A special service and meal were held. Visit our Photo Gallery to see the highlights.

© 2007 Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. All rights reserved.