Rev. Roger Scott Powers

The Rev. Roger Scott Powers began serving the congregation on June 1, 2004. Roger splits his time between the Light Street congregation and the First and Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, where he is the associate pastor.

"I'm thrilled to be working with these two wonderful churches in the heart of downtown Baltimore," Roger says. "Both churches are theologically progressive and committed to social justice and peacemaking. Both churches are actively involved in urban ministry. And both churches practice the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ, which means we welcome all people - young and old, rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight!"

Roger came to Baltimore from Oakland, California, where he was associate pastor of Montclair Presbyterian Church for four years. While there, he chaired the Clergy Caucus of the Oakland Coalition of Congregations, an interfaith community organization of 32 congregations. He was also a leader in the East Bay Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and California Interfaith Power & Light. He chaired the planning team for the Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference, "A Force More Powerful: Embracing Jesus' Way of Nonviolence," held in Montreat, NC, in July 2003. He served on the Peacemaking Task Force of San Francisco Presbytery, and he is currently on the National Committee of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

Peacemaking has been Roger's vocation in one way or another for more than twenty years. From 1982 to 1984, he was Peacemaking Intern of the Synod of the Northeast. He served on the national staff of Clergy and Laity Concerned, an interfaith, multiracial peace and justice organization, from 1985 to 1988. From 1989 until he began seminary in 1995, he was on the staff of the Albert Einstein Institution, a nonprofit organization founded by Gene Sharp to advance the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world. There he co-edited a 640-page encyclopedia of nonviolent action entitled Protest, Power, and Change (Garland, 1997).

Roger holds a B. S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, an M. A. in International Politics from the University of Denver, and an M. Div. from Andover Newton Theological School. He is married to Susan Quass, his partner for nineteen years, who is pursuing graduate studies at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.