Staff

The Reverend Kevin L. Porter is a native Philadelphian who was educated in the city’s public schools before attending Harvard University, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 1982 concentrating in Psychology and Social Relations. While at Harvard, Kevin was the recipient of the Royal Society of the Arts Silver Medal Award for his work in various aspects of theatre as an undergraduate. He received further training on-stage and backstage at Philadelphia’s Freedom Theater.

Kevin worked for the Eastern Home Office of the Prudential Life Insurance Company from 1982-1990, gaining business experience through their Management Intern Program and serving as a Human Resources Consultant and trainer. During this same period, he was ordained an elder at the Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church, focusing on ministry with youth.

Kevin worked for the Eastern Home Office of the Prudential Life Insurance Company from 1982-1990, gaining business experience through their Management Intern Program and serving as a Human Resources Consultant and trainer. During this same period, he was ordained an elder at the Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church, focusing on ministry with youth.

In 1990, Kevin entered Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1993, he received his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton and was ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament the next year when he joined the pastoral staff of the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown. Kevin left First Presbyterian for several years to work as a hospice chaplain with VITAS Hospice, followed by a term as the Interim Pastor of the Calvin Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia. He received certification in Pastoral Counseling with the Samaritan Counseling Center’s Pastoral Training Institute and was a consultant with the Dialogue Center for Counseling and Consulting before returning to First Presbyterian Church in Germantown in his current role of Director of Adult Education and Community Life.

With a deep passion for Christ and commitment to serve others, Eileen is excited to use her professional social work training to enable FPCG to be a place that provides holistic support to church and community members alike. She has participated in ministry at First Church in Germantown for more than 22 years.

As Director of Urban Ministry her responsibilities include leading programs and activities that engage the church in outreach to our immediate community. A significant part of that work is in her role as Director of the Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry housed in the church. Eileen is a graduate of Temple University with a Masters in Social Work degree.

Christian Heyer-Rivera came to The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown at the beginning of the summer of 2004.  Christian is a graduate of Bethel College in St. Paul, MN and Palmer Theological Seminary.  He is currently working toward Certification as a Christian Educator and is an inquirer for ordination as a Ministry of Word and Sacrament within the Presbytery of Philadelphia.

Prior to coming to The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Christian served in a variety of ministries.  He has been the Director of Youth Programs in both staff and volunteer roles at churches in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, served as an Assistant Site Director of a YouthWorks! mission site on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and provided leadership on staff and as a volunteer for Jr. High outreach ministry with Young Life.

John Walthausen has served churches as a musician since he was a teenager and has been Director of Music Ministry at The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown since 2021. At FPCG, John directs the Adult Choir, the Youth Choir, and the Oratorio Choir. He also presides over “the Germantown Giant,” the largest organ in a church in Philadelphia. 

Accomplished as a recitalist, John Walthausen has been heard in concert throughout Europe in Paris, Chartres, Poitiers, Toulouse, Hamburg, Milan, Treviso, Innsbruck, Basel, and Zurich. From 2015 to 2016, he served as Organist in Residence at Sapporo Concert Hall in Hokkaido, where he performed and recorded on the Hall’s four-manual organ by Alfred Kern and in cities across Japan. Recent projects have taken him to New York, Boston, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Victoria (British Columbia), Cincinnati, and Bogotá. 

In 2019, he co-founded the ensemble Filament, a Philadelphia based ensemble dedicated to exploring the rich chamber music repertoire of 17th century Northern Europe, with violinist Evan Few and viola da gamba player Elena Smith. 

A native Californian, Cari moved to Philadelphia from Arizona in late 2019. They are currently a master of divinity student at United Lutheran Seminary, seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Cari has earned two bachelor’s degrees, as well as two graduate certificates. 

Denominationally flexible, Cari has previously worked in Episcopal and Lutheran churches, as well as worked with a variety of Christian and Jewish faith communities. Prior to moving to Philadelphia, Cari worked a variety of secular jobs, ranging from customer service to inpatient behavioral health to co-founding an LGBT resource center at their undergraduate university and many things in-between.

Tony Nixon, Kevin Gregory, and Robert Patterson
Sextons

Cindy Osborne
Bookkeeper
[email protected]