The Rev, Lou McAlister East of Greensboro, NC, begins May 1 as
Southeast Regional Coordinator for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.
In this new position, Rev. East will help connect Covenant Network
supporters in the synods of Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and
Living Waters and assist them in carrying out the Network's announced
strategies of informing, networking, and advocating for "a
church as generous and just as God's grace."
Lou East has served the church as a parish pastor since her ordination in 1995, and before that as a clergy spouse. She recently completed six years as Associate Pastor of the Graham church in Graham, NC. While accompanying her husband Chris in various earlier parishes, she started a number of community enterprises that continue today, including a licensed childcare cooperative, an interdenominational crisis-response program, and a licensed adult daycare facility in a former manse. She also helped start North Carolina Presbyterian Pilgrimage and Presbyterian Arise, lay renewal retreat programs.
As the Covenant Network job is half-time, Rev. East will devote her other energies to the Steering Committee for the Epiphany New Church Development in Greensboro. Salem Presbytery has given formal approval to this NCD to "celebrate our diversity as a gift from God." The NCD mission statement describes the new congregation as "called to be the doorway both to safe haven and to trying challenge" and "called to plant the seeds of justice in order to reap the fruit of peace." Covenant Network board members and former PC(USA) Moderators Al Winn and Doug Oldenburg serve on the Epiphany Advisory Committee.
Lou East is a graduate of Duke University and Duke Divinity School. The Easts have been married for 28 years and have two grown children.
Lou East will meet many Presbyterians when she helps staff
the Covenant Network booth in the General Assembly Exhibit Hall
later this month. Of the new venture, she says,
"As a life-long Southerner, and a life-long Presbyterian,
I am excited to be called to serve in the Covenant Network, and
pray God's blessing upon this opportunity to bear witness to the
good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as together we hold one
another accountable before God."
Lou East can now be reached at loueast@covenantnetwork.org.