Pastor

Pastor Charlie comes to us after serving nine years in Bayville. While there, he united two churches into a new congregation, Faith Community. Prior to his time in Bayville, he served churches in Atco and Tansboro.

He has a passion for church growth and believes that this can best be done beyond the walls of the sanctuary on Sunday morning. We need to be striving to make a difference in people’s lives for Christ through mission, fellowship, and small groups. Each of these opens the door for us to share our faith with others.

Charlie attended Princeton Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 2001. He was ordained at the 2004 Greater New Jersey Annual Conference in Atlantic City.

Prior to becoming a pastor, Charlie served the church as a local and certified lay speaker. He was the Lay Leader at his home church in Medford where he also served as a member of SPR and the council of ministries. He worked for 24 years in the printing industry at various jobs including human resources, production management and as plant manager.

In July 2010 Diane and Charlie celebrated thirty years of marriage. They have two wonderful children. Sheldon lives in Marlton. Alycia resides with her husband, Matt, in Ephrata, PA.

Pastor Charlie and Diane are excited about sharing their ministry with the people of Epworth UMC and the triboro area.

Church Secretary

Whether by phone or in person, you will always feel welcome when you contact the Epworth office. Diane Dunn is one of those special people with an easy smile and a genuinely friendly personality. She always seems to have time for you, and still completes the myriad of tasks and jobs that demand her attention. Diane has been in our area for most of her life; growing up in Cinnaminson. She attended Epworth Sunday School as a child, and was confirmed and married here as well. She and her husband Rick now live in Pennsauken and have three daughters; Dana, Amanda, and Christine. The family loves the Jersey shore and their Wildwood Crest  beach home. Diane is attached to her two dogs, but also enjoys reading a good mystery novel. She also hopes one day to find the time to return to drawing and painting, which got lost somewhere in the past.

Organist and Choir Director, Bell Director

Diane Soper is serving as our organist and vocal choir director. Diane is an instrumental music teacher for Northeastern Music out of Pennsylvannia and works in four local private schools. She has served as an organist in several churches both in Massachusetts and in New Jersey. She has directed choirs in Atco and Bayville.
Diane sees the music of the church as a ministry that should be uplifting in our praise to God in ways that mere spoken word may fall short. She welcomes people of various music backgrounds to be part of the music ministry.
Ringing handbells is a passion for Diane. Since her start with handbells back in the 80"s in Massachusetts Diane has moved from being a ringer to director. She has studied bells at Westminster College and attended many workshops that explore various ringing styles and explorations of various music being written for bells. She has started 3 bell groups at Faith Community in Bayville including a youth bell choir. Together with Medford UMC she has organized a bi-annual bell festival concert.
Her hope is to continue to have the bell choir here at Epworth prosper and grow. Diane would love to see a new group form with our youth and the possibilty of a future chime group for our elementary age youngsters.

The choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings at 8pm and Sunday mornings at 9am.
Bell rehearsals are Wednesday evenings at 7pm. All are welcome to stop in and give it a ring!