The Rev. Dr. H. Dana Fearon III will step down as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville in November.
By: Lea Kahn
The Rev. Dr. H. Dana Fearon III plans to retire as minister of the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville in November.
The Rev. Fearon, who has served as minister at the church since 1960, announced his retirement plans to the congregation Sunday.
"I always think in three- or four-year increments where we hope to go as a church. But I realized I did not have another three or four more years of peak ministry left. It was a hard decision," said the Rev. Fearon, who is 70.
Hh said he will preach his last sermon Nov. 10. He plans to move to Princeton, where he plans to teach part time at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The Rev. Mac Schafer, associate pastor, will serve as the pastor until an interim pastor is appointed by the Presbyterian Church’s governing body, the Rev. Fearon said. An interim pastor will be appointed in January, until a permanent minister is hired.
When the Rev. Fearon arrived at The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville in 1960, the congregation numbered 490 people and served the religious needs of the residents of the village of Lawrenceville, the people who worked at The Lawrenceville School and the rural community.
Today, the church still serves the residents of the village of Lawrenceville, the people who work at the preparatory school and the people who live in the new houses that have sprung up on the former farms. The congregation now numbers 900.
The Rev. Fearon grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He had planned to become a physician, but decided on the ministry after taking two religion courses at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English.
The Rev. Fearon enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary afterward. Upon graduation, he accepted a position as an assistant to the Rev. Arthur Adams, who was the minister at the Central Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y.
From there, the Rev. Fearon moved to New Jersey to become minister of The Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church.