The psycho-social scientific perspective acquired from her background as a psychiatric nurse therapist has been helpful in the Rev. Cynthia Alloway’s role as pastor. For Cindy, a D.Min. student in the Science & Theology Focus, the idea of learning more about how to integrate theological and scientific knowledge and perspective into her ministry is energizing. “It enhances my ability to provide cutting edge ministry skills through learning from experts in their respective areas of focus.”
In 1994 Cindy felt called to enroll in the parish nurse certificate course. After her training, she started Faith and Health ministries in two churches. Through this involvement she began teaching classes, visiting parishioners, providing counseling, and helping lead worship at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. There her pastors and friends affirmed her call to seminary. In 2003 she completed her M.Div. She then worked as a forensic nurse with the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office by providing care for sexual assault victims. It was following that time that she accepted a call to The Presbyterian Church in Morristown, N.J., where she now serves as associate pastor for missions and pastoral care.
“The love of God is most effectively preached with loving actions that work hand in hand with people to meet their most basic needs,” says Cindy. For this reason, she and her husband, Ken, started Foundation for Peace, which works in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Kenya to provide both medical care and construction assistance. Last year more than 850 people from all over the United States joined mission trips in partnership with the Foundation. They have student-sponsorship programs to help sustain the students who are attending the schools they build, and nursing and medical schools sending students for cross-cultural training. This spring Cindy will lead a group to Haiti.
“Interweaving faith and holistic comprehensive healthcare has been a continued interest of mine,” says Cindy. “After reading the description of the new D.Min. Science & Theology program at Pittsburgh Seminary, I was grateful to find a worthwhile degree that would integrate the two.” As Cindy progresses through the courses, she is inspired to bridge the Word and the world by sharing the new information with her congregation and community. “The more I learn about God’s amazing creation and the interconnectedness we all have with one another, from the quantum particle level to the mega-universe level, the more I become inspired to preach and teach these scientific connections to God’s word.”
Learn more about the D.Min. Science & Theology focus, as well as the other areas—Urban Change, Missional Leadership, Reformed, Parish, Reformed Christian Spirituality, and Eastern Christian.
Written February 2012