Our Ministers

Serving the people with joy and revolutionary love

Senior Minister for Public Theology and Transformation; Chief of Staff

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis (she/her)

Jacqui uses her gifts as author, activist, preacher, public theologian toward creating an antiracist, just, fully welcoming society in which everyone has enough. Middle is the church of her dreams and prayers, a multiethnic rainbow coalition of love, justice, and worship that rocks her soul. Dr. Lewis’ work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, the front page of The New York Times website, New York Times Video, The New York Post, CNN i-report, Essence, Ebony.com, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, The Associated Press and many more.

Email: jlewis@middlechurch.org
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Minister for Worship and Online Community

Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins (she/her)

Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins serves as Minister for Worship and Online Community at Middle Collegiate Church, helping to build and hold its online church and community. She received her Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 2015 and was awarded the Karen Ziegler Feminist Preaching Prize. She became an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ denomination in 2020.

Email: nperkins@middlechurch.org
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Minister for Church Growth and Media Strategy

Rev. Benjamin Perry (he/him)

Rev. Benjamin Perry is Minister of Outreach and Media Strategy at Middle Church. He has previously worked as an organizer with the New York chapter of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, as Deputy Director of Communications and Marketing at Union Theological Seminary, and as an editor at Time Inc.

Email: bperry@middlechurch.org
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Consulting Community Minister

Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft (she/her)

Amanda is the Minister for Congregational Life at Middle Collegiate Church. Prior to Middle, she served as Director of Outreach at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in Midtown Manhattan, and as Outreach Coordinator for Metro Baptist Church/the Rauschenbusch Center in Hells Kitchen, NY. She is the founder of Raising Imagination, a platform that examines social issues through the lens of imagination and encourages activism with young and old alike.

Email: ahashcraft@middlechurch.org
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Consulting Minister

Victor Andre Greene (he/him)

Victor Andre Greene (He/Him) is a poet, licensed minister, and community builder based in Paris, France. He received a Masters of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School in 2017. He was the recipient of the 2017 Frederick Buechner writing award and was nominated as the 2016-2017 Duke Orientation Preacher. He is passionate about the intersections of theology, social justice, and the arts.

Consulting Minister

Rev. Chad Tanaka Pack (he/him)

Chad Tanaka Pack is a Consulting Minister at Middle Church. His teaching and preaching reflect his deep commitments to racial justice, LGBTQ equality, and the arts. Chad was ordained as the first openly gay and married minister in the Reformed Church in America in 2017. In 2019, he transferred his ministerial standing to the United Church of Christ. He earned an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School and a certificate from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in 2010. Chad is an aspiring author and novice fiber artist.

Chad is employed on the Homeless Veterans Team at Inner City Law Center, a nonprofit poverty-law firm in Los Angeles. He serves on the boards of directors of Room for All, which advocates for the welcome and full affirmation of LGBTQ people in the Reformed Church in America; and of the Middle Project. He also serves on the Yale Divinity School Alumni Board.

Consulting Minister

Rev. Catherine Torpey (she/her)

Rev. Catherine Torpey is a consulting Minister at Middle and the Executive Director of The International Focusing Institute. Focusing is a mind-body connection practice which helps us bring our whole selves to our personal, professional and spiritual lives.

Catherine is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary and an ordained minister who led a small church on Long Island for a decade. She became a member of Middle in 2015 and has become known for her Bible studies. She brings a lifelong love for the scriptures, years of academic and personal study, and a way of reading them that is open and non-dogmatic. She also loves to sing and is a passionate devotee of West African drumming – plus her Spanish is not too bad.

Join

Do you yearn to not just belong, but be celebrated for exactly who you are? Do you want a community of folks committed to radical love and justice? Wherever you live, you can call Middle Church home.

Give

This movement needs you! We need your time and talent, but we also need your resources. Make a contribution today and help us be midwives to love and justice.

December 5, 2020

A six-alarm fire spread from the building next door and destroyed our beautiful sanctuary. And yet, no fire can stop revolutionary love! Learn how we’re rising from the ashes and what you can do to help.

Find Your People!

Middle hosts small groups for everything from beginning ukulele lessons, Queer Black Men in the Middle or our Voting Reform team. And all of them have options to gather virtually! Join the groups that best fit your passion and the love you want to offer the world.

Liberative Learning

How do you change the world? First, you change yourself. Part of how we fulfill our commitment to God’s gospel of liberation is by training leaders with the skills you’ll need to bring freedom wherever you go. Thousands have participated in our digital courses. Will join them?

What We Believe

Middle is on a mission to reclaim and reframe Christianity—to realign our faith with Jesus’ teaching and take it back from the folks who have stolen it. We do this work joyfully, fueled by the Spirit, and strengthened by the community we create with one another.

Celebrate LOVE with Us!

Middle’s worship is a joyful, diverse celebration that gives a taste of what heaven feels like—an experience to soothe your soul and fill you with God’s liberatory fire! Every week is different, but what remains constant is how we tell the story of love through transformative art.

Do Justice

Faith comes alive when our love radiates outwards. At Middle, we’re committed to building an intersectional movement that both addresses the particular needs of different communities and unites us in common solidarity. This is God’s work, and we hope you’ll join us in it.