Meet Our Ministers

Welcome to St. Peter's! ...our church is plain yellow brick, but our congregation is a mosaic of God's people!‎ > ‎

Beautiful picture of Pastor Mendle coming soon....

Beautiful picture of Pastor Dee coming soon....

Dr. Patrick J. Nugent, pastor

Patrick is delighted to be serving St. Peter's United Church of Christ. He is a minister in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), but has long connections to the UCC.

He serves St. Peter's part-time. In his "day job" he is Vice-President for Development at Beech Acres Parenting Center in Cincinnati.

Before coming to Cincinnati in 2007, Patrick served as principal (chief executive) at Friends Theological College, Kaimosi, Kenya, a theological training college of the Quakers in East Africa. Before that he was a professor at Earlham College, a Quaker College in Richmond, Indiana.

He has a ministry degree (M.Div.) and a doctorate in church history from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He served his internship at The People's Church of Chicago, another multiracial urban UCC congregation.

He is married to Mary Kay Rehard, and they are enjoying the challenges and struggles of raising two teenagers. They live in the Fairview Heights section of Clifton, but are affectionate former residents of the Ridge.

Despite the "Dr." in front of his name, as a Quaker he shies away from honorary titles and prefers to be called what his parents named him--Patrick.

Rev. Mendle Adams, pastor emeritus

Rev. Mendle Adams is a minister in the UCC, originally from Richmond, Indiana. He served St. Peter's from 2001 to 2008, when he retired. He led St. Peter's through a crucial time of change, as the church absorbed the congregation of Pleasant Ridge United Methodist Church and merged with the Whole Life Church of Jesus Christ. Mendle pastored many UCC and United Methodist churches across the Midwest and Great Plains, and served in the Indiana State Legislature in the 1970s. He lives in Amberly with is wife and longtime partner in ministry, Ruth Adams.

Rev. Cordelia Nowell, pastor emerita

Rev. Dee Nowell is a longtime member of the Whole Life Church of Jesus Christ, an independent Pentecostal church in the African American tradition. She was pastor of Whole Life at the time of their merger with St. Peter's. She served as Associate Pastor of St. Peter's after the merger and remains in retirement a spiritual anchor and inspiration. She is retired from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she still does consulting work actively.