The Rev. Dr. Robert J. Campbell (Bert) came to The Church of the Covenant in July of 2005. He previously served for 24 years as Head of Staff at The First Presbyterian Church 1793 of Washington, Pennsylvania, a 200-year-old congregation located on the campus of Washington and Jefferson College. He served the First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, Ohio, during the steel crisis of 1977, where he was part of the leadership team that attempted to help the community and workers establish a worker ownership of the mills. In 1970, he began his ministry as program director for the East End Cooperative Ministry, a gathering of 33 churches representing 11 different denominations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, committed to using the resources of those congregations in ministry to the community in which God had called them to serve.

Bert was born in Kingman, Arizona, and grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he attended West Liberty State College, earning a Bachelors Degree in Drama and Philosophy. He received his Masters of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and his Doctorate from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a certificate in Life, Death, and Transition from the Elisabeth Kubler Ross Center, a certificate in Bereavement Counseling from Kings College in London, Ontario, and was trained in Clinical Pastoral Education at West Virginia University Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. At Covenant, Bert has primary responsibility for preaching and worship, staff oversight and coordination, and overall guidance of the church.

He is married to Carol E. Campbell of Mt Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, West Virginia. They have two sons: Ryan, a civilian biologist with the United States Navy who resides with his Annie in Rhode Island, and Kirk, who is in medical school and resides with his Elaine in West Virginia.

Bert states,

"In 1943, Henry Slone Coffin challenged Covenant to be a church with a conscience out in front of her peers, leading them forward and Godward, calling both church and community to the ways of justice and compassion, inclusion and hope. It is because the Church of the Covenant has progressively committed to this vision that I felt moved to serve this great congregation.

Covenant is a regional and diverse people with a prophetic voice heard in the halls of the working class in the 40's, seen on the streets and in the pews in the 50's and 60's in her commitment to integration, committed today to the inclusion of all persons who affirm the Christian faith. We are a people more interested in the right questions than in doctrinal answers and orthodoxy. We deeply respect those who seek God by other names and worship in other ways, for it is the same God who is served. We seek to offer excellence in worship and education, pastoral care and leadership in the University Circle community.

The membership of Covenant is one of the most talented gatherings of people committed to the City I have ever experienced. It is both a challenge and a privilege to work with them as we seek to speak truth to power and point to signs of God’s world in our midst. In these times when religion is often judgmental and exclusive, when politics is too often partisan and divisive, this is a gathering of persons who greet one another and strangers with respect and integrity.

If you are reading this, please know that you are very welcome to come and try us on for size."

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The Rev. Laury W. Larson was installed as an associate pastor of the Church of the Covenant in August, 1978. He had previously served brief pastorates in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and, as a seminarian, in Glasgow, Scotland. The vision of a just society motivated Laury to enter ministry. It continues to motivate him.

Raised in a rural Illinois town, Laury did his undergraduate work at Illinois State University and his seminary training at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. Subsequent to coming to Cleveland, and to fill some gaps in his earlier training, Laury completed a graduate degree in counseling at John Carroll University and a certificate program in non-profit management at Case Western Reserve University. He has participated in an advanced study program in cross-cultural ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary. In 1994, Laury did sabbatical study at the Christian Study Center in Pakistan.

At Covenant, Laury has primary responsibility for supporting the congregation's programs of community outreach and service as well as its educational programming for adults and university students. Teaching adults is a priority for our associate pastor. He is certified as a mentor for Education for Ministry (EFM), a theological education by extension program of the University of the South, and currently mentors two EFM seminar groups. He has been a member of the Board of the Cleveland Ecumenical Institute for Religious Studies since its inception in 1992. In his approach to biblical interpretation and teaching, Laury seeks to counter exclusionary ideologies and practices.

Committed to interreligious understanding and cooperation, Laury serves as a trustee of InterAct Cleveland (formerly ESIM). He also provides leadership to the Presbytery of the Western Reserve's emerging east side urban cluster of churches.

As time allows, Laury reads novels and browses in antique shops. He also enjoys dining out in Cleveland.

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The Rev. Jonyrma R. Singleton has been an Associate Pastor at the Church of the Covenant since 1992. She is the first woman and African-American to be installed as a Pastor of the Covenant. Her areas of focus are working with youth, children, young families, member care as well as co-leading worship with the other pastors. She has also received affirmation for her sense of call to the healing ministry. The church supported her decision to receive training in Reiki (a hands on touch healing approach) which she incorporates in her pastoral care.

A native of Savannah, Georgia, Jonyrma Singleton has earned degrees from Talladega College in Alabama, Jacksonville State University in Alabama, and Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Virginia.

Jonyrma feels that Covenant is an exciting place to be because of its community of faith is diverse, open-minded, and willing to try new ways of doing God's work. Her youth ministry has been her most challenging call. Each year her youth groups travel to different regions of the U.S. and to Mexico to do habitat work and "experience the culture". The youth also join other Presbyterian youth at the Synod gatherings and national youth conference at Montreat, North Carolina. These experiences always seem to strengthen the ties between the youth and their faith.

Jonyrma has also been actively involved over the years working in the area of family ministries at the denominational level. She has traveled extensively throughout Central America, the Caribbean, West and South Africa participating with travel seminar groups as well as doing mission partner work.

Jonyrma has two adult daughters, a son-in-law, five grandsons, and one granddaughter. She loves to swim, hike and play guitar.

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    Eileen Vizcaino, Director, Student -Community Ministries, joins the Covenant staff after a successful year as our Seminary Intern. Her primary focus is R & D of new ways this church can be of service to the many students and interns whose paths converge at Covenant.

    No stranger to student life, Eileen has long experience in foreign language education and an advanced degree in guidance.   Her late husband Israel Vizcaino served as counselor to non-traditional students at Seton Hall University. A native of Cuba, he was a doctoral candidate in Latin American history at New York University.  Eileen is a Cleveland area native who spent most of her adult life in New Jersey, though she has strong family ties here.

    Eileen was drawn to Covenant because of its commitment to social justice, its ecumenical involvement, and its outreach to the community.  She sees Covenant well positioned to create a network of support for students as well as providing ways they can exercise their developing talents to serve the larger community.

    Serving as an interpreter for the first Mission trip to Central Presbytery Cuba by the Presbytery of Monmouth, Eileen helped develop the Statement of Partnership.  She then spent nearly a year as a Volunteer in Mission at Montreat, a national Presbyterian conference center in Western North Carolina.  There, meeting church staffs from many venues, she solidified her call to ministry.

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Other staff members include an additional music staff member, a church business/office administrator, a church secretary, a program associate, a volunteer coordinator, a two full-time and a five part-time member custodial staff.