The Eliot Church of Newton

Rev. Karla Miller is our associate pastor specializing in Religious Education and Church Membership, Vitality and Outreach. She is a member of the Newton Clergy Association, and the Evangelism Commission of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, and serves on the board of the Walker Center. She volunteers at the Chetwynde Health Care Center, and with animal rescue and advocacy through Kitty Connection of Medford, MA. Prior to serving Eliot Church, Karla was the Minister with Youth and Children at Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh, NC where she also chaired the board of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness. In addition, Karla served as the Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life at Peace College where she taught courses in Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and First Year Studies. While at Peace, she spearheaded the development of the Office for Community Involvement, the college’s community service and learning initiative.

Karla earned her Master’s of Divinity Degree at Union Theological Seminary in NYC, where she focused on worship, the arts and spiritual formation in young people. She has pursued further study in Pastoral Care and Counseling, Church Coaching, Literature and is a potter, specializing in hand building and carving functional ware and tiles.

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Minister of Music, Charles Raines

Charles Raines moved to Salem, Massachusetts in 2009 having served as the Director of Music Ministries and Organist for Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (Presbyterian) in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. There he led a program that includes children's and youth choirs, a handbell choir, a choir of adult singers and a concert series.

From 1980 - July 2002, he shepherded a similar music program as Director of Music and Organist for Christ Church Cranbrook (Episcopal) in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Under his leadership the Christ Church Choir and Chamber Choir produced an acclaimed CD recording now listed in the Organ Historical Society catalog. The Christ Church Choir was voted The 2001Best Church Choir in metropolitan Detroit by readers of Detroit HOUR Magazine.

With university degrees in both organ performance and conducting, Charles Raines also is a harpsichordist and an occasional composer/arranger. His second set of the Preces and
Responses for Evensong has been sung by numerous Episcopal choirs including All Saints Church, Beverly Hills, California and The Cathedral of St. Paul, Detroit. He has performed as organ recitalist, harpsichord soloist and chamber ensemble musician and has given organ concerts in New England, the South and Mid-West. In 1991, he led the Christ Church Cranbrook Choir in a tour of England where they performed in London's St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Clare College Chapel (Cambridge), Salisbury and Canterbury cathedrals.

Additionally, Charles Raines chaired the national American Guild of Organists Committee on Denominational Relations for five years. The committee produced during that period the AGO publication, A Musician's Guide to the Denominations. He served on a committee of the Association of Anglican Musicians that produced the publication, Musicians Called to Serve. He has chaired the Commission on Liturgy and Church Music of the Episcopal Diocese of
Michigan and has served on the faculty of the Church Music Conference of the Diocese of Mississippi

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Church Administrator, Terri Whitney-Jackson

Terri Whitney-Jackson feels she has been blessed to serve the Congregation of Eliot. She serves as Church Administrator, Facilities Manager and Publications Designer. She derives great pleasure from the wide variety of responsibilities the Church has entrusted to her and sees her job as a ministry to the Church. She enjoys traveling on her Buell motorcycle with her daughter across the country, in all types of weather.

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