A new voice now spreads the word of God at the St. John's United Church of Christ in Palmerton.

The Rev. Virginia Heimer, better known to her congregation as Pastor Ginny, was installed on Nov. 23 by the Rev. Alan Miller, conference minister of Penn Northeast Conference.Heimer is a second-career pastor who previously worked in health care at Lehigh Valley Hospital Physician Group as a practice support specialist.She graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary with a master of divinity degree in May of 2013.Heimer also graduated at the same time from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and is a certified spiritual director.Heimer said she was ordained as a United Church of Christ minister at Zion's Stone United Church of Christ on Aug 11, 2013.She was then called to St. John's UCC Palmerton as its part-time pastor on March 1."It is a joy to serve the faithful congregation at St. John's," Heimer said."They have welcomed me wholeheartedly, and they have been, and continue to be, supportive of the ministries and programs I am working on developing for the church."The congregation currently has 105 members."The attributes that I bring to the church are my passion and enthusiasm for ministry," Heimer said."I try to use my vision and creativity to produce meaningful worship that is both fulfilling and motivating so that we can take our worship of God outside the doors of the church to serve others."Heimer shared her plans for the future."My goal for the church is to provide spiritual leadership that will enable us to define, establish and carry out God's mission for us as a church in this community."In addition, Heimer also works part time as the chaplain and pastoral care coordinator at Westminster Village in Allentown.She lives in Walnutport with her husband and has two grown children and two grandchildren.