After a vacant pulpit for the past four years, the First Presbyterian Church of the Panther Valley, has a new pastor.

The Rev. Frederick Rodgers, a native of Boston, MA, recently moved into the parish manse and began serving the congregation on June 4.

He accepted the call to the Panther Valley on April 2, having previously served in Wind Gap, Northampton County.

Rev. Rodgers did his seminary training at Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts, graduating with a master of divinity degree in 1972, and was ordained into the United Church of Christ, after which time he served parishes in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.