Peter's Background

Peter de Vries grew up in Boswell, a coal mining community in western Pennsylvania, and in Covenant Presbyterian Church, a congregation of about 60 members. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Penn State before attending Princeton Theological Seminary, where he received his M.Div. in 1988. Peter served as the pastor for a yoked parish of two rural congregations in Kiskiminetas Presbytery for five years before moving to his present call. Since 1993 he has been the pastor of Old Union Presbyterian Church in Mars, a 200 member congregation of Beaver-Butler Presbytery, located just beyond the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh.

Peter earned a Ph.D. student in religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on interpretive theory, philosophy of language, and how these fields can be used in New Testament studies. His dissertation used the hermeneutic theory of Paul Ricoeur to advance an understanding of Jesus’ apocalyptic discourse of Mark 13. Peter has made presentations at regional, national, and international academic conferences.

Peter’s relationship with Presbyterian partners in Ghana began in 1989, and in 1997 he and his family traveled to Ghana for the first time. His continuing visits to Ghana focus primarily on leadership training. Peter has been the convener of the Ghana Mission Network since its inception in 2002 until 2009, and he led a recent partnership meeting for US and Ghanaian Presbyterians.

Peter has been involved in youth ministry locally and at the presbytery, synod, and national levels. He has served at presbytery and synod camps and conferences, and in evangelism at the presbytery and synod level. He is served as the moderator of Beaver-Butler Presbytery and was a candidate for General Assembly moderator in 2008. Peter has taught at Chautauqua Institution, served as a Bible Hour speaker at New Wilmington Missionary Conference, and spoke at an interfaith town hall meeting sponsored by Pittsburgh’s Muslim community.

Peter is the son of Dutch immigrants and is the youngest of four children. Peter has been married since 1994 to his best friend Becky, a counselor and school psychologist. He has three stepchildren: Shari, Devin, and Trevor. Peter enjoys bicycling, motorcycling, downhill and cross-country skiing, kayaking, hiking, playing guitar, and throwing boomerangs.