Cynthia A. Jarvis was born in Canton, Illinois on July 30, 1949. She received her B.A. from
Denison University, Granville Ohio in June of 1971. A Rockefeller Trial Year Fellow, she
attended Boston University School of Theology 1971-1972 and transferred to Vanderbilt Divinity
School where she received a two year fellowship and graduated with the Tillet Prize in Theology
in June of 1974. Ordained in 1974 by the Presbytery of Muskingum Valley in Ohio, Ms. Jarvis
has served as Associate Minister of Westminister Presbyterian Church in Wooster, Ohio from
1974 to 1979, Assistant Professor of Ministry at McCormick Seminary in Chicago from 1979 to
1981, and Associate Minister of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey from 1981
to 1996. Currently she is Minister and Head of Staff of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut
Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also serves as a consultant to The Center of Theology
Inquiry Pastor-Theologian Project in Princeton, New Jersey.
While in Ohio, she was moderator of Muskingum Valley Presbytery, chair of the Task Force on
Women, and member of the Presbytery's governing board. She was also on the Synod of the
Covenant Task Force on Women, the Synod-College Relations Committee and was "theologian-
in-residence" at the annual meeting of the Synod. During this time she also served on the
General Assembly level as a member of the Council on Discipleship and Worship and on the
executive committee of the Major Mission Fund. In Chicago, she was a member of the
Candidates Committee of Chicago Presbytery and served on the Synod of Lincoln Trails Synod
School. As a commissioner to General Assembly in 1979, she was appointed by the moderator
to chair a task force on Conservation of Human and Natural Resources which reported to
the next Assembly in 1980. She was a preacher to the General Assembly in 1983 during the
reunion of the Presbyterian Church U.S. and the United Presbyterian Church of U.S.A. and was
the preacher for the Assembly when it met in Philadelphia in 1989. In the Presbytery of New
Brunswick, she has been on Judicial Commission, the Congregational Ministry Committee
and a task force on AIDS. She has served the Synod of the Northeast as a member of the
planning team for synod's Multiple-Staff Retreat and was part of the synod's Mentor Program
for new ministers. In the summer of 1996, she was the preacher for the Music and Worship
Conference at Montreat. Currently she serves on the Committee on Preparation for Ministry
of Philadelphia Presbytery.
Her writing includes articles in "Interpretation, A Journal of Bible and Theology," "Presbyterain
Outlook," "Presbyterian Survey," and "Theology Today." She contributed two cahpters to book
entitled Worship in the Community of Faith and is author of Metaphors and Miracles: A Study
on the Gospel of John. Along with her former colleague, Sue Ellen Page, she has published
"Until We Rest In Thee," a children's anthem.
When she is not involved with the church, she enjoys sailing, hiking, country music, the New
York Giants, theatre, cooking and her cottage on the coast of Maine.
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