A 25th anniversary celebration will be held for Reverend Floyd Churn at the Nassau Club in Princeton on Friday, June 8, at 6 p.m. Churn was called by the First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck members in late 1981 and began working with them in 1982. “At the time I thought that 10 years here may be nice,” he says. “It evolved to a much longer stay and it’s been a good time.”##M:[more]##
“There is a lot of turnover in the area and new people are always becoming active,” he says. “I’ve really had two or three congregations due to corporate moves and retirements.”
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, he was raised as an active member of the Baptist church. His father sold televisions with Sears Roebuck and his mother was a teller in a bank. After high school, he studied engineering for two years at Drexel University. “It was not suited to my personality and I transferred to University of Richmond to major in English literature,” he says. “I intended to teach in a high school.”
A professor convinced him to study at Princeton Theological Seminary for a year. “Ministry seemed very compatible with my interests,” he says. He was a chaplain at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York for two years. “I felt more and more called to congregational ministry and decided to become a pastor.” He was with the Overbrook Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia before his move to West Windsor.
His wife of nearly 41 years, Janet, leads business communication seminars. Their daughters include Stephanie, a graduate of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, Class of 1986, who is married and living in Sarasota, Florida with her husband and four year-old son; and Nancy, Class of 1990, married and living in Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and four children ages 2 to 12.
Churn has been a leader with WHAM, the area ministerium group covering West Windsor, East Windsor, Windsor, Plainsboro, and Cranbury, for eight years. The 25 congregations of churches and synagogues meet once a month, have joint services for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Thanksgiving, and the annual crop walk. He was president in 2004-’05.
“I don’t have any plans for a move at this point,” Churn says. “For right now, this is where I feel called.”
— Lynn Miller
25th Anniversary Celebration, First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck, Nassau Club, Princeton, 609-799-0712. Children’s menu and activities. Register. $35. Friday, June 8, 6 p.m.
