BIOGRAPHY FOR THE REV. ALBERT RHODES STUART & FAMILY

The son and grandson of professional newspaper reporters, Albert Rhodes Stuart ("Al" or "Rusty"), 40, began the trek down the same career path until he sensed he could no longer evade the the long-time call he felt to report not on fires and floods, but on the Greatest Good News in Cosmic history.

Stuart answered that call when he was ordained to Ministry of Word & Sacrament within the Presbyterian Church (USA) in October 1996 by Pittsburgh Presbytery and began serving as pastor of the Rock Stream Presbyterian and Lakemont Congregational Christian Churches in Upstate / Southern Tier  New York since accepting his first call there in September of 1996.

The tall, bald and goateed pastor is married to the former Christina E. Scavo (Tina), of Apollo, PA.  The two married in July 1992.

Tina, a 1983 Kiski Area High School graduate and former college student at both LaRoche and Geneva Colleges, served as a bookkeeper for a number of Pittsburgh-area companies.  Before leaving Pittsburgh for Rock Stream, NY, Tina was the bookkeeper for the Charles I. Ferrara General Agency of Northwestern Mutual Life in Pittsburgh.  Since that time she has been a full-time housewife, mother, home school instructor and jack-of-all trades.

Al and Tina have a daughter and two sons: Sarah Elizabeth, 12; Caleb Joseph, 8 and Josiah Nathan, 7.   All three have been and are currently home-schooled.  Josiah, incidently, was born 10 1/2 weeks premature (he was only 2 lbs. 4.6 oz.  and 13 inches long at birth -- "He's our miracle baby -- God is provident!").

Al, a South Hills (Dormont) native, is a 1984 graduate of Keystone Oaks High School and attended Slippery Rock University from 1984 to 1988.  He returned to Slippery Rock and graduated with his B.A. in Political Science in December 1992.  Additionally, he is a 1996 graduate (M.Div.) of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary and attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for two years additional study.

Among other things, Al served first as news editor, and then as editor of The Rocket.  During college summers he served two general assignment reporting internships with the now-defunct Pittsburgh Press and was then a free-lance "stringer" for several of that paper's regional zone editions.  Before completing college and entering seminary he then served for a year as interim editor for Pittsburgh Presbytery's in-house bi-monthly newspaper and presbytery newsletter.  He was also employed as a maintenance dock hand by the Gateway Clipper Fleet.  During seminary Al was a security guard at the Parkway Center Office Complex in Greetree.

A life-long Presbyterian, Al is a former member of the Sunset Hills United Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon, where he served as a deacon and elder before being called into ministry.

Al is also a denominationally-endorsed chaplain for the Civil Air Patrol, the official United States Air Force Auxiliary.  He serves as Deputy Wing Chaplain - West for New York Wing and as Group Chaplain for South Central Group, headquartered at Link Field in Binghamton, New York.  Through his work with the Civil Air Patrol, Al has gotten involved with crisis ministry / crisis management and has earned Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) certifications for:

National Guard Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM): Terrorism & Disaster Response  --  August 2002

National Guard Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM): Terrorism & Disaster Response - TTT  -- August 2002

Critical Incident Stress Management (Basic)   --   January 2003

Critical Incident Stress Management (Advanced)   --   January 2003

(CISM) Pastoral Crisis Intervention  --   January 2004