Our Minister: “A Preacher of These Hills”

One Saturday in June 2001, Jon Bliss called on Fritz and Suz Zeller to ask if they needed their meadow mowed. The result was a life-changing event for Jon and Weston’s Old Parish Church. The church needed a minister, and Jon confirmed Suz’s recollection that he held a degree from the Yale Divinity School. Suz and Fritz glanced at each other.  “Might you be interested,” Suz asked? “I almost immediately said ‘Yes, I would consider it,’” Jon replied. He soon began sharing duties with Evelyn Verro, and that November assumed the position by himself.  By 2003 he completed his requirements for installation and was installed on November 16. He is now our full-time minister and is available for counseling.

Born in New York’s Hudson River Valley in 1962, Jon’s parents, Ann and Dick Bliss, moved to East Hill farm in Andover when Jon was four. His father established a farm school that emphasized work, the arts, self-sufficiency and good citizenship.  Jon learned to farm, play guitar and tell stories before heading off to Warren Wilson, a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. He began to explore Christianity and, during a visit to a Christian community in Georgia, met Laura Gatewood, whom he would later marry and with whom he would become the parent of two daughters, Allie and Emma.

 

Then came Yale Divinity School, where Jon earned a Master of Arts and Religion degree. His mentor, Fred Ohler, introduced Jon to the preaching and writing of Fred Buechner, who had just been nominated for the Pulitizer Prize for “Godric” and who lives in Rupert.  Buechner’s juxtaposition of conventional and innovative religious ideas, and his search for ministry in everyday life, influenced Jon greatly.

 

When his father died in 1990, Jon returned to East Hill, at one point serving as headmaster of a tiny independent school, a version of what his father had created. Later, Jon became a counselor at Beekman House in Proctorsville.  He had been thinking about making religion a greater part of his life, and when the offer came, it was pure serendipity.

 

“I grew up six miles from the church. I feel so fortunate to be able to do this work here, with the opportunity to put down roots. I have a strong connection to the farms, the land and the landscape. I would love to be a preacher of these hills, meeting the challenge of a church in a small town."