Jonathan and Jihey Esther Roach
Fostering Churches Wide enough for an Elephant, Tall enough for a Giraffe, and Still Comfortable for a Church Mouse
Jonathan & Esther
Welcome to our site! Whether you want a copy of a presentation that one of us gave or want to read one of our sermons, you are welcome here. We are a clergy couple who have been married since 2007 and live in Hilo, Hawai'i with our daughter, Enye Grace, a white miniature schnauzer named Mercedes, and an orange cat named Pancake. Besides theology and the church, we love gardening, bird watching [we photographed the beautiful purple honeycreeper pictured above at the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad on a bird watching trip], barbecuing, and eating Korean BBQ.
Jonathan's First Book:
Expressing Theology
July 2015
Talking to Children
about Suicide
​
Stratham Community Church
February 2019
Recent News:
Presentation on
Planning Your Own Funeral
Stratham Church, UCC
May 22, 2018
About Us:
Jihey Chung was born in Seoul, South Korea. She first came to the United States as a toddler when her father was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. She later returned to the United States to attend boarding school in Connecticut and continued on to earn a B.S. in Chemistry from Lake Forest College in Chicago. She dropped out of Medical School to attend seminary at San Francisco Theological Seminary and was ordained in 2002 at San Francisco Community Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. In 2004, she became certified as a Board Certified Chaplain, and she has served a variety of hospitals, hospices, and churches throughout her ministry. She served as a Four-Way Covenant Minister with Stratham Community Church, United Church of Christ and Element Care where she served as the Senior Chaplain until she accepted the call from Hawai'i Care Choices to serve.
Jonathan Roach is a minister, theologian, author, and librarian. He grew-up across the Midwest in Terre Haute, Indiana, the twin cities of Dennison and Uhrichsville, Ohio, and Alpena, Michigan, which is literally half way to the North Pole. He has earned graduate degrees from Wayne State University, Ecumenical Theological Seminary, and St. Thomas University. He was ordained in 2008 at his home church, First Congregational Church of Detroit, Michigan. For his Ph.D. in practical theology, he worked with a group of United Church of Christ clergy to develop a theology of work for clergy who had suffered burnout. He served as Interim-Dean of the Library at St. Thomas University until 2016 and when he was called to the role of pastor and teacher of Stratham Community Church, United Church of Christ in New Hampshire. In July of 2019, he moved with his family to Hilo, Hawai'i and is looking forward to what comes next!
