Rev. Dr. Philip R. Newell was invited to serve the Welsh Congregation in 2003 following the retirement of Dr. John C. Evans who relocated home to San Francisco.

Dr Newell possesses some truly incomparable gifts: strong academic credentials in Church history and deep scriptural knowledge conveyed through incisive preaching.  One additional qualification marks Dr Newell's resume, he has served the Church at the local, national and global levels and is ordained in both the Church of Scotland and the Church of England traditions.

This makes him a very good match for the diverse Welsh Congregation whose members come form a broad range of religious traditions: Congregationalist, Unitarian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Baptist and Presbyterian. It forms a diverse and extraordinary cosmopolitan membership.

Dr Newell has led many congregations over the course of his pastoral career: He has held posts in major urban churches, in Washington DC for example but also served as interim minister for the French speaking Congregation in New York City.  He moves easily between different parts of the church because he cares equally about all, as well as each and every member.

Under his guidance the Welsh Congregation enjoys unique and insightful sermons - he preaches not from the height of the pulpit but rather form the Lectern and the open bible. His approach is to explain the text in terms of contemporary conditions and to prompt decisions and actions which address contemporary realities. He is as much a Teacher as a Preacher. After Harvard, Dr Newell also pursued post graduate studies in Scotland for two years at the Iona Community under its founder George MacLeod, a formative experience in his path to a remarkable life of pastoral service.

One interesting fact is that he served as a graduate teaching assistant at Boston University when Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was a doctoral student there.  He has not only taught and preached the message of the Gospel but has also lived it: he worked on providing logistical support for the March on Washington in 1963 and was jailed during voter registration efforts in Mississippi in 1964.

What is Dr Newell's perspective on the life of the Welsh Church? "...There is a kernel of faithfulness and a historic life in the current Welsh congregation. My regret is that it isn't shared by more people; … a lot more people would enjoy the friendliness and the spirit of humanity that is present..."

Listen to Dr. Newell's sermon of 11 September 2011: