Staff + Leadership

The Rev. Dr. Gregory Knox Jones became Head of Staff for Westminster Presbyterian Church in March 2004. Previously, he served two other congregations – in Chester, Virginia and Lexington, Kentucky – during his 40+ years in parish ministry.

Dr. Jones believes this is an exciting time in the life of the church because “God’s Spirit is encouraging us to embark on a spiritual quest that will reshape and renew the Christian Church. Many have drifted away from the Church because their religious faith is at odds with a 21st Century understanding of the world. What they were taught to believe about God, Jesus, the Bible and various doctrines of the church no longer make sense to them. Some traditional beliefs that have become problematic are giving way to an emerging vision of the Christian faith. This new, dynamic faith is transforming people’s lives and energizing the church.”

Committed to mission, he encourages members to give their energy and resources to sharing God’s love with others and becoming aware of the world outside of their personal orbits. Westminster supports more than 20 local ministries and six global ministries. Dr. Jones and his wife, Camilla, led Westminster’s first mission trip to New Orleans in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. Subsequently, our congregation sent 14 mission teams to help restore New Orleans. Dr. Jones and Camilla accompanied a mission trip to Guatemala in support of Westminster’s ministry in this country; and in 2009, 2014, and 2018 Dr. Jones led members of Westminster on spiritual pilgrimage/study trips through Israel and Palestine.

Committed to ministries of peace and justice, he is the Moderator of Delaware Churches for Middle East Peace. Dr. Jones and a local rabbi were the founding Co-Chairs of Peace Drums, a music program that brings together Jewish, Christian and Muslim children in Israel and Palestine. He has developed events that have promoted friendships between Westminster members and the local Jewish and Muslim communities. Pacem in Terris presented him with a “Peacemaker of the Year” award. He was honored to offer the opening prayer of the United States Senate.

Dr. Jones was invited by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to be one of the worship leaders for the National Prayer Service for the Presidential Inaugural. He currently serves on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

He successfully guided the congregation through the COVID pandemic by holding outdoor worship services and upgrading the air filtration system so that members could safely return to in-person worship. In addition, he helped the church move to livestreaming worship which is now a permanent fixture.

Dr. Jones spent his youth consumed by academics and varsity sports. During his undergraduate study in history, he was the defensive team captain for the Kansas State University football team. These days, he tries to stave off the aging process by running. He has run 11 marathons.

Greg and his wife, Camilla, are blessed with three wonderful children – son Les, his wife Kristin, and grandchildren, Maddy and Teddy; daughter Grandison, her husband Spencer, and grandchildren, Matthew, Camilla, and Hayes; and daughter Alex, her husband Dan, and grandchildren Lucus and Maggie.

Formal Education:

Doctor of Ministry, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY 1993
Master of Divinity, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY 1977
Bachelor of Arts in History, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 1974

An ordained minister, Jill has stepped in to meet pastoral needs during several times of staff transition at Westminster. She has served as Pastoral Care Assistant since 2009, accepting more hours and responsibilities over time. Jill’s favorite part of working at Westminster is “all the people.” She elaborates, “The members of the church are absolutely wonderful people, and being able to visit with some of them is so wonderful – getting to know them is a blessing. I can see the light of God in our members.”

Did you know?

• Jill brings God’s healing presence with her when she visits members who are in the hospital, senior living facilities, and their homes.
• She organizes home communion with meticulous attention to detail.
• Jill shepherds the prayer list with sensitivity and caring.
• She conducts memorial services with loving empathy, sharing this compassionate ministry with the installed pastors.
• Jill organizes, directs, and teaches our Stephen Ministry program.
• She lovingly guides and counsels our deacons.
• Jill also volunteers her time at church, facilitating adult education classes, singing in the Westminster Choir, and participating in Westminster-by-Heart storytellers.

Jill earned her bachelor’s degree from Campbell University, near Raleigh, North Carolina, and a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. She completed two years of full-time Clinical Pastoral Education, a chaplaincy training program, at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Texas, and served as the chaplain in a children’s home for behaviorally at-risk youth in McCormick, South Carolina, for almost seven years.

Internationally recognized organist F. Anthony Thurman joined the Westminster church family in 2020. Along with his husband Ted W. Barr, a professional pianist and vocal coach, and their cocker spaniel Danny Boy, the trio moved from New Jersey to Delaware during the pandemic. Tony began his music ministry at Westminster through pre-recorded services, followed by worship on the front lawn before our church finally returned to indoor, in-person programming.

The award-winning organist has performed on some of the world’s largest instruments throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the St. Bartholomew’s, St. John the Divine, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and The Riverside Church in New York City; the U.S. Military Academy Cadet Chapel at West Point; and in Germany at Cologne Cathedral, Mainz Cathedral, and the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin. He has been heard at the conventions of the American Guild of Organists, Organ Historical Society, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, at Longwood Gardens, and with the Opera Philadelphia Chorus at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

As a conductor, he enjoys more than three decades of experience leading and inspiring church choirs and choral societies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Kentucky. He is highly regarded for his interpretation of Handel’s Messiah through two decades of annual concerts he has conducted with orchestra.

Dr. Thurman came to us from The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown (Northwest Philadelphia), where he served as music director and organist, conductor of the Germantown Oratorio Choir, and managed repairs and restoration of the McLean Memorial Organ, “Germantown’s Giant,” the largest church organ in Philadelphia. For 22 years, he was music director at the Irvington Presbyterian Church (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.) where he oversaw the selection, design, and installation of a 3-manual, 29-stop organ by Orgelbau Klais (Bonn, Germany) in 2001, and tower bells by Whitechapel Bell Foundry (London, England) in 2007.

The Kentucky native is recorded on Historic Organs of Louisville (Raven, 1996) and has been featured on American Public Media’s Pipedreams radio and Internet broadcasts. Many of his performances are available on YouTube. His original hymn tunes are published in the Empire State Hymnbook (Organ Historical Society, 2018) and Soli Deo Gloria (Douglass Blvd. Christian Church, Louisville, Ky., 1992).

A self-proclaimed “organ geek,” his interest in the organ grew out of his love of sacred music, which was inspired by his grandmother, an amateur pianist who played in their family home and at church. As a youth, he would seek out the largest organ in town on every high school band tour or Boy Scout camping trip, which took him from the organ benches of Radio City Music Hall in New York to the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

Dr. Thurman’s earliest organ studies were with Ted W. Barr at Western Kentucky University. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in organ performance and church music from the University of Louisville, where he was a student of Melvin Dickinson. He earned a doctor of musical arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music as a student of McNeil Robinson.

In addition to his work at Westminster, Tony is chief development officer for the American Guild of Organists and a regular contributor to The American Organist Magazine. He has enjoyed serving as consultant on new organs and restorations in five states.