OUR PASTOR
Rev. Dana Porter Ashton - MACC, M.Div.
Rev. Dana Porter Ashton is the youngest of 4 daughters of the late Rev. William Robert and Doris Ann Porter. She attended public schools in Washington, D.C., then continued her education at Howard University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in human development. Ashton completed her master’s degree in Christian counseling from Maple Springs Baptist Bible College and Seminary. She earned her Master of Divinity degree from Howard University.
Ashton is an ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and serves as an instructor for the Baltimore Annual Conference Board of Examiners, the educational body that prepares ministers for Ordination in the AME Church, as the Worship Leader for the Second Episcopal District Women in Ministry and is an instructor at the Peace Multicultural Theological Seminary.
Ashton has traveled extensively throughout the country and abroad preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and directing and singing with many choirs. She has coordinated and spoken at various retreats, workshops, and programs. She served under her father for several years and has a powerfully uncanny love for those who have given up and have no hope.
Prior to her current pastoral appointment, Ashton served as pastor of Bethel AME Church in Chesapeake City, and as the assistant to Frank Madison Reid III at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore. She has set her compassionate heart towards her calling of helping others.
In December 2018, Ashton became a published author. Her book, “Yours, Mine, and Ours: A Mother’s Guide To Blending Families (but anybody can use it)” is a candid and practical approach to blending a family. In it, she shares her life as a mother who brought two families together, twice.
Ashton is the wife of Maurice Anthony Ashton, and a mother, godmother and grandmother.
Her favorite scripture is John 15:16, part of the Parable of the Vine and the Branches: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”
Rev. Dana Porter Ashton
OUR MINISTERIAL STAFF
Rev. Mayetta Ballard
Raised in Baltimore City and educated in the Baltmore City Public School System, graduated with high honors from Baltimore City Community College earning an Associate of Arts Degree in Early Childhood Education. Rev. Ballard is an educator in the Baltimore City Public School system and has been doing so for over forty years.
Rev. Willie Pack, Sr.
Father of two, a husband to One and confidant too many. A graduate of the Baltimore City Public School system, graduate of Mergenthaler Vocational Technical HS., earned his undergraduate degree in Human Growth and Development and is employed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Rev. Lydia Abel
