Our Staff
The Rev. Lindsay Popperson, Senior Minister

It was a full and joyful congregation that gathered after worship June 2nd to act on the recommendation to Call Rev Lindsay Popperson as the first female and first openly gay Senior Minister of Old North Church. Lindsay joined our staff in the summer of 2019 and has begun her new role as Senior minster here on July 22, 2024. Her focus is on preaching and worship leadership, in addition to supporting the people of this church in using their gifts in ways that bring joy.
​She earned her Master of Divinity from the Boston University School of Theology and her Bachelor’s degree from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. Her prior ministry experience includes work in churches in Tallahassee, Florida, Jamaica Plain, MA, and Dedham, MA. In 2015, she was awarded the David H C Read Preacher-Scholar Prize, a national award for a graduating seminarian who shows excellence in preaching.
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Her wife, Ashley, is also a pastor in the UCC, serving as Associate Pastor at the Old South Church in Boston. They live in Jamaica Plain (a neighborhood of Boston) with their dog, Pope Joan, who is certified to provide pet therapy to people of all ages. They are foster parents who are currently caring for a toddler. Their family enjoys growing vegetables in their community garden and making frequent use of public libraries.
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Lindsay's favorite part of ministry is connecting with you, whether you are a long-time church member or a curious newcomer. You can reach her at either Lindsay@onchurch.org or Lindsaypopper@gmail.com.
Rev. Christine Hribar

Rev. Christine Hribar joined Old North as Associate Pastor in September 2024. She has a passion for creative worship, community-building, and intergenerational gatherings. She grew up in New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia and studied at Rutgers University before moving north to attend Harvard Divinity School. During graduate school, she was drawn to places where people encountered their bodies and the land, science and spirituality.
She spent time at The Food Project, a non-profit designed to bring youth from diverse backgrounds together to work the land, at MIT’s Lutheran and Episcopal Chaplaincy, and working in Baxter State Park in northern Maine.
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After graduating with a MDiv, she worked at Haley House, a catholic-worker inspired community in Boston’s South End. She helped to run the soup kitchen, mentoring and providing spiritual support for high school and college volunteers as they encountered issues of poverty, racism, and homelessness. She spent a year as a chaplain-resident at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Christine is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a sister denomination to the UCC. She has served at First Church in Wenham, UCC and First Church Ipswich UCC as well as St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms.
Christine lives in Hamilton with her family where they tend gardens and chickens. She is a trained Waldorf handwork teacher and has taught knitting, crochet, sewing, and woodworking throughout Boston’s north shore since 2021.
Feel free to be in touch! You can reach her at revchristinehribar@gmail.com or by phone at 781-631-1244 x105
Maria van Kalken, Minister of Music

Maria joined the staff at Old North Church in the fall of 1989. To this day, she continues to enjoy a thrilling and thriving musical environment – embraced by the ministry, her colleagues on the staff, members of the congregation, and friends from surrounding communities – whereby she contributes to the preservation of a long-standing tradition of sacred music and its place in worship, and directs the overall Music Ministry program as an essential community outreach.
Maria earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio) and Master of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston, MA). Her studies abroad have included pipe organ performance at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, under the patronage of the Rotary International Scholarship Fund, and the completion of an historical organ performance program in Pistoia, Italy. In addition to her work as Minister of Music—playing organ and directing the Senior Choir—Maria is Artistic Director of Concerts at Old North, presenting between two and six chamber music concerts annually, in the acoustically-glorious sanctuary of Old North Church.
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Maria is a senior staff member of the Boston Early Music Festival (www.bemf.org); as Assistant to the Executive Director, Maria is liaison to musicians from all over the world for the biennial Baroque opera, annual Chamber Opera Series, and opera touring and recording projects.
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Please click here to read about Maria’s Music Ministry and her 31 years with the Old North Church Festival Chorus in the Marblehead Reporter.
You can reach Maria at vankalken@gmail.com
Liz Smith, Bell Choir Director

Liz has been joyfully ringing handbells since 2008, when she joined her church’s bell choir. She soon began ringing with New England Ringers, one of New England’s finest audition handbell choirs. Liz has loved making music since childhood, when she studied piano and played clarinet, saxophone and oboe in many school and community music ensembles. She is thrilled to be with the Old North Church Hand Bell Choir. Liz is also a math tutor at Hadley Elementary School in Swampscott. When she is not taking pictures of the sunset or collecting sea glass, Liz spends her free time with her husband, their daughter, and their three grown sons.
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You can reach Liz at smith.liz@gmail.com
Lisa Nahatis, Office Manager

Lisa has been our Office Manager since 2002 .She is a resident of Middleton and is a graduate of Boston University School of Management. Prior to working at Old North Church, she worked at the former Bank of Boston as an Accounting/Finance Manager and Systems Consultant. If you need to schedule a wedding or baptism, or have questions about just about anything Old North related, she will either help you out herself, or find someone who will!
You can reach Lisa at office@onchurch.org or by calling 781-631-1244