Meet Pastor Caroline Berninger

On a bright Sunday morning, sunlight streams through the stained-glass windows of Pine Plains United Methodist Church, casting a kaleidoscope of colors onto rows of simple wooden pews. The soft hum of organ music fills the air as a small group of parishioners gathers, their voices blending in gentle conversation. At the front of the sanctuary stands Pastor Caroline Berninger, a woman whose journey to this small rural church has been as varied and vibrant as the light filtering through the glass.

With a warm smile, Berninger looks out at the dozen or so people who have come to hear her sermon — the faithful few who still seek solace within these walls. For them, she is here — quietly determined to breathe new life into a church that, like many, has seen dwindling numbers of weekly attendance. With each sermon, she reaches beyond the pews, speaking to a broader community she hopes to reach just beyond the church’s doors.

Berninger was appointed the new part-time pastor of the United Methodist Church in both Pine Plains and Elizaville in August. She brings with her not only a lifetime of faith but also a diverse career in ministry, grounded in a deep commitment to inclusivity and community. “I would love to have this church be seen as a place that enhances life on every level,” she says, her voice calm and resolute.

Her path to Pine Plains has been anything but straightforward. Born during a blizzard in New York City in 1961, Berninger’s early life was marked by frequent moves dictated by her father’s work with Standard Oil, now part of ExxonMobil. Her childhood spanned continents — from the snows of Sweden to the warmth of Florida and finally the suburbs of New Jersey — where she was raised in congregational Presbyterian churches. A graduate of Kent Place, an all-girls school in Summit, N.J., Berninger went on to study Greek and Latin at Amherst College. “I had a heart for snark, even then,” she chuckles, recalling her senior thesis on Roman satire.

Initially, Berninger imagined herself in academia. However, her time teaching Latin and English to middle school students in Virginia sparked a deeper reflection on her calling. The questions of faith and purpose that tugged at her led her to Harvard Divinity School, where she earned her Master of Divinity degree in 1987. It was there, amidst a swirl of denominational explorations, that she first found herself at Harvard United Methodist Church. “It felt spiritually like home,” she remembers.

A ministry defined by presence and compassion

One of the requirements of her Master of Divinity degree was field education, and Berninger chose to complete her Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J. There, she worked closely with fellow chaplains and a supervisor to not only attend to the needs of patients — from those dying to those receiving a devastating diagnosis — but also to reflect daily on their encounters to improve their approach. “You tried to bring the presence of Christ to them, where they were,” she says.

One particularly harrowing experience during her CPE has stayed with her. “There was one night when I was on call, and I went into the emergency room. A man who had just killed his mother was there, surrounded by police. His father and sisters were there, devastated and furious. All I could do was be with the widower and daughters, talk to them, pray with them, try to console them. What they were going through pretty much qualifies as hell on earth. I just tried to offer some sort of presence and hope.”

For Berninger, ministry is about showing people they are beloved children of God in tangible ways. “There’s a food pantry at the church. I think that’s a big way to make people know that they matter, they are beloved children of God, and that they deserve to be fed,” she explains. “There’s always the underlying understanding that whether someone knows it or not, they matter to God. I will try to make that known gently and genuinely.”

While at Harvard, Berninger also interned at the United Parish in Brookline, Mass., where she realized her path might not lie in academia. “Do I really want to be confined in an ivory tower with just me, other scholars and a lot of really old books?”, she remembers asking herself. “And I said no, I want to work with a variety of people of all ages.” Delivering her first sermon at 25, she describes the experience as “utterly terrifying.” Up on the pulpit, the self-described introverted bookworm found a new dimension of her desire to teach, in the preparation and sharing of weekly sermons.

Following her ordination in 1987, Berninger began her ministry as an associate pastor in Simsbury, Conn. In 1990, she married Vahe Keukjian, a family physician, and transitioned into a chaplaincy role at a Baptist hospital where he worked. After two years, she sought a new opportunity within the New York Conference — which oversees over 800 churches — and was appointed as the full-time pastor at Rondout Valley Methodist Church in Stone Ridge, N.Y. It was a role she embraced for 32 years — an unusually long tenure in the Methodist tradition, where pastoral appointments are typically much shorter. During this time, her husband established his career at a family medical practice in Hudson, N.Y.

At Rondout Valley, Berninger became the church’s first female pastor, a role that came with its own unique set of challenges. She approached them with a mix of humor and determination. Reflecting on her early days, she recalls, “As the new pastor, I had to be polite and have a bite of everything at a church supper. By my third helping of potato salad, I realized I was pregnant. I thought, ‘Lord, you are sending me to these people, as their first female pastor, to help them confront all of their fears of women in ministry at the same time.’” Throughout her years at Rondout Valley, she and her husband raised two children: Emanuel, now 31, and Elizabeth, 25.

Berninger’s appreciation for the Methodist Church was, in part, due to its relatively progressive stance on women in ministry. “One of the appealing things to me about Methodism is that they did include women in the ministry more fully than some of the other denominations,” she explains, recalling a history lesson from her time at Harvard. She points to Maggie Newton Van-Kocht, who, in 1869, became the first woman licensed to preach in the Methodist Church, as an example of this inclusion.

A vision for a welcoming church

Berninger’s assignment to Pine Plains coincides with a significant period of transition for the United Methodist Church. In May, the church’s general conference made a historic decision to remove restrictive language about LGBTQIA+ individuals from the Book of Discipline, signaling a shift towards greater inclusivity. Berninger, who has long advocated for a more open and accepting church, welcomes the change. “It’s been one of the long-term energy-sapping things in this church, the controversy between people who were traditionalists and people who wanted to be more open to the 21st century,” she says. The changes also mean that United Methodist clergy are now free to preside over same-sex marriage ceremonies — a policy that Berninger fully embraces.

“I get very uneasy with people making great to-dos with who is going to be saved and who is not. That’s up to God,” she says, expressing her disapproval of the more exclusionary aspects of some christian denominations. “Seeing some of the big-name evangelical people these days, with the Christian nationalism… don’t get me started. I think it’s very antithetical to the message of Christ.”

For Berninger, the church is a sanctuary that should reflect the love and acceptance of its teachings. “Maybe those children at the border, they matter to God the way immigrant children 2,000 years ago mattered to God,” she reflects thoughtfully. “Maybe the hungry people at our doorstep matter to God, too.” She believes that these principles of compassion and understanding should guide her ministry, and she aims to foster a community where all are welcomed.

The United Methodist Church itself is steeped in history, dating back to its founding in the mid 18th century. Over the decades, the church has weathered the storms of time — economic downturns, wars and cultural shifts — while remaining a spiritual home for generations of American, and later, international worshippers. In Pine Plains, the church has served as a venue for countless community events, from weddings and baptisms to potlucks and choir performances, all underscoring its role as a place of both faith and fellowship.

However, like many small-town churches, Pine Plains United Methodist faces the challenges of declining attendance and shifting societal priorities. The decline is not unique to Pine Plains; it mirrors a broader trend affecting congregations across the United States. Rural churches, in particular, have struggled to retain members as younger generations move to cities and fewer people maintain traditional churchgoing habits. The church, which once boasted a full congregation of more than 50 churchgoers on Sundays, now sees around a dozen attendees on a typical week. The aging membership and limited influx of new families have compounded these challenges. Berninger hopes to harness social media to reach a broader audience and to revive interfaith collaborations in the community.

Ruth Cohn, a longtime parishioner, feels that Berninger’s vision is exactly what the Pine Plains United Methodist Church needs. “The night that we met her, we had a feeling that she would be a really good fit for this church,” Cohn says.

As Berninger settles into her new role, she remains focused on community engagement and the health of the congregation, recognizing that being part of a community — whether through a church, a club, or another social group — contributes to well-being. 

Under her leadership, the Pine Plains United Methodist Church aims to be a place of genuine welcome and spiritual growth. “We love you because you are a child of God,” Berninger says. “Whoever you are.”