Hal Chorpenning

currently serves as Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational UCC in Fort Collins, Colorado. Since he began in 2002, Plymouth has added more than 400 members and its budget has more than tripled. Hal also has led Plymouth through three capital campaigns and two strategic planning processes. Plymouth has grown from a solo-pastor church into a congregation with six ordained clergy on staff and is known nationally for its vitality. 

     Hal's clergy renewal grant from the Lilly Endowment helped start Plymouth's Visiting Scholars program and enabled him to study worship, music, and community in the context of Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Celtic Christianity has taken hold at Plymouth, and two small groups meet to explore the contemporary dimensions of this rich tradition. Along with his wife, Jane Anne Ferguson, Hal has led pilgrimages in Ireland with renowned New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan and most recently in Scotland. His 2017 sabbatical included exploring the reintroduction of Christianity into early medieval Europe by Columbanus, an Irish monk who founded monasteries in what is now France, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.

     Hal is on the Board of Directors of the La Foret Conference and Retreat Center, served as a delegate to the General Synod of the UCC, is on a team designing leadership development for the Rocky Mountain Conference, UCC, and is part of Clergy for Safe & Just Communities. Hal is an associate of the Iona Community in Scotland and is listed in Who's Who in America. 

     Prior to his ministry at Plymouth, Hal served as Associate Conference Minister in the Connecticut Conference of the UCC, where he was responsible for Wider Church Ministries and Media Relations. His first career was in writing and marketing communications, which brought him from Director of Development Communications at UC Santa Barbara to a similar position at Stanford University. After that experience, Hal founded his own firm in the Silicon Valley and then Boulder, Colorado, and his primary clients included Apple, Sun Microsystems, and UC Berkeley. 

     Hal was a Presidential Scholar at the Iiiff School of Theology, where he received his M.Div. with distinction in 1999, and was named Alumnus of the Year in 2004. His undergraduate degree in history is from UC Santa Barbara, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude. He spent one of his undergraduate years studying Modern History at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and also did a one-year postgraduate program in International History at the London School of Economics.

     Hal has two sons, Cameron and Chris, and is married to Jane Anne Ferguson, and they adore their golden retriever, Bhride (Bridey).