Evie Landrau named new Young Adult Volunteer coordinator

Pastor’s experience includes urban and rural ministry, education

by Kathy Melvin | Presbyterian News Service

Rev. Evie Landrau

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Everdith (“Evie”) Landrau has been named the new coordinator of the Young Adult Volunteer program.

“I am excited to have Evie join Presbyterian World Mission,” said World Mission’s associate director, Tamron Keith. “She has such a rich skill set and body of professional experience.  She is a pastor, loves people, is a strong networker, has experience working with youth and young adults in parish ministry and is a former school teacher. She has served in urban, rural, and international settings, is well connected ecumenically, and is extremely creative. “

Landrau has been manager of ecumenical relations in the Office of the General Assembly since June 2018.

She is a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is a member of the Presbytery of Charlotte. She earned her M.Div. from the Duke Divinity School and is a doctoral candidate at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Before joining OGA, Landrau served as a youth director at Paw Creek Presbyterian Church in Charlotte while also teaching dance and global students at a local middle school. She was an interim pastor at Robinson Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, accompanied a 1001 New Worshiping Community serving the Latino/a immigrant community in Charlotte, was an associate pastor at Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and an interim pastor at New Friendship Presbyterian Church in Huntersville, North Carolina.

Currently, Landrau is a central committee member of the World Council of Churches, where she serves in various capacities including reporter to the Reference Group on Human Sexuality as well as a member of the program and executive committees.

A bilingual pastor, she was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Harlem in New York City with her family when she was five.

“What drew me to accepting this call was the opportunity to strengthen the work of the Young Adult Volunteer program through ecumenical engagement and by creating more diversity,” she said.  “My goal is to build a collaborative model that will allow our team to recruit young adults to do the work of ministry and continue to develop their leadership skills in a changing world.”

The Young Adult Volunteer program is a one-year service opportunity through the PC(USA) for young adults ages 19–30. For the YAV, the benefits include a year of vocational discernment and the opportunity to live and work outside their comfort zone with the support of an intentional Christian community, explore their relationship with God and live more simply in response to an unsustainable human demand for natural resources.

For the church and the world, the YAV program is helping to form the next generation of globally aware, faithful and passionate leaders. About 92 percent of YAV alums say their YAV year directly influenced their current vocation. Seventy-nine percent of alums now regularly attend worship, 63 percent report additional participation in congregational life and 32 percent go on to ordination or pastoral leadership. To date, there are about 2,000 alums of the program.

“I am thrilled that Evie has said yes to this position,” said Sara Lisherness, interim director of World Mission. “I have known her mostly through her ecumenical work and have always been impressed with her deep commitments to justice and her faithful witness to Christ. She is the perfect person to step into the YAV program at this moment in time.”

“Evie has a strong gift of leadership and coordination, has a passion for women’s concerns, equity, and justice — socially, economically and environmentally,” Keith said. “She is well-suited to expand the reach and bounds of the YAV program so that all Presbyterians and existing and new partners know about this transformative leadership development program that is equipping young adults to serve in the church, their communities, government, and even corporate America as faithful representatives of Jesus Christ.”

Landrau begins her YAV duties on Dec. 16. She can be reached at Everdith.Landrau@pcusa.org.