Rev. Janet Hellner-Burris is a wife, mother, pastor, retreat facilitator and community leader.  She is the wife of Steve Hellner-Burris who works just a block away from her at Hosanna House and the mother of Kaitlyn (17) who loves horses and will soon be in college in another year and Ben (11)who adores basketball and Digimon and is in the sixth grade.  Pastor Janet grew up in the Washington,  D. C. area in a large downtown church, The National City Christian Church, during the time when President Johnson and many Vietnam War protesters attended worship with her.  She grew up teaching in the church's summer program for disadvantaged children in the neighborhood of the church which gave her a great love for working with children and doing ministry in the city.  She was baptized the Sunday after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered when the neighborhood around her church was burning down.  The Lord used this profound experience to give her a passion for the ministry of racial reconciliation and urban mission work. 

Pastor Janet graduated from St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1977 and worked as a VISTA volunteer for one year in an alternative high school.   She graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary as a Rockefeller fellow in 1982.  Pastor Janet was ordained in 1982 at the National City Christian Church.  She served two congregations as an associate minister in South Bend, Indiana and in Minneapolis, MN for eight years before coming to Pennsylvania.  While serving the congregation in South Bend, she met her true soul mate, Steve Hellner-Burris and they were married in 1984.

Pastor Janet became the pastor of the Christian Church of Wilkinsburg in 1990.  She has served the Christian Church as a member of the General Board, the Administrative Committee and the General Nominating Committee.  Currently she serves our regional church of Pennsylvania as a member of the Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team and as a camp director and retreat leader.  Pastor Janet has been active in the community of Wilkinsburg and was honored as the Citizen of the Year in 2001 for our leadership in hosting prayer vigils after the fatal shootings in Wilkinsburg on March 1, 2000.  

Pastor Janet loves to write and take photographs.  She plays the flute and piano.  Her favorite scripture which has seen her through many difficult days is Romans 8. 28:  "For we know that in all things God works for good with those who love the Lord and who are called according to his purposes."  She tries to live up to Paul's advice in Ephesians:  "Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you."  She believes that the role of the church is to "do justice, love kindness and to walk humbely with our God."  Micah 6.8.