Clergy and Staff
Pastor Heather Ghormley, Founding Pastor/ Rector With the help of the Lord and a lot of other people, Heather founded Tree of Life in 2012. Heather is passionate about helping the church fulfill its mission to go to all the peoples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them all that Jesus commanded. She loves to watch the Holy Spirit form bonds of love within the church between people who would otherwise be unlikely to know one another and to help the church do mission and evangelism as the church. Heather also cares deeply about brining healing and reconciling power of Jesus into the wounds of abuse, abuse, trauma, rejection and division She counts it a great privilege to help others discover the healing love of Christ in those areas.
Heather is married to a Bible Professor named Justus Ghormley and is mom to three wonderful kids. Before moving to South Bend, Heather attended Wheaton College, IL and Yale Divinity School, CT and spent a lot of time in missions and urban ministry.
Email: heather.ghormley@gmail.com
Phone: (574) 217-3898
Heather is married to a Bible Professor named Justus Ghormley and is mom to three wonderful kids. Before moving to South Bend, Heather attended Wheaton College, IL and Yale Divinity School, CT and spent a lot of time in missions and urban ministry.
Email: heather.ghormley@gmail.com
Phone: (574) 217-3898
Pastor Leslie Fairfield, Assisting Priest "Les" was a founding professor at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania where he taught and raised up church leaders for many years. He and his wife Lynn now live in Goshen, Indiana where they are busy being grandparents and continuing to serve the Lord in many ways.
Deacon Brad Miller, Deacon, Brad serves both as a deacon and as one of our high school youth ministers. During the day Brad works as a financial planner. He often volunteers his financial planning services with many of our low-income members and immigration clinic clients.
Brad is married to Rima. He is a graduate of Bethel College, Mishawaka and originally from Fort Wayne, IN.
Brad is married to Rima. He is a graduate of Bethel College, Mishawaka and originally from Fort Wayne, IN.
Dr. Kathy Purnell, J.D., Ph.D, Director of Tree of Life Immigration Legal Aid Clinic. Kathy has a long and vibrant history of serving representing the most vulnerable immigrants her community. Before coming to Tree of Life, Kathy served for three years as the Staff Attorney in the Kalamazoo office of Justice For Our Neighbors-Michigan, a faith-based immigration legal service provider affiliated with the United Methodist Church and the National JFON network, which provides free immigration legal services to low-income clients in the areas of humanitarian and family-based immigration.
Kathy has been a member of the Michigan State bar since 2008. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has also worked as an attorney or advocate for many legal aid and human rights agencies including Legal Aid of Western Michigan, National Immigrant Justice Center, and the International Human Rights Law Institute (DePaul University).
In addition to her work in immigration law, Kathy has taught as a professor in the fields of administrative law, nonprofit governance and political theory, and has over a decade of experience working as an academic administrator at the university level. An avid advocate and seeker of new ways to strengthen democracy and build social inclusiveness and equity, she has led “Resilience Retreats” at the GilChrist Center of the Fetzer Institute in Three Rivers, Michigan, and is a practitioner of Racial Healing through Kalamazoo’s Truth Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Racial Healing Circle Practitioner Cohort. She is a graduate of Harvard University (A.B.), Cornell University (Ph.D.) and the DePaul University College of Law (J.D.).
Kathy has been a member of the Michigan State bar since 2008. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has also worked as an attorney or advocate for many legal aid and human rights agencies including Legal Aid of Western Michigan, National Immigrant Justice Center, and the International Human Rights Law Institute (DePaul University).
In addition to her work in immigration law, Kathy has taught as a professor in the fields of administrative law, nonprofit governance and political theory, and has over a decade of experience working as an academic administrator at the university level. An avid advocate and seeker of new ways to strengthen democracy and build social inclusiveness and equity, she has led “Resilience Retreats” at the GilChrist Center of the Fetzer Institute in Three Rivers, Michigan, and is a practitioner of Racial Healing through Kalamazoo’s Truth Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Racial Healing Circle Practitioner Cohort. She is a graduate of Harvard University (A.B.), Cornell University (Ph.D.) and the DePaul University College of Law (J.D.).
Lynn Wade, Immigration Clinic Volunteer DOJ Rep In 2017 Lynn earned partial certification from the Department of Justice to act as a representative for immigrants to USCIS. She has a passion for people from other cultures and does a fantastic job advocating for our clients.
In addtion to serving at Tree of Life, Lynn works for the adult education branch of the Niles Public School System and teaches English as second langauge. She is deeply engaged in all kinds of social issues, especially those that affect immigrants.
Lynn is mother to a wonderful daughter. She is a graduate of Western Michigan University and originally from Buchanan, MI.
Email: treeoflifelegalaid@gmail.com
Phone: (574) 307-0561
In addtion to serving at Tree of Life, Lynn works for the adult education branch of the Niles Public School System and teaches English as second langauge. She is deeply engaged in all kinds of social issues, especially those that affect immigrants.
Lynn is mother to a wonderful daughter. She is a graduate of Western Michigan University and originally from Buchanan, MI.
Email: treeoflifelegalaid@gmail.com
Phone: (574) 307-0561
Justus Ghormley, Worship Arts Coordinator Justus loves to get the whole congregation involved in the worship of God and to learn the musical gifts and styles among our congregants. When he's not leading worship, Justus works as the Assistant Director to the Moreau College at Westville Prison.
He is married to Pastor Heather and a dad to their kids.
He is married to Pastor Heather and a dad to their kids.
Kathryn Quirk Bobbs, Ministry Coordinator
Mission Team/ Vestry
Stephen Mndalila
Dale Ingles
Diocese and Affiliation
Tree of Life Anglican Church ministers as part of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes in the Anglican Church of North America.