READ: St-Onge CV 2011
Charles St-Onge was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on December 31, 1972. He grew up in several cities across eastern Canada, speaking English at home and predominantly French in school. In the winter of 1986 while in Grade 8 he served as a legislative page to the Ontario Parliament at Queen’s Park. He was active member of Lutheran congregations wherever his family lived, and of an Anglican parish in Riverview, New Brunswick.
In 1991 Charles graduated in the top 10% of his class at Gloucester High School and was accepted into the civil engineering program at the University of Waterloo. During his five years at Waterloo Charles was a resident of Conrad Grebel College, a Mennonite-affiliated community on the Waterloo campus. His five co-op workterms included positions with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the former City of Nepean (now part of the City of Ottawa), Consumers Gas (now Enbridge Consumers Gas), and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (now part of the City of Ottawa). He graduated with first class honours with a Bachelor of Applied Science in 1996.
During his college years Charles served as a member of the Eastern Synod (ELCIC) Youth Ministry Committee, and on the planning committee for the 1993 Eastern Canada youth event. Charles served with the Rev. Susan Johnson, who is now the president pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. He also served on the Conrad Grebel College chapel board and, in the summer of 1993, as its chair. In addition to his Lutheran involvement he was also involved with the local Mennonite and Roman Catholic communities.
At his graduation Charles received a National Science and Engineering Research Council scholarship to study for the Master of Science degree at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He resided in Kingston from 1996 to 1997, studying under Dr. Michael van Aerde. During that time he also worked part-time for the American Science Applications International Corporation as a transportation systems engineer. In 1997, when Dr. Van Aerde relocated to the Virginia Technical Institute, Charles moved to Falls Church, Virginia to work full-time for SAIC while completing his master’s thesis research into aggregating personal decisions into large scale simulation modeling. While in the Washington, DC area Charles served as a mentor for the Community Club of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, as facilities manager and council member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Fairfax, VA (ELCA), and on the singles ministry committee of the Metro DC Synod (ELCA).
It was as a member of the singles ministry committee that Charles met Deborah Follstaedt of Middletown, Ohio in the summer of 1998. They met at an International Lutheran Single Adults (ILSA) conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Deborah is a music educator by profession, holding a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in music education, and has taught from the preschool level through to introductory college courses. Her specialty is the Orff-Schulwerk approach.
In the summer of 1999 Charles left SAIC to pursue a Master of Divinity degree at Trinity Lutheran Seminary (ELCA) in Columbus, Ohio. After a few months of study Charles left the ELCA and became a member of the LCMS, transferring to Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana for the spring term of 2000. He and Deborah moved to Houston from 2001 to 2002 where Charles served as vicar at Memorial Lutheran Church and where Deborah taught fifth grade and preschool music. Charles graduated from Concordia with a 3.92 GPA, and a graduate award for one of his papers and one sermon series, which was subsequently published as part of an Advent series by Concordia Publishing House.
After graduation Charles received a call to serve as pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Ridley Park, PA. He set up their original website, worked hard to contact the close to a hundred members who had left the church in previous years, focused on children’s ministry and evangelism, and sought to reestablish a strong teaching ministry. While in Philadelphia he was also an active board member of Philadelphia Lutheran Ministries, serving in 2007-2008 as their executive director. He wrote and received a number of grants both for the congregation and for PLM. He also served on the board of Liberty Lutheran Services and as the LWML Zone Counselor for Philadelphia, for whom he was a frequent presenter and bible study leader.
During his time in Philadelphia, from 2003 to 2008, Deborah and Charles adopted two daughters. There first daughter, Olivia, was adopted from Russia in the summer of 2005. Their second daughter, Sophia, was a “Philadelphia girl” adopted at birth in January of 2007.
In the summer of 2008 Charles accepted the call to serve as associate pastor of Memorial Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas, where he has served his vicarage. His special responsibilities include serving as pastor to the school, working with children, developing the church’s youth and young adult ministries, and other preaching, teaching and pastoral duties as shared with the Rev. Dr. Scott Murray. He also serves as LWML Zone Counselor for the Bayou City Zone.
Charles has appeared on episodes of “Lutheran Time Out,” “Higher Things Radio,” and “Issues, Etc.” He has guest hosted several “Engaging Truth” programs, a Houston-based call-in show on KKHT FM. He has published a book through the Concordia Writers’ Cooperative entitled “Not As We Ought,” and has a CD of instrumental music available entitled “With Shouts of Thanksgiving.”
Charles has one sister, Lara Eager, who works as a teacher south of Ottawa. His parents, Denis and Betty, are retired and live in Orleans, a suburb to the east of Ottawa.