Rev. Deborah Haffner Hubbard
Pastor of the House of Prayer
Ordained by the Presbyterian Church, USA in 1985 as chaplain to the Elizabeth Fry Center in San Francisco, CA, an alternative to incarceration for women prisoners with young children—a program which I founded and directed from 1985-1993. After expanding these alternative programs to both Oakland and Sacramento, I was given the Restorative Justice Award by the National Ministries Division of the General Assembly of the PCUSA in 1994. I then became an advocate in Sacramento for legislative alternatives to incarceration, working with churches throughout northern California in the area of substance abuse treatment.
From 2000-2004, I was the Director of the Center for Community Transformation at Chicago Theological Seminary (UCC). This Lilly Endowment, Inc. funded position, was a project in theological education that sought to bridge the gap between the church and the academy. Teams of students and faculty engaged community leaders in diverse neighborhoods throughout Chicago to learn about vital congregations and transformative leadership.
From 2005-2009, I served the First Presbyterian Church in Munising, MI, where my husband was pastor of the ELCA church in the same small town! In the over four years that I was the minister of this congregation, we increased membership by 25% and nearly doubled the average worship attendance!
Currently, I am the pastor of the House of Prayer (ELCA) church at the Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Rock Point, Arizona. My husband is the Executive Director and we operate a Lutheran school (K-6th grades), a health clinic, and the Hozho Café, where we serve daily breakfast for the community. While I am still active as a member of the Grand Canyon Presbytery, we are a sponsored “clergy couple” on the ELCA roster.