About Pastor Welch
Rev. Dr. B. De Neice Welch was born in West Virginia and grew up in New Jersey. She received a BA in business administration from Robert Morris College and a BS in Community Ministry from Geneva College. She earned her Masters of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2004. She was first ordained as a Presbyterian minister and installed as an Associate Pastor for Outreach for the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in 2005. She accepted a call and was installed as Pastor of Bidwell Presbyterian Church in May, 2007. Rev. Welch has four children, Aja, Jordan, Christopher, and Ian and one grandchild, Ayanna who are the joys in her life. She is married to the Rev. John C. Welch, Vice President & Dean of Students at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Pastor Welch brings a number of gifts to Bidwell Church included a passion for prayer, praise, mission and evangelism. During her time at Shadyside Church, she coordinated a number of mission trips including outreach to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrinia and to the Presbyterian mission partners in Malawi, Africa. During her time as the Evangelism Ministry Chair of Bidwell Church, she launched a summer lunch and camp program for children in the Manchester neighborhood which is now in its 6th year. Her passions for teaching and studying God’s word led her to create a women's Bible study group as a partnership between Bidwell and Shadyside churches that focused on the “Women at the Cross”.
As a seminary student, De Neice served a yearlong internship at Valley View Presbyterian Church in Stanton Heights, where she was student pastor, led worship, organized a weekly Bible study, communicants and discipleship groups, and partnered with community development groups in Garfield. As a Resources Associate at Shady Lane School, De Neice worked with women participating in a welfare-to-work program to train high-quality child care workers. Making disciples has always been De Neice's passion. She notes: "Mission is an area where we, as servants of God, are afforded the opportunity to demonstrate God's love for people who have difficulty seeing that love in their lives. In God's economy, those who give of themselves receive much more than they can imagine. We always give from a position of gratitude for the grace that God has demonstrated in our lives and seek only to pass along the joy of knowing that God is indeed active in the world today."
She enjoys gardening, singing, and reading, especially the novels of J. California Cooper and the local writer Sharon Flake.
