THOMAS E TYSON was born in Philadelphia in 1935 to Earl and Thelma Tyson. When he was five, they became members of Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

He attended a Christian school for most of his elementary grades. Then, upon graduation from Wheaton College in 1956 and Westminster Seminary in 1960, he began immediately his service as a minister of the Gospel as the pastor of Wayside OPC in Grove City, Pennsylvania (now Covenant OPC). After serving two successive congregations of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand for a total of 7 years, he and his family returned to the USA and he became pastor first of Trinity OPC, Hatboro, Pennsylvania and then Knox OPC in Silver Spring, Maryland, each for nine years. From 1989 to 2000 he served as General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC and editor of the denominational magazine, New Horizons in the OPC.

On Sept. 1, 2000 Tom was installed as Regional Home Missionary of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, with responsibility to aid in the establishment of new churches in Eastern Pennsylvania and in the state of Delaware. He currently resides, together with his wife Jean, in Shermans Dale, Pennsylvania (240 Church Road, 17090; tel. 717-582-2398; e-mail to opmintet@aol.com). They have been blessed by God with six children and nineteen grandchildren.

Reflecting his wider interests, Tyson serves as a member of both the General Assembly's Committee on Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations and its Committee on Christian Education (specifically the sub-committee on Ministerial Training). He was a delegate to the Reformed Ecumenical Synod meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe in June 1988 (at which time the OPC withdrew from that organization). In 1995 he represented the OPC at the Synod of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand. Previously he had been a member of the denominational Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension for seventeen years. Reflecting his interest in ministerial training, he served as president of the board of the Center for Urban Theological Studies in Philadelphia for several years from its inception in 1977, and as a member for six years of the board of Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana. Recently he served a three-month stint filling in for the pastor (on long-service leave) of one of the Christchurch congregations of The Reformed Churches of New Zealand.

Tom also functions as an instructor of the Covenant Nurture course in the Ministerial Training Institute of the OPC, and serves as a theological editor for GCP’s Sunday school materials. As well, he participates in leadership conferences around the country and delivers seminars on such subjects as Catechetical Instruction, and Music and the Christian Life. Throughout, his first commitment remains the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even though he is now retired from the (installed) ministry