Jonathan B. Lee was born in New Haven and grew up in Stratford, Connecticut. He was baptized, confirmed and ordained in the First Congregational UCC of Stratford and attended Stratford public schools. In 1982 he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Upon graduation, he worked in the Department of Cancer Pharmacology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Center, Massachusetts, and received a Master of Divinity degree cum laude in 1987. While training for the ministry, Jonathan served as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital and as an assistant minister at the Needham Congregational Church. He was a teaching assistant in the Old Testament department at Andover Newton and was elected by the faculty to the Jonathan Edwards Society, the school's honor organization. In 1987, Jonathan was called to the South Congregational Church in Middletown, Connecticut as Associate Minister. In addition to preaching, teaching, administration, visitation and pastoral care, he developed a curriculum on basic Christian doctrine for adults, organized educational programming for all ages, traveled with youth and adults to Baltimore, West Virginia and Vermont on mission trips, and has co-led an annual series of community-wide Jewish-Christian dialogues. In 1997, Jonathan led both the year-long celebration and capital campaign to mark South Church's 250th anniversary. That year he also completed "Separate Stories: A History of South Congregational Church," which won the Congregational Christian Historical Society's Frederick Fagley Award for 1997 as the best local church history nationwide.
Jonathan was called to be Senior Minister of RHCC in 2001. In addition to preaching, pastoral, administrative and leadership responsibilities here, he is active in the Rocky Hill Clergy Association, is Chairperson of the Hartford Association Committee on Church and Ministry, and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in congregational studies at Hartford Seminary. When timing allows, he sings in the church choir and plays trumpet in the RHCC orchestra.
In his spare time, Jonathan plays ice hockey in an adult league in Cromwell, bird-watches, and searches Connecticut for antique brass, postcards and ephemera.
updated Jan. 2006