Parish Chaplain
India Jensen Kerr is native to the Pacific Northwest, having been born in Olympia, Washington, the first child in a family that would grow to include one younger sister and two younger brothers. When she was six, India’s family moved to Berkeley, California, where her father–now a retired Lutheran pastor–attended seminary. Although her family moved around the country during her growing up years, they settled in Junction City, Oregon, when she was a senior in high school.
India earned her degree in Comparative Religious Studies from the University of Oregon. Almost 20 years ago, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she fell in love with the area, its beautiful city providing access to many museums and theaters and its location among the mountains and trees providing so much natural beauty to explore.
She met her husband, Fred Kerr, when he was working at Intel. They were married at St. James Lutheran Church in downtown Portland in 2008 and have a smart, funny, and energetic seven-year-old son.
India went to seminary at Marylhurst University in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and she is currently working on her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology. A longtime member of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, India is excited to be working in service as a chaplain to the St. Andrew faith community.
To relax, India loves reading just about anything, watching TV and movies, listening to music, and playing board games with her son. She is interested in politics, religion, and feminism, and she loves cats and coffee. Cat memes are one of her favorite things!