Our Leadership

Rev. Orinda Hawkins-Brinkley

Interim Pastor since 2018

Pastor Orinda was born and raised in the Jim Crow South. She attended and graduated from North Warren HS and received her Registered Nursing training from Long Island College Hospital School of Nursing. The Reverend Orinda W. Hawkins-Brinkley became the first African American pastor, in the nearly 120-year history of Saint Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church, in the Linden area of Columbus. She became a community activist creating safe space for children and partnering with others to birth ROCK on the Block, 501c3 CDC. 

Pastor O, as the children called her, collaborated with Lutheran Outdoor Ministry, with support from other congregations, for St. Peter to be the first Inner City site for Amazing Grace Day Camp. She became an advocate with the Columbus Health Department to provide community-based health screenings to decrease racial disparities in healthcare. She led the Linden neighborhood churches to combat crime and neighborhood violence with the Linden Prayer Network and a community retreat called’ Healing the Enemy In Me”. She served on boards and community groups to improve health and safety in the Linden community and the city as a member of the Urban Crime Coalition. 

Prior to receiving her Master of Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Pastor Orinda earned her Bachelor's in Pastoral Ministry from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A native of Warrenton, North Carolina, Pastor Orinda Hawkins-Brinkley is the mother of two and grandmother of four. In her spare time, she loves to read, cook, write, sing, dance and interact with people.