December 20 Today in OPC History

On December 20, 1957, the Presbytery of New Jersey ordained Leonard F. Chanoux to the ministry and installed him as pastor of Faith OPC in Pittsgrove, New Jersey.

Born in Philadelphia, educated at Gordon College and Westminster Seminary (BD, 1957), Chanoux served the presbytery for nearly fifty-three years. He pastored the Pittsgrove church until 1963, when he began a career in education, serving in New Jersey public schools until his retirement in 1992. While teaching he kept active in ministry. He directed the Boardwalk Chapel in Wildwood from 1963 to 1977, where he mentored many future ministers of the OPC in personal evangelism. Throughout the presbytery he filled pulpits and served on various committees, and he helped to augment several sessions. For decades he was also a regular fixture at the OPC General Assembly.

Chanoux passed into glory on November 21, 2010, at the age of eighty. His colleague, the Rev. Thomas D. Church, observed in New Horizons: “Wherever he worked, Len Chanoux set a warm, caring, and evangelistic tone that God was pleased to bless.”