Rev. Dr. Eric C. Jackson

The Rev. Dr. Eric C. Jackson serves as the Sixteenth Senior Minister of the Eliot Church of Newton, UCC, in Newton, Massachusetts. He has served in pastoral ministry in New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire for nearly two decades and has been an ordained minister for nearly fifteen years. In August 2026, the Rev. Professor Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, appointed him Affiliated Minister at The Memorial Church of Harvard University.

Jackson holds a B.A. in Political Science from the City College of New York, a Master of Divinity from Drew University, and a Doctor of Ministry from Hartford Seminary. He was a Joe R. Engle Fellow in Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary and is an alumnus of the United Church of Christ’s Next Generation Leadership Initiative.

Eric has held significant denominational, nonprofit, and civic leadership roles. His denominational leadership has included service on the United Church of Christ Board of Directors and its Finance and Budget Committee, where he contributed to the stewardship and oversight of the denomination’s multimillion-dollar national budget. He previously served as Vice President of InterFaith Works of Central New York, where he chaired the Major Gifts Committee during a period of significant organizational growth. His civic leadership has included three terms as president across NAACP branches.

Eric’s scholarship, teaching, and formation work spans preaching, New Testament studies, and United Church of Christ history and polity. He has lectured or presented at Dartmouth College, Syracuse University, Hartford Seminary, and other academic institutions. His commitment to the formation of preachers has included work with Project Proclaim and the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ’s Preacher Camp, where he has facilitated workshops supporting the development of emerging and experienced preachers. His commitment to ministerial formation has also included supporting seven candidates toward ordination in the United Church of Christ through local church discernment committees, pastoral ministry, and service within local associations of the UCC.

Eric currently serves as religion columnist for the Newton Beacon. The Pilgrim Press and Homiletic, the journal of the Academy of Homiletics, have published his writing. He has appeared frequently on New Hampshire Public Radio and in other media as a commentator on religion, faith, and public life. Across his pastoral, scholarly, and civic work, Jackson’s vocation centers on the relationship between preaching, pastoral ministry, and public theology.