Program Inspiring Real Education) – a home-schooling program organized
by some Kempton parents and teachers – and received his Pennsylvania High
School Homeschooling Diploma through the ASPIRE program in 1995.
Then he came to Bryn Athyn for college, receiving his AA degree in math/
science and a BA degree in history/religion (cum laude) in 1999. During his
college years Solomon began to record and release albums of his own peaceful
solo piano compositions, which have since become well known, and not just
within the Church.
He met Tirah Echols in his junior year of college – her freshman year –
and they started dating the next year. They got engaged in 2000 and married in
2001, living in Kempton for most of the first decade of their marriage. During
this time they became interested in leading marriage support groups.
Solomon worked in carpentry and construction for about five years before
being laid off due to the downturn in the economy. He also taught seventhgrade math part time in the Kempton New Church School for about a year.
Solomon and Tirah had two children when he lost his job, and he started
his own music business – Peace of Heaven Music. Tirah worked at Hawk
Mountain Sanctuary as the bookstore manager, and Solomon became a stayat-home dad. In this time he produced and released albums of music – six to
date. In 2009 he applied to the Theological School and was accepted. They
moved to Bryn Athyn, now with four children.
Solomon credits his good friend Calvin Odhner as a big influence in
choosing to become a minister. Calvin was in Theological School “when he
put the ‘bug in my ear,’ and I realized that I needed to re-evaluate my 10-yearold decision not to become a minister. In re-evaluating, I realized that ministry
was a job I still felt a certain calling to.”
He also realized that some of the people he looked up to the most in his life
were ministers and that much of his desire for creativity could find an outlet
in the work of ministry. “I felt there was a continuing need to convey to people
the connection between our modern lives and these teachings from hundreds
of years ago. There’s a kind of ‘translation’ work involved in the ministry, in
terms of conveying spiritual ideas in a way that can be heard by a variety of
listeners. I felt called to that work of application and accommodation. I love
sharing spiritual insights with people, and seeing the positive benefits that true
ideas can have in their lives.”
It was then – “after a lot of prayer and serious conversation with my
wife” – that he made the decision and applied to Theological School. That
experience “helped me learn some of the people skills that I knew I needed
to improve on in order to be an effective minister. Mary Heinrichs Williams’
speech classes were extremely useful, and taught me the importance of ‘talking
out’ my sermons, and not just writing them out.”
After he was ordained in 2012, Solomon was posted in the Bryn Athyn
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