Meet Our Staff
Pastor Beth Rambikur
Pastor
Please call me Pastor Beth {if you are wondering about the last name it is pronounced ram (like the animal) bic (like the pencil/pen) cure (like the remedy for an illness)}. I was born and raised in Prescott, Arizona, where the landscapes of deserts and mountains shaped my imagination and sculpted a deep wonder and love of God’s world. I love being outside every chance I get and am most at home hiking and backpacking in the wilderness. I graduated with degrees in Psychology and International Affairs from Northern Arizona University, earned my Master of Divinity at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Georgia, and currently teach and serve as the Dean of Local Pastor Licensing School at Claremont School of Theology. I have served in pastoral ministry since 2006 when I started as a student intern chaplain at a homeless shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. My ministry experience includes serving as a chaplain at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, as a student pastor at Trinity UMC Atlanta, and I have served as a pastor at three previous churches in the Desert Southwest Conference. Since 2017 I have served all 130 churches and 28,000 members of our conference as the Director of Connectional Ministry (more about that at another time). My passion for ministry is bringing all people to God’s table to learn, listen, and participate in God’s transforming love by meeting Christ in one another. I am thrilled to be at Christ Church and cannot wait to see what God will do with us all.
Janet Tolman
Janet Tolman has served as organist/accompanist at Christ Church United Methodist since March 2009. She founded and directs the Christ Church Concert series, typically thirty-minute concerts that follow church services each month and present various soloists and ensembles from within the church and from the Tucson musical community. She also participates with the Christ Church Ringers, the church handbell ensemble.
Janet’s previous churches in Tucson include First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), St. Philip’s In the Hills Episcopal Church, and Catalina United Methodist Church. A native of Hiawatha, Kansas, Janet graduated magna cum laude from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas, with a bachelor of music degree in organ performance and a minor in piano performance. She grew up in the First United Methodist Church of Hiawatha, Kansas, where her organ studies began. She is well known throughout the musical community in Tucson, having appeared as both organ soloist and as an accompanist on many concert venues. She plays each year at San Xavier Mission, accompanying the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus and the Sons of Orpheus men’s choir in the annual Mission benefit concerts. She is also organist for the annual Tucson Messiah Sing-In.
She was married for over twenty years to the late Rev. Dr. George L. Tolman, who pastored First Christian Church for more than twenty years, and was co-founder of the Tucson affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. Janet has one daughter and three grandsons, who live in the NYC area. She provides private instruction in piano and organ, and has composed for organ, piano and voice.
John Neve
Director of Handbell Ministries
John Neve comes from Vinton, Iowa, where he was raised and educated. He received his degrees from the University of Dubuque (Iowa), and it was there that he began his musical conducting experience by directing church choirs and the University’s Male Glee Club. He began his full-time Ministry of Music at a Presbyterian church in Chicago, and then moved to the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, where he served First United Methodist Church for 15 years. While living in the Chicago area he was a professional member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. In 1984 he moved to Tucson with his wife, Jane, and two teenagers, David and Beth, where he accepted the position of Minister of Music at Catalina United Methodist Church, serving there for 19 years, and retiring from there in 2003.
John was consecrated as a Diaconal Minister of Music by the United Methodist Church in 1978, and has served on several national boards of the Church. He helped put together the United Methodist Hymnal (1989), and also the supplement, The Faith We Sing (2000). He has conducted handbell choirs in each of the three churches he served during the 40+ years of his career. In his “retirement” he became the Director of Handbell Ministries at Christ Church UM in 2008 after playing in the handbell choir for 3 years. Handbells and handchimes are a passion of his, along with singing in the Chancel Choir. He directs The Christ Church Ringers Handbell Choir.
John and Jane joined Christ Church UM in 2009. They have 3 grandchildren, Kemper and Kelton Neve, and Levi Stahl.
