The Rev. Theorphlis M. Borden (known affectionately as "Top") is a Deacon in the Episcopal Church. As a Deacon, she takes seriously her promise to study the Holy Scriptures, seek nourishment from them, and to model her life upon them. It is her prayer that her life and teaching will show Christ's people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself.

Top is a native of Bessemer, Alabama. She was confirmed along with her parents on the Day of Pentecost in 1946. After graduating from Wyoming (Ohio) High School, she studied at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana). In the church, she was active in Young Churchmen and participated in activities at the Old Barn Conference Center in Germantown, Ohio. Later, she shared her gifts with her home parish ~ St. Simon of Cyrene in Lincoln Heights ~ as Organist, Lay Reader, and Eucharistic Minister.

Top is the proud mother of three children: Stephen, Cheryl, and Robert; and grandmother of four: Jonathan, Dawn, Martina, and Dana. And during the early 1960s she was a "Packer Wife" -- when her husband Nate played for Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers (and later for the Dallas Cowboys).

Top's professional career has been richly diverse. She has served as a Teacher/Tutor (Princeton City School District), Clinic Coordinator (West End Health Center), Systems Analyst (Xerox Corporation), and Assistant to the Publisher (Applause! magazine). She is currently employed at the Lincoln Heights Health Center where she serves as Special Assistant to the Executive Director.

Top completed her seminary studies at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of Kentucky in Lexington in June, 1990, and was ordained to the diaconate in the Diocese of Southern Ohio on May 4, 1991. After ordination, the bishop assigned her to Trinity Church in Hamilton, Ohio where she served three years. Top has served on many committees of the Diocese of Southern Ohio. In 1989 she journeyed with Bishop Thompson to Nigeria in support of the diocese's companion relationship with the dioceses there; in the summer of 1997 she served an Episcopal mission in Anvik, Alaska.

The bishop assigned Top to The Church of Ascension & Holy Trinity, where she has served faithfully and well since Palm Sunday, April 9, 1995.

Topborden@aol.com