Temjennaro (Naro) Pongen is from Nagaland, India. She came to the United States in the fall of 2015 to pursue a master’s in Feminist Liberation Theologies at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. During her time in seminary, she started worshipping with the community of Old Cambridge Baptist Church (OCBC) which eventually became her spiritual home. After she completed her two year program at the seminary, Naro was called into church ministry by OCBC where she currently serves as the Associate Minister. On the 17th of December, 2023, she was ordained by OCBC upon the recommendation of the Samuel Stillman Association under the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, in recognition and affirmation of her ministry at OCBC.

Naro is part of the second year NE/SE cohort of ISAAC. She feels deeply nourished by the sisterhood she has experienced through the program and hopes her engagements in the life of the program will foster the much needed mutuality and solidarity of women in ministry.