Rev.  Manoel J. Oliveira was born in Januaria, Brazil, on January 25, 1970 to Jose Santana and Terezinha Oliveira. He was born home, 2 hours away from the nearest hospital and 4 hours away from the nearest paved road. He was premature (32 weeks) and was baptized on the spot by his grandmother, since everyone thought he was not going to survive. It was common to name the baby boys Manoel or Joseph if they were very ill and thought not to survive. When he was 6 months old the family moved to Brasilia, the new capital, which was 10 years-old only and with a lot of problems: violence, (prostitution). His parents had 8 more children, the last 2 being adopted.

He grew up in a very violent neighborhood and was surrounded by the Liberation Theology mentality. His goal in life was get a good career and a good job. He studied Mathematics at the University of Brasilia where he received his Bachelor and Masters degrees. He taught math at High School for 7 years and taught college for one semester at both the Catholic University of Brasilia and the University of Brasilia.

 Fr. Manoel started to take his faith seriously in 1991. Curiosity brought him to some meetings in his parish. He wanted to know why so many of his friends were missing the Saturday night parties. During the first two years he did not go to the meetings faithfully, but he finally fell in love with the Church once he went to his first all-night Easter Vigil.: “I could not believe how happy the brothers and sisters of my community were at the Easter Vigil and during the agape afterwards. That was heaven!”

 Two years later he got a scholarship to finish his doctorate in Manchester. England, and was also invited to teach at the University of Brasilia and two High Schools in Brasilia. During that time, he was also planning to get married. But the Lord had some other plans: a holy priest he knew in Brazil died in a car accident and Fr. Manoel attended the funeral: “That funeral mass was a celebration of the resurrection. I experienced there the same joy that I experienced on my first all night Easter Vigil. Few days later I met the rector of the seminary, who had preached in the funeral, and he invited me to join the seminary.”

 Fr. Manoel was at the seminary in Brasilia for 3 years before arriving to the seminary in the archdiocese of Newark on October 16, 1998.

He was ordained on May 29, 2004 and have been assigned to the churches of Holy Cross, Harrison, St. Benedict’s and St. Augustine’s in Newark before coming to St. Mary’s in Plainfield in 2014.

 “Today I am grateful to the Lord for giving me dignity as person, for saving me from my slavery to sin and money, for giving me my vocation and the possibility to be part of the evangelization. I thank God also for the gift of the Neocatechumenal Way, which has taught me thorough all these years about the faith and the essence of Christianity in the way it is presented in the Sermon of the Mountain.”

Reverend Shawn T. Wallace, Sr. is a man whose life has been fully committed to serving others. For the past 25 years, he has dedicated his time and energy to educating and empowering people both in church and in the community.

Reverend Wallace owns and operates, STW Consulting LLC., an educational consulting company that provides academic and professional development through innovative lectures, creative seminars and interactive workshop modules. He has over 20 years of professional training and development experience as an educator, lecturer and facilitator with MBS/BCT Partners and has worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies, Non-Profit organizations and academic institutions. He has developed, implemented and designed, a character-building, abstinence-based, mentoring program for young boys in Newark Public Schools entitled, Newark Best Men. He has also developed a life-skills curriculum currently being used with students working on their high school alternative education in the City of Newark, NJ.

 As a community leader, Rev. Wallace has worked alongside the American Civil Liberties Union to help fight for rights to equal treatment and fairness for the workers of the NY/NJ Port Authority at Newark Liberty International Airport. He has also worked along with and served as the keynote speaker for Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters (M.O.M.S.A.D.), a community-based organization geared towards helping Mothers and Families of murdered children cope with heartache, grief and loss.

 Reverend Wallace formerly held the position of Director of Operations for the largest Class 1 Homeless Shelter in the City of Newark, Urban Renewal Corporation. For nearly 13 years, Reverend Wallace served as the Pastor of the Peoples Missionary Baptist Church in Newark, NJ. While there, he partnered with the State of NJ Martin Luther King Jr. Commission to help develop a summer enrichment program at the church for young children in the community during the Summer. He led the church in a weekly feeding program that now services close to 150 individuals with hot meals every week. He served with the Newark Clergy Affairs and Interfaith Alliance as a faith-based leader, committed to working together to assist in improving the quality of life for the residents of Newark.

 Reverend Wallace currently serves as the Pastor of the Historic, St. John’s Baptist Church of Scotch Plains, NJ. In the nearly 2 years that he has served in that capacity, Rev. Wallace has led the church in several capital improvement projects and has committed himself to expanding the services of the church that extend to the surrounding Scotch Plains community. He serves as a member of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Ministerium and was recently appointed to the Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census by the Mayor of Scotch Plains.

 Rev. Wallace serves as the Congress of Christian Education President for the General Baptist Convention of New Jersey and is responsible for implementing all Christian Education programs, policies and activities for the constituent Baptist churches throughout the state. He also serves as the 1^st Vice Moderator of the Middlesex Central Baptist Association where he assists in providing leadership for local area Baptist churches.

 Reverend Wallace has been married to the lovely Carita N. Wallace for over 20 years and is the proud father of one son, Shawn T. Wallace Jr. and one daughter, Tamara Lee-Wallace. He is grateful for all that the Lord has allowed him to accomplish thus far in his life and is looking forward with great anticipation to what God will do next; to God be all of the glory for the great things that He has done and will do!