From the interim search committee: Robin Sparks, Al Flood, Dick Schlobohm, Maureen Kalbus, Raquel Nelson, Ian Prowell, Patrick O'Connor
Please extend a welcome to The Rev. Scott Clark as our interim pastor. After weeks of meetings and discernment, we were eager to offer this opportunity to him and honored that he accepted it. Scott will join us on November 1.
Scott writes:
Dear First Presbyterian San Anselmo Family,
Grace and peace to you!
I wanted to send a word to let you know that I am so looking forward to joining you as your Interim Pastor, on November 1!
For those of you whom I’ve not yet met, I’ve just completed ten years of service at San Francisco Theological Seminary (across the street), serving as Chaplain and Dean of Students, and working with their Program in Christian Spirituality. Before my partner Jeff and I moved to California, I practiced law in Alabama, with my practice focusing on constitutional law and complex institutional employment-discrimination cases. (Please do note the part about me being from Alabama, so you can expect the occasional “y’all” in our life together.)
I’m particularly excited to be joining – or returning to – this particular community. Before being ordained, I was a member here, and I have long experienced our life together as life among kindred spirits. I believe that God has created us for life in community; that, in Jesus Christ, God loves everybody, no exceptions; and that God calls us to live out a spirituality that is useful – a spirituality that makes a difference in our daily lives and in the world. I have deep respect for this congregation’s commitment to justice (in so many ways!) – and how you ground that commitment in Scripture, in worship, and –ultimately – in God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.
On November 1, I’ll be joining you as Interim Pastor. That’s a particular role within the Presbyterian Church, in which a pastor and congregation walk together in a time of transition. When we come together in November, we will continue to give thanks for all the blessings that this congregation has experienced with the leadership of the amazing Rev. Dr. Joanne Whitt, and we will begin to look forward with hope to what God is preparing next for your life together.
I will probably see most of you next when we gather for worship and communion on November 3. Between now and then, I have some personal and educational travel planned. Perhaps most significantly, in the early weeks of October, I will be participating in the CoInspire Conference (at Montreat in NC), a gathering in which folks from across the denomination will consider ways of dismantling systemic racism in the church. Not long after that, I will also have the honor of participating in the ordination of Alex McNeil, the Executive Director of More Light Presbyterians – who will be the first openly transgender man ordained as Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA. I hope to return with blessing and learning to share from those experiences.
In the meantime, may God bless you and keep you until we see each other next – when we gather at the communion table on November 3, celebrating and embodying together God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.
Blessings,
Scott Clark