On July 26th, First Church voted unanimously at a special congregational meeting to call the Reverend Peter Dennebaum to be our next settled Pastor. The meeting followed a joyful worship service during which Peter preached on the topic of Living in Faith. Audio downloads of the worship service and his sermon are available online via www.imeem.com.
Peter is a native of Germany and has been serving UCC congregations in the New York area for the last three years. Prior to his arrival in the United States, he served as vicar of the Peace Congregation in Frankfurt. He is currently serving as Associate Pastor of Christian Education and Member Outreach at First Congregational Church in Chappaqua, New York. He was ordained last year by the Metro NY Association of the New York Conference.
The worship service and congregational meeting capped a weekend of potlucks where members had an opportunity to meet Peter casually and chat with him. Many people commented on his engaging personality. Nancy Withbroe commented, “I wasn’t certain we’d fall in love with our new pastor, but I have. When he went outside to play badminton with the kids I was sold.” Polly Barten Gordon was particularly moved during worship by the reading of the gospel lesson in unison and then Peter asked people to speak out one or two words about what the passage meant to them.
Peter studied theology for eight years at Eberhard-Karls-Universitat in Tubingen, Universitat Hamburg, and Humboldt-Universitat in Berlin. His primary emphases were interreligious dialogue between Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and economic ethics. He wrote his thesis on “Justice and Peace for all: The Gaza-Jericho-Agreement and the Importance for the Current Middle East Peace Process” in 1997.
The vote to call Peter was the culmination of a year-long process that included five months developing a Local Church Profile and six months reviewing Ministerial Profiles from 43 candidates and digging deeper with those of special interest. Search Committee Chairperson Byron Adams noted that Peter has “. . . gifts or experience in each of the twelve activities in which the congregation expects leadership.” He’s a bottomless well of energy and enthusiasm and his ability to connect with people quickly is amazing.”
Peter will begin his work with us as Pastor on Monday, October 26th and his first sermon as Pastor will be preached on November 1st. He hopes to find an apartment within a ten minute bike ride of the church and expects to relocate in mid-October in order to have a few days to get the feel of Washington before he starts work.
