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United Church of Canada moderator, Right Rev. Gary Paterson, visiting Creston

Right Rev. Gary Paterson will be speaking at 4 p.m. April 26, followed by town hall discussion...
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Right Rev. Gary Paterson

Right Rev. Gary Paterson, United Church of Canada moderator, will be visiting the Kootenay Presbytery the weekend of April 25-27, and Creston’s Trinity United Church is privileged and honoured to be one of the hosting churches.

The community is invited to participate at 4 p.m. April 26 and be part of this exciting event. Paterson will give a presentation and then provide time for a town hall discussion to follow, where guests will have an opportunity to ask questions. At 6 p.m. all are welcome to join church members for dinner (tickets are $10, available at the church office).

Paterson was born in 1949 in the Yukon, an army brat who lived in Toronto and Germany before ending up in Vancouver. A couple of degrees in English literature led to his becoming a sessional lecturer at the University of BC, and a “closet poet”. Then came theological studies in Boston, followed by an internship at Naramata and a final year at Vancouver school of Theology — a “God struggler” who ended up saying yes to ordination in 1977.

His ministry has been varied: small rural and urban congregations, several years on staff of the church’s BC Conference, a call to First United in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an inner city ministry in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada, the large suburban Ryerson United, and now St. Andrew’s-Wesley United, the “cathedral-like” church in downtown Vancouver.

Paterson is a passionate preacher; at heart, he is a pastor. He loves music (get him talking about jazz vespers at St. Andrew’s-Wesley), travel (last year’s two-month sabbatical in Israel and Palestine was a highlight) and long walks on the seawall around Stanley Park in Vancouver.

He also loves being a Dad, with three daughters all in their thirties and four grandchildren. He is married to Rev. Tim Stevenson (presently a Vancouver City councillor), and they have been partnered for 30 years.

On April 27, Paterson will be preaching at 10 a.m. (mountain time) at Cranbrook United Church. Trinity United Church hopes to have that service web-cast at 9 a.m. (Creston time).

—TRINITY UNITED CHURCH