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Church welcomes full-time pastor

Huntingdon Presbyterian calls the Rev. Hoover

The Huntingdon Presbyterian Church welcomed the Rev. Brett D. Hoover as the 16th called pastor in its 228-year history.

Hoover, most recently the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Indiana County, hails from Bedford and is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.

He and his wife, Melissa, are the parents of 1-year-old Tyler.

The public is invited to welcome Pastor Hoover and his family as he preaches his inaugural sermon at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Holy Communion will be served, and the Chancel Choir will offer an anthem. A formal installation service for Hoover will be scheduled for a later date.

Huntingdon Presbyterian Church had been without a full-time called pastor since the Rev. Dr. Stanley Bhasker resigned in September 2014. The Rev. Dr. Earl Stewart of California was appointed interim pastor in March 2015 and served for 18 months. The Rev. Joy Kaufmann, Presbytery Executive of the Huntingdon Presbytery, was the transitional pastor for the past six months.

The church’s Pastor Nominating Committee was officially commissioned in January 2016. The committee originally received nearly 200 names in response to its notice of the opening.

The ensuing months were spent conducting personal and Skype interviews, doing background and reference checks, listening to recorded sermons and ultimately inviting the finalists to preach sermons at “neutral pulpits.”

Hoover was the committee’s top choice and his selection was ratified by a unanimous vote of the congregation on April 23.

The Rev. Earnest Walls, pastor of Alexandria Presbyterian Church, was the moderator of the eight-member committee, which was chaired by Dr. Robert Barclay.

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