I am very pleased to introduce to you a very dear friend and colleague, The Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree who will be our guest minister for about a month this summer.  She will be here from the second half of June to the middle of July and will preach four successive Sundays.  She will meet with the Church Council and Trustees, be in the office a couple of hours Monday - Thursday, do a daily devotional with our children as part of Vacation Bible Camp and teach a three week Adult Education Class.  

Davida is a gifted and faithful minister and knows some of our members from the 1990’s when she served as the Conference Minister here in Southern California.  I am sure you will enjoy her time among us and hope you will give her a warm Neighborhood Church welcome.   You will be in good hands while I am away.   Plan to greet her on June 17th and then hear her preach the following four Sundays.  Her bio follows below.

Grateful for all the connections to come!

David D. Young

The Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree is a United Church of Christ minister who has served in a variety of settings across the Church. Her most recent position was as Interim Vice President for Advancement at Andover Newton Theological School. Prior positions include serving as Interim and Acting Conference Minister in Florida and Missouri Mid-South Conferences, and as Conference Minister for Connecticut (14 years) and for Southern California (5 years). In between, she has served as Senior Consultant to the Collegium of Officers of the UCC nationally for three years, and as consultant to local churches. Before her call to Southern California in 1991, she served as a local church pastor in CT for 11 years. 

Davida has a keen interest in the application of the faith to daily life.  As a result she earned her Doctor of Ministry from Hartford Seminary with a focus on connecting Sunday and Monday in laity’s lives. That interest also has given her a lifelong passion for both contemporary social movements within Christianity and for the history of our life as the United Church of Christ and especially its Congregational heritage in which she grew up.  

Davida has recently moved into a retirement community in Connecticut which is known for its dedication to living green, and that parallels her commitment since childhood to care for the earth, a notion introduced to her by her science teacher mother.  She is stepmother to two Vermonters and grandmother to five.  She is looking forward to spending the early summer with the people of Neighborhood Church, but only wishes she could visit during the Christmas season, for which the church is renowned!