BELFAST – A Farmington native and retired bishop for the United Methodist Church will serve as interim minister at the local United Methodist Church while the pastor is on leave.

Bishop S. Clifton Ives will begin leading worship services on Sunday, Sept. 9.

Ives, 69, of Portland and Winthrop, was the first Maine man elected a bishop for the church in 1992. He served 12 years as the head of the 150,000-member West Virginian Conference headquartered in Charleston, W.Va. He was serving as a district superintendent in southern Maine when he was elected bishop.

Since retiring three years ago, Ives has served as an interim pastor at the Brunswick United Methodist Church, the Green Street United Methodist Church in Augusta and at People’s United Methodist Church in South Portland.

The son of a Methodist minister, Ives graduated from the University of Maine in 1960. He went on to earn a Master of Divinity and a doctorate from Boston University School of Theology. He preached his first sermon as a minister at a Cape Elizabeth church in 1962. From 1968 to 1973, he was pastor of First United Methodist Church in Bangor.

The Rev. David Abbott, pastor of Belfast United Methodist Church, is expected to return to the pulpit in November after a three-month leave funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis through its clergy renewal program.

While on leave, Abbott plans to walk in the steps of Paul the Apostle in Turkey and travel in the area of the Middle East where the Christians first worshipped, often in secret.

Services are held at 8 and 10:30 a.m. Sundays at the Belfast First United Methodist Church, 23 Mill Lane. For information, call 338-5575 or visit www.belfastumc.org.