Belfast church taps retired pastors as pulpit subs

BELFAST – Two retired, well-known ministers will preach this fall at the United Methodist church while the Rev. David Abbot, pastor of the Mill Street congregation, is on leave.

Former Bishop S. Clifton Ives will lead worship services Sunday.

The Rev. David Glusker, the voice of the First Radio Parish of America for many years, will preach on Oct. 14.

Ives, 69, of Portland and Winthrop, who retired in 2004, was the first Maine man elected as 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.

Glusker, 68, of South China, pastored at United Methodist churches throughout central Maine for 24 years before joining the radio ministry based in Portland in 1985. He retired in 2003 after 43 years of ministry.

His daily devotions reached an estimated 75,000 early-morning television viewers daily on WCSH 6 in Portland and WLBZ 2 in Bangor. He also was heard by 5,000 radio listeners on a Sunday show broadcast on six stations.

Abbott 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 Christians first worshipped, often in secret.

Services are held at 8 and 10:30 a.m. Sundays at the Belfast United Methodist Church, 23 Mill Lane.

For information, call 338-5575, or visit www.belfastumc.org.