The Rev. Paul Bryant-Smith to be our settled pastor by congregational vote on June 7, 2016.

 

In addition to being our part-time pastor, he is the Director of Spiritual Care at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, NY. 

 

He holds a B.A  from Virginia Commonwealth University, with majors in Sociology and Religious Studies. He earned his M.Div. from Midwestern Seminary in Kansas City, MO and was a post-graduate research fellow at Yale Divinity School.

 

He has served congregations in Missouri, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and in a variety of capacities in association, conference, and national settings of the United Church of Christ. 

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In other facets of his life, Paul has been a farm worker, a waiter, a fencing coach, a clown (complete with greasepaint), and a whitewater canoe instructor.  As a deckhand and historical educator aboard the Freedom Schooner Amistad, Paul traveled to the West African nations of Sierra Leone and Cape Verde as a part of the vessel’s Atlantic Freedom Tour and was a crewmember and UCC representative when Amistad sailed into Cuba’s Havana Harbor as part of the United Nations’ Slavery Remembrance Day on the tenth anniversary of the schooner’s launch.

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In addition to sailing and travel, Paul enjoys cross-country skiing, hiking, kayaking, camping, and cooking. He plays several musical instruments and performs as half of the folk music duo “Boys in Hats.” Paul lives in Norwalk with his wife, Kimberly.  Their son, Ian, is a student at the George Washington University Law School.