Methodist Church welcomes new pastor

By Elizabeth Gabriel

(Updated: Thursday, July 17, 2008, 5:30 PM)

Kelley O'Connor is a woman who enjoys a good laugh and air conditioning, is stopped in midsentence by the call of birds in the oak tree outside her office window and is the new pastor of Oakhurst's New Community United Methodist Church.

"Everything just lined up," she said about her appointment to the Mountain Area.

O'Connor, who is not yet ordained, finished seminary last year. She has been 20 years in ministry, much of that working with young people. She was a youth minister for seven years. She is a licensed local pastor, an option the Methodists give to their clergy.

Her last post was in Forestville, near Santa Rosa in Sonoma County.

She explained how she came to Oakhurst. In the denomination, clergy has a sort of year-to-year lease. At the end of each year the clergy or the congregation can decide if it's time for the spiritual leader to move on.

The Oakhurst church had been led by Pastor Jim Luther, who has gone to a new assignment in Salinas. He was there at the founding of New Community United Methodist and helped create many of the congregation's outreach programs.

"When Jim decided he was going to be leaving," O'Connor said, "I got a call."

She said bishops make appointments and send new pastors to congregations that need them. All clergy in the denomination annually file a profile, so their interests, strengths and training are known to the hierarchy.

"My profile matched a lot of points (for the Oakhurst opening)," she said.

Although she had been asked to stay in Forestville, she had 24 hours to make up her mind.

"I said, 'OK, God, is this the one?'"

The mother of four grown sons ("I have an order in for grandchildren -- a girl first"), she lives with her mother in Coarsegold. She said this is her first home without her children, so it's a change on several levels.

She first saw the local area in the spring when everything was lush and green.

"But there's a special beauty to the golden color it is now," she said.

O'Connor grew up in the Rockies, near Colorado Springs, so she's no stranger to mountain living. Her office at the church, which sits up on a hill on Crane Valley Road (426), gives her a wonderful view of the Sierra. She officially started her job July 1, so she's had to put up with the smoke from the recent fires, but she's looking forward to the crystal air and the grand vistas her office provides.

She was interviewed July 9, at the peak of the recent heat wave, and was particularly grateful for the air conditioner humming happily in her office.

Her first day of preaching at Oakhurst was July 6. Her theme was "The True Meaning of Aloha."

"It conveys both hello and goodbye," she said.

That fits one pastor leaving and another arriving.

But the aloha spirit also embraces affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy, core Christian values.

"Everybody dressed in Hawaiian shirts and dresses. There were pineapples on the altar," she said. "It was great fun."

Parishioner Dennis Ervin said he and his wife are "really high on her (O'Connor). We really liked the way she presented herself. We thought the aloha theme was a cute idea."

Ervin is a lay speaker and is on the worship committee at the church, so he was in on the planning of the first service.

"We hear she likes to do themes," he said.

O'Connor plays cello, violin and guitar, so has a special place in her heart for music. She has also sung in choirs.

"I get a lot of joy out of playing," she said.

In particular, the guitar was useful in her youth ministries, she said. And she was gratified to find the Oakhurst church has a healthy youth component.

She said the congregation has been warm and welcoming. She is impressed with the programs the church has developed. It serves community meals every Wednesday evening; collects, cleans and distributes clothing; purchases and stocks backpacks with essential age-appropriate supplies for women and children escaping abusive environments and runs a thrift store.

"The outreach is tremendous," O'Connor said. "The Methodist Church is one that really responds to the needs of its local congregations.

"We are not just the little church on the hill, we are always doing things in and for the world."