A new pastor for St. John's United Church of Christ (UCC) preached in this Bluffton congregation for the first time on Sunday, Oct. 10.

Rev. Carol Clements, a graduate of the denomination's Lancaster (Pa.) Seminary, has long been active in heeding Jesus Christ's call for service to suffering humanity, even before her entering the Christian ministry as a second vocation.

Rev. Clements was appointed to pastor the Bluffton congregation after 10 years as pastor of St. John UCC, Bolivar (Tuscarawas Co.) Ohio. A Pennsylvania native, she earned her Bachelor of Science and master's degrees at Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pa.

She spent most of her early years at Williamsport, Pa., both teaching at Pennsylvania College of Technology and working in the courts system. From 1990-1996 she was a Victim Witness Advocate, creating programs for victims of domestic abuse/battery and a victim impact panel for first time DUI offenders.

While at the Bolivar church, she continued her Christian witness not only in the pulpit but also as board member of the Tuscarawas County Senior Center, spearheading a program to provide free school supplies to schoolchildren of poor families, leading a "community clothes closet" housed at the church she pastored, and organized a summer peanut butter & jelly program for children on free or reduced-cost lunches.

She's served the larger church at the association, state-wide conference, and national levels as a camp director, departmental secretary, chair of multi-county association meeting, and delegate to the denomination's national-level General Synod.