Special to the Plaindealer
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It is with great pleasure that the United Church of the San Juans (UCSJ), located at the corner of Lena and Charles streets in Ridgway, introduces the Reverend Harry Lee Strong as the new pastor of our church effective Monday, Nov. 21, 2011.
Rev. Strong received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., and his Master of Divinity degree, with Honors, from McCormick Theological Seminary, in Chicago, Ill. At McCormick, he also was awarded the Seminary’s Academic Excellence Fellowship Award and their Preaching Award. He was ordained into the Presbyterian Church (USA). During the approximately 37 years that followed his ordination, Rev. Strong was... called to serve 10 churches. He began his ordained ministry in Iowa, serving a yoked-parish as associate pastor of a large church and as Solo Pastor of a congregation roughly the size of UCSJ. During the next 27 years he answered five calls and served as a Solo Pastor or Head of Staff at churches in Iowa, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Following his Interim Ministry Training at Montreat, N.C., he led three congregations, two in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey, through the five developmental tasks often explored by congregations that are in-between installed pastors.

In 1981, Rev. Strong began creating a series of 18 first-person sermon-dramas: “Faces of Advent,” “Faces of Lent” and “Old Testament Faces.” These dramatic sermon presentations have been shared widely with his numerous congregations and others in the communities in which he ministered. They have also been “taken on the road” to settings such as Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PCUSA).

Before he came out of retirement to answer our Call, Rev. Strong resided in the small mountain town of Divide, Colo., with his wife, Anna, and their Golden-doodle “Wrigley,” where they were active in the local United Church of Christ. He has served on the Church’s Council and as Chairperson of the Christian Education Committee and has instructed weekly Adult Church School classes. During this time, he also preached when their pastor has been away and officiated at several weddings and funerals; he sings in the choir, plays the guitar and piano and, when requested, takes the aforementioned Biblical characters on “road trips.”

We are thrilled to have called such a dynamic person to come to lead our church into the future, and we welcome him to our community!

Rev. Strong and his wife, Anna, have four children and 12 grandchildren. They reside in Ridgway.
The United Church of the San Juans is a multi-denomination church affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ. We worship on Sundays beginning at 10:00 a.m.