Church picks new local leader

Advertiser Staff

The Hawai'i Conference United Church of Christ has nominated the Rev. Dr. Charles Buck, currently senior minister of the United Church of Christ Judd Street, as its new conference minister.

The history of the United Church of Christ denomination dates back to the first missionaries to the Islands in 1820.

Buck, 40, graduated from the University of CaliforniaiBerkeley and received his master-of-divinity degree from the San Francisco Theological Seminary and his doctorate from Stanford University.

He became pastor at the Judd Street church in 1997. Before that, he served as pastor at San Francisco Korean Methodist Church and pastor for English-language ministries at Korean UMC in San Jose, Calif.

Buck has served as a delegate to the denomination's general synod; served on

the UCC Council for Ecumenism, the UCC Ecumenical Partnership Committee, and the O'ahu Association Board; and coordinated the Easter sunrise services at Punchbowl.

He and his wife, Susan, have two children at Nu'uanu Elementary School.

The UCC conference in Hawai'i comprises 125 churches on six islands and has 18,500 members, said the Rev. Donald Sevetson, interim conference minister, who is scheduled to return to the Pacific Northwest later this summer.

The last conference minister was the Rev. David Hansen in 1998.

An election for the post will be held at Kaumakapili Church on June 19.