September 1, 2005

FOCUS ON FAITH

Three new pastors to lead local valley churches

St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Almaden Valley UCC and
Almaden Hills United Methodist Church welcome new ministers

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Three new religious leaders are settling in with their respective congregations this summer and changing the face of the valley’s spiritual profile.

They are the Revs. V. Warwick James, Kevin Smith and Carole Vincent, who have taken the helm at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Almaden Valley United Church of Christ and Almaden Hills United Methodist Church, respectively.

Father Warrick
Father Warrick, as he’s known, began serving as pastor of the South Almaden Catholic parish in July, after the Rev. George Mancha left to join Archbishop Mitty High School’s clergy.

Father Warrick previously presided for 14 years at St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Church in Santa Clara.

He was born in 1951 in South Africa and attended a Catholic elementary school and public high school there. He completed studies for the priesthood at St. John Vianney National Seminary in Pretoria, South Africa, from 1973 to 1979 and was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Durban, Natal in South Africa in 1980.

He has served on the Zulu Missions of the Archdiocese and as pastor, associate pastor, military chaplain, university chaplain and hospital chaplain at various assignments in South Africa.

Father Warwick arrived in San Jose in November of 1988 and was incardinated in San Jose’s Catholic Diocese as parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish, Los Gatos and St. Lawrence Parish, Santa Clara and as pastor of St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Parish and Education Center. He also served as dean of the Northeast Deanery.

For more information call (408) 997-4800, or visit the church’s Web site, www.churchstanthony.com.

Pastor Kevin Smith
The Rev. Kevin Smith will assume his post at the Almaden Valley United Church of Christ Sept. 22 and preach his first sermon Oct. 2. He replaced the Rev. Paul Smith-Telfer who led the congregation on an interim basis for about a year.

Pastor Smith’s new calling comes at a time when the congregation will celebrate 40 years in the valley.
Pastor Smith grew up in Washington state and received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Portland State University in 1979.

In 1994 he completed the Senior Executive in State and Local Government certificate program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He completed his master’s of divinity from Harvard Divinity School earlier this year.

Pastor Smith recently served as the part-time interim pastor for the North Street Union Congregational Church UCC in Medford, Mass.

The congregation has a significant elderly population. His ministry focused on a pastoral presence for those experiencing illness and death. He also served as a student minister for the North-Prospect Congregational UCC in Cambridge, Mass.

Pastor Smith is a member of First Church in Cambridge, Mass., where he served as part of the pastoral care team. He has experience in the areas of social action/just peace, adult and children’s Christian education, church visioning/leadership and church administration. He has been active in ecumenical activities including the founding of an outdoor church at Porter Square, a ministry to homeless persons in Cambridge.

Prior to his church ministerial experience, he spent 24 years in politics and government, working on environmental, human rights, and economic recovery issues in the administration of two different governors and a U.S. congressman from Oregon. From April 1997 to June 2001, he served as the director of the Oregon governor’s office in Washington, D.C.

In this position he advocated for state interests before the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. He helped to create and fund an intergovernmental endangered-salmon recovery program, and he helped write and pass legislation to create wilderness and conservation areas.

From January 1991 to January 1995, Pastor Smith served as the director of intergovernmental relations and also as chief of staff for the Oregon Governor’s Office. His service to the governor and the governor’s cabinet and staff provided policy, administration, budget, and legislative leadership. During this time he co-authored the book “Setting the Stage for Sustainability: A Citizen’s Handbook.”

He is an avid baseball fan and enjoys hiking, biking, running, reading, movie/theater going, as well as travel.
Pastor Smith’s wife, the Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones, has been called to be the senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose starting Aug. 15.

Pastor Smith’s older son Jason lives in Colorado Springs where he works for Boeing in its satellite systems operations. His younger son Jeremy and his wife Patty live and work in the Vancouver, Wash., area, where Jeremy works in paper production, and Patty works in the electronics industry.

For more information call (408) 268-0243 or visit the church’s Web site, www.avucc.org.

Pastor Carole L. Vincent
The Rev. Carole Vincent joined Almaden Hills United Methodist Church as pastor in July. She succeeded the Revs. David Fewing Pittman and Amy Beth Durward, who served the church for four years. They are now serving at other UMC congregations.

She has served for more than 12 years in United Methodist churches in Marina, Seaside and Marysville, Calif. Congregational worship is her passion and the highlight of her week, she said.

Pastor Carole is married to Jim Vincent. He’s a retired aeronautical engineer. She has two grown children. She lives in Cupertino and is happy to return to the Bay Area.

She received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Colorado in 1963 and a master’s of divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena in 1991.

She was born in Rochester, N.Y., and grew up in an American Baptist church. When she was an adult she said she experienced much grace and love in the United Methodist Church in Los Altos, where she received her call to ministry. She plans on staying with the congregation for several years.

Members believe in Jesus Christ and have a long history of concern for social justice and other controversial issues involving Christian principles.

For more information call (408) 269-2345 or visit the church’s Web site, www.almadenhillsumc.org.