Welcome from our pastor

 

 

Chuck Booker-Hirsch began his ministry at BPC the first day of Summer 2009. A graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary (M.Div. '94), he comes to Bethesda following 11 fruitful years as Pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, MI. A passionate advocate for radical church hospitality and faith-based social justice, he served on the staff of interracial congregations in a Tucson, AZ barrio and the ghetto of Marin City, CA, and worked for four years resettling thousands of Central American refugees in this country seeking sanctuary from torture and slaughter in their homelands. His vocational passions include learning and helping others to learn to follow the teachings of Jesus ("seriously, not literally"); hearing and then proclaiming the Good News (three dozen sermons published by www.goodpreacher.com); and discerning and then interpreting the spiritual lessons Twelve Step groups offer the church. 

Key moments in Chuck's faith pilgrimage include responding to a call -- based on his life-changing refugee ministry -- to participate in several nonviolent civil resistance actions, including two at Ft. Benning, GA to close what is known throughout Latin America as the "School of the Assassins": the U.S. Army School of Americas (SOA). For the ongoing SOA witness, he and 250 others in recent years have served as federal "prisoners of conscience" -- in Chuck's case, three months in a prison camp in 2002. For his prophetic witness, he received the Presbyterian Peaceseeker Award at the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). [For more on Chuck's SOA witness, see his January 10, 2010 sermon, "God's Call: Be-Loved (Baptism)".]