AUBURN — The members of St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in Auburn thought they had found the pastor they were looking for in the Rev. Thomas Drake, who was also the pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church. The two churches had planned to merge and become one Christian community under one pastor. But the Syracuse Presbytery would not approve the merger. They simply closed the church with no further explanation. Eighteen members of Calvary promptly joined St. Luke’s.

Not to be discouraged, the people of St. Luke’s contacted their regional office to begin a search for a new pastor. They did not have to look very far or long. A man who had been attending their church for about a year, and who had given several guest sermons, was to become their new pastor.

The Rev. David Borthwick preached his first sermon on Sunday, Dec. 2, the first Sunday of Advent.

“In October, I was called by the denomination saying the church would like me to be a candidate whenever I was ready,” he recalled. In order to accept the position, Borthwick had to be re-certified as a minister within the United Church of Christ.

He was first ordained in 1975 and became the pastor of the United Church of Christ in Moravia. Then he left the church to become part of the management team at Koerner Ford in Syracuse.

Judy Kilborne, a member of the church, said of her new pastor, “He’s dynamic; we fell in love with him.“

According to information published by the church, St. Luke’s was founded more than 130 years ago and has forged “a history marked by faith, worship, good fellowship and outreach to the wider community. We look forward to a future which combines the best of the past with new vision for the times in which we live.“

Although the St. Luke’s church building is very old, the United Church of Christ is a relatively young denomination that has roots that date back to the first settlers in America. In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the Congregational Christian churches, both of which had been formed by previous mergers.

The Congregational churches were organized by the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Plantation and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony professed their unity with the Cambridge Platform of 1648.

The United Church of Christ has written phrases which they believe summarize the important tenets of their faith.

Three of them are: that all may be one in essentials unity, in nonessentials diversity, in all things charity and responsible freedom. And they affirm “the authority of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and interpreted with the aid of the Holy Spirit.”

One project currently underway at St. Luke’s has strong personal ties to Borthwick. His wife, Celene, died of cancer several years ago. She was a stained glass artist and restorer. One of the panels she made of dolphins dancing in the ocean as seen from the shore is being raffled to raise money for the church. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5, and the winning ticket will be drawn at the church’s chicken barbecue in February.

Bothwick said that on a local level, “We try to reach out to the community as much as we can, and we hope to do more next year. I joined this church about a year ago, They are wonderful people here. I just wanted to be part of them, but I have missed being a pastor. My children say I look as happy as I’ve ever been.”