New Pastor Announcement, July 2010:
Reverend Stephen J. Miller
Stephen Miller joined LPPC as the Temporary Supply Pastor in July of 2010. He has served on the staff of the Presbytery of Santa Fe, as Interim Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Belen, as Acting Executive Director of the New Mexico Conference of Churches, as Interim Pastor of a UCC congregation and of a Disciples of Christ congregation. He is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He served as pastor of Disciples Congregations from 1965 to 2001 before moving back home to Albuquerque.
Steve is married to Carrie who teaches Social Studies at New Futures School in Albuquerque. In addition to employed positions since moving back to Albuquerque, Steve has been involved in Stewards of Creation, Interfaith Power and Light, and Partnership for Earth Spirituality. He is also a vice-president of the New Mexico Conference of Churches. He plays guitar and sings in the Celtic Coyote band. He is a graduate of Lexington Theological Seminary (MDiv) and San Francisco Theological Seminary (DMin).
You can contact Pastor Steve at "pastor@lasplacitaschurch.org" or by calling the office at 867-5718. At this time he expects to be in the office on Tuesdays.
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Past Pastors of LPPC
Please read about the many, wonderful, colorful leaders of LPPC from our founding in 1894 until present day:
Rev. Elizabeth Lyman: came to LPPC from Tucson, AZ in January 2008 and served until June 2010 as our transitional pastor, specifically to help guide LPPC through transition until a newly installed pastor arrived. During Elizabeth's time at LPPC, the committee meeting schedule of Convivio was born, Casa Rosa Food Bank opened it's doors and LPPC weathered the ongoing economic impacts of the 2009 recession.
Rev. Ken Cutherbertson, PhD: served as our parish associate from January 2005 to September 2007. Rev. Cuthbertson was instrumental in restoring the Upper Room to it's original chapel status. He also served as the Temporary Supply Pastor on a part-time basis until January 2008.Rev. Jane P. Harmes: served LPPC from September 1996 until September 2007. During her time with us, we made a Covenant with the Earth, a Peacemaking Covenant, joined The Covenant Network of Presbyterians and we built a new Sunday School wing with handicapped accessible bathrooms and spacious offices.
(all information below regarding previous Pastor's at LPPC is taken from "Century Of Faith, One Hundred Years in the Life of the Las Placitas Presbyterian Church" by Suzanne Sims Forrest.)
Rev. James R. Anderson: came to Placitas in 1980 as Interim Pastor and in 1983 he was called to the fulltime pastorate of LPPC. He retired on January 31, 1995.
Rev. Tomas Gonzalez: served the LPPC in one way or another since he was a member of the Menaul Gospel Team in the mid-1930s until 1995. Although he has never been its official Pastor, he has filled in on countless occasions as guest preacher, and during the 1970s he often came out to give special services in Spanish for the older Spanish-speaking members of the congregation.
Rev. George Adams: served churches in the Orient for 45 years until he came to LPPC in 1972 and served as Pastor for eight years.
Rev. Floyd B. Sovereign: served the LPPC as Temporary Supply Pastor for several periods (1966, 1970 - 1972) while the church was between regular Pastors.
Rev. David Hammack: served both the Placitas and Alameda Churches for three years. He left the these churches in September 1970 and remained in Albuquerque, starting an electrical contracting business. He designed and installed the electrical system for the 1984 addition to our church.
Rev. Harry Willson: came to New Mexico "sight unseen" directly from Princeton Theological Seminary in the spring of 1958. He served the Placitas and Alameda churches for eight years. In 1967 he left the ministry and worked almost full time for the Civil Rights Movement.
Rev. Rodolfo Torres: replaced Rev. Green
and served the Placitas, Bernalillo, and Alameda congregations for two
years. He served the three churches faithfully, although it was hardly the
restful
semi-retirement he had envisioned. He conducted three services every Sunday,
preaching in Alameda in the morning, in Placitas in the afternoon, and in
Bernalillo in the evening.
Rev. Kenneth J. Green: came to serve the Placitas, Bernalillo, and Alameda churches in 1951. For three years he successfully carried on the pastorate of the three small congregations. He resigned his position in 1955 because of his wife’s health.
Rev. Antonio Jiménez: a Methodist evangelist from Las Cruces, arrived in June 1950 to assist Rev. Candelaria with the Placitas, Bernalillo and Alameda churches. It was Candelaria who persuaded Jiménez to come to preach at Placitas at a time when he felt the community was badly in need of a restoration of hope and faith. After serving for a year and a half, he returned to Las Cruces.
Rev. Jose Ines Candelaria: had charge of four churches at the same time: Second Presbyterian Church, Alameda, Bernalillo, and Placitas. He served Las Placitas from 1937 to 1952.
Victor Manuel Sandoval: assisted Rev Simmonds in Placitas and after Simmonds left, Don Manuel (as he was called) took full charge of Placitas Church until 1937.
Rev. George P. Simmonds: accepted the call of the Presbyterian National Missions Board to become the Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, Las Placitas Presbyterian Church, and the Spanish Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe in 1930. He served at LPPC until 1935.
Rev. Porfirio Romero: preached at Las Placitas from 1932 to 1935.
Rev. Paul Livingstone Warnshuis: served as Pastor at Second Church and Placitas from 1927 to 1929. His energetic efforts earned him the nickname “Mr.Warnshoes.”
Rev. Acorcinio Lucero: accepted the call from the Spanish Presbyterian Church in Los Martinez of Albuquerque in 1922 and served both that church and Placitas until 1927.
Rev. Victoriano Valdez: In 1917, he was called to take charge of the Spanish Churches in Albuquerque and Placitas, and area preaching stations. He served LPPC until 1922.
Rev. Juan Quintana: served Las Placitas in 1904, 1909-1911, 1922-23. In May 1904 he began preaching in Placitas while Mrs. Quintana taught at the public school in the village. They moved away in 1905. In 1909, the Presbytery ordained him to the ministry and he returned to Placitas to take full charge of that church as well as other area Presbyterian Churches until 1923
Joseph W. Winder, John D. ”Uncle” Henry, and M.B.S. Legare: all served Placitas as Sunday School Missionaries during the second decade of the twentieth century, from 1911to 1917.
Rev. John Mordy: appointed by the Rio Grande Presbytery to minister to Placitas in 1913. During his ministry in Placitas he oversaw the renovating of the little mission schoolhouse into a proper church, and the Session agreed, for the first time, to ask members to give a monthly contribution for the minister’s salary.
Rev. Henry C. Thomson: preached at our church between 1904 and 1906, while he was Pastor of Second Church in Albuquerque and editor of the Synod paper "La Aurora".
Juan Baros: born on October 23, 1870 in Las Placitas, he became a charter member of the Las Placitas Presbyterian Church at the age of 24 and was ordained one of its first two elders by the Rev. James Menaul. He served the congregation at LPPC from 1894 until his death in 1914.
Epifanio Arreola: a Mexican-born, Presbyterian evangelist, he preached regularly in Placitas from 1890 to 1894. He officiated at the organization of Las Placitas Presbyterian Church in 1894 and, together with the Reverends Jose Ynés Perea and John Menaul, was largely responsible for its founding.
Rev. John Menaul: Placitas’s second Pastor, he preached intermittently between 1882 and the founding of the Las Placitas Presbyterian Church in 1894, then was in charge of the newly established church until 1901.
Rev. Jose Ynés Perea: our nation’s first ordained Hispanic minister, was Placitas’s first Presbyterian Pastor. He visited the village intermittently between 1882 and 1894 and officiated at its founding on February 24, 1894.
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