Minister Served Locally 3 Years

Cooperstown’s Pastor Lebeau

Moving To Jamestown Pulpit

COOPERSTOWN – The Rev. Tom Lebeau, Cooperstown United Methodist Church pastor for the past three years, was honored by congregation members at a brunch this morning as he and wife Georgia prepare to depart for a new assignment in Jamestown.

Pastor Lebeau, who has served in Cooperstown for the past three years, will assume his duties July 1 at Kidder Memorial First UM, and preach his first Sunday sermon there on July 7.   A native of the Rochester, he moved here in 2016 from Faith UM in Lancaster, the Buffalo suburb.

He will be succeeded at Cooperstown by the Rev. Dana Horrell, spouse of the Oneonta First UM pastor, Rev. Marti Swords-Horrell.

Pastor Lebeau said an additional attraction of the Jamestown assignment will be its closer proximity to his daughter and grandchildren in Clearfield, Pa.

In reflecting on his time here, the pastor expressed particular thanks to his clerical colleagues in the village.  ” I have never been in such an environment of clergy support,” he said.  “The network here is just phenomenal.”

In an interview, he said the local church, like most mainline churches nationally, are seeking declining membership.  “The challenge is for the church to find ways of ministering different from what we did in the 20th century,” he said.  “There’s still a hunger for God.”