A Spencerport icon is leaving. Rev. Harold (Skip) Lloyd, pastor of the White Church, will be moving to Athol, Massachusetts, where he will serve as the pastor of Athol United Church of Christ. A Farewell Open House was given at the White Church (Sunday, August 26 from 2 to 4 p.m.). Rev. Lloyd's last Sunday service in Spencerport will be on Sunday, September 2. "God directed us here ten years ago, and he's directed us to Athol now," Rev. Lloyd says about his leaving the area and moving to New England. But, the whole Spencerport community will miss him. "I have been a member of the Congregational Church for 60 plus years," says Jeannette Zarnstorff. "I have served on various committees with Skip and his wife, Peg." She says that Skip supported her throughout her husband Curly's illness, and that when he died, "Skip was out of town and returned to do the service." She said that Rev. Lloyd has also helped her through the adjustment period after her husband died. "I think highly of him," she says. "We are going to miss Skip and Peg very much." How does one adequately describe Skip Lloyd - pastor, community leader, friend? Rev. Lloyd is all of these and will leave a rich legacy behind when he, his wife, Peg, and son, Randy, leave. Betty Spencer, the church clerk, says, "Skip has been a marvelous community participant. He always seems to be able to focus on the heart of the matter - whether in public services such as Christmas on the Canal or Memorial Day or in church services such as weddings and memorial services. He always picks up on the very personal details that get to people's hearts. He has a tremendous memory for names and faces. His wife, Peg, has also been a wonderful community asset. She started the First Night Celebrations on New Year's Eve. She has tremendous energy and gives her all." "He was special to us because our son, Carl, was one of the first baptisms he did in Spencerport," says Alison Diehl. "That was the way we got to know him and his wife, Peg. Skip and my husband, Jesse, started the first camping group, the Sonshine Campers. The group is now in its 10th year. We will miss them. Peg also started women's groups that I was in. We'll miss the whole family." "We're going to miss his involvement in our community," says Ogden Supervisor Gay Lenhard. "He played a significant role in our Spencerport Area Chamber of Commerce. His benedictions at community events were always very relevant. He could pull in the events of that celebration, and he did it with a good sense of humor." Harold Lloyd was born in Berkeley California in the 1940s. He spent 15 months in Japan in the early 1950s because his father was in the military. In 1953, he traveled across the country to New Hampshire and remained in the New England area until 1974. Then, on three consecutive weekends, he received his undergraduate degree from Windham College in Putney Vermont, received his Master of Divinity degree from Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine and was ordained in the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Manchester, New Hampshire. "I took the scenic route," Lloyd says about his education. He initially was looking for a career in the theatre and then redirected his course to becoming a full-time director of Christian education. However, parish ministry soon became his focus, and he has been involved in that for the past 27 years. Rev. Lloyd served as a student pastor in Bangor Maine and Guilford, Vermont. He then served churches in Bethel, Vermont; North Adams, Massachusetts; Sioux Falls, South Dakota before he came to Spencerport in August 1991. Rev. Lloyd said that when he came here ten years ago, the White Church was "in a state of turmoil. My goals were twofold," he says. "I wanted to help the congregation get along with each other with more Christian love and compassion, and I wanted to get the church to its sesquicentennial in October 2000." Both goals have been achieved. Rev. Lloyd has been extremely involved with the Spencerport community. He has been a member of the Spencerport Rotary, on the Board of Directors of the Spencerport Area Chamber of Commerce, on the Advisory Board of the Ogden Senior Center and held spring and fall sing-a-longs at the Center. "I have signed the guest book (of the Senior Center) more than any other clergy in town," he says. Lenhard says he was a "nice influence and a very valuable member of the Senior Center," an organization which is "near and dear to my heart." She says that he has been an important force in "keeping the Center viable." He has also been extensively involved with Wedgewood Nursing Home (located next door to his home) which he describes as a "good neighbor." He has been involved with the Spencerport Team on Prevention (STOP), which addresses substance abuse, has been involved in leadership capacities in the Spencerport Ecumenical Ministries and was president and administrator of the Human Needs Fund of that organization. He has been the "clergy of choice" for such community-wide events as the Memorial Day Celebration, the Veterans Day Celebration and Christmas on the Canal. He is the Protestant chaplain for the Spencerport Volunteer Fire Department and is a consultant to the Ethics Committee of the Town of Ogden. He has also worked with Spencerport Schools on crisis-response teams, Parent University and mock weddings in the teen living classes. Rev. Lloyd has held leadership posts in the Genesee Valley Association for the New York Conference of the United Church of Christ. Rev. Lloyd is also a regular walker on the canal towpath, where he has befriended various people, many of whom he does not know by name. Every morning he walks to Adams Basin and back, a trek of about six miles. He said when he first came to Spencerport, he weighed 95 pounds more than he does today. He was having trouble getting around due to his weight and arthritis. He said that was a sign for him to change. He began what he calls the Four Ws: Walking, Water consumption (64 ounces a day), Writing down what he eats and what he does for exercise and Worship. Rev. Lloyd says there have been many such "intangibles" of his experiences here in town." I have enjoyed responding to people's needs as I walk all over God's creation. These intangibles are as gratifying to me as the official things." Saying that he always pays attention to such "intangibles," Rev. Lloyd notes that his grandfather's name was Athol Vincent Lloyd, the same name as the town to which he is moving. A good sign he thinks! |
