Rev. Dr. Stacy Smith
Originally from Dallas, TX, the Rev. Dr. Stacy Smith grew up at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church and was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in 2007. She is a graduate of Austin College in Sherman, TX (B.A.); Union Theological Seminary in New York, NY (M.Div.); and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN (Ed.D.).
Stacy’s career in ministry has ebbed and flowed between congregational leadership and community-based advocacy. She previously served as the Director of Strategic Innovation at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, implementing hospital, community, and faith-based programs to address social determinants of health, and as the Director of Community Outreach at the Church Health Center. She has also served as Pastor at Buntyn Presbyterian Church in Memphis; Parish Associate at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis; Lake Fellow in Parish Ministry at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, IN; Parish Assistant at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, and in interreligious advocacy in Washington, DC. She completed Interim Ministry Training in 2017-18, and is currently completing the New Member program with the Iona Community.
In 2022, after fourteen years in Memphis, TN, she completed a sabbatical with the Iona Community in Scotland and began discerning a calling to bridge/interim ministry. She sold her house, gave away most of her stuff, and became a “travel pastor,” most recently serving as Bridge Pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Auburn, NY. Stacy will serve as our Bridge Pastor in this time of transition, beginning on February 25, 2024. She will guide our congregation, and search process, until our next Installed Pastor arrives.
Patrick McCreless
Patrick McCreless is Organist and Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church of New Haven, where he has served since 1999. As Professor Emeritus of Music Theory at Yale University, Pat taught music theory in the Department of Music, of which he was Chair in the years 2001-2007. He holds a Master of Music in Music Theory from the University of Michigan, and the Ph.D. in Music Theory from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. Before coming to Yale in 1998, he taught for fifteen years at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was Associate Director of the School of Music, and five years before that at the Eastman School of Music. As a scholar, he has published on a wide range of musical topics—the music of Schubert, Wagner, Elgar, Nielsen and Shostakovich; the history of music theory; music performance and analysis; and music and rhetoric. In recent years he has lectured on these topics in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, Brazil, and China, as well as in the US. He also holds church music and congregational song dear to his heart. He delights in choir leadership, and always welcomes new singers!
Rev. Rachel Paige Mastin
Rachel (she/her) recently moved to Branford, CT after serving as the solo pastor at the Stillwater United Church in Stillwater, NY for seven years. Rachel attended seminary at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA and has her Masters of Divinity and her Masters of Arts in Christian Education. She is also in the last year of a Masters of Social Work degree, and will be splitting her time this year between First Presbyterian Church and the Women & Family Life Center in Guilford, CT. Rachel is excited to continue the work that First Pres started with Rev. Jinny, and to explore new ways to make connections between the generations.
Rachel is a lover of arts and crafts, a knitter, a reader, a baker, and a sewer. She is married to Rev. Reilly Paige (they/them), a UCC minister who serves at First Congregational Church in Guilford and together they have an energetic mini labradoodle named Henry.
Martha Smith
Martha Smith is the office administrator, the “go to” person keeping track of the church calendar, building space scheduling, in addition to assembling the Sunday Bulletin and Inkling Newsletter.
A member of First Presbyterian Church of New Haven since 2001, she has served on Session and enjoys singing in the choir.
We are a Sanctuary Church