Presbyterians Appoint Youth Pastor

Youth at the Presbyterian Church will be working with a new leader come late summer.

The church congregation formally appointed Rev. Emily Wilmarth as the church's new associate pastor for youth during a special meeting Sunday morning. Wilmarth succeeds Rev. Tina McCormick who left Westfield in the summer of 2009 for a position in Atlanta.

Wilmarth currently serves as a resident pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, a position she assumed after graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2008. Prior to her seminary studies, she was the youth director at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania and a youth counselor at Montreat. She is a native of Houston, Texas, where she had a connection to Westfield in her childhood pastor of Rev. William Forbes, who later served as pastor of the Westfield Presbyterian Church.

In her new position in Westfield, Wilmarth will direct the church's award winning youth program, including work at the Agape soup kitchen in Elizabeth and the summer retreat. In addition she will assist Rev. Ray Roberts, the church's pastor, and Rev. Mike Samson, the church's associate pastor, with preaching.