We are excited to introduce our transitional pastor, Rev. David Starbuck Gregory. David will begin with West Bloomfield UCC starting in January of 2025, and will be us for a period of 18 – 24 months while we search for a permanent replacement pastor.

David Starbuck Gregory was ordained over 40 years ago, and is an authorized minister in the United Church of Christ. He has served about a dozen churches in settled, interim, and designated-term positions. His ministry settings have been mostly in New York, but he has also served congregations in Chicago, Erie PA, and more recently in the San Francisco Bay. He was born in Florida, but raised in the small southwest Ohio city of Wilmington. He is a graduate of Wilmington High School, Cedarville University, Denver Baptist Theological Seminary and later studied at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.


In addition to his work as a minister, he was trained in Spiritual Direction at the Linwood
Spiritual Center in Rhinebeck, New York. Other trainings include Congregational Mediation Skills with the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center, Transitional Ministry skills with the Interim Ministry Network, and Church Planting and Renewal with Convergence (Center for Progressive Renewal) in Atlanta. He is a current member of Spiritual Directors International and the Interim Ministry Network. He works cross-denominationally as a congregational mediator from time to time.

He has been active denominationally in the New York Conference UCC, including Genesee Valley, Hudson Mohawk, and New York Metro Associations. He served on the Conference Council of the Northern California Nevada Conference UCC, and was Moderator of the Golden Gate Association in San Francisco. He currently chairs the Committee on Church and Ministry for the Genesee Valley Association, and is a facilitator for the New York Conference’s Culturally Responsive Ministry Training module on Gender and Sexuality.

David makes his home in the Town of Gates in Rochester with his husband Tripp Hanson, a Broadway veteran and retired acupuncturist who teaches voice and dance at OFC Creations Theater in Brighton and can often be seen onstage in their “Broadway in Brighton” series. They are proud daddies to their Havanese/Miniature Poodle named Violet.