A new preacher tends the Bedford flock

The Installation service for the Rev. Dr. Joseph Scrivner at Bedford Presbyterian Church. GARY CORRIGAN PHOTO

By JOYCE CORRIGAN

It isn’t lost on the Rev. Dr. Joseph Scrivner, the recently installed pastor of Bedford Presbyterian Church, that he occasionally finds himself “tending his flock” — as Jesus exhorted his disciples to do in John 21:16 — from a bench overlooking the Village Green. The same three-acre common that Bedford’s town leaders set aside in 1681 for sheep grazing.

“I bring my coffee from OHHo and take in the scene,” Scrivner said. “A few parishioners do a double-take when they see me in line for coffee, but I think they enjoy seeing me out and about.”

Tending also means being out and about and on the job with BPC programs at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Neighbors Link in Mount Kisco, The Pantry food bank in Mount Kisco to name a few.

But Sunday mornings you’ll find “Pastor Joe” at the towering Carpenter Gothic structure across from the Green, erected in 1872. (The BPC was established in 1680; this is its fourth building.) At 6-foot-2 the former basketball and football player from Alabama strikingly fills the space. 

“As impressive and colossal as the church’s spires are, what I love most is how intimate the sanctuary is,” he said. “When I preach, nobody has to look up at a screen or LED wall to see me. We look each other in the eye.” 

Rev. Dr. Joseph Scrivner

His recent Installation service was similarly up close and personal. Congregants laid hands on his shoulder — or on someone touching him — symbolically connecting him with the entire congregation. Members of the Hudson River Presbytery formally affirmed his call to lead, while congregants pledged to respect his decisions, pray for him and “pay him fairly.”

“I appreciated being democratically elected by the congregation,” Scrivner said. “Everyone has a voice, which can get messy when we have to reach a consensus, but we do it together.”

“Pastor Joe is so approachable, young people connect with him easily,” said Jackie Kunhardt, the church’s director of family ministries. “He makes ancient wisdom relevant by connecting scripture with music, sports and pop culture. He once used HBO’s hit show ‘Lanterns’ to illustrate how Christians are called to shine their light.”

Kunhardt is equally enthusiastic about the church’s community outreach, including interfaith initiatives with the Northern Westchester Interfaith Council, the Westchester Youth Alliance and other congregations. An annual Thanksgiving service will bring together Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. 

“This renewed energy gives me hope that our community can be a pocket, and perhaps a model, of unity,” she said.

For Dale Forster, a member of the Bedford Presbyterian’s seven-person Pastoral Nominating Committee that spent more than a year interviewing pastoral candidates, Scrivner’s preaching sealed the deal.

“You don’t want to invite people to church to have them daydream,” she reasoned. “People need a higher moral perspective in a relatable context. Pastor Joe can be provocative, but also very funny.”

While his cultural references range from streaming hits to hip-hop legend Ice Cube (“Check yourself before you wreck yourself”), his improv gifts were evident on a rainy Sunday when he watched parishioners shuffle in, dripping wet.

“It’s always nice to see Christians getting drenched on occasions other than their baptism,” he deadpanned.

With Halloween approaching, Scrivner reflected on its supernatural origins and its place immediately before All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. 

“We start with Halloween because of the gravitas of the next two days,” he observed, drawing a parallel with Mardi Gras, traditionally celebrated the day before the start of Lent. “Clearly, we Christians like to party.”

Several months ago, Sean Cunningham, a member for 27 years, hosted one such party for 30 parishioners at his Cross River home to meet the new pastor.

“There was never a need to ‘break the ice’ because of Pastor Joe’s people-centric manner,” he recalled.  “I think we all know the scope of his ministry will extend far beyond Sunday mornings.”

Scrivner acknowledged that he learned the art of charismatic preaching from his father, a beloved Baptist minister in Tuscaloosa, where he grew up. 

“I went into the family business,” he beamed. He now has three adult children; one son is a Baptist minister in San Antonio.

Scrivner earned a PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, served as dean of chapel at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, and was inducted into the Morehouse College Board of Preachers in Atlanta. His expertise spans an impressive range of ancient and modern languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Egyptian hieroglyphics, German and French — enabling him to bring scholarly insight to modern interpretation.

Scrivner is currently auditing a class on preparing sermons, taught by Carolyn Sharp, at Yale Divinity School.

“Every student gets to preach in class and then we give each other feedback,” he said. “It’s just invigorating.” 

Since arriving in Bedford in July, the peripatetic pastor has been soaking up New York culture, including five Broadway shows, “The Odyssey” at Bedford Playhouse and joining the bellringers onstage for Caramoor’s annual July 4th performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”

But his cultural fluency and humor always serve a serious purpose. In a recent sermon, Scrivner distinguished divine revelation from enculturation — the difference between what originates with God and what originates with society. He cited growing acceptance of LGBTQ people as a societal evolution that challenges traditional religious assumptions.

“Ever since Martin Luther, as Protestants, we are reformed but always reforming,” he said. 

Questioning authority has deep American roots, of course. Presbyterian traditions of elected leadership and representative government predated and very much helped shape the nation’s political system. Significantly, founding father and Presbyterian minister John Witherspoon was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

“Presbyterians take their democratic roots very seriously,” Forster observed. “And being in Bedford, a town rich in Revolutionary War history, is something worth keeping in mind.”

She paused, then added: “A good topic for a future sermon.”