New leadership at Glenview Community Church

A new leader looks to make a home on the North Shore - and at Glenview Community Church.

The 81-year-old church, 1000 Elm St., will welcome a new senior pastor, the Rev. James Matarazzo, at its annual Rally Day service at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 11.

The service will include the release of Interim Senior Pastor the Rev. Kent Ulery back into retirement, and the release of Associate Pastor the Rev. Elizabeth Hartung to her new position as senior pastor at Yorkville Congregational United Church of Christ, Glenview Community Church stated in a news release.

Matarazzo was ordained in 2005 at the Church of the Covenant in Boston. He lived for 12 years in London, Glasgow and Oxford, and received his doctorate of theology at the University of Oxford.

For nearly 20 years Matarazzo has worked in various positions including as a senior adviser at Christian Aid in London, as a consultant for the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, agencies within the United Nations and other international organizations, he said Tuesday.

In the course of his work and studies, "Jim" Matarazzo said he has visited 94 countries. After all that traveling he sought more stability both professionally and personally.

"I was looking for a settled ministry, meaning permanent," said Matarazzo, 54, who will be commuting to Glenview Community Church from Wilmette, where he now lives with his husband, Tom.

"Both the size of its congregation, its vitality and its location in the North Shore of Chicago was very attractive," he said.

"It seemed like a real nice place to settle down as well, as a family unit."

Matarazzo's background includes experience in teaching, social justice, public health and congregational leadership.

The new senior pastor comes to Glenview after serving most recently as interim senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

"I'm interested in what a 21st Century expression of Christianity looks like. It seemed like Glenview Community Church was the perfect place to explore that," Matarazzo said.

"Also, as an academic theologian, Glenview has a history of academically inclined pastors, so that made it attractive as well."

He cited Paul Tillich, the late United Church of Christ reverend whose final teachings came at the University of Chicago. Matarazzo said Tillich taught mainly at New York City's Union Theological Seminary, where Matarazzo earned a master's degree in divinity.

Glenview Community Church also announced School Resource Coordinator Chris Calandra will serve as director of Children's Ministry. The Rev. Sarah Lohrbach, communications and marketing director for the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, will join Glenview as director of Youth Ministry.

Ulery, an Arlington Heights resident and Indiana native, succeeded the retired Rev. Charles Mize on an interim basis on Nov. 1, 2021.

Hartung, an Elmwood Park High School social studies teacher for nearly 14 years before joining Glenview Community Church as director of Youth Ministry, will leave the congregation after 15 years. The past seven years she's been the church's associate pastor.

The Glenview community is invited to join the Sept. 11 Rally Day service, which will be followed by a picnic.

Matarazzo's formal installation service as Glenview Community Church senior pastor is planned to be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, led by the United Church of Christ's Metropolitan Association. That service also is open to the community.