Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr., has been the senior minister of The Community Church of Sebastopol for thirty years. A native of Phoenix, Arizona, he received his B.A. in history from Brown University, and his Master of Divinity degree from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley.
He and his wife, Betty, were married in 1971 and have two daughters, Bethany, who is the youth director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon, California and Rebecca (Becky), a graduate of the University of Colorado with a double major in Psychology and Religious Studies. Prior to coming to Sebastopol, Rev. Nelson served a UCC congregation in Warren, PA, and also served for a year as a student intern in a UCC church in Manchester MI.
Along with his service to The Community Church, he has served his community and denomination in a variety of ways: member of the Board of Directors of Pacific School of Religion and the Northern California-Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ; member of the Conference Camp Facilities Committee and Youth and Young Adult Commission; founding president of the Sonoma-Napa Action Project, a faith-based community organizing network; member of Sebastopol Parks and Recreation Commission; board member of the Inter-Church Food Pantry and of the Burbank Heights senior housing project; President of Sebastopol Rotary Club.
He continues to write columns for the local newspaper and has published columns and a sermon in national journals.
Email Rev. Nelson: gnelson@uccseb.org
Associate Pastor
Rev. Kristen Anderson DelMonte
Rev. Kristen Anderson DelMonte lives in Sebastopol with her husband Andy and children Emma, Ethan and Elia. Kristen has a long association with the Community Church of Sebastopol and even longer ties with youth and the UCC youth camping program at Camp Cazadero where she attended camp as a youth from the First Congregational Church in Rio Vista. Kristen graduated from the University of California at Sacramento with a degree in Communication Studies and then attended Duke Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Kristen came to work at the Community Church as the Director of Youth Ministries while still a student at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley where she graduated from the Master of Divinity program.
Kristen was ordained as minister of the United Church of Christ in February 2009 and installed as the Associate Pastor of the Community Church of Sebastopol, United Church of Christ on that same day. Several hundred people – church members, family and friends – witnessed the ordination and installation service and continued the celebration with a reception in Memorial Hall at the Community Church.
In addition to her work as a Youth Camp Director at Camp Cazadero and other conference camps, Kristen has also participated in the Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry, the Western Christians Educators Conference and a variety of other workshops.
