Greetings!  And welcome to our website!

My name is Marty Kuchma and I have been the pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ since July, 2005.  Just prior to my arrival here, I was pastor of a small but hearty United Church of Christ congregation in Pittsburgh.  Before that I served a number of churches in a variety of roles.

I received a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School near Boston and was ordained by the Pittsburgh Association in the Penn West Conference of the United Church of Christ. 

I come to ministry with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Pittsburgh.  For nearly 23 years prior to ordination, I worked in the human services field throughout New England, as well as in the Pittsburgh area and around the Commonwealth of Virginia.  During my social work career I served in a wide range of capacities, from psychotherapist to clinical supervisor, program administrator to program and systems consultant.  Most of my human service work focused on children, youth and families.

While I have felt called to ordained ministry from the time I was ten years old, my road to ministry has been anything but straightforward.  I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and attended sixteen years of Catholic School, all the while preparing myself for the priesthood.  By the time I graduated from college, it had become rather clear to me that, though I still felt called to ministry, I did not fit comfortably in the Catholic Church.

So I wandered for a number of years in the spiritual wilderness, visiting virtually every type of mainline Protestant church and even trying to find my spiritual home within Catholicism again.  I eventually discovered Unitarian Universalism and I went to seminary as a student in that tradition.  While in seminary I became better acquainted with the United Church of Christ, and by God's Grace I am blessed to be ordained in this wonderful denomination and pastor of this UCC congregation with such a rich history and such awesome potential to make a constructive difference in the world!

Along with my responsibilities as pastor of this congregation, my interests include community involvement and interfaith dialogue. I am  the former Chair of the Carroll County InterFaith Council and current Vice President of the Westminster Ministerium. I am involved with the Carroll County UCC Clergy and the UCC Catoctin Association Clergy and am a member-at-large of the Catoctin Association Council. In September, 2007, I will begin doctoral studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary.

My wife, Sue, and I live in Westminster with our daughters, Lucy, age 7, and Meg, age 5. As a family we are truly grateful to be here, and we feel blessed to be affiliated with St. Paul's United Church of Christ.