L’pool Methodists welcome Pastor Ray Gilman

By Russ Tarby

Contributing Writer

After many years of working in various marketing, graphics and advertising jobs in Central New York, Ray Gilman decided it was time to devote his life to God.

“I joined a group of Methodist ministers on a mission to Uganda in 2008, and it was there that I got the call,” he said in a telephone interview last Thursday, his second day on the job as the new pastor of Liverpool’s First United Methodist Church, 604 Oswego St.

Gilman succeeds Pastor Bob Vizthum, who led the congregation for only a single year. Vitzhum has been reassigned to Christ United Methodist Church in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.

Gilman was born in Syracuse and spent most of his youth in the greater Syracuse area, being raised as a Roman Catholic by a single mother. When he was in seventh grade his family moved north, where he graduated from Sandy Creek Central Schools.

Gilman went on to earn a liberal arts degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, before embarking on a varied career.

He was employed by several area businesses including Stickley Furniture, Raymour & Flanigan, Cowley Associates advertising agency and various printing companies. He specialized in pre-press graphics and photography.

Over the years, Gilman developed a deep passion for the Lord, he said.

“That passion and a deeper scriptural understanding inspired me to surrender to the Lord’s call and ‘go wherever Christ commands’ and do good work for the Kingdom of God,” Gilman said.

Four years after his epiphany in Uganda, Gilman was appointed as a licensed local pastor and he oversaw several Methodist parishes in Western New York.  

In December 2017, he earned a master of divinity from Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College and United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio. Five months later, he was robed and formally received by the Upper New York Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church as a Provisional Elder.

Gilman started work at Liverpool’s “purple-door church” on July 1. His family recently moved into a home in the Bayberry area.

“My wife, Andrea, and I bring our joy with us wherever we go in the presence of our three daughters, Lexie, Tori and Katie,” he said.

Gilman’s oldest child, Dylan, lives and works in the Rochester area.

The new pastor is busy familiarizing himself with his new congregation, meeting people and prioritizing projects, but his first major task will be providing leadership in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve got to find ways to generate a reasonable online worship experience,” he said. “And eventually we need to get people coming back into the church. So right now I’m meeting a lot of our parishioners but also navigating this pandemic.”

Churches in 21st century America are all in decline, he pointed out, as many young people remain reluctant to participate. So, Gilman knows he has his work cut out for him.

“My primary focus will be to connect to the community,” he said. “What does the community really need? I want to understand where their hearts are leading them, then we’ll lean into it and make it happen.”

For instance, he applauds the Liverpool congregation’s longtime support of Brown Memorial Methodist Church, a struggling parish at 228 Davis St., on Syracuse West End.

Liverpool’s First United Methodist Church was founded in 1820, so this year marks its bicentennial.