Assistant Pastor

The Rev. Gilbert Preston Glascoe Sr., the assistant pastor of the Leadenhall Baptist Church, a computer analyst and mathematics teacher, died of cancer Dec. 23 at the Northwest Hospital Center. The Woodlawn resident was 71. Born in Baltimore and raised on Archer Street, he attended Diggs-Johnson School and was a 1956 graduate of George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical High School. "He was ambitious, even as a young child," said his church secretary, Tanya Dawson of Woodlawn.

The Rev. Vernon Dobson, a Baptist minister and civil rights leader, died Saturday of complications of a stroke. He was 89. As a leading figure in Baltimore's civil rights movement, Mr. Dobson lived a life molded by the struggle for equality — a struggle he continued into his last years — and as a pastor who believed that the church should play an important part in the fight. Campaigning took a hold on Mr. Dobson's life early on. Talking to The Baltimore Sun in 1998, he described demonstrating against segregation as a young child with his mother in the 1930s.

Linthicum welcomes a new member of the religious community, the Rev. Gregory S. Clagg, assistant pastor of St. John Lutheran Church. St. John's is his first church.Mr. Clagg was ordained June 25 at St. Mary's Church in Silver Run, Carroll County. Mr. Clagg grew up in that area. He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Maryland. He then attended the Gettysburg Lutheran Theology Seminary and had internships in the areas of Pittsburg and Reading, Pa.St. John's welcomed him last month with an installation service and reception.

Monsignor James Vincent Hobbs, former rector of the Basilica of the Assumption who during his tenure oversaw a two-year, $32 million restoration of the 200-year-old structure, died Monday of cardiac arrest at his Thurmont home. He was 81. James Vincent Hobbs was born and raised in Thurmont, where his father owned a grocery store and his mother was proprietor of a hardware store. He attended Frederick County public schools as an elementary school student before entering St. Anthony's parochial school in Emmitsburg.

The Rev. Lloyd Franklin Reeves Jr., assistant pastor of First Mount Olive Freewill Baptist Church and retired Baltimore public schools maintenance supervisor, died April 17 of undetermined causes at Mercy Medical Center. He was 72 and lived in West Baltimore. Born in the city and raised on West Madison Street, Mr. Reeves was a Frederick Douglass High School graduate. He was inducted into the Army in 1952 and saw combat in Korea. Discharged in 1953, his decorations included the Bronze Star.

The Rev. Estella Young, assistant pastor at Mount Calvary Star Baptist Church, died of heart failure Jan. 3 at Sinai Hospital. The Owings Mills resident was 69. She was born and raised Estella Evans in Quitman, Ga., and after attending nursing school moved to Baltimore. She worked briefly as an administrative assistant at Sinai Hospital, then on East Monument Street. From 1961 until the mid-1990s, Mrs. Young owned and operated a day care center. Mrs. Young was a graduate of the Baltimore School of the Bible and for the past six years had been assistant pastor of Mount Calvary on North Milton Avenue, where her husband of 48 years, the Rev. Alex Young Sr., is pastor.

The Rev. Yolanda Harvey Wells, assistant pastor and minister of music at Salem Community Church, died Wednesday at Liberty Medical Center after surgery.Services were to be held at 7 tonight at Macedonia Baptist Church, 718 W. Lafayette Ave.Mrs. Wells, who was 41, lived on West Rogers Avenue. Her life revolved around Salem Community Church, at 3610 Eldorado Ave., family members said. She assisted her father, the Rev. Irvin K. Harvey, the pastor. There she sang and played piano and was involved in educational and outreach programs for youth.

HAMPTON, Va. - Founded by English settlers fleeing the famine and disease of Jamestown in 1610, St. John's Episcopal Church in Hampton has suffered and survived just about every major conflict in American history.The small, red-brick sanctuary surrounded by a centuries-old graveyard on West Queens Way has withstood the cannon blasts of the Revolutionary War and the fires of the Civil War.But this past year, another kind of battle - society's warring views on homosexuality - shook the foundation of the oldest English-speaking Episcopal church in the United States.

The Rev. Reginald Tyrone Johnson Sr., an assistant pastor at Cornerstone Church of Christ and operator of the Recovery King II addiction treatment center, died of renal disease May 13 at Sinai Hospital. The Baltimore resident was 55. Mr. Johnson grew up in West Baltimore, with Methodist and Baptist preachers on both sides of his family. He graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1967. He married Laverne Coleman of Baltimore the same year. The couple later divorced. In 2004, Mr. Johnson married Kimberly Bedford of Baltimore.

In 20 years as pastor of St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Thomas W. Smith again and again found the words to console the depressed, the dying and the bereaved among his loyal parishioners in the rural Baltimore County com- munity of Bradshaw.But even as he reached out to others, Father Smith himself was tormented by a private despair that he hid from his closest friends. Early Saturday, in his living room in the brick rectory beside the old stone church, he put a 12-gauge shotgun to his head and fired.

Frances M. Clulow, a British war bride and a homemaker who assisted her pastor husband in his ministry, died Oct. 28 of congestive heart failure at her home in Acadia, Fla. She was 87. Frances Molly Smith was born in Timmons, Ontario, and raised in Cornwall and London, England. She was a graduate of English public schools. During World War II, she met and fell in love with an American serviceman, the Rev. Glenn F. Clulow, whom she married in 1943. In 1945, Mrs. Clulow came to Franklin, Pa., where she rejoined her husband.

The Rev. Ryan W. Roberts was installed as the new pastor of St. Stephen Lutheran Church on October 23. His first Sunday was October 30. Pastor Roberts grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Franklin High School and the University of Maryland . He went to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkley, Ca. Pastor Roberts lives with his wife, Breonna, and his daughter, Rosie, in Arbutus. Mrs. Roberts is also a pastor, and serve as the assistant pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore, near the Inner Harbor . We welcome Pastor and Mrs. Roberts to our community.

Unfortunately, The Sun missed an opportunity to highlight the contributions and impact of black LGBT-affirming congregations in your editorial "Marriage equality and race" (Nov. 1). Since marriage equality became a hot-button issue, a growing number of African-American ministers, both straight and openly gay, have weighed in with support for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and elevate the message that we are all children of the creator. Where there is love, there is God. Leaders such as Rev. Dennis Wiley, a Maryland resident and pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C., have spoken out publicly and unapologetically about their support for all loving and committed couples.

The Rev. Theodora J. "Dora" McLean, a registered nurse who was a founder and associate pastor of Christian Unity Temple Christian Community Church, died July 22 from complications of a stroke at Sinai Hospital. The Halethorpe resident was 82. The daughter of a blacksmith and a homemaker, the former Theodora J. Jackson was born one of 10 children in Nelson County, Va., where she was raised and graduated in 1950 from Nelson County High School. She moved to Baltimore and in 1950 married Joseph Lee McLean Sr., who worked at Eastern Stainless Steel Co. Mrs. McLean and her husband were members of Gillis Memorial Christian Community Church of Baltimore and were founding members with an older sister, the late Rev. Maude H. Coleman, of Christian Unity Temple in 1966.

The Rev. Edward Bernard Hemler, a former educator who had been pastor of St. Mark Roman Catholic Church in Fallston, died Sunday of internal bleeding at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 74. Born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, Father Hemler was inspired to study for the priesthood by the priests he encountered at St. Mark's Church in Catonsville. He was a teenager when he entered St. Charles Minor Seminary in Catonsville in 1951 and pursued further religious studies at St. Mary's Seminary on Paca Street, and later at St. Mary's Seminary & University in Roland Park.

The Rev. Annabel Chase, a retired health aide who was assistant pastor at a South Baltimore church, died of heart disease Monday at the Harbor Hospital Center. She was 64.Services for Mrs. Chase were being held today at the Adams A.M.E. Church in the southern Anne Arundel County community of Lothian.She had served as an assistant pastor at Hemingway Temple A.M.E. Church, on Woodview Road in Cherry Hill, since her ordination as a minister more than 30 years ago.Mrs. Chase worked as a home health aide for Home Call Inc. from 1985 to 1991.