Interim role turns permanent

The Rev. Clifford L. “Skip” Lindeman was formally installed as pastor and teacher of La Cañada Congregational Church during a special service Sunday afternoon, marking the end of Lindeman’s seven-year tenure as the church’s interim pastor.

Moments before services were scheduled to begin, Lindeman was found in the church’s Fireside Room, talking with colleagues. Asked what going through his mind seconds before entering the sanctuary, Lindeman said: “I am relieved and very grateful. I am grateful for the love of the people of this church.”

La Cañada Congregational Church Moderator Priscilla Garcia began the service with a statement that seemed to echo what was on everyone’s minds: “Thank you for joining us on this very special day, one that we have been waiting for, for seven-and-a-half-years,” she said, as the congregation laughed.

“I think it’s no accident that he was here seven-and-a-half years,” said the Rev. Dr. Lynwood Walker of Community Congregational Church of Los Alamitos, who was Lindeman’s classmate when the two men were attending Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley. “They kept looking and looking, and they found nobody that would fit as well with this situation.”

Walker praises the Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ’s decision to install Lindeman permanently after his tenure as interim pastor, something not allowed according to the Conference’s bylaws. However, the Conference chose to make a rare exception in Lindeman’s case, given his reputation as one of the church’s most beloved pastors.

“We’re very happy to have him,” said church member Helen Siebert of Tujunga. “After all these years, he’s finally ours. As a minister, he’s top of the line. He’s everything you want in a pastor. He’s a friend. He’s there when you need him.”

Lindeman, a former radio and television broadcaster, was named La Cañada Congregational Church’s — then Church of the Lighted Window — interim pastor in September 2002 to replace then-Pastor Charles Schepel, who left the church after one year. In late 2009, after what was supposed to be only a months-long assignment, Lindeman was elected as the church’s permanent pastor during a congregational vote held after a Sunday morning service.