Our New Pastor Has Arrived

Reverend Bette Johnson Sohm has always had a strong call to lay leadership. Rev. Sohm served on numerous committees while a congregant at Faith United Methodist Church (UMC) in Staten Island. She began taking lay speaker courses and expanded her learning by taking two-year courses and earning certificates in areas that included spiritual direction, Gestalt Pastoral Care and emerging worship. Rev. Sohm recognized and answered a call to ordained ministry in 2005. She went on to serve part-time as a local pastor with Pine Plains UMC in Pine Plains, New York (2005-2008) and Good Shepherd UMC in Astoria, Queens (2008-2010). In 2010, Rev. Sohm earned a Master of Divinity (M. Div.) from Drew Theological Seminary. She moved to New Paltz, where she was commissioned as provisional elder and ordained in 2013. Rev. Sohm was appointed to St. Paul’s UMC in Northport, New York in 2018. Rev. Sohm is active and engaged on various levels within the Conference. She has led retreats for various churches and she helped establish and lead the Staten Island branch of the District’s Lay Speaking Ministries School. In her “spare” time, Rev. Sohm enjoys reading, movies, jig saw puzzles and history. Rev. Sohm holds a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. She met her husband, Glenn, when he was the technical director of the theater at Richmond College on Staten Island.