Meet Our Pastor & Staff

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.

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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.

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Rev. Sohm was appointed to St. Paul’s UMC in Northport, New York in 2018. In 2021 she was appointed to Bethel UMC on Staten Island. In December of 2021 the Rev. Joseph Upole passed away suddenly, and Rev. Sohm was asked to serve Woodrow in his place until June of 2022. July of 2022 brought her north to serve at Asbury UMC in Croton-on-Hudson, and at the United Methodist Church of Mt. Kisco. This was a return home of sorts, as when she was a teenager she lived with the pastor's family at the Mt. Kisco Church. 

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Rev. Sohm is active and engaged on various levels within the Conference. She is currently on the Board of Ordained Ministry, as well as serving on the district Committee on Ministry. She chairs the Commission on Archives and History. She is the coordinator for the Northern Westchester Cooperative Parish of the UMC. 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, and continues with that ministry in every district she finds herself. She mentors up and coming pastors, as well as serving as a clergy coach.

 

In her “spare” time, Rev. Sohm enjoys reading, movies, jigsaw puzzles and history. Rev. Sohm holds a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. She is currently working on a Doctor of Ministry at Drew Theological School. 

 

She met her husband, Glenn, when he was the technical director of the theater at Richmond College on Staten Island. They have been married 37 years this fall (2023).