By:Beth Wallach
Hired as a full-time interim pastor while the church, located on Morris Avenue, "felt a need to do some healing and a re-evaluation of its direction," Gunn, who had lived in Manhattan for 25 years before coming to Rockville Centre, was primarily working as a psychotherapist. Prior to that, however, he was a full time pastor in Boston, Maine and other churches on Long Island.
Feeling that people were looking to feed a "spiritual hunger," Gunn was eager to merge the relationship between psychology and religion in his daily work. "I wanted to begin to bring back into my spiritual practice what I had learned from psychology and return to the ministry," said Gunn.
The father of two adult daughters and grandfather to four grandsons, he had experience working in Rockville Centre before being posted at United. In 1979, at the end of his psychotherapy training, Gunn was the director of the South Nassau Family Counseling Institute, which was based in the former Baptist church, currently home to The Vineyard on Merrick Road.
"I was happy in Rockville Center and felt my life was greatly enriched," said Gunn. "I felt very loved by the people." Originally hired for two years, Gunn, whose contract was renewed, agreed to stay on an additional year to help the congregation clarify its direction. Of the congregants he's grown so fond of, Gunn said, "I wanted to empower them to feel empowered to do whatever their goals were."
"It's been a great experience having Bob here," said Kevin Oldis, a Rockville Centre resident and church member. As the pastor who saw the congregation through September 11, Oldis said, that while he's happy that Gunn is going where he wants, his departure is a mixed blessing because Gunn has "weathered so many storms" with the congregation. Still uncertain that the person who will take Gunn's place, said Oldis, "I hope that the door that will open will be as good as the one that just closed." Although sorry to see him leave, Oldis added, "We have to be happy for him."
The United Church of Christ, a denomination of 6,000 churches that can trace its roots back to the Pilgrims, is, according to Gunn, a "very socially progressive denomination." Gunn said its leaders were the first to support the abolitionist movement during slavery, first to ordain a black person and the first to ordain a woman. In another historic move, they were also first in confirming an openly gay man to their pulpit.
A socially progressive leader himself, Gunn is comfortable with diversity among church members. Many congregants, according to Gunn, have "a Protestant, Catholic or Jewish background, but what they have in common is a rather progressive outlook on religion and social issues." He is proud of the church's record on inclusiveness, and said that even if people aren't always "numerically represented," the church is "committed to including everyone," and that shared social values and religious perspectives is what binds people together.
For Jane Reinert, who lost her husband George a year ago, Gunn "was a godsend." Sad about his departure from United, she said that he was so kind and generous and was a terrific support while her husband was dying. "He's done a lot for all the people of the church. Besides preaching a good sermon, he was there for us."
Last year, the church went through an upheaval when the congregation took a vote on whether or not to become open and affirming church-in other words, to decide whether or not to openly accept homosexuals among their ranks. Not determined by a national policy, each individual church in the denomination had to decide this issue for itself. United Church in Rockville Centre voted to be inclusive of gays, causing some members to leave. "We lost some, we gained some, but all the new members who joined," said Gunn, who is due to start his new job on Feb. 8, "did so because they're open and affirming [people] even though they are not gay."
Gunn's emotions about his departure are a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, he's overjoyed about returning to his beloved Manhattan. On the flip side, however, he's sad about leaving people he's grown fond of in the last three years. When asked about his favorite thing about his time in Rockville Centre, without hesitation he said, "The most wonderful and exciting thing is to see people coming alive, become freer to explore themselves and to have more confidence in themselves and to feel better about who they are. I have seen that quite a bit here and that's my greatest joy."
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