Pastor Scott
Rev. Scott Thomas grew up in the United Church of Christ and was confirmed at Mountain Rise UCC in Fairport, N.Y. He graduated from Fairport High School and from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. (Go Wildcats!) His first calling was in journalism, and he worked for the Fort Lauderdale News before moving with his family to Buffalo in 1985 to work for The Buffalo News. There he worked as an editor for the Sunday magazine and in the features department before moving to the news side as copy editing coordinator, supervising production of the daily and Sunday news sections and working on special projects.
Rev. Thomas and his family were nurtured in their faith at Church of the Nativity UCC in Kenmore, and he decided in 2000 to enter seminary and pursue a call to ministry. He graduated from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in May 2004, left the newspaper business and was called to serve Amherst Community Church as senior minister in July of that year.
He is active in the Western Association of the UCC’s New York Conference, serving as secretary of the Department of Church & Ministry, as secretary of the United Church Home Society board, and as a board member of Fox Run at Orchard Park, the United Church Home Society’s continuing-care retirement community. He also occasionally writes book reviews and Viewpoints pieces for The Buffalo News.
Rev. Thomas and his wife, Gwen, live in North Buffalo. They have two grown sons: Declan lives on Buffalo’s West Side and works at Citigroup in Amherst; Jeremy lives near Seattle and is a software engineer for Microsoft Corp.