Church of the Hills welcomes Rev. Diane Prevary, our guest preacher for the month of August. Her sermon series “Ascending the Mountain of God” will correspond to Pastor Dee’s trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro. Reverand Prevary will serve as Session moderator for the month of August as well. Following is a brief bio:

Diane Prevary is a cradle-roll Presbyterian, grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was educated at Mary Washington College (B.A. 1980), and Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (now Union Presbyterian Seminary) (M. Div. 1984).  She was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. in 1983.

Called first to parish ministry, she served pastorates from 1983 thru 1999 in Maryland and Virginia.  In 1999 she began exploring a new direction in ministry, serving on the staff of the Presbytery of the James.  Her experience in this position, coupled with training in interim ministry, led to two additional positions at the presbytery level:  Interim Executive Presbyter for the Presbytery of Central Nebraska and Interim General Presbyter for the Presbytery of Southern Kansas, where she became friends and colleagues with Pastor Dee. 

Diane elected to take an early retirement from parish ministry in 2004 in order to focus energy toward the blended family that resulted from her marriage to Jim Bushong in 2002.  Their family consists of five adult children and six grandchildren.  Their home is 60 miles north of Houston, TX, on Lake Conroe.

Having moved her membership from Southern Kansas to the Presbytery of New Covenant in 2004, she accepted the invitation to stand for election as Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of New Covenant in November, 2005, and was re-elected to a second term in 2008. She will retire from that position at the end of 2011.

In addition to this part-time position with the presbytery, Diane and her husband, Jim Bushong, volunteer as consultants to churches in a variety of areas, to include conflict management, visioning, transitions in ministry, and leadership training.