The Reverend Paul Gary Green of El Paso, Texas, a member of Presbytery del Cristo, died October 13, 2021. Born around 1940, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Paul was raised in the Catholic Church but became a Methodist in 1985. While a Methodist, he experienced a call to ministry.

Paul attended the University of Delaware, the University of Maryland, and the Community College of Philadelphia. He served in the U.S. military before working for the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Administration. He was married to Bertha Alicia Green and they had one son, Paul Manuel Green.

Paul served as assistant to the pastor of Tobin Park United Methodist Church in El Paso from 1988 to 1993 and was then called to be the “local preacher” of Christ Community United Methodist Church, a new church development in Northeast El Paso from 1993 to 1998. A Methodist local preacher is a layperson who has been accredited by the Methodist Church to lead worship and preach on a regular basis. With the approval of the United Methodist denomination, Paul performed all the duties of a pastor, including baptism, communion, and marriage. From 1993 to 1998, he attended summer classes in an education program designed for licensed local pastors in the United Methodist Church provided by the Saint Paul School of Theology in suburban Kansas City.

In early-2004, Paul began providing pastoral ministry to Pebble Hills Cumberland Presbyterian Church which was without a regular pastor. He met with the Committee on the Preparation for Ministry of Presbytery del Cristo for the first time on Wednesday, March 9, 2005. On March 11, 2005, Paul was received as a candidate for the ministry by Presbytery del Cristo meeting in Trona, California, and instructed to complete the Cumberland Presbyterian specific courses through the Program of Alternate Studies.

Seeing significant progress made in PAS courses, Presbytery del Cristo, meeting at El Paso First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, licensed Paul August 12, 2005, and on March 9, 2006, recommended he be ordained having been called to the pastorate of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, El Paso. On Sunday morning, March 26, 2006, a commission of Presbytery del Cristo and the congregation of El Paso First CPC met for worship as well as to ordain and install Paul as pastor. The Reverend Jerry Smyrl preached the ordination sermon and elder Diane Sowell asked the ordination questions. Elder Norma Frye delivered the charge.

Due to ill health, Paul resigned the pastorate of El Paso First CPC effective December 31, 2006, and requested to be honorably retired by Presbytery del Cristo on the same date. At their spring meeting in 2007, the presbytery complied. As of March 9, 2007, Paul was honorably retired.