Dr. Gillespie (Dr. G.) began serving as Stated Supply Pastor of Old Town Presbyterian Church in January 2022. He grew up in Presbyterian Churches in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. He attended Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, and graduated from the University of South Florida (Tampa) with a B.A. in Sociology. Dr. G. completed his M.Div. degree at Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, GA) and was ordained to ministry in the Presbyterian Church in November 1980. He later returned to Columbia Seminary and completed doctoral studies, earning a Th.D. in Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy, a discipline that seeks to integrate the psychosocial aspects of personhood with theological insights into what it means to be a person in God’s creation.
Dr. G. has a diverse background in ministry. He served two years as a Volunteer-in-Mission for the Presbyterian Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he supervised the construction of the Mbuji-Mayi Presbyterian Hospital Center. In forty-five years of ministry, Dr. G. has served congregations in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. He served ten years as a Pastoral Counselor at the Georgia Association for Pastoral Counseling in Atlanta, and six years as Executive Director of The Peachtree Counseling Center at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA. Most recently, Dr. G. has filled interim pastorates in Diamondhead, MS and Moultrie, GA, bringing him to his current position as Stated Supply Pastor of Old Town Presbyterian, Bay St. Louis, MS. Dr. G. is a member of the Presbytery of Mississippi.
Richard is married to Belva Gillespie. Together, they have six children, six sons and daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren.
