ANNUAL MAY SERVICE SLATED

POCAHONTAS -- The Rev. Nancy Gillard of Jackson will be in the pulpit May 21 for the annual Third Sunday in May service at Apple Creek Presbyterian Church near Pocahontas.

The service will begin at 11 a.m., followed by a basket dinner on the grounds.

The church, no longer with an active congregation, is continued by the Apple Creek Presbyterian Memorial Association, which maintains the building and grounds and upkeep of the adjacent cemetery.

Services are held twice annually, and the church is opened for special events. A vesper service is held each year in September.

Founded in 1821, the church is the third oldest in the Presbyterian denomination west of the Mississippi River.

Rev. Gillard received an undergraduate degree in journalism at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, and a master of divinity at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. Ordained in 1987, she served as associate pastor and minister to youth from 1987 to 1993 at White Creek Presbyterian Church in Newark, Del.

She is married to the Rev. Grant F.C. Gillard, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson. They have three children.