Rev. Brown moving on

Rev. Brown

The Annandale community will lose one of its leading lights when Rev. Clarence Brown, the senior pastor at Annandale United Methodist Church moves on to a new assignment out of town.

“My time in Annandale has been a joy,” says Brown, who’s led AUM for the past 10 years. “I will miss this place very much. I’ve invested a lot of time here and developed deep friendships.”

AUM is hosting a farewell dinner and celebration for Brown the weekend of June 9-10.

Brown begins his new position at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Yorktown, Va., July 1. That church’s current pastor is on medical leave, so the bishop in charge of the 1,200 Methodist churches in Virginia assigned Brown to St. Luke’s. When pastors are transferred, “we’re consulted,” Brown says, “but at the end of the day, when the bishop says go, we go.”

Brown will be succeeded at AUM by Jason Micheli, the associate pastor at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria.

Before coming to AUM, Brown was district superintendent for the Norfolk area for the Virginia Conference of United Methodist Churches. He began his career as associate pastor of Central United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

Brown has known his wife, Jarun “Jaie” Brown, since they were children in Queens, N.Y. They went to separate colleges, then reconnected in 1975 and married a year later. After a career as a marketing executive for McDonalds, Jaie shifted her attention to helping children as a court-appointed special advocate. She plans to continue that work in Yorktown.

“I am very thankful for the people at Annandale United Methodist Church,” Brown says. “They are very much committed to making a difference in the community – not just here, but around the world.”

“I have rarely been in a place where the people are so generous and where the community comes together – the business, police, government, nonprofits, and faith communities – to work together to seek to make life better for everyone,” he says.

Brown also expressed gratitude “for my time with the Annandale Roundtable and the things we accomplished, including the Taste of Annandale.” Brown was chair of the Planning Committee for the first two Taste of Annandale festivals.