Former Seminary Dean Chosen as Interim Pastor for Bel Air Church

Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which was rocked in February when its pastor, the Rev. Donn D. Moomaw, resigned after confessing that he had engaged in unacceptable behavior with some congregants, has named a former seminary dean as interim pastor.

The Rev. Paul Pierson, 66, who recently retired after 12 years as dean of the School of World Missions at Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary, will be introduced to the 1,800-member congregation at its two Sunday morning services July 18.

Associate Pastor Jack Springer described Pierson, a former missionary in Brazil and former pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Fresno, as a cleric with “an evangelical bent and impeccable academic credentials.”

Pierson is expected to fill the pastoral role for as much as 1 1/2 years before a senior pastor is selected, according to Lona Wig, business administrator for the church.

In a statement, Pierson said, “The greatest ministry of the church lies ahead. I simply want to encourage the church and its people to think in those terms--how we move through this transition period and discover the new future that God has for the church.”

Moomaw, who had been a pastor to former President Ronald Reagan during his 29 years at the church, never revealed publicly the transgressions that led him to resign. At a Feb. 22 meeting before the congregation, with his wife, Carol, at his side, he said, “I have failed. . . . I ask for your forgiveness.” In his letter of resignation, Moomaw, a former all-American football player at UCLA, said that he had had years of “faulty coping techniques” in dealing with unspecified problems.

Moomaw continues in therapy and in “recovering from the struggles in his life,” said the Rev. Charles Doak, administrator of the Presbytery of the Pacific, the regional body for the denomination. “From my understanding, he is making positive changes in his life,” Doak said.

Still a Presbyterian minister in good standing, Moomaw has received continued financial and health insurance support from the church and has spoken at church conferences in other parts of the country, Doak said.

Bel Air Presbyterian has had “no discernible drop in membership,” Wig said. The church atop Mulholland Drive had listed 2,400 members in 1991 when it opened its $13.5-million sanctuary.