User:Lpickens

Larry Duane Pickens

The Rev. Larry D. Pickens is general secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. He was elected to his position in 2004.

An attorney as well as a pastor, Pickens served in cross-racial and cross-cultural settings in Illinois before becoming general secretary of the commission.

A 1980 graduate of North Park University in Chicago, Pickens earned a Master of Theology degree in 1982 and a Master of Divinity degree in 1985, both from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston. In 1988, he received a Doctorate in Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary.

Before becoming senior pastor at First Church in Elgin in July 2001, he was pastor at Maple Park United Methodist Church from 1998 to 2001 and Gorham United Methodist Church from 1988 to 1998. He also was an associate pastor at St. Mark United Methodist Church from 1985 to 1988. All three churches are in Chicago.

Pickens earned his law degree at DePaul University College of Law in January 1997. He was admitted to both the Illinois and South Carolina Bar that year and to the trial bar of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District in 1998. He was honored an Outstanding Alumni of DePaul University College of Law in 2002

He served as a delegate to a "People-to-People" seminar on the legal system of South Africa and participated in an international conference on family law in Havana, Cuba. He has served as a delegate to past World Methodist Conferences in Nairobi, Singapore and Seoul.

Within the church, he served as a member of the denomination’s highest court, the Judicial Council.

Pickens and his wife, Debra, have a daughter.