The Reverend Doctor Hugh V. Nash has served Zion UCC in Perry Hall, Maryland, for the past 17 years. Prior to coming to Zion UCC, he served in other denominations as a pastor for a grand total of 25 years of service.

Robert Brooks, Licensed Minister at Zion, described Hugh as “a softhearted loving man who does not put on any ‘airs.’ He is the genuine article; what you see is what you get.” Hugh’s disability is no secret, the minister said, and he has not allowed his bi polar illness to keep him from being Zion’s “Good Shepherd.”

However, two decades ago in order to receive a call, Dr. Nash had no choice but to knowingly avoid telling the search committee about his mental illness, said church member, Elizabeth E.W. Kirk. “As the congregation came to understand Hugh’s total openness about his disease,” she said, “we came to know someone who struggles every day to survive. In watching this daily struggle year after year, we came to understand depression and mania.”

Hugh’s openness and advocacy on behalf of mental health issues have encouraged many in the congregation to know that it is all right to seek help when they need it, to share their concerns with the rest of the congregation and not be ashamed of their various degrees and periods of depression, she said.

Reaching beyond the local church and into the community because of Hugh Nash’s attitude, Kirk herself became an advocate for the depressed elderly and also was instrumental in beginning the first in house (Congregate Housing Program) mental health program in Baltimore. “It is important that people with mental illness feel that they are understood and have people who truly care about them,” she said.

Three years ago under Hugh’s leadership, two endangered UCC churches in a changing area of Baltimore city became and are now one vibrant, growing Zion UCC in Perry Hall. “If you come to visit you will find a warm and loving congregation ready to embrace you. There are no strangers here,” Brooks said. “Hugh makes sure of that.”