After four years of interim ministers, Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad will install the Rev. Madison Shockley as its minister at 10 a.m. Sunday.

"We have a new minister, but the same ministry," said Shockley, who moved to Carlsbad in May with his wife, Gayle, and two teenage sons. Two adult daughters live in Los Angeles.

Shockley is a familiar face to many residents in Los Angeles, where he ran for City Council in 1999 and 2003.

"I had a wonderful experience," Shockley said about his foray into politics. "I got 46 percent of the vote in my first run."

Asked if he has any future political plans, Shockley said, "No, unequivocally."

Shockley is the first black minister ever to lead a congregation of the Southern California/Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ, according to the church's regional conference registrar, the Rev. Jane Heckles.

"I'm really excited about my project at Pilgrim Church," he said. "To blend the best of the black church tradition, from which I come, and the best of the mainline liberal church tradition. To blend the best of both worlds and see if we can come up with something new."

Shockley calls himself "a big-city person," having lived in Boston, St. Louis and Los Angeles, and he admits Carlsbad is quite a change. Although he loves his new neighborhood, Shockley said he did not move here for the beaches.

"It's not so much Carlsbad as it is Pilgrim," he said about why he left Los Angeles. "It's a very, very special church. It's one of the most progressive churches in the country."

Pilgrim has been without a permanent pastor since 2000, when the Rev. Gerald Stinson moved after serving in the church for 18 years.

Shockley said it is not unusual for the United Church of Christ to have interim pastors after the departure of a long-term pastor as a way of giving the congregation time to take stock of its needs and its future. The four-year wait, however, was unusually long, he said.

Shockley, who turned 49 last Sunday, was raised in Los Angeles and originally ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1979. In 1989, he joined the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, a member of the United Church of Christ.

He studied at Harvard University, University of Missouri and Claremont Graduate School. He holds a bachelor of arts in political science and earned a master's of divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Since 1998, his political commentaries have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times and other papers across the country. Some of his writings are being reprinted in the Pilgrim United Church of Christ publication, "Pilgrim's Progress."

Shockley's most immediate work will be in bringing new songs, psalms and praises to the Pilgrim congregation as he learns more about its needs.

"It's going to be an exploration," he said. "We're certainly going to continue our work in all the areas we've been active in. We'll continue our work with the gay and lesbian and transgender community. We'll continue our work in terms of advocacy for the poor and oppressed. We'll continue our service to the community."

Guest speakers at Shockleyís installation will be the Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in Washington, D.C., and the Rev. Kelvin T. Calloway of the Second AME Church in Los Angeles.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at gwarth@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5410.