Influential N.Y. church selecting new pastor

NEW YORK (AP) — The Riverside Church in Manhattan, a bastion of liberal social justice causes, is a step closer to filling its vacant pulpit, one of the nation’s most prominent.

A search committee has unanimously selected the Rev. Brad R. Braxton, 39, a Rhodes scholar and son of a Baptist pastor who led a congregation of his own in Baltimore.

Braxton most recently has been an associate professor at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville.

If confirmed by the 2,400-member congregation next month, Braxton would replace the Rev. James Forbes, who retired last year at age 71 after 18 years leading the interracial church.