Two Pastoral Updates from the Pastor Parish Relations Committee (PPRC)
Let me begin first
with gratitude to the congregation and staff for your patience as PPRC worked thru both the UCC Search and UMC Settled pastor
procedures.
Special thanks to
Reverend Rene Perez, the UMC District Superintendent, and Reverend Dr. Peter Wells, the UCC Associate Conference Minister
for their never ending support. And a shout out to our PPRC folks for all their time, efforts, and discernment: Lin Vickery,
Martha Leck-Leonard, Glen Reinhardt, and Carl Derner.
I will give brief
updates that will be followed with details from both our Interim Pastor, Jami Boyle (now thru June), and our UMC Settled pastor,
Travy Reeves (starting in July).
UCC Interim Pastor
We had a total
of five interviews scheduled for our Interim pastor, all strong candidates. Our selected candidate was actually found by Lin
Vickery via networking.
Our Interim
Pastor’s name is Jami Boyle. Jami resides in New Boston, New Hampshire. She has her Masters from Andover
Newton Theological School
and is approved for ordination and licensed for pastoral responsibilities.
Jami will
lead us through June. July is when the UMC Settled Pastor will come on-board.
Summary of
Jami:
J for judicial experience- with
recognition as a Blue Ribbon Mediator with the US Postal Service
A for Apostle- with her pastoral
experience and beyond
M for mission- where she is
an interpreter for the deaf and bereavement volunteer for Hospice
I for inspirational- with her
gifts and experience as a Spiritual Director
Although Jami
does not end her name with an E, we are very excited to have Jami join us.
UMC Settled Pastor
PPRC, along
with our UPL moderator (Michael Gale), met with Rene Perez and our assigned UMC settled pastor, Sunday evening, February 17th.
Her name is
Tracy Reeves and she is from Eddington, ME.
She has both her masters and doctorate from Bangor Theological Seminary.
Following
the UMC timeline- Tracy will join us this coming July.
Tracy has 20 years of experience and is
currently a full-time pastor for two UMC churches: North Brewer-Eddington and First UMC of Brewer. Some of Tracy’s strengths are as a unifier, transformational thinker, and mission focused.
She helped conceive a mission project called "Good News Shoes". This has been in existence for 7 years and is still going
strong.
Tracy is Theologically Progressive- Open
and Reconciling.
We look forward
to having Tracy join us in July!
Lenten Blessings, Sarah Harrington, PPRC Chair
