Date: Fri 02-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

church-Trinity-Adams-Shepherd

Full Text:

w/photo: Trinity's New Pastor

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The Rev Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, new pastor of Trinity Episcopal Church, felt

a call to the priesthood while she was in college, a time when the ordination

of women was still controversial.

"At that time women were deacons in the church, not priests," she said. "There

was far more than discomfort over the question of ordination, there was anger

and turmoil. So women had to consider not only the call to ordination but

whether they were strong enough."

In 1976, when she was a junior at Bridgewater State (Mass.), the ordination of

women was approved. "It was for me, perfect timing," she said.

And just as the Holy Spirit called her to the priesthood, so has it brought

her to Trinity, she said.

"God has called me to this church," she said. "It is a big change for the

parish. While several women have served as curates, and one was associate

rector, Trinity has never had a woman rector before. And while there still may

be a few who have a problem accepting the concept of a woman as priest, the

response here has been overwhelmingly positive."

Trinity has experienced a difficult time for the past four years and was

really in need of a permanent pastor, she said.

"The staff has been great. Curate Jack Potter really has been the glue that

has kept everything together. There is still hope, joy, and the power of the

spirit alive in this parish, and it is largely due to the staff and the people

here."

This spirit of hope and joy was pervasive in during the first service that

Pastor Kathie, as she likes to be called, held last Sunday.

"The church was very full, well over 300 people, and we had to set up extra

seats," she said. "It was very affirming - a sense that the whole parish is

ready to come together as a family and move forward."

The former rector of Christ Church in Clayton, N.Y., and St John's Church in

Cape Vincent, N.Y., Pastor Kathie is married to Richard "Shep" Adams-Shepherd,

a senior family therapist and clinical supervisor who worked for a United

Way-funded agency while the family lived in Clayton for the past nine years.

They have two children, Sarah, 11, and Myles, 3.

"Our daughter is just starting middle school this year and our son is not in

school yet, so we decided that this was a good time to make a move," Pastor

Adams-Shepherd said. "Because of my vocation, my husband can't just get a

great job and move. In a dual profession relationship one person is usually

under-employed - this is his turn."

Moving to Connecticut from the Thousand Lakes area of upstate New York has

brought the Adams-Shepherd family much closer to their familes in

Massachusetts.

"For the first time in the lives of our children, we can take day trips to see

their grandparents," Pastor Kathie said. "We had been away from New England

for 15 years - actually I'd been away since 1977 - and this move puts us

significantly closer to our families."

A native of Weymouth, Mass., Kathleen Adams-Shepherd was born to an Irish

Catholic mother and an American Baptist father who struggled to find a church

with which they both were comfortable. By the time their daughter was 3, they

had joined the Episcopal Church.

"My father was very active, he served on the vestry and was a warden," she

said. "My mother taught church school."

Kathleen served on the vestry at age 16 and on a diocesan commission at age

18. She drew much of her enthusiasm from her rector, a young priest "right out

of seminary" who made youth activities a large part of his ministry.

"I think it was largely through his example that I decided during my junior

year in college to attend seminary," she said. "He was very supportive - in

fact, he may have been the one who suggested it originally."

While attending Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, she was the

seminarian on staff at St James Episcopal Church whose pastor, Carol Anderson,

was one of the first women to become priests after the ordination of women was

approved in 1976.

While in New York, Kathleen Adams-Shepherd participated in a clinical pastoral

education program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and co-founded a

ministry outreach program to nursing homes in Manhattan. She served as curate

at the Church of the Resurrection in Oswego, N.Y., was ordained deacon in June

1982 and as a priest in June 1983.

Her first parish in New York was the Church of Resurrection, where she served

from 1984 to 1987, the year she began serving as pastor of Christ Church in

Clayton and St John's Church in Cape Vincent.

"This part of New York is a resort area much like Cape Cod," she said. "Cape

Vincent is predominately a retirement community. The parish had about 100

members. Clayton was much larger - about 250 active members - with a lot of

children. The average age of parishoners probably was 30's"

Both were supposed to be half-time positions but the growth of the parish -

Christ Church quadrupled its membership in the nine years she was there - made

it more like two fulltime jobs.

"I tend to have a big pastoral side," she admitted. "I was very involved in

the life of the parish and in the life of the diocese."

She was a member of the Standing Committee, the highest decision-making

committee in the diocese, on the Committee of Ministry and was dean of the

district which she served in. For seven years she was also chairman of the

Council of Churches in Clayton.

"I served in a delightfully warm community and had an excellent nine years

there," she said. "Leaving was a very painful parting - my heart was broken. I

was supposed to be there for five years; I was there for nine."

As it happened, she was offered the position of pastor of a church in central

New York at the same time that she was called to come to Newtown. Living

closer to her family in Massachusetts was appealing, she said, as was the

sense of opportunity in moving to the Connecticut diocese, which is almost

three times as large as her diocese in New York.

"But there was just something wonderful about Trinity," she said. "I intend to

stay here. I'd like to see my kids go through school here."

In her first service last Sunday, she talked to the children of the parish,

explaining that a pastor is someone who loves them, who will teach them about

God and who will be with them through school and marriage.

"That sense of stability is very important to the children and the entire

parish," she said.

Recently new vestry members and parish officers were elected. New to the

vestry are Alan Miller, James Moore, Phil Cruz, Gene Kelkres and Beth

Thompson, who formerly served as clerk. Anita Arnold is the new clerk; Margy

Henderson a new warden. Other officers are Warden Floyd Higgins, Treasurer

Ellsworth Stringer and assistant treasurers Alan Mitchell, Larry Christner,

Hank Kessler and Dick Cogswell. Eileen Byrnes, Jerry DeLuccio, Paul Parvis and

Pat Cook also are vestry members.

"The week before I arrived, a new vestry was elected so there have been a lot

of changes," Pastor Kathie said. "Our goal now is to really evaluate what it

is that God wants us to do.

"We have to look at all of our programs, our outreach, prayer studies,

children's activities, everything we are doing, to find a vision that will

take us to the year 2000."