Date: Fri 26-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

snapshot-Rev-William-Padgett

Full Text:

SNAPSHOT: The Rev William Padgett

Occupation: I'm the pastor of St John's Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook. I

started a year ago Christmas, originally to fill in between pastors. I had

resigned from a four-church regional ministry and wanted to rest for a little

while. But I missed celebrating the Mass and I felt a loss. Then I got a call

to serve at St John's, just for Christmas -- and I'm still there.

Previous Occupation: I worked for DuPont for about 35 years. I was manager of

engineering, and my wife and I lived in Fairfield, except for 12 years that we

lived in Arkansas. I worked mostly in Europe and South America. When the

company wanted me to move to Mexico, I retired. I decided I wanted to go into

the ministry. I had always wanted to, but until this point I didn't think I

was ready. I was 60 when I started the three-year seminary program at Yale. It

was a wonderful experience. Afterwards, I was sent to Waterbury and started

with two churches and eventually had four: Trinity in downtown Waterbury, St

Mark's in Waterbury, St George's in Middlebury, and All Saints in Wolcott.

Each church had its own personality and it was a lot of work, trying to serve

the needs of four congregations.

Family: My wife, Martha, and I are originally from Michigan. We met when we

were both attending college at a technical school in the Upper Peninsula. We

got married after I graduated -- I wanted to be sure that I had a job. When I

went to the seminary at Yale Divinity School, we lived on campus in married

housing. Martha audited all the courses I took plus some others, and when she

finished, she was the first person to be awarded an honorary master of

divinity degree. She helps me a lot -- teaching Bible classes, filling in for

the acolyte, doing counseling.

Hobbies: I like to play golf. Actually, I started out with the ministry being

my hobby. All the years that I worked (at DuPont) I was very involved as a lay

person in the church: chalice bearer, vestry, senior warden. When we lived in

Arkansas for 12 years, I became the lay administrator of a downtown church

when the priest, who had been there for 28 years, retired.

Organizations: There's so much to do with the ministry that I don't have time

to be in other organizations. When I was pastor at Trinity in Waterbury, we

started a drop-in program for homeless persons, a place where they could go

during the day when the shelters weren't open. At first many people in the

church didn't like the idea. But the program eventually became very

successful. Many of the homeless wound up getting jobs and even came back to

work as volunteers. Money to operate the program eventually dried up because

of federal cutbacks and it had to close.

Favorite Vacation Spot: We have a timeshare in Mexico because I spent a lot of

time working there for DuPont. But we like to trade it and go to (timeshares

in) other places. We've been to Italy, Germany, England and Ireland. Now we're

trying to see the United States, so we're going to a place called Smuggler's

Cove which is north of Stowe, Vt.

Personal Philosophy: My philosophy is simple, not theological. I believe that

every person should have a calling and be active in their calling. God wants

us to work on this. It's not just going to church on Sunday. We need to be

active for the calling that God has given us. You don't have to be a

missionary in the hinderlands, there is enough work to do right here.