Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 60 Trials and Tribulations
In the Spring of 1999 the Staff Parish Committee met with District Superintendent Donald J. Rudalevige and together felt with Reverend Bill Schuster that it was time for him to be appointed to another parish. Bill was appointed to Keene and Marlow, New Hampshire. This would not be an easy appointment for Bill since he was legally blind and would have to tend to two flocks rather than one. Some folks at Peoples actually felt that this was unfair to him and some actually felt that his time with us was too short. Movement from parish to parish is a part of the itinerant system and yet difficult for some folks to understand given the fact that the previous pastor of Peoples, Linwood Arnold, was the only previous pastor at Peoples that many had known.
Shortly after the announcement that Pastor Schuster would be leaving, District Superintendent Rudalevige brought a new pastoral candidate to be interviewed by the Staff Parish Committee. The new pastor, Reverend Charlotte Nachbar was then serving the Newport, Rhode Island United Methodist Church. This petite middle age woman had formerly been a guidance counselor in schools around Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Charlotte was unique in other ways as well. It is obvious from the church pastoral records that she would be the first woman to hold the pulpit at Peoples. Additionally her family history was in the Jewish tradition. Her husband Bob and their children remained members of the Jewish faith. One of the promising elements of Charlotte would be her knowledge of Judaism and especially the Old Testament. While Andrea Harvey and Diane Yosua were the first to lead the Disciple, Bible Study Program, Charlotte would lead a second class of newcomers and older members in this very popular study program.
Reverend Charlotte indicated in the goals she announced that she would increase the involvement of the congregation in the area of the elderly housing locations near the church. She professed to have an open door for ideas and discussion with parishioners. She wanted to develop opportunities for newcomers and to work closely with Reverend Wanda Stahl, the Minister of Church Family Life. Charlotte would like to have provided more of a blend of traditional and contemporary religious music. Additionally she had indicated that she wanted to develop a number of learning opportunities in addition to Bible study.
Life in the church took new directions under the leadership of Charlotte, Wanda Stahl and Andrea Harvey with a number of members playing active roles in a continuation of programs as well as new ideas. Andrea Harvey, who had led the Sunday School and the Youth Group for a number of years again had the young folks actively engaged in a musical. This time the musical was titled, Children of Eden. Another outstanding production drew a number of very talented musical teenagers into the MYF and into the production. The production again was a hit among all who attended. Reverend Nachbar was able to see some of the rehearsals before becoming ill.
Charlotte went to the hospital in January 2000 for an operation and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia putting her life in jeopardy. Her recuperation would be rather lengthy. In the meantime fill-in pastors from the congregation and the District Superintendent himself took turns for a period of time preaching. When Charlotte’s recuperation continued Reverend Sherwood Treadwell was appointed to serve as an interim pastor. The congregation for the most part fell in love with he and his wife Nancy. A long time pastor in the old New Hampshire Conference, Sherwood was a well-traveled and beloved leader of congregations wherever he had been appointed. Most recently he had retired from the Church on the Cape located in the Maine village of Cape Porpoise, He and Nancy both enjoyed their time with us. Within a couple of months, Sherwood found the reoccurrence of back problems and then was forced to once again retire. Most folks felt very sad when Sherwood could no longer be with us. Most were in hopes that the Treadwells would have been with us for a long time.
It now appeared that Reverend Charlotte would not be able to return to Peoples because of her health. The District Superintendent would return to Peoples and announce that Reverend William Doughty, another retired pastor would be appointed as the second interim pastor of the year. Bill and his wife Shirley had in recent years retired to the Portland area to be near their son, Bill Jr. who was serving as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Portland. Bill Sr. had spent most of his preaching career in the Western Massachusetts/Northern Connecticut District of the United Methodist Church. Because of a heart condition, Reverend Doughty would have to limit the amount of time that he could spend on the affairs of Peoples.
These were extremely trying times for the faithful members of Peoples. While many of the lay folks pitched in and helped carry on activities like the already mentioned "Children of Eden" the ship was, in a sense, without a true captain. The ship seemed to be somewhat rudderless. Some of the crew each time a change in pastoral leadership took place would take time to explore spiritual offerings in other churches. The membership began to be depleted. Some very active members of the church were no longer here to take the lead. Many of the members who had been active for several generations were now aging and were ready to cease the leadership roles they had long held.
It may be said that these times were the "desert experience" for Peoples. Enthusiasm was not expressed as it had been in the past. The creative juices were hard to turn on. Leadership seemed to fall into the hands of fewer and fewer folks. Spiritual guidance and inspiration seemed hard to experience by many at Peoples. The trials and tribulations felt by continuous changes in leadership were hard for folks to cope with on the one hand, but in time would act as the inspiration for others to come forward and lead.
The position of Minister of Church Family Life held so ably by Wanda Stahl-Hodgkins for a number of years would also come to an end. Wanda, who had been working for several years on a Doctorate in Theology at Boston University School of Theology, asked for permission to leave with the purpose of completing that work. Reluctantly the church accepted her resignation and she completed that work in 2000. Reverend Doctor Wanda then was appointed to be a Director of Resource Ministry for the New England United Methodist Conference. She and her family would soon leave the area to reside in Scarborough making the West Scarborough United Methodist Church their new membership.
We have mentioned Andrea Harvey several times. About the same time as the rest of the upheaval, Andrea completed her theological studies at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Wenham, Massachusetts. Her desire was to serve the youth of the Conference as she had done at Peoples for many years. Actually she had had an association herself with the Peoples MYF since she had been a teen member. It was shortly after the success of Children of Eden that Andrea moved from the city and declared her membership elsewhere.
Mentioned earlier in this episode in the life of Peoples was that several people became more active than they had previously been. Even though Ellie Malfet had passed away as a result of an automobile accident, the fall beginning of activity was still kicked off with a concert by the Patterson, New Jersey Presbyterian Gospel Choir. In the year 1999, the Choir from Paterson led off our program year for eleventh year in a row.. Under the able and remarkable leadership of Lloyd Reese the choir again gave a masterful and inspirational concert. Diane and Fred Yosua from Peoples at that time made the arrangements and it was expected that this group would continue to come and visit and bring us their message in song.
This was an era of song when many folks shared musical talents as soloists, instrumentalists or as members of the choirs. Many of the young folks who had come to Peoples in part because of the musicals were rapidly coming to the end of their high school careers and would head off to college or often to seek life elsewhere.
Scholarships were awarded to Chris Brann and Amy Tordoff. Both young folks had been active in Youth Activities at Peoples and both were matriculating at Gordon College in Wenham, Masachusetts. We were, in a real sense, bidding goodbye to many of those teens who had been active since infancy at Peoples.
Kit Pike had willingly accepted the challenge of leading the Evangelism work area. She proposed a three-year plan to build a small group into a formidable force to go and seek disciples through visitation. It was a daunting task. The original small group at the end of year one was decimated because those folks found other conflicting needs. Kit started again in the second year, but getting folks to commit their time and talent for the long haul was not easy. What did work was getting several individuals to subscribe to the Louis Palau campaign that was held in Portland. Several members of the choir joined the Palau Crusade Choir and some of the young children sang in the children’s choir. A few actually worked on the Crusade when it took place and helped in the follow-up activities.
This rather dry time of years in the desert in the life of Peoples seemed much longer and did have a longer effect on the congregation and the health of the church body than anyone would have hoped. Much of the difficulty was internal, but it was also, from this writer’s point of view a sign of the times in general.
Having been associated with other organizations it appears that there was a similar downturn in membership of organizations like the Lions and Kiwanis. It was a difficult time to get folks engaged in the life of the schools beyond the first few years. It was a time when people were perhaps very self-centered and wanted time for themselves. This probably was a phenomenon that had been working on the American public for a couple of decade, but it is obvious at this time that membership commitment and loyalty to tradition suffered.
In our next episode we will look more forgivingly at the times that approached and entered into a new millennium.