The Rev. Charlene Corbett, of Bremen, sits in the sanctuary of The Next Congregational Church of Newcastle, the place she has served as pastor for 6 yrs. Corbett will commence a new place as government director of Nutritious Youngsters Damariscotta on March 1, a move she stated was driven by a calling to be much more offered for her spouse and children. (Elizabeth Walztoni image)
Immediately after particularly six a long time of pastoral leadership, the Rev. Char Corbett is departing The Next Congregational Church of Newcastle to develop into govt director of Healthy Little ones in Damariscotta.
Corbett’s final working day at the church will be Sunday, Feb. 19, six a long time to the working day considering that she signed her contract. She will start her new placement March 1.
“I truly have been blessed to provide this congregation,” Corbett explained. “I’m psyched I get to carry on to be in the group and be a great neighbor.”
Corbett mentioned she was named to retire from parish ministry to be additional offered to her family members. She will carry on to minister as chaplain for the Bremen Fire Division and LincolnHealth’s Miles Campus in Damariscotta.
At Balanced Youngsters, Corbett will abide by retiring Executive Director Leslie Livingston to go on the organization’s 38 a long time of operate in parenting means and baby abuse prevention for Lincoln County. Corbett has been a board member since 2019.
Healthy Young children is a lover of 2nd Congregational and the two companies get the job done alongside one another for outreach and once-a-year occasions like toy drives and the Strawberry Shortcake Shuffle fundraising race.
In her new part, Corbett will lead working day-to-working day operations, do the job with the board of administrators, fundraise, and support the organization’s current applications and commitments. She explained she may well function to expand them to meet up with local desires for loved ones assistance.
“The total congregation has been unbelievably supportive and enthusiastic for my course,” Corbett said of the alter. “And I definitely think the church is observing it as an prospect for them to go in a new and various course. And I imagine that in a lot of approaches, it’s just a quite superior move all the way all-around.”
She has been ordained for 12 many years and served in many ministries for the earlier 30, but has a track record doing work with family members as an schooling director. Corbett said she feels enthusiastic to return to this foundational work.
Her new placement “takes some of the remarkable expertise Char has, and makes use of them in a way that is individually crucial to her and, frankly, from our observations, considerable in her character,” church moderator Carl Nord explained. As elected moderator, Nord capabilities like a president for management of the church’s operations.
He mentioned Corbett was a caring minister who led the congregation via difficult and fascinating moments. Through her tenure at the church, Corbett navigated Second Congregational’s path by the pandemic, which Nord reported was like constructing an plane while in flight.
The church held totally distant expert services right until November 2022 and continues to broadcast them, adapting to new technology to history sermons obtainable on line and via Lincoln County Television.
Corbett mentioned that streamed providers have grown attendance by generating the church out there to everyone, with hundreds often looking at during the Northeast and as significantly away as Germany and Peru.
Closer to dwelling, she has been seriously concerned in outreach applications at the church, most just lately top the advancement of a warming heart software at the church established to open up the 3rd 7 days of February.
Corbett stated volunteers have been stepping in to fill roles and are all set to operate these packages when she departs. She mentioned the spirit of the church is collaborative, and customers have always been involved.
“I really don’t want to depart a void when I depart,” Corbett said. “I want the church to proceed on in a essential way. Lay ministry is essential to a balanced church.”
Nord stated the technique Corbett brought to ministry is a single that “we hope to retain and mature within just the local community, where men and women see this as a caring fellowship of individuals, not just a Sunday services.”
The church has taken their 1st techniques to come across a new pastor, which Nord mentioned is very likely to be a 6-month course of action. In the meantime, Second Congregational will identify an interim pastor through the Maine Meeting United Church of Christ. The church is now putting with each other a get in touch with committee representing a cross-part of the congregation, who will assessment resumes and choose element in interviews in the lookup for a long lasting pastor.
The church is also hunting for an organist and director of new music just after the retirement of Jean Wilmot past 12 months.
As she moves from her leadership of 2nd Congregational, Corbett explained she hopes she assisted users to really see on their own as the group church.
“They’ve usually experienced a devotion to support,” Corbett explained. “I wished to stimulate that and broaden that in a great deal of respects.”
Corbett explained she will cherish the times she has shared with members of the congregation.
“It’s been really humbling to have the privilege to be with men and women of all walks of lifestyle in diverse times of their lifetime. And I just treasure those people moments,” Corbett claimed.