Bridge Associate Minister

Marguerite Sheehan

Happy New Year Edwards Church! I am so glad to be able to introduce myself as your new Bridge Associate Minister! I look forward to meeting each of you during the 4-6 months that I will be serving your church here in Northampton. I live just over the river in Amherst with my wife Dorrie and our active 2.5 year old standard poodle Penny. We are “back in the valley” after a 10 year sojourn in Shelburne Falls, where I served as the minister of    Trinity Church.

A “bridge” is a particular kind of ministry; one that “spans” this next part of your church history. One side of the bridge being your recent past with Deb Moore as your Minister of Faith Formation and the other side of the bridge being your yet to be discovered and called new Associate Pastor. A Bridge Ministry is intended to provide and nurture a firm and solid passage, a “non-anxious presence” in times of transition, and a joyful and perhaps even playful experiment in Walking in the Way of Jesus who spans the generations and holds us firmly in love and care.

I love that I am coming to be with you now, in this season of Epiphany, when Christians continue to ponder about how the living presence of Jesus speaks to each of us, to our churches and the suffering and beautiful world. I look forward to worshipping together into the season of Lent and on into the Easter season! I will do my best to get to know you, your church traditions, hopes and visions. Speaking of  hope, I fervently hope that you will dust off your name tags and wear them. There is just one of me to get to know and many of you!

Grace and Peace, Reverend Marguerite Sheehan (Please feel free to call me Marguerite!