From our new Rector:

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 13:52

A message from The Rev. Colette Bachand-Wood

 
My Dear Friends of All Saint’s,

            I greet you with a very joy filled and humbled heart. Words cannot express the gratitude and excitement I felt when I heard I had been chosen to serve as your new priest. Like the disciples who on that first Pentecost were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit, I invite you to join me in this time of great joy.

            I know that it has been a difficult year (if not years with the closing of Halifax) and I am sorry for how challenging change can be. In the two parishes that I  worked with, both underwent the changing of its rector while I was there. The Scituate church lost its rector of 39 years (yes, 39!) while it was sponsoring me for the priesthood. When I served at St. Stephen’s for four years, the rector of 20 years announced his departure just months after I arrived. I share this with you because I know how much change can hurt and how unsettling it can be.

            And so I invite you into a time of joy. Joy and hope. Joy because God has brought us together for a story that we will write together of God’s love lived out on the South Shore/South Coast of Massachusetts. And hope because as followers of Jesus Christ, as Christians, hope is not an option – hope is who we are!

            During this time of hope and joy, we will have so many stories to share and so much to learn.  I am so anxious to meet each and every one of you, and to hear your dreams. In the first few months of my ministry I am hoping a series of Sunday, after church get-togethers, in small groups in some of your homes, will give us a chance to get to know each other.

            And you are probably wondering who I am and what I am all about. Well, there will be so much more to say but a very brief introduction is that I am a 45-year-old woman, living in Scituate with my husband Russell and our two amazing daughters. Bridget is our oldest who is a senior at Scituate High School and making decisions about where to attend college next year. She will do a double major in performing arts and communications. Adrienne is her little sister who is in 8th grade and is a delightful young woman out to save the world. We have a German shepherd named Leisel (from the Sound of Music, my favorite movie!) and two sister cats named Sophie and Bianca. I grew up in New Bedford where my parents still live.

            I spent four years as the assistant at St. Stephen’s in Cohasset before leaving parish ministry to be hospice chaplain for the Norwell VNA and Hospice. After three years with hospice I found that I missed parish ministry, being in a Christian family, and working with parishioners on the issues that touch our lives. Early last fall, I submitted my name to Bishop Bud for consideration to a parish position, which brought me to you.

            And so we begin. My first Sunday with you will be Feb. 12 and I can’t wait!

In the meantime, I would like to ask you to be in touch with me so we can get to know each other. Please send me an email (and a picture of you or your family or pet or garden or anything else). Tell me about you (your family) and tell me what I can be praying for for you, until we meet. If you are someone not inclined to use email, you may drop a confidential note to Maureen who will get it to me on one of my visits there in the next weeks.  If you are struggling with the change, let me know. If you have special concerns in your family – cancer, depression, children with ADD, unemployment – let me know, and I will hold you in my morning prayers. My new email is revcolette@allsaintswhitman.com

Our ministries will merge next month as the season of Lent begins. I envision this time to be a time of healing. As the quiet of winter turns into the season of new creation and resurrection, we too will gently enter a new season in the life of our church.

Holding you in my heart …

Yours in Christ, 

Rev. Colette