Houlton United Methodist Church welcomes Goodwin as new pastor

  HOULTON, Maine — Reverend Patrice Hardy Goodwin will be serving the members of the Houlton United Methodist Church as Pastor commencing July 1. Rev. Goodwin comes to HUMC from Jericho, Vt., where she served as Pastor of three area Methodist churches.
    Rev. Goodwin was born in Sanford, graduated from Sanford High School in 1967 and from the University of Southern Maine with a B.S. degree in elementary education in 1971. She also attended the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where she graduated with a master of divinity degree in 1981.
Prior to her career as a pastor, Rev. Goodwin served as a special education teacher, a fourth-grade teacher, and a teaching principal for various Maine School Administrative Districts in Lincoln and Lee, Maine.
Rev. Goodwin’s pastoral career began in 1987 in Stevens Point, Pennsylvania, where she served as a local pastor. From 1987 through 2009, she pastored churches in Cortez, PA, Davenport, NY, Harpursville, NY, and Wilkes-Barre, PA, and from 2009 to June, 2012, in Jericho, VT. Rev. Goodwin was also very active in those communities where she served on various civic organizations.
While Rev. Goodwin was pastoring in Wilkes-Barre, she was involved in the establishment of Ruth’s Place, an emergency shelter for homeless women as well as an after-school program for neighborhood youth and a summer lunch program. Rev. Goodwin has an interest in creative worship, including the use of drama in worship. Rev. Goodwin sees one of her pastoral roles as laying a biblical and theological foundation so that the local congregation will recognize the need to rethink the way we do church so that we can be effective in making disciples for Jesus Christ in the 21st century.
Rev. Goodwin’s husband, John, is also an ordained minister who will be pastoring at the Hodgdon United Methodist Church and the Danforth United Methodist Church. The Goodwins have two daughters and a granddaughter living in Binghamton, New York.
Rev. Goodwin’s first service will be on Sunday, July 1, at 10 a.m. HUMC is located at 57 Military St. on the corner of Military and School Streets. We cordially invite our neighbors and friends within our community to join us for worship. Everyone is welcome. If you are in need of transportation to our worship service, please call the church office at 532-3332, or you may call 532-7553.
“We welcome Pastor Goodwin and her husband into our church and look forward to the many spiritual gifts she brings with her,” said Jim Blois, HUMC administrative board chairperson.