By Barbara ScottStaff Writer
Members of the Gray Memorial United Methodist Church in Caribou recently welcome Rev. Thomas Bentum as their new pastor. Rev. Bentum, born in Germany in 1958 ( his father being in the Canadian Army), lived in New Brunswick until 1967, moving then to his mother’s birthplace in Calais. Rev. Bentum and his wife Deaneane, were married in 1981. The couple has three children: Peter, 20, a student at Eastern Nazarene College and 18-year-old twin daughters, Hannah and Beckah.
The new minister graduated from Calais Memorial High School in 1976; received a bachelor of arts degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1980; he also attended Asbury Theological Seminary, in Ashland, Ky., where he earned a master’s of divinity in 1987 and received a doctorate degree in 1994 from the Ashland Theological Seminary, also in Kentucky.
A college campus minister at Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship from 1980-1992, Rev. Bentum was ordained a Deacon in the Maine Conference in 1992, served as pastor of the Fairfield United Methodist Church from 1992-2002, became ordained as an Elder in the New England Conference in 1998 and prior to being appointed to the Gray Memorial United Methodist Church here in Caribou, was pastor at Christ and St. John’s united Methodist churches in Lancaster and Jefferson, N.H.
Rev. Bentum, an executive coordinator of the unofficial Evangelical Renewal Fellowship in the New England Conference, is also a board member of the unofficial United Methodist renewal magazine, “Good News,” and a member of Rotary International.
Rev. Bentum’s assignment to the Gray Memorial United Methodist Church in Caribou, occurred when Rev. Anna Beach, who had served the local church for the past four years, announced her retirement from the ministry.
Rev. Bentum’s first service was July 5.
