By Karen Donato
Special to the Aroostook Republican
Since her retirement in 2006 as full-time pastor of Houlton’s First Congregational Church, UCC, Dale Holden has been the minister of music several blocks away at the Church of the Good Shepherd. This position filled the need for Holden, since once a Congregational pastor retires they are requested not to be a regular communicant of their home church. This gives the new pastor full rein to lead the church without feeling any influence from their predecessor. Holden said this was very challenging because this had been her church and family for nearly two decades and since she was not leaving the area, where would she worship?
Contributed photo
Helping navigate the 21st century pastoral waters at Houlton’s First Congregational Church, UCC are the Revs. Dale Holden, left, and Timothy Stohlberg, who commutes each Sunday from his Caribou home.
Fortunately for Holden, she not only holds a master of divinity, but also a degree in music education and when she became aware of the need for a music minister at the Episcopal Church, she found her answer.
Holden had been succeeded in 2008 by Rev. Marc Fuller, but in 2010 Fuller was no longer able to fulfill the duties of pastor due to ill health. Like many churches today, there is not a large supply of clergy who are readily available to step in to lead a church, so the church members were left in a quandary without a leader; even at one time advertising the building for sale.
Luckily before any sales transaction took place, the parishioners realized what a loss this would be to them and to Houlton, since the church had been a pillar of the community for nearly 200 years; a milestone they will be celebrating this fall.
To keep to the course of marching forward, the church members enlisted the help of the Parish of Promise program sponsored by their church organization, the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ. It was through this program that Rev. Timothy Stohlberg, a Caribou resident was contacted to fulfill the duties of pastor on a short-term basis.
Commuting more than 100 miles round trip from Caribou each Sunday, Rev. Stohlberg has been embraced by his new congregation, but not living in the community, he is not readily available for the many on-call commitments of a pastor such as, meetings, hospital visits and funerals. Through much brainstorming the idea of utilizing the gifts and passion of their own former pastor, Rev. Holden, came about.
Now, with the guidance of the state organization, the church members have set their focus on identifying new goals for the 21st century, realizing what worked for churches 100 years ago will not necessarily work today. The melding of the strengths of these two pastors will begin a new chapter in Houlton’s Congregational Church.
Stohlberg was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minn. He graduated from North Park University in Chicago and received his master of divinity degree from North Park Theological Seminary. Upon graduation in 1994 he was assigned to the Evangelical Covenant Church in New Sweden and after serving there two years became an ordained minister. It was during this time that he met his future wife, Marcia. They are parents of three adult children and a 12-year-old son, Trey.
From New Sweden, Stohlberg served as pastor from 1999 to 2009 at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cromwell, Conn. He then returned to the Caribou area where he took a job as a mediator in the Maine Court System along with his pastoral duties in Houlton.
The public is cordially invited to attend a special service of celebration for Holden and the continuing ministry of Stohlberg this coming Sunday. The church is located at 45 High Street and there will be a reception in the Fellowship Hall following the service.
