The Rev. Gwyneth Arrison
Rev. Gwyneth Arrison held her last worship service on June 27 at the Bath United Methodist Church with plans to travel the world with her family by sailboat.
They will prepare the boat over the summer and hope to depart by September, heading south along the coast and then through the Panama Canal next spring.
“Sailing around the world is something we’ve dreamed of for years,” Arrison said. Since only their youngest child, Alex has been interested in the live-aboard lifestyle, they were waiting until the older two children were off to college. The couple plans to home school their 9th grader on board the boat.
“The timing was incredible, God’s timing,” Arrison said. Due to financial struggles, the Bath UMC had requested to move to half time which would require a new half-time pastor to be appointed this July. “Rather than take a new church appointment, this seemed like the perfect time to embark on our dream.”
Arrison, who joined the Bath church in 2016, grew up near Philadelphia, and although baptized Presbyterian, the family did not attend church. It wasn’t until studying engineering at Lehigh University where she met another engineering student, Jamie Arrison, that she began attending church with him. “It intrigued me that he loved science and also had an authentic relationship with God,” Arrison explained.
After their marriage, she accepted a job in Rockland as a Mechanical Engineer, and they moved to Maine. Although the couple continued attending church together in Maine, Arrison still considered herself a curious, although “stubborn atheist.”
“But thankfully God’s love was more stubborn,” Arrison said. It happened through a yearlong Bible study hosted at the church. “I realized I needed to know one way or the other if God existed. So I asked God to speak to me as I read through the Bible with the group, and he did.”
Within a few months, she had not only become a Christian, but also was delving into leadership opportunities in the church. A few years later, the family uprooted to attend Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, where the couple graduated together with divinity master’s degrees in 2005. Since then, Arrison has been appointed to United Methodist churches in South Portland, Merrimac (Mass) and Bath. Although her husband has now retired from the ministry, Arrison says she is just taking a “well-needed rest to be able to delve right back into ministry when we return.”
Arrison has baptized and brought in many new members, youth as well as adults, and four new members joined just a couple of weeks ago.
“I’m really proud of them joining the church without knowing the new pastor. They realize that the church is not the pastor, the church is the people,” Arrison said.
Arrison said she is also proud of all the ways the church has grown during her ministry, particularly in reaching out into the community. The church hosted a weekly Drive-Thru Dinner Church, which has served over 3,900 free, home-cooked meals. The focus was not only to help with food insecurity during the pandemic, but to check in with people to see how they were doing and offer prayer and support.
During the pandemic, the church also partnered with the Neighborhood Church to collect and distribute winter-wear through a “Warm Fuzzies” outreach, and hosted several “Car Parades” to assisted-living facilities to bring a little cheer during what has been a very dark and isolating year. This is in addition to other outreach the church provides to the skate park, Bath and Morse high school food pantries, backpack program, Little Flock Non-Food Pantry, Dog Will, Set for Success school supply drives and providing space for Girl Scouts and Alcoholics Anonymous.
The pandemic presented a challenge for the Bath United Methodist Church to stay connected with one another. According to a statement by the church, Pastor Arrison helped people to connect through phenomenal online worship, emails with news and prayer requests each week, and placing congregants into care groups each with a lay leader assigned to check in regularly with their group members. She also continued a weekly Bible study on Zoom, and led a yearlong disciple bible study by Zoom throughout the pandemic.
She described the Bath United Methodist Church as a family that takes care of one another but also sincerely welcomes newcomers into the family, accepting people where they are and helping them to grow in their faith.
The church received its new pastor, Kelly Harvell, on July 1. Harvell will be serving half time at Bath UMC and half time at Round Pond UMC. Pastor Harvell will lead her first worship service on July 4 at 11:15am.
Visit bathumc.org for more information on the Bath United Methodist Church.
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