RUMFORD – Exactly 50 years ago, on Nov. 5, 1955, the Rev. Henry Male Jr. was ordained as an Episcopalian priest at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton, N.J.
On Saturday, dozens of parishioners, family members and friends from Maine and away gathered at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Rumford, then at the Mexico Town Hall, to celebrate the golden anniversary of his ordination. Male, 75, who lives in Norway, has pastored the Rumford church since 1994, a vocation he shows no signs of leaving.
His wife, Ellen, gave him a new black shirt created for the white collar that morning, just before the noontime Eucharist service. She knows he’s not going to retire anytime soon.
His parishioners hope he doesn’t, either.
Pam Washington, a St. Barnabas parishioner for more than 30 years, said he feels the same about everyone. He’s positive and hopeful, a trait, she said, that has built the church up.
“We were struggling before and almost closed,” she said. “We know he’s going to be there for us.”
Grace McKivergan, another St. Barnabas parishioner, echoed Washington’s sentiments.
“He has time for everybody. He has taken a little church and revitalized it,” she said.
Male said he has wanted to enter the ministry since he was a child. He came from an Episcopalian family and, although his father advised him to take business courses, “just in case,” he knows he has made the right decision.
A few years after he was ordained, he had what he termed a conversion. He had always felt that the Episcopalian Church was THE church. Then, in the 1960s, he realized that his church was but one part of all Christian churches.
Since then, he has become very ecumenical. He wrote a book on working with other churches in 1983 titled, “Conversion to Ecumenism.”
“We are all believers. Sometimes we think we have the answer, but we don’t. I love my church and it is open to everyone,” he said.
He says pastoring a church gives him a chance to be a part of a bigger sense of community than just the self.
“I like being a part of peoples’ lives. I’m a people person. I’ve thought about retiring several times, but I keep coming back. This is what I love,” he said.
He came to Maine more than 30 years ago when he found a piece of land near Norway Lake that he loved. He and his wife moved to that property on a full-time basis 12 years ago.
Besides dozens of local parishioners and people that he had worked with on Episcopalian matters, his three children attended the celebration – sons Mark from Rhode Island and Henry from Arizona, and daughter Margaret from Pennsylvania.
Male shares the pastorate at St. Barnabas with the Rev. Merrill Bittner.
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