LEWISTON — Trinity Episcopal Church will celebrate a new ministry with the Rev. Sheila Seekins at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8. The Celebration of New Ministry service will be held at 4 p.m. at the church, 247 Bates St.

The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Brown, newly elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, will lead the worship, and the Rev. Kerry R. Mansir, rector of Christ Church, Gardiner, will preach. A reception will follow the service.

The congregation will partner with Seekins in their ministry as a progressive, 21st century center of urban ministries and inclusive worship. The public is invited to join in the celebration of new life and hope.

Seekins is looking forward to getting to know the life and people of Lewiston. She grew up in Ohio, the youngest of three siblings.  She shared in woodworking, sewing, caring for cats and rabbits, participating in the summer garden and putting up tomatoes in the fall. During the summer she loved to go to daily Mass at the Catholic Church. Her mother was a first-generation French Canadian immigrant. Her father was a sixth-generation Mainer.

That Maine family history drew her to Maine. After work in nursing and a time of formation in a religious community, she moved to Seattle and earned a master of pastoral ministry. She worked as Catholic hospital chaplain in several city hospitals, then returned to Maine. She worked as chaplain in a state mental health facility and in hospice home care.

In 1997 Seekins was welcomed into the Episcopal Church. She worked in a psychiatric and substance abuse facility as a nurse while completing a master of divinity at Bangor Theological Seminary. Seekins was ordained as a priest in May of 2017 at St. John Bapst in Thomaston.

There will be no morning worship Sept. 8.

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