BETHEL — Because of her ailing legs, Pastor Jane Rich drives her car over the front lawn, nearly to the door, at the West Bethel Union Church as she does every Sunday morning.

A parishioner meets her before the 9 a.m. service to help her to the altar. And because of her health, she is resigning after eight years as pastor.

“The Little Church With the Open Door” has 12 to 16 current and faithful followers.

It was started by a group of local women during the Civil War in 1864. According to church records, the members gathered at each other’s houses, “on a regular basis from one to ten p.m.,” helping in the cause to build a church by either sewing or “paying their three cents.”

By the 1890’s the group was called the Ladies Chapel Aid Society. Some of their members were Mrs. E.P. Grover, Mrs. M.E. Merrow, Mrs. Lilla Robertson and Mrs. A.S. Bean. They worked to become incorporated and adopted a set of by-laws that they filed with Oxford County with the intent to build a church.

In 1893 they purchased a parcel of land in the village square for $200 and in 1897, they accepted a generous offer by A.S. Bean to build their church.

Milton Holt, the local storekeeper, gave the bell and was the first to ring it. Mrs. Milton Holt gave the chandeliers and Cora Mason gave the parlor furnishings and rug. Many of the original gifts are still inside the church.

Pastor Rich

Rich came to West Bethel Union Church with varied life and religious experiences.

Way back she worked for Catholic schools and was the first secretary of a cemetery.

She is on her second stint as the Andover columnist for the Bethel Citizen. She was an Andover selectwomen twice, too. In 1980, she helped start Andover Olde Home Days, still going strong.

In the 1970’s when satellite communication was new, she worked as a guide at COMSAT. She still remembers part of the speech she delivered to the tourists who came from all over the United States to see the Telstar satellite in Andover. “Want to hear it?” she asks.

Back to religion

She wasn’t always faithful and said she had “shoved it all away” before coming to Andover. She was in her 30s when she met the pastor at First Congregational in Andover and began to attend services again.

She met her husband, Rufus, and they moved to Andover where he was from. Their first home was a camp. In the winter they traveled daily to a frozen lake to “cut a hole in the ice and get water for the next 23 hours.” She said she appreciates the early settlers, “they had such fortitude to come here and try to make a life.”

When Rich and her husband split up after twelve years, he left. When asked why she stayed put, she said, “Andover is a wonderful community. They take care of me.”

Later, while on the search committee for a new pastor for First Congregational Church, she offered to be the temporary pastor. “Six months lasted 23 years,” she said.

Ministry school meant much driving. She had to commute to classes in Portland and Bangor while working at the Registry of Deeds for Oxford County.  After nine years of studies she was ordained in April 2000.

Several Andover parishioners came to the ceremony. “They all had little bells and rang the bells,” said Rich smiling with the memory.

Compassion

Rich said she hopes compassion is what others will remember her for, something she said she learned from her mother, Ruth Stokes Costa.  Rich said her mother was a nurse who took her along when treating people with Polio and other ailments on her New Jersey block.

Rich said when she was in the sixth grade her classmate, Patsy Hitch got cancer. While everyone in her class had donated to a sunshine box, no one wanted to deliver it, said Rich.

“Nobody knew how to deal with it. I went to visit her when nobody else would go.”

Rich’s father was an alcoholic. She said her neighbor invited her to Sunday School. “I went there and I found something. And that something that I found was God and that gave me what I needed to live in a very chaotic life.”

Rich said she has had five falls since last November. The EMT’s had to take her to the hospital after four of the five falls because she had hit her head.  She said now she and her neighbor have a daily signal. When Rich opens her garage door her neighbor across the street knows she is all right.

Her last Sunday as pastor in West Bethel was August 27.

“This Church is not going to fall apart very soon. We have no young people but we have old faithful people who are here all the time. Nancy and Dan [Grover] treat it like their baby,” said Rich.

“She has been very faithful at being our minister. She fit right in. We are not a big church. It’s hard to find a minister. We’ve been lucky,” said Nancy Grover of Mason Township, a 50 year parishioner.

Rich will hand over the reins to Vance Jordan of Bryant Pond, who has been coming every Sunday.