Rev. Sara Bartlett of the Second Congregational Church in Norway. submitted photo

NORWAY — Rev. Sara Bartlett of the Second Congregational Church in Norway is spreading hope and strengthening community in her new role.

“What has kept me in this field is the knowledge that the world needs hope, and that is something the church can, and in my opinion, should, provide to the community within which it belongs,” Bartlett wrote by email.

The Christian faith is about unconditional love, Bartlett believes, and should be absolutely inclusive.

“I mean look at Jesus, he hung out with everyone with zero expectation,” she wrote. “He loved everyone without expectation. He called out hypocrites and those who continued to feel they had the right to judge others.”

The church is a place where people can be in community and also care for the wider community, supporting each other through hardships and celebrating successes together, she said.

“Church is a place to explore faith through prayer, worship, conversation, and education, and to serve others in our community,” Bartlett wrote.

Bartlett originally grew up in North Yarmouth, spending a lot of time using her imagination and reading fiction and history books. She was very active in the church from a young age, attending youth group and summer camp, and serving on the church’s state of Maine youth committee.

“Books were a way for me to process being one of the weirdos in my school,” she said.

The family traveled often to California, Florida, Washington state, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.

“I think being in other parts of the country taught me that not everyone thought or saw the world the same way that I did in my little small town in Maine,” Bartlett said.

At the University of Southern Maine, Bartlett earned a degree in history and a minor in education. She spent a semester in Europe, which “helped to see the broader picture.”

“It was the early 1990s, so Northern Ireland and England were still arguing, and several times during my stay was a bit too close to places which had experienced bombing by the [Irish Republican Army],” she said.

She also visited the remains of the concentration camp in Dachau, Germany and “saw the remains of the horrors which had happened there.”

After college, Bartlett worked in museums and then became a licensed social worker. 

“I spent 12 years doing all sorts of social work with my last job at the Frannie Peabody Center, working with people who are living with HIV/AIDS,” she said.

During a time of healing and transition in her early 30s, Bartlett returned to her childhood church, feeling a call to the ministry that kept getting stronger.

“I remember one night I heard ‘my call’ from God, and since then it has become my mission statement: ‘Go out and remind them it is about love. They have forgotten that,’” she said. 

While the call wasn’t very specific, this caused Bartlett to realize that many humans have become “so accustomed to fear and worry, and hatred of ‘the other.’”

She says humanity has largely forgotten the “simple, yet hard, way of being in this world: Love each other without any expectations in return.”

Bartlett attended the Bangor Theological Seminary until it closed down after almost 200 years, before transferring to Andover Newton Seminary, which is now a part of the Yale Divinity School.

“My church did fundraisers, and one person from my childhood church paid for a semester of my education,” Bartlett wrote. “My parents, and now spouse, were amazing and did all they could for my newborn, and my other child, who was a pre-teen.”

Bartlett’s time at the Second Congregational Church in Norway started in Sept. 2021, after delivering sermons at other churches in the state.

Currently, she volunteers at The Drop-In Center in Auburn, where she lives with her spouse, Jeremiah, her middle school age child, and her dog and cat. She also serves on the city’s ethics committee and is a camp counselor at the Pilgrim Lodge summer camp in West Gardiner.

“Even though we no longer have membership in the hundreds, churches are still vital, perhaps even more so, because we are being asked to explore who we are and what our purpose is,” Bartlett wrote. “Hard work but worth it because we as a people of faith recognize we have a responsibility to our neighbors.”

The Second Congregational Church holds drive-thru suppers from time to time, where they usually give out about 100 meals in less than 15 minutes.

The church also has a thrift shop where she said “ministry happens” and people get a lot of love and care. It also works with students at Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway and is raising funds and clothes for the Pink Feather Foundation.

“We recognize that the LGBTQ community is not just welcome into our church family,” she wrote, “but welcome just as they are…. Queer people are God’s people!”

In her spare time, Bartlett still enjoys reading, hiking, Nordic skiing, and spending time with family.

“Just as I am lucky for the family I grew up in, I have an amazing family who is loving and supportive,” she said.