Priscilla Dreyman and Mary Jane O’Connor-Ropp

Welcome to Revs. Dreyman and O’Connor

Effective July 1, Priscilla Dreyman and Mary Jane O’Connor-Ropp will be the Cape Elizabeth United Methodist Church’s new minister. They will replace Casey Collins, who will be retiring in June.

The new appointments were announced to the congregation during the April 7 service by Staff-Parish Relations Committee chairperson Mark Braun. Priscilla and Mary Jane had been introduced to the committee two days earlier by District Superintendent James McPhee after the appointments had been approved by the New England Conference bishop and his cabinet.

Priscilla and Mary Jane, both of whom were previously retired, will be serving as half-time ministers, each in a quarter-time capacity. The will be officially introduced to the church during the July 7 service and they will lead a service for the first time on July 14.

New CEUMC ministers Priscilla Dreyman and Mary Jane O’Connor-Ropp (center) with the CEUMC Staff-Parish Relations Committee (Aaron French and Ted Haider not pictured).

Priscilla, who has a home in South Portland, Maine, was previously a United Methodist minister in Maine churches in Washington County, Portland, Long Island, and West Scarborough. She also was our church’s interim minister for three months in 1987. She also was a hospital chaplain for six years in Arlington, Massachusetts, and a religious educator for four years in Arlington and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mary Jane, who has a home in Wells, Maine, was previously a United Methodist minister in Orange/South Athol, Wesley, Worester, West Brookfield, Oak Bluffs, at the Cooperative United Methodist Ministry, and on Martha’s Vineyard — all in Massachusetts — over a 19-year period. She also has been the part-time Pastor in Charge at the Chebeague UMC on Chebeague Island, Maine, the Pastor in Charge for three summers at the Cuttyhunk Union Methodist Church on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, and Administrative Assistant at the Morning Star UMC in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Both Priscilla and Mary Jane plan to preach 1-2 times each month, but also plan to have guest preachers and “group preaching”. They also have worked out to each have specific responsibilities:

• Priscilla will provide “weekly, spiritually uplifting worship, collaborate with the co-pastor, the music director, and a worship team to design worship that is Biblical, meaningful, faith nurturing, creative and challenging.” She also will be the first responder in pastoral emergencies.
• Mary Jane will provide “congregational care for the church that will include administration as well as pastoral care and visitation.” She will oversee church administration, including monitoring the church telephone, preparing the worship bulletin, and attending to correspondence including e-mails.
• Priscilla will “organize lay and guest preachers to provide a rich array of faith, experimental, theological, and ecological perspectives.”
• Mary Jane will “provide pastoral care and visitation, including hospital and nursing home visits, and home-bound visitation.” She will work with Priscilla over the first few months on total membership visitation.
• Priscilla, along with Mary Jane, will “plan study groups, art experiences, nature explorations, and retreats that will help congregants find renewed faith and energy, clarification of their Spiritual callings, and new awareness of Spiritual ecology.”
• Priscilla also has plans to establish a Spiritual Ecology Dream Team “which will research, explore local and global resources/ministries, read, meet local environmental experts, farmers, naturalists, and organizations, to be educated and inspired.”

“All of this is subject to change,” Priscilla told the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. “We want input from the congregation to help us on which direction we will go. We want church to be joy, not a duty.”

WELCOME. Priscilla and Mary Jane!