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| After a total of 38 years in the ministry, Rev. Sally Colegrove will retire on June 30 as the pastor of the Windham Hill United Church of Christ where she has spent the last 18 years of her career. In her retirement, Colegrove looks forward to volunteering in community theater, renovating two of her homes and traveling once the borders open back up. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
The members of Windham Hill United Church of Christ (UCC), located at 140 Windham Center Road, will bid farewell to their pastor of 18 years, Rev. Sally Colegrove, on June 30. After 38 years in the ministry, Colegrove has decided to retire to enjoy new adventures.
“One
thing I’m looking forward to is volunteering and spending time in the dramatic
arts,” Colegrove said. “Maybe community theater, maybe stage directing.”
Her passion for the cinematic arts isn’t a new one. In fact, Colegrove attended the University of Connecticut upon high school graduation in the early 1970s to study writing and directing for television. Realizing the financial rewards of this career are limited, she shifted her focus following her last year in college and took a few business courses.
“The
writing and directing career would have allowed me to starve, so I changed my
mind and took business courses following my last year of college,” she said.
“As soon as I graduated, I accepted the first job offered to me. I was hired in
the accounts payable department at the Greenwich [Connecticut] Hospital and
within six months I was promoted to the manager of a multimillion-dollar
accounting system.”
But how did these experiences and choices lead Colegrove into the field of ministry and to Windham Hill UCC?
Born in
Greenwich, Connecticut as a descendent of all seven proprietors of the town,
Colegrove grew up attending the
First Congregational Church of Greenwich, the town’s founding church.
“I
participated in all the youth programs and was an active member of the church
from a very young age,” she said.
She continued her involvement in the church into adulthood and while working at the hospital. Having free time after work, Colegrove inquired about serving the church and was asked to lead confirmation classes as well as other high school church programs. After two years of volunteering, Colegrove discovered she enjoyed spiritual leadership and decided a career in the ministry was what she really wanted to do.
“I
applied and was accepted to Yale Divinity School, but I still needed a job,”
Colegrove said. “The church hired me as a youth minister so I worked and
attended school at the same time. This meant I took the ‘long, slow program,’
starting school in 1978 and graduating with a Masters of Divinity in 1983.”
Colegrove
was ordained at First Congregational on June 5 of that year and was hired soon
after as the church’s Assistant Pastor. She enjoyed serving her home church
with over 1,600 members and, although her vocation kept her busy, she found
time to visit Camden, Maine to sail as often as she could. Considering Maine
her second home, Colegrove eventually purchased a house in the small coastal
village to have her own place to stay during her getaways and as a solid future
investment.
In
2001, after approximately 18 years serving her hometown church, Colegrove made
the decision to make Maine her permanent home and began searching for calls for
ministry in the area. Just when she started to explore her options, the most disturbing
event happened 32 miles away from Greenwich, across the Long Island Sound in
New York City - the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC).
“As
soon as we received the news, we [members of the church and of the town]
watched as the devastation took place. Not on television, but from across the
sound. We could see with our own eyes from the shoreline into Manhattan as the
WTC billowed with smoke. We watched as both towers fell,” Colegrove said.
That
evening, Colegrove and other First Congregational clergy set up an impromptu
prayer service at the church as many in the congregation, as well as the
greater Greenwich community, either worked in Manhattan or at the WTC. Colegrove
relives that day.
“There
was no phone service, no way to communicate. We all desperately wanted to know
how those we knew who worked in the city were but there wasn’t a way to find
out. One member would have been on the 90th floor of the WTC on that
day if it were not for the fact she was on maternity leave.” That member
eventually told Colegrove she had lost 200 people she knew because of the
tragedy – 12 of which were her close personal friends.
Colegrove
made the decision to stay in her position, and thus withdrew her inquiries to
Maine congregations. “It was too cataclysmic for the church and the town, and
it didn’t feel right to leave just yet,” Colegrove said.
Eighteen
months after that horrific event, Colegrove resumed her job search and received
several offers from churches throughout Maine, Windham Hill UCC being among
them. But having experience with a large parish like First Congregational,
Colegrove believed it would be best to accept a job from one of the larger
churches.
With
only 120 members at the time, Colegrove believed she did not have the skills
needed to lead Windham Hill UCC, or what she lovingly termed ‘the little white
church on the hill’. However, a few things kept pulling her toward this faith community.
“Every
time I thought about accepting one of the larger churches, I would become sad
and knew I would miss my little white church on the hill. This thought kept
pulling at me. There was just something special about this place and this
church. Plus, I kept receiving calls from the chair of the search committee
every day for a month offering me the job.”
Of
course, we know Colegrove accepted the call to pastor Windham Hill UCC and she
has been very pleased with her decision. In the past 18 years, she has
witnessed the congregation grow to over 200 members, enjoyed the ‘thinking
outside the box’ worship styles to be more inclusive, saw the building of a
fellowship hall and columbarium, watched
as successful adult ed classes and book discussion groups developed and
continue to this day, led congregation and community travels to seven different
countries, took part in trips to Honduran and Maine missions and now
appreciates the newly established and successful annual Festival of Trees.
“We’ve
been busy and I have been very lucky these past 18 years,” Colegrove said. “The
church moderators have been very supportive in guiding me with the work of a
small church and I could not have done it without their help. I thank everyone
and want to give a special shout out to the moderators during my stay: Phil
Moody, Dick Roy, David Pinchbeck and Eric Lund as well as Cora Moody who was the
musician and her colleague from 2003 to 2014.”
Colegrove
will hold a special place in Windham Hill UCC’s heart.
“Sally
is warm and outgoing and has truly been a friend to so many in addition to
being their pastor over the past 18 years,” the present Church Moderator, Eric
Lund said. “We will all miss her a lot but are glad that she will still be part
of the Windham community.”
In
addition to theater involvement, Colegrove will also spend time renovating her
two homes here in Windham and in Camden. She has also been encouraged to
publish the letters she wrote to her congregation every day during the first
100 days of the pandemic. And travel – when the borders open back up – is on
the top of her list.
“Although
I have traveled to 40 different countries, there is still a lot I haven’t seen
in the world.”
No matter where Colegrove may journey, it is without a doubt upon her return she will find herself driving along the tree-lined Windham Center Road to sneak a peek at her ‘little white church on the hill.’ <
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