As the Congregational Church completes the commemoration of its 300th anniversary, a celebration of its past, the congregation looks forward to the future. The second oldest church in Connecticut, this historic institution, originally a meeting house, now the United Church of Christ, understands the treasure and the tradition it has inherited, while embracing today’s world.

“We, the congregants of the Hampton Congregational Church, have come together to worship God since 1723,” their philosophy states. “Recognizing insensitivities and prejudices that segments of our society experience, we want it known that we extend welcome to all.”

This is their vision. And their minister, Paula Mehmel, is the perfect pastor to support it.

While I’ve attended a number a services since Pastor Paula’s arrival here a year ago, and have been mightily impressed with her sermons, this is the first time we’ve actually met. She introduces herself with a picture on her social media page of the snowy landscape in Antarctica where she’s wearing a penguin costume beneath a banner that reads – Protect Trans Lives – and tells me, “This is everything you need to know about me”. I’ve been following her page ever since, and am equally impressed with the words of wisdom she shares there with others.

Pastor Paula started her ministry in her native Minnesota, where she served for three years, and then moved to North Dakota where she served as a minister for 25 years. We share some of our experiences with the Native Americans of that region, and my heart is warmed with her respect and concern for these marginalized people, our nation’s first. She came to Connecticut when her two sons were at Harvard; she knew they would remain on the east coast. Here she served as a Lutheran minister for five years in Hartford, retiring after 33 years in the ministry.

Retirement offers more time and freedom for one of her several loves: travel. With her recent trip to Antarctica, she can make the claim that she’s visited all seven continents, and perhaps is the only pastor who has slept in a tent in all seven of them, including Antarctica, and has a photograph to prove it. She is also probably the only pastor who wore a penguin costume while there.
She also has more time for charitable works. She is part of the South Sudan Leadership and Community Development, whose mission is to “nurture and equip South Sudanese Refugees to build healthy and hopeful communities through sustainable co-operatives, women’s empowerment and peace building initiatives.”

“It’s a passion of mine,” she says of her work with refugees from South Sedan in refugee camps in Uganda.

Retirement also affords her more time to explore her art, to employ her considerable talent, knowledge and personal experience to assist others with their struggles. Having earned a degree in English and a doctorate in preaching, Pastor Paula hosts a pod cast, “Relentless Grace”, for those “who are seeking an authentic unbridled faith connection with Jesus that is relevant in the 21st Century,” and is currently writing a book about the death of her ex-husband. Seven years after their divorce, she held his hand while he died of illnesses related to alcoholism. The book, she says, is about how to divorce a disease, and not the person with it.

These would seem enormous undertakings for most, but Paula has “the heart of a pastor” and missed serving a parish. The United Church of Christ here in Hampton proved a “great fit” – a part time position, with one Sunday a month to herself. Importantly, she loves Hampton, the congregation and the community, admires the sense of history and pride here, and appreciates this “welcoming place”.

“Whoever you are and wherever you are on your journey of faith”, their vision states, “know that you are welcome here.”

As an “open and affirming” Church, the congregation believes: “we are called to love one another and ourselves as whole persons”; respects “the worth and dignity of all persons”; celebrates and honors “human relationships based on love, respect and responsibility toward one another”; and promises “to support one another in our personal struggles to understand and accept differences in one another.”

In other words, words written two thousand years ago:
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ” —Mark 12: 31

Too often we forget, in our society of the last three hundred years, the diversity amongst ourselves, young and old, native of Hampton and newcomer, conservative, liberal, rich and poor. The centuries old church, the centerpiece of our colonial village, its rainbow ribbons decorating the façade, blending old traditions with new world views, serves as a model with its common goal: “a desire for community,” says Pastor Paula, “and a spiritual focus in life.”

Dayna McDermott