New pastor steps in at Presbyterian Church

Reverend Anne Stewart Miller of Portland, Oregon and most recently Montauk, is the new interim minister at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. She was officially hired for the position by the Presbytery on October 18. She spent her first night here on November 8.

“We had a wonderful dinner that first night,” she said. The manse had been stocked with food before she and her husband arrived. “The people here are so very gracious, giving and welcoming,” she said.

Pastor Miller interviewed for the position after it was announced that Pastor Bill Grimbol would retire after 25 years at the church. She learned about the position through the regional church organization.

She attended San Francisco Theological Seminary between 1996 and 1999 and was ordained at age 50 at the First Presbyterian Church of Portland in 2001, where she served as the minister for seven years. She holds a master’s in business administration and previously had a career in the business world.

Reverend Miller is currently seeking her Doctorate of Ministry from Austin Presbyterian Seminary, “a part-time program for working ministers,” she said. She is “close to graduation” and writing her thesis on interim ministry, drawing from her experience as a “facilitator” between installed ministers.

Her last post was interim pastor, from 2008 to June 2011, at the Montauk Community Church. After leaving Montauk in July, Reverend Miller spent the summer in Portland, where her children live: Thomas, 25, is studying software design and Julia, 21, is studying art, both at Portland Community College.

“That’s my permanent home,” she said of the city. She drove from Portland, with dogs, Tim and Rosie, and husband, Ken Miller, who is retired from a management position at the phone company where he met his future wife. They married in 1981. He has since returned to Portland and will travel “back and forth” between the coasts, Reverend Miller said.

As a minister in Portland, Reverend Miller led 300 to 400 people in worship. She had an estimated 50 to 60 worshippers at the ecumenical Thanksgiving service for all Islanders at St. Mary’s Church this year. “You really get to know people -— and everyone — well,” she said Friday, calling it the biggest difference between preaching to a larger congregation versus a smaller one.

She performed her first sermon as the interim pastor at Shelter Island Presbyterian on November 20. It was about the grieving process that goes hand in hand with a change in religious leadership.

In her sermon, she asked, “Will things ever be exactly the same around here? No. Can we even think about the future, for example, without Pastor Bill as our minister? Yes.”

It was actually the second part of a sermon she delivered as a guest pastor on July 10, the first Sunday after Pastor Grimbol had retired.

“We’re still working on getting acquainted,” she said of the parishioners and herself. Pastor Bill left behind “very big” shoes to fill, she agreed, but that doesn’t intimidate her because she hoped people would come to “accept” and “trust” her, she said.

She stressed that her position is not a replacement for Pastor Bill but as an “agent of hope” during the one- to two-year transition between permanent ministers. “You agree when you come in as an interim that you will not become permanent,” she said, explaining why she is not a candidate for the post.

According to Reverend Miller, being an interim minister requires her to “wear two hats.” The first hat carries “lead pastor responsibilities,” such as preaching, teaching and visits to those in a hospital or at home. It also includes performing “special services” such as funerals, weddings, and baptisms.

The other hat is “lead Congregational Consultant to the session.” The session is the church’s immediate governing body. As the minister, “I work with the session and lead the meetings,” she said, but she stressed that the session is in charge and “the minister is not.” Pastor Miller’s responsibility as lead consultant, she said, will be to help the congregation develop its mission statement and “decide what they want to do when the permanent pastor comes.”

The church “already has tremendous presence in the community,” Reverend Miller said. “People are in the building all the time.” At the time she was interviewed last Friday, the United Presbyterian Women were busy setting up the Sugar Plum Fair, a holiday fund-raiser that was held the next day. “I’ve seen a lot of churches that are empty, isolated during the week,” she said. There is a “very deep sense of community” on Shelter Island, she added. “People are passionate, I really sense that. People want to take care of this Island.”

She said that this enthusiasm should make her job “a piece of cake.”