On Sunday mornings, the Rev. Gwyneth Arrison races from church to church.

“I haven’t gotten any speeding tickets yet,” she said with a chuckle.

She’s the newly appointed full-time preacher of the recently formed Lighthouse Cooperative Parish, a group of three United Methodist churches: Peoples, in South Portland; Thornton Heights, in South Portland; and Cape Elizabeth UMC.

She started in July, and during the summer, she’s preaching in person at all three churches to get to know their congregations. She opens prayer at Peoples at 8:30 a.m., drives to preach in the middle of the 9:30 a.m. service at Thornton Heights and concludes the 10:30 a.m. service in Cape Elizabeth.

She listens to the livestream of the next service while en route. “I have Facebook open on my phone, and I sing along to the opening hymn as they start,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful way to center myself in prayer and worship as I make my way to church.”

The cooperative parish is still ironing out her fall schedule, weighing options that would maximize how present she could be at each individual church. Arrison will eventually live in the parsonage at Peoples once it is finished being renovated.

RESTRUCTURING

The decision to organize the three parishes under one umbrella group was reached after Pastor Kathleen Decker Szakas with the Cape Elizabeth UMC accepted a position as a full-time minister in Belgrade Lakes and after the Peoples minister, Tom Frey, retired.

But this decision did not come out of the blue. Other Methodist parishes in the region have formed cooperative parishes. The River Churches Cooperative Parish organized Methodist churches in central Maine and the Beacon of Hope Cooperative Parish assembled three churches in the Kennebunk area.

And it was intuitive for the three congregations in the newly formed Lighthouse Cooperative Parish to join together. “It’s not like we don’t know each other,” Arrison said.

The three churches have a history of information and resource sharing. For the last three years, they have hosted a series of dinners during Lent followed by Bible studies and discussion, with attendees from all three churches.

There’s a men’s group, Lighthouse Men, with members from all three parishes that meet for breakfast. All three churches have been involved with efforts of the Peoples’ justice ministry.

Arrison said that this is not a merger, and that the cooperative intends to maintain the unique and individual ministries in each community.

“We need to not have people coming into the church as the focus, but have the church going out in the community,” she said. “We need to get outside of the walls of all of our buildings.”

At the same time, Arrison sees her new position as an opportunity to deepen the connections between the three congregations.

She plans to facilitate small group ministries, something she said is key to the history of Methodism, ideally with participants from all three churches. And each congregation has only a few children, so she believes there is an opportunity to create a joint youth ministry and youth group for high schoolers.

Only a few weeks into the job, Arrison is excited for the possibilities that will emerge as she gets settled, and she’s eager to infuse new energy into the congregations. She said that every 500 years, there’s a big shake-up in the church. She believes the church is at one of these turning points, and that the current generation is “reshaping what the church looks like.”

A NEW PASTOR

Arrison was not always religious.

“I never would have believed if you told me in high school that I would be a pastor,” she said as she fiddled with her cross necklace.

She was not raised in the church, and she was skeptical.

Her now husband Jamie took her to church while she was studying to be an engineer at Lehigh University. It was her first exposure to religion, and while she found the novelty exciting, she “didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.”

When she was in her mid-20s, working as an engineer, Arrison had a crisis of faith, and she started to wonder if there was a God. After ranting to a Methodist pastor, she joined an intensive 33-week Bible study, agreeing to read and discuss the entire Bible.

“I’m either going to have God speak or I’m not and I’m going to know one way or another,” she said.

Reading the Bible was a transformative experience for her, and by the end of the Old Testament, she said she “understood God’s desire for the world, God’s love for me personally.”

At this time, she was experiencing tremendous back pain, and she wanted a sign from God. She prayed that if she could lie down, the only position that brought her relief, on the flight back from a business trip, she would believe. She was in the middle seat, and she waited for someone to sit in the aisle or window seat. No one did.

“I let go of control and said ‘I’m yours,’” she said.

Years later, she wrestled with the call to preach and whether a woman could be a pastor. “It was pulling at my heart,” she said. “I was wrestling with God.” She made another silent prayer that was answered, and she decided that she was going to preach.

Her husband Jamie had a similar call to ministry, so the two of them sold their home in Rockport and went to seminary together in Kentucky from 2001 to 2005. They had their first child right before they started and their second during their studies.

They were appointed as co-pastors at Peoples where they served from 2005 to 2011 before being relocated to two adjacent Methodist churches in Massachusetts. Their third child was born at Peoples, and Arrison baptized her own child.

They returned to Maine, and Arrison preached at Thornton Heights since 2022.

Even though Arrison has a connection with two of these parishes, she said that she’s changed a lot as a person and a pastor since she served at Peoples. She’s excited to get to know the current iteration of the congregation.

Arrison describes her preaching style as a close reading of the scripture grounded in modern application. “Scripture is not meant to just be a sedentary piece of literature written 2,000 years ago,” she said. “It’s living.”

She wants to foster the church as a site of community building, and she believes modeling vulnerability is a great way to encourage people to feel comfortable opening up. “I try to share some of myself with my preaching,” she said.