- Details
- Category: Current Issue
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
WOODSTOCK --- They fit together like hand and glove.
Rev. Susan J. Foster, who grew up in a Connecticut dairy farm town, found she fit right in when she became pastor of the East Woodstock Congregational Church 25 years ago.
Foster and the congregational have grown together, forming a bond that seems flexible yet strong. She finds the congregation is tremendously faithful. As they bear witness to God's words, "we try to be as creative as we can to reach as many people as we can," she said.
Originally Foster majored in German at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, thinking she would get into the travel business, leading groups. After graduation, she found herself working as the "English speaker" for a crystal manufacturer in Germany. The business was looking to improve sales. "I realized that the business world and I were not a good match," she said.
After long walks, searching her soul, she realized what she was meant to do with her life. Writing to her parents, she wrote she thought she might be interested in helping people, through teaching, nursing or through ministry. She said she had settled on ministry and added the other two professions to kind of soften the blow to her parents. But her mother wrote back and said "You'd be a great minister," confirming Foster's thoughts.
She worked for a year to earn the money to go to seminary and went to Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, earning a master of divinity. She came to the East Woodstock Congregational Church right after seminary.
Her goal at the church? "I want to be able to offer the people something bigger than ourselves, something of lasting value. Not fleeting," she said.
When she first arrived at the church, she said she was "scared to death." She added, "You see how little you know." As pastor, she said, she sees the highlights of people's lives and the lowlights of their lives, often being at final bedsides.
She and her husband Roger Solomon live in Woodstock and three children, Daniel, 20, Rachel, 18 and Jacob, 16.
When asked what congregation members might say her strong points are, she answered: "I love this church. I care deeply about them." She said she hopes that she listens well and helps make connections with what's "going on in their lives and the God that loves them."
She views the individual circumstances of people's lives --- unemployment or sickness and other struggles --- as a challenge for her calling. They turn to the church for support and the congregation helps, she said. She stressed that the congregational and she work together.
Also a challenge, she said, is that the church is changing. Despite the modern day challenges, she said she loves that "the congregational is willing to entertain new ideas. The message of hope we have is big enough to fit in today's world," she said.
"It's a real privilege to be on this journey with people," she said.