Holden to serve as new Pastor Emerita

Photo by Karen Donato
PASTOR EMERITA — Retired Pastor Dale Holden, right will become the Pastor Emerita at a special service to be held Sunday, March 27 at the First Congregational Church located at 45 High St. in Houlton. Holden will share this celebration with Rev. Timothy Stohlberg, left of Caribou, the current church pastor. Stohlberg and Holden will be sharing the duties for the church. The public is cordially invited to attend the service at 10:30 a.m. and the reception following the service.
By Karen Donato
Special to the Pioneer Times
    On Sunday, March 27, at 10:30 a.m. there will be a special service for retired Pastor Dale Holden as she assumes the role of Pastor Emerita at the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Houlton. Holden held the position of full-time pastor at this church for 18 and one half years, retiring in 2006.
    Since her retirement she has been the minister of music for the Church of the Good Shepherd on Main Street in Houlton. This position filled the need for Holden, since once a Congregational pastor retires they are requested not to be a regular communicant of their home church. This gives the new pastor full rein to lead the church without feeling any influence from their predecessor. Holden said this was very challenging because this had been her church and family for nearly two decades and since she was not leaving the area, where would she worship?
    Fortunately for Holden, she not only holds a master of divinity, but also a degree in music education and when she became aware of the need for a music minister at the Episcopal Church, she found her answer.
    Holden had been succeeded in 2008 by Rev. Marc Fuller, but in 2010 Fuller was no longer able to fulfill the duties of pastor due to ill health. Like many churches today, there is not a large supply of clergy who are readily available to step in to lead a church, so the church members were left in a quandary without a leader; even at one time advertising the building for sale.
    Before any sales transaction took place, the parishioners realized what a loss this would be to them and to Houlton, since the church had been a pillar of the community for nearly 200 years; a milestone they will be celebrating this fall.
    To keep to the course of marching forward, the church members enlisted the help of the Parish of Promise program sponsored by their church organization, the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ. It was through this program that Rev. Timothy Stohlberg, a Caribou resident was contacted to fulfill the duties of pastor on a short-term basis.
    Commuting more than 100 miles round trip from Caribou each Sunday, Rev. Stohlberg has been embraced by his new congregation, but not living in the community, he is not readily available for the many commitments of a pastor such as, meetings, hospital visits and funerals. Through much brainstorming the idea of utilizing the gifts and passion of their own former pastor, Rev. Holden, came about.
    Now, with the guidance of the state organization, the church members have set their focus on identifying new goals for the 21st century, realizing what worked for churches 100 years ago will not necessarily work today. The melding of the strengths of these two pastors will begin a new chapter in Houlton’s Congregational Church.
    Holden grew up living in the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine. She attended the University of Connecticut majoring in music education and finished her degree at Gorham State Teacher’s College, now the University of Southern Maine.
A banner hanging in the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church in Houlton shows a wreath of hands joined in celebration.
    Living in Freeport in the 1980s, she was the vocal music director in the Lisbon school system for two years and then became organist/choir director at the United Church of Christ in Bath, retaining this title for 18 years. During this time, a call to the Bangor Theological Seminary resulted in a master of divinity degree awarded in 1986. Holden remained in Freeport for two more years before moving to Houlton.
    Holden was known as Rev. Dale Arndt when she took the position at the church in 1988. She moved here with her two youngest of four daughters. They quickly settled into the community and it wasn’t long before Holden found herself as the accompanist for many high school musicals, children’s theatre performances and community concerts, as well as directing one of those concerts.
    In 1994 she married longtime Houlton resident, Jim Holden. They have a blended family of seven and 14 grandchildren.
    Stohlberg was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minn. He graduated from North Park University in Chicago and received his master of divinity degree from North Park Theological Seminary. Upon graduation in 1994 he was assigned to the Evangelical Covenant Church in New Sweden and after serving there two years became an ordained minister. It was during this time that he met his future wife, Marcia. They are parents of three adult children and a 12-year-old son, Trey.
    From New Sweden, Stohlberg served as pastor from 1999 to 2009 at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cromwell, Conn. He then returned to the Caribou area where he took a job as a mediator in the Maine Court System along with his pastoral duties in Houlton.
    The public is cordially invited to attend this service of celebration for Holden and the continuing ministry of Stohlberg this coming Sunday. The church is located at 45 High Street and there will be a reception in the Fellowship Hall following the service.