Bishop installs St. Paul’s rector
Published: January 27, 2010
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The Rt. Rev’d John Palmer Croneberger presents newly installed Rector Paul Walker to the St. Paul’s congregation on Saturday. STAFF PHOTO/STACI WILSON
For the new rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Saturday’s induction service was more than just a special event.
For Rev. Paul Walker, a native of Scranton, his placement in Montrose has given him a sense of coming home after 25 years away from the area.
The Rt. Rev. John Palmer Cronebergerer, Assisting Bishop of Bethlehem, presided over the induction service.
Walker has been serving as the church rector since November and noted “I’m very grateful to be here.”
At the service he spoke of family connections he has in the Nicholson and Gibson areas. “It’s good to be home.”
But, he acknowledged more to the feeling of coming home than he initially realized. During the search process, Walker said he heard a voice telling him that he was needed at St. Paul’s.
“Once I heard the voice, there was an overall sense of peace,” said Walker.
He brings with him a commitment to the community and to the parish, affirming “what this parish has already started.”
Walker says his main purpose will be to help St. Paul’s develop and implement its parish vision.
“In the past few years, (the parishioners) have really embraced their own call to mission to the larger community,” said Walker.
Home to some of the Montrose Adult School classes, summer music program and the library board, St. Paul’s also participates in other community service outreach efforts such as being a distribution center for the American Legion’s coat drive effort and Bountiful Blessings, a county-wide Easter outreach to the needy.
Walker said, “My way of operating is to first learn the parish; love the people; and affirm what they are doing.” From there, he plans to work to establish connections in the community and try to identify where needs exist here.
Walker says there is also some discussion underway about the need for a soup kitchen in the Montrose community.
At his last parish near Newark, N.J., Walker started a Saturday soup kitchen which then expanded to include Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Walker also has a strong belief in social justice and in the past has worked toward inclusion and diversity.
He acknowledges that diversity in this area is different than that of a more urban center but recognizes the historical ties of the Montrose area to African-Americans through the Underground Railroad.
As a parent of a child with special needs, Walker has felt that those services are not well networked.
In church services, Walker says he tries to be inclusive in his choices of music and language in worship; and also tries to be sensitive to the needs of the hearing and vision impaired people in the congregation.
Although he describes his approach as progressive, Walker says his flag-waving is limited to living into God’s agenda and His calling.
“By your works they will know you,” Walker said.
