Local Church to Install Pastor

Storrs Congregational Church-United Church of Christ (UCC) is preparing to install the first woman Senior Minister in the congregation’s 286-year history.

The Rev. Diane Peterson Seaborn will be formally welcomed to that position in installation ceremonies scheduled for 2 p.m. June 4 at the church, 2 N. Eagleville Road in Mansfield. The public is invited.

Seaborn was Interim Associate Pastor of the Village Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in Wellesley, Mass. before assuming her role at the Storrs church last fall. She is a graduate of Andover-Newton Theological School, where she received the H. Otheman Smith Preaching Award and was an inductee into the Jonathan Edwards Honor Society.

At a time when church membership is falling nationwide, she said she is excited about expanding on SCC’s inclusive and community-oriented ministries. “There’s a curiosity out there; people are still interested in making meaning in their lives,” she said. “My passion is to figure out how to meet people where they are and help them find that meaning.”

Seaborn sees her role as the church’s first woman leader as an opportunity. “I think it’s important to have the different perspective that women bring to their work. In a field that is still male-dominated and where there continue to be societal norms and expectations, women are both nurturing and strong leaders.”