North Shore Church To Install First Rector

DANVERS, MA – All Saints Episcopal Church of the North Shore will install Rev. Marya DeCarlen as the church's first rector – essentially a priest with tenure – on Tuesday.

The celebration will take place at 7 p.m., the Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, the Right Rev. Alan Gates, will preside, and there will be a ceremony with trumpet and cantor and even a contingent of All Saints-certified Therapy Dogs. All are welcome to attend.

DeCarlen has been the priest-in-charge at All Saints since April 2014 as part of a three-year assignment meant to help get the parish in order and prepare it for a rector. After a six month parish-wide discernment concluding last December, the Vestry voted unanimously to have DeCarlen serve as the rector.

"Christianity is not bland, boring, passive or inept," DeCarlen said. "It is alive and relevant. It can and should resonate in our lives. Jesus never raised a hand in anger but he was in every way a warrior. So were Buddha and Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. They were spiritual warriors who faced off with Satan in the wilderness, temptation under the Bo tree, waged war with hunger strikes and peace marches. They fought to the death with a weapon called love."

The church was founded five years ago after the merger of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Peabody, and Calvary Episcopal Church in Danvers.

Image via All Saints