Serving the Region
The Reverend Maxine Maclean
Maxine Maclean did not grow up in the Anglican Church where she now serves as priest. She was raised a Roman Catholic. It wasn’t until 1983 when her 19 year-old son was killed in an accident that Maxine found spiritual comfort and a church home in St. Saviour’s Pro-Cathedral in Nelson, the church where the funeral was held. Maxine recalls that when she most needed spiritual comfort, it came from a surprising source: not from the Catholic Church, but from the dean of the Anglican Church at the time, Walter Donald, who came out to visit the family and offer his sympathy. Maxine says that she was surprised the first time she went to St. Saviour’s to see a women lay minister presiding over the service. Little did I know,” she says, “that years later I would be there.”
Of her experience as being one of the first to function as a local priest, Maxine says, it led to a lot of improvising. “We tried things and then sometimes we thought, well maybe that wasn’t the best way. As time went by we realized the need for change. So it became a work in progress. Which is good, it gave us flexibility.”
Flexibility seems to be the key to Maxine’s ability to thrive in a role that was entirely different from her role as an accountant. Not only does Maxine take services in her own church but she also has served four or five other parishes around the West Kootenays.
|
Rev. Maxine's experience of working with a team she felt compatibility with has been positive. Throughout the training period, she says, “We got to know each other very well. We were comfortable with each other. It was really a great place to be.”
“Women priests, pioneers of mutual ministry,” The HighWay March, 2005 |
