Owasco - For the Rev. Marcia Gibbons, Wednesday, Nov. 21, was a day of happiness and a day of heartbreak. It was the day she was moving into the parsonage of the Owasco Reformed Church, where she would live as its first pastor in two years. And it was the day her husband died, while in the hotel room before they had actually moved in.

“My husband, Fred, had been diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago,” she said, “and he had a history of heart disease. My hope was to make the move while he was still strong enough to move.”

He had collapsed while brushing his teeth and rescue workers were unable to revive him.

But her new church family supported their new pastor in her time of grief.

“There is a real feeling of God's love here,” Gibbons said of her new congregation.

In spite of her loss, Gibbons is looking forward to her new assignment.

“I would love to see this place be a real beacon in the community. I'd like it said that God is present in this place.”

Gibbons is originally from Michigan, where she also attended seminary.

“I was ordained 4.5 years ago. Six years prior to that, I was in ministry as a seminary student. That involved internships in a hospital, an inner city mission and several churches. Then I was supposed to have a smooth year working with a mentor. But Sept. 11, 2001 happened, and my mentor was called up by the State Department. So I became a substitute pastor for him,” she said. “After that I just waited for a call.”

Bill Zuidema, a member of the pastoral search committee said looking for a new pastor was “a very involved process. There were phone interviews and live interviews. Our first contact was a dinner with casual contact. It was a good first meeting.”

“We had to fill out a profile, which identified the needs and goals of the church,” explained Lynne Stenberg, also a member of the committee. “Then we submitted it to the national office.”

After reviewing the church's profile, which is similar to a resume, but which goes into greater detail, the national office staff compared it with the profiles of possible pastoral candidates. When matches are found, the church is notified. Although the actual search took a very long time, it did not take the church members long to know that Gibbons was the right person to lead their congregation.

The church with the newest pastor also happens to be one of the oldest churches in the area. The origins of the Owasco Reformed Church date back to 1796 when Col. John Hardenburgh invited settlers, who had been members of the Conewago Reformed Church in Gettysburg, into his home for worship services. This small congregation built its first church a year later.

After several years of fundraising, a church was built on the present site in the hamlet of Owasco.

Gibbons gave her first sermon as pastor Sunday, which was also the first Sunday of Advent, the time of expectation leading up to Christmas. The service included a lighting of the first Advent candle, while the congregation recited together, “According to God, we should always seek good for those around us.”

Arlene Cuykendall, a member of the Consistory, the ruling body of the church, said of her new pastor, “I think we are very blessed to have Pastor Marcia with us, and we're expecting great things.”