All Saints Episcopal Church North Shore to Install Its First Rector -- the Rev. Marya DeCarlen -- on May 2, 2017

DANVERS -- On Tuesday, May 2, at 7 p.m., All Saints Episcopal Church of the North Shore will celebrate the installation of its first rector, the Rev. Marya DeCarlen, who will serve full-time. The Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, the Right Rev. Alan Gates, will preside, and there will be a moving ceremony with trumpet and cantor and even a contingent of All Saints-certified Therapy Dogs. All are most welcome to attend.

Since April 27, 2014, Marya DeCarlen has served All Saints as priest-in-charge, a three year assignment meant to help the parish get its "house" in order and prepare for the calling of a rector -- essentially a priest with tenure. On December 21, 2016, after an extensive, six-month, parish-wide discernment, the governing body of the church -- the Vestry -- voted unanimously to call Marya to serve as its Rector.

Marya's installation and celebration of new ministry at All Saints -- including members of the Perfect Paws Pet Ministry -- marks an auspicious event in the life of the young parish -- formed a scant five years ago, following the merger of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Peabody, MA, and Calvary Episcopal Church, Danvers, MA.

As the face of All Saints, Marya DeCarlen has become renowned, throughout the North Shore, as a tireless, empathetic spiritual warrior whose calm, steady and healing presence is as organic to the church sanctuary -- where she offers affecting Sunday homilies that resonate -- to the communities she serves beyond the church doors: at hospital bedsides, at grave sides, at "dinner church" for millennials; serving food to the hungry with parishioners who lean in with her into service, and ministering to humans who find God through their animal companions at Perfect Paws.

"Christianity is not bland, boring, passive or inept," she maintains. "It is alive and relevant. It can and should resonate in our lives."

She continues, "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."

Marya DeCarlen is passionate about her pastoral calling and clear about her mission to evangelize, believing
-- fiercely -- that "the church of today is about relationships and about love."

Judging by the increasingly filled pews each progressive Sunday, her zeal and call to 'love our neighbors as ourselves' is contagious.

This Easter Sunday, All Saints boasted a full house and full hearts -- with people inspired after hearing Marya DeCarlen's entreaty for all to be "bearers of hope, bringing light to folks living in dark places."

"For everyone who is waiting to roll up their sleeves, this is your formal invitation" she urged from the pulpit. "come with us to make bag lunches for the hungry in Peabody.

"Come with us to prepare and serve food for Haven from Hunger in Peabody.

"Come with us to serve breakfast at Lifebridge in Salem.

"Come with us to offer peace and hope through a meditation ministry for prisoners at the Essex County Jail in Middleton.

"Come with us to knit in community, making prayer shawls weekly to comfort and cover the sick and weary.

"Come with us to make monthly collections for humans in need and their animals for People to People Food Pantry in Danvers.

"Come with us to 'Be the Light,' by referring people to this ministry who are in need of support because of domestic violence.

"Come with us to befriend a millennial and invite them to share a meal with you at dinner church -- to listen, pray and lean in faith together.

"Come with us to train your dog to be one of more than 50 certified therapy dogs that have already been deployed from All Saints to visit folks in nursing homes, schools, colleges, rehabs and the developmentally disabled.

"Come with us to accompany people who want to be prayerful for their pet companions or have lost their pets, by attending our monthly worship service.

"Come with us to teach children at our second annual Vacation Garden School, which will help kids understand more about God’s beautiful creation and how we are blessed to be stewards of it.

"We are not meant to stay in church," the Rev. Marya DeCarlen assures. "We are meant to roll up our sleeves and go -- together -- to encourage our friends and family to go with us so we can all become bearers of hope to adults and children that may live in darkness." Come with us!