Meet new Voice of Vegreville United Church, Rev. Pamela Milton

Meet new Voice of Vegreville United Church, Rev. Pamela Milton

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

There will be a new and interesting touch at Vegreville United Church as the congregation now has a new Minister, Rev. Pamela Milton.

Rev. Milton was born in Calgary where she resided until she was 47. She then settled in Irrcana which is northeast of Calgary until 2005 and later, she went to Wainwright and her and her husband are still living in Wainwright and are in the process of buying a house in Vegreville. Rev. Milton and her husband have two grown-up children who still live in Calgary.

She said Vegreville is a really nice town and everyone is so nice and friendly; they welcomed her with open arms.

Rev. Milton has been a minister now for 19 years. She had a calling to become a minister in 1998 when she started to look back at all the things she had been doing.

She was working for a Housing Co-op as a coordinator. Before that, she was a secretary/bookkeeper. While at the Housing Co-op at her church, she was still teaching Sunday school after her kids were gone from it, and she played the piano and did peace services. There was a woman who came in who helped them get a focus on their Sunday school and Rev. Milton looked at her and she thought, you know I could do that and she asked her minister if she could be a minister, and he said he was wondering when she would ask. He was really instrumental in helping her decide to pursue ministry. So, she started her schooling in 1998 to be a minister. She started in children’s ministry which she enjoyed tremendously and then she worked as a youth minister.

Rev. Milton really enjoys being a minister but she said in female ministry, men make more money and get the jobs faster. Some men still do not feel a woman should be ministers and they do not consider women equal to them. “I am a Diaconal Minister so my training was very different from an ordained minister who maybe has more knowledge in theology and courses in Hebrew and Greek but it is easy enough to look this up on-line. My training concentrated on facilitation, group work, getting along with people, giving workshops, doing worship and looking after pastoral care. From 2005- 2007, I wrote a thesiscalled, Facilitating Dramatic Worship for Young People. I care for all people! ”

The changes she noticed in United Church are they have taken away presbyteries which are smaller areas and instead the churches are working with regions. This has made it harder because rural people have to drive more and congregations are struggling more as fewer and fewer people are attending church. “I believe this is because the United Church has policies of no discrimination of gays, lesbians, indigenous people, and other people, and they use inclusive language. Yet in some rural areas they don’t begin to think the world has changed. There are the conservatives, conservatives, we don’t need more conservatives. We need people who are going to challenge the way the world and be different. Jesus was different.”

Most of all, Rev. Milton hopes to bring a sense of joy, a sense of calm, and see who they can partner with to make this church vital, and how can they move to make that happen. The church needs more people to step up and get involved in children’s ministry and she hopes to get a grant to help with these programs. “I mainly hope to give the church longevity because people need this kind of church! If you really follow the United Church’s doctrines and policies, you would see we follow the ways of Jesus; we are social justice-minded people, we have a Mission and Service Fund, and we believe all people of all ages should be included.”

In Rev. Milton’s free time, you will find her playing the piano and being involved in the sport of paddleboarding.