When we stop to talk to someone on the street or in the shelters in Portland, Maine and introduce ourselves as street pastors, they ask "So, where is your church?" We tell them we are a walking ministry -- "the church is right here!" We bring compassion and communion to the street and the people there who feel estranged from traditional churches.
History
In the spring of 2006 two ordained, UCC pastors felt Spirit-driven to begin a ministry with the marginalized and homeless in downtown Portland, Maine. Our main focus was to learn how we could be pastors in this community, to remember the sacred in the midst of it all, and to decrease the imagined and real boundaries between those who have little materially and those who have much.
About Our Clergy
Rev. Mair Honan,(emeritus) a graduate of Bangor Theological Seminary, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She is co-founder and pastor of Grace-Street Ministry in Portland, Maine. She is the author of "Walking in the Realm of Miracles", a series of reflections on street ministry. Her two rascal granddaughters are a major joy in her life.
Rev. Jeffery Logan is a co-pastor at Grace-Street
Ministry. He spent the first third
of his life as a
professional Shakespearean actor in New York City (BA in
Theatre Arts from UC Berkeley); the
second third practicing Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine in
Portland, Maine (Masters of
Science in Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture
College); and was ordained in June
2014 as an interfaith minister by the Chaplaincy
Institute of Maine. He has been married to
fellow thespian Linda Shary for 24 years, and they have a
daughter who will be entering Yale
University in the fall of 2015.
Rev. Nancy White (Pastor Nancy) is co-Pastor at Grace-Street
Ministry and Minister at North Yarmouth Congregational Church, UCC
in North Yarmouth, Maine. She is
an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (Maine Conference,
Cumberland Association) and holds a degree from Andover Newton Theological
School (MDiv 2006). She has also
served as on-call Chaplain at Maine Medical Center and in Interim Ministry for
the United Church of Christ. She
delights in cooking, gardening and music.
Jessica Moore (Pastor Jessica) is a Member in Discernment with the
United Church of Christ—that is, she’s a candidate for ordained ministry. She owns a small business and is a graduate
of Bangor Theological Seminary.