Edwin Corfey Recognized On His Silver Anniversary Of Service To Church

By Darlene Jackson

Edwin Corfey of Newtown Congregational Church was honored last Sunday morning for his 25 years of lay ministry, which has taken him to churches throughout the state to preach. He has also worn nearly every hat at the local church.

He ended his Sunday sermon on November 9 in a way only he would have thought to do. The people in the congregation lined up on two sides of the sanctuary and moved in opposite directions to shake hands, praise the Lord, and meet each other. This was his way of fostering kinship and caring in the spirit of the Lord.

Mr Corfey has been licensed to do weddings, funerals, baptism, and give communion during the sabbatical leave of the Rev Steven Gordon, senior pastor of Newtown Congregational Church. Mr Corfey and the Rev Janice Touloukian, the church’s associate pastor, have been leading all the worship services during the Rev Gordon’s current sabbatical.

William Brett, representing the NCC Board of Deacons, presented Mr Corfey with a pewter plate that will be inscribed with Mr Corfey’s name and the inscription: “We deeply appreciate the many, many ways you have touched our lives.”

Mr Corfey has been a member of NCC for more than 40 years and has volunteered twice as Sunday School superintendent and twice as moderator. He has worn many hats, served on various committees, and taught every grade of Sunday School. He particularly enjoys the children and was able to point to Mary Andreotta, the church’s current adult choir director, as one of his former pupils.

When Mrs Andreotta walked to the piano during Sunday’s worship service, she took the time to hug Mr Corfey and whisper, “This one’s for you, Ed,” before the choir sang “The Gift of Love.”

He represented NCC on Fairfield East Church & Ministry Committee and served as moderator of Fairfield East Association, which represents more than 20 United Church of Christ churches in the area. The committee works to help seminary students work toward ordination, reviews ordination papers, and refers candidates to an Ecumenical Council that approves candidates for ordination.

A letter of appreciation to Mr Corfey for services to the association from the Rev Sheldon Smith, chairperson of the Church & Ministry Committee of Fairfield East and a senior pastor at Bethel Congregational Church, was read during the service.

A former resident of Newtown for 35 years, Mr Corfey lived for five years in Southbury before moving to Plymouth three years ago. Today he is enjoying a lakeside residence and time to write poetry. He is recognized as one of the top poets in the state and was published in the anthology of the International Society of Poets in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

He also does African drumming and inspirational work at The Institute for American Indian Studies (IAIS) in Washington, Conn., and he mentors four boys in Plymouth High School.

Mr Corfey was widowed in 1992 when his beloved Elsie died after 46 years of marriage. The Corfeys had three boys and two girls. One daughter, Linda, died of cancer. Their other daughter lives in Southbury; the sons are scattered in Arkansas and California.

A big and gentle man with a jovial manner, Mr Corfey is always ready with a joke. He frequently starts his sermons with humor and drops funny asides in conversation.

His “day job” before retirement was as a manager of a carpet store. He attended University of Chicago and Dartmouth studying liberal arts and then attended Hartford Seminary at night for three years. Through a Covenant with NCC he became a lay minister on November 17, 1978. He is also licensed as a therapeutic pastor (“a healer, if you will,” he says).

Ed Corfey spent seven years in the Navy, six of them at sea on a destroyer where he was at Iwo Jima and other Pacific islands during World War II. Then he served under Commander Lockwood, who commanded the Pacific Submarine Fleet.

He was a scout master in Newtown, is a 32nd degree Mason, a Knights Templar in the York Rite and a prince in the Scottish Rite.

People often ask Mr Corfey if he gets nervous preaching at churches full of strangers. His work sometimes takes him to unfamiliar churches.

“I like to tell them ‘They are not strangers. They are all brothers and sisters in Christ,’” Mr Corfey said last Sunday morning.

It is hard to imagine Mr Corfey ever meeting anyone who stays a stranger for too long. He is full of warmth, humor, and caring compassion for all. For this reason and everything else that makes him so special, Newtown Congregational Church members love Mr Corfey.

(Darlene Jackson, a resident of Newtown, is a co-president of Church Women United.)