New Pastor Brings ‘Gifts And Grace’ To United Methodist Church

By Nancy K. Crevier

The Reverend Mel Kawakami exudes a warm graciousness and calm, settled into his office at the Newtown United Methodist Church on Church Hill Road. His appointment this past July as the successor to the Reverend Terry Pfeiffer, who retired after 16 years of service this past spring, is the latest in his spiritual journey that began as a young man from California attending the Harvard Seminary School in the 1970s.

Rev Kawakami and his wife, Dorothy Kramer, moved to Newtown July 23 from Simsbury, where he had served as senior pastor at the Simsbury Methodist Church for the past five years. Ms Kramer continues to work as a consultant in executive development, traveling back and forth to her job in Simsbury, and finding time to settle into life in Newtown. Also adjusting to life in Fairfield County are their two West Highland white terriers, Maisie and Mac. “Maisie thinks she is the church mascot,” commented Rev Kawakami, “but Mac prefers to stay back and guard the parsonage.”

Rev Kawakami was raised in a San Jose, Calif., neighborhood peppered with relatives. “It was known as Japantown, and I had what one could call a bireligious background growing up,” said Rev Kawakami. “My mother was a Buddhist and my father was a Methodist. About half a block one direction was the Buddhist temple and about half a block the other direction was the Methodist Church. I was the ‘Sansei’ generation, the third generation. All of the Buddhist services were in Japanese, but I couldn’t understand them, as many of my generation didn’t know Japanese. So I mostly attended the Methodist Church,” said Rev Kawakami.

It was at that church that Sunday School teachers and the pastors helped him to understand God in his life, but he did not feel then that he had a calling to the ministry. While attending the University of the Pacific, he spent a year studying in India, focusing on religion. “I knew when I returned that I wanted to continue that study in some way, but I was still not sure of my path. I was still thinking of religion in general studies, rather than as a vocation,” he recalled. A professor at the University of the Pacific recommended that he attend Harvard Seminary School.

“It was the process in seminary that helped me clarify the call,” said Rev Kawakami, and in 1974 he was ordained at the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church. But his ministry did not begin with a congregation and a parish. He returned to Harvard for further studies in religion and psychology and started a career in counseling as a freshman advisor at Harvard.

When his wife’s job took them to Connecticut, Rev Kawakami took over at the Pastoral Counseling Center in Manchester and also served as a part-time pastor in Simsbury. He served as an interim pastor at Pleasant Valley and also at the Memorial United Methodist Church in Avon, then returned to Simsbury where he was made associate and then senior pastor of the congregation.

Then this past year, the bishop asked him to serve in Newtown. “If you’re open to God’s call, the Holy Spirit prepares you,” said Rev Kawakami. “This has been wonderful and we’re blessed to be here,” he said. “The congregation has been so warm and welcoming. They are extremely open and giving.” A supportive staff has made the transition a smooth one, he said, and he feels confident that he can count on them to guide him as he gets to know the community and congregation.

In taking over the leadership of the Newtown United Methodist Church, said Rev Kawakami, he feels there was a concern by the bishop and the congregation for continuity and the ability to work through the transition, while bringing the church to a new place in ministry. “I think that the bishop was looking at my ‘grace and gifts’ to bring to this church. Hearing and recognizing God’s life within the lives of the congregants and how that translates into living in a very difficult world is one of the gifts I bring,” said Rev Kawakami. “My own life experiences have given me an openness to the way in which the Spirit moves in people’s lives and that’s important for life in a church, here in Newtown or anywhere,” he added.

He is presently in a period of discernment, he said. “My job right now is to listen to what the yearning is and how this congregation wants to be a people of God.”

What he has heard so far is a desire for more adult education and a focus on the youth of the church. “I will be facilitating a six-week course shortly called ‘Wrestling With Angels’ that centers around issues with faith,” he said. Rev Kawakami will also be meeting with parents and young people of the church to look at ways to retain youth in the church’s everyday life. “We have a huge number of kids. We just confirmed a class of 22, but it is hard to keep the young people interested in coming back once they have been confirmed. We would like to change that,” said the minister.

As the leader of the church community, Rev Kawakami said that he looks forward to continuing the history of a strong mission and outreach, both in the community and worldwide. He looks forward, as well, to working with the other churches and faiths in town, and just recently hosted his first clergy session. “I’m just beginning to get to know the other religious leaders here in town, but I want the church’s motto, ‘Open hearts, open minds, open doors,’ to prevail,” he said.

For now, said Rev Kawakami, he and his wife are “discovering Newtown and enjoying the discovery.”