Wiscasset resident Rev. Gregory Foster has recently received an appointment as pastor of the Waldoboro United Methodist Church where he has been serving as an interim pastor since last September.

“It has been a wonderful experience for me to be serving the congregation over the past several months,” Foster said. “So the appointment adds much joy in being with the church on a more permanent basis and being involved in the community, which I love.”

Foster expressed his desire to have an active role in the town’s future joining with other concerned community members to take a close look at some of the local issues and working in tandem. In the coming months, he intends to help the congregation look positively into the future reaching out to all ages, including the youth of the area.

“The Christian faith is so relevant to what young people face in today’s culture,” Foster said. “I intend to be here for them to help them as individuals and young families to help better relationships among them and our older people.”

During his pastorate in Waldoboro in the future, Foster said he hopes to correct a wrong image about church some people have of the Christian church being an organization with many rules and legalisms. “I preach and teach grace, which is the real Gospel of Christ, unmerited favor as a gift.”

Foster previously served as part of the pastoral ministry of the United Methodist Boothbay Region Cooperative Parish a few years ago and later as an interim pastor for Corliss St. Baptist Church in Bath.

“There is much work to be done to bring hope and healing to so many people, residents and visitors alike, who need to experience and know the love of God,” Foster said.

After earning a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., Foster was ordained through the American Baptist Churches of New Hampshire where he served as pastor before coming to Maine to serve American Baptist Churches and non-denominational fellowships. He has standing with the American Baptist Churches of Maine.

In more recent years, Foster served as a bi-vocational pastor, was employed as a news reporter for the Lincoln County News and the Wiscasset Newspaper. Prior to seminary, Foster worked as a reporter/editor for newspapers in the Boston area, New Hampshire and Maine, having received a journalism degree.

While a pastor in New Hampshire, Foster began a prison ministry at the Vermont Correctional Center in Windsor, VT with members of his congregation who have since carried on the endeavor to serve both inmates and family members.

In Maine and New Hampshire, Foster participated in several continuing education events, including clinical pastoral training for Lewiston area pastors through Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston and numerous seminars and conferences. For the past four years, he has been a member of a pastors’ roundtable for continuing education in Brunswick.

Currently he is a member of the International Healing Order of St. Luke the Physician, a ministry to encourage the healing ministry in the Christian church and is on the board of the Gardiner branch of the International Association of Healing Rooms.

Foster and his late wife, Carolyn, raised five children, three girls and two boys, four of them graduates of Wiscasset High School, all living out of state.