About the Pastor

The Union Congregational Church is excited to welcome Rev. Ralph English as our Transitional Pastor beginning on September 1, 2023. His first service will be September 3rd and we will be having a special Victorian Tea coffee hour after service. Please come and help us welcome and meet our transition pastor!

After forty-one years serving churches in New York State, Ralph retired. He and his spouse, Sally Olsen, moved to the Eastman Community in Grantham, NH. A year after they joined the Wilmot congregation, the Music Director departed. Ralph, a pianist and organist, agreed to serve in that capacity.

As a member of the Merrimack Association Committee on Church and Ministry, Ralph participated in Rev. Mary Jane Barber's exit Interview. Mary Jane and Ralph last met when they graduated together from Andover Newton Theological School. Ralph, the youngest member of the 1979 Class, was moved by Mary Jane's service and felt a tug to reconsider his retirement from pastoral ministry. Subsequent tugs followed and here he is.

Born in Washington D.C., Ralph and his siblings enjoyed the places his father's CIA career took the family beyond Northern Virginia including Zurich, Munich, and Frankfurt where Ralph graduated from High School. A degree in Government from the College of William and Mary in 1976 preceded his three years at Andover Newton.

Ralph was ordained in his home church in Fairfax County, Virginia by the Potomac Association of the Central Atlantic Conference of the United Church of Christ. During his years serving four United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations, he spent twenty-eight years as a Reserve and then Air National Guard Chaplain, the last eleven as the Senior Air Guard Chaplain in New York State.

Ralph has two daughters and three grandchildren. Sally and he enjoy kayaking, hiking, skiing, and tapping sugar maple trees on their property to make maple syrup. Thirty-five taps produced 6 gallons of syrup in 2023.

Sally, like Ralph, remains a member of the Wilmot Church and will join him for worship here on occasion and enjoy putting their kayaks in Newfound Lake.

Starting in September Rev. English will be available at the church office every other Tuesday 9a-1p, every Wednesday 9a-1p, and for pastoral emergencies as needed..