The Rev. Margaret Sagar, and her husband, Alan, thought that their retirement years were about to begin when they received a phone call at their cottage outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the other end was Ebenezer Methodist Church in St. George’s, wondering if she might consider applying as their interim pastor.The couple arrived on the Island on October 30 and Rev. Sagar will be serving as the pastor of the church during the next year.

Originally from the UK, Rev. Sagar moved to Canada in 1967 with her first husband, where she had two children. She had been raised in the Church of England, but had found herself drifting by her early 20s.

“I went through a lot of growth and development through those years,” she said, looking back.

After several years, she decided to take a Women’s Studies course at Acadia University and it was through that that she began to feel the call in her life to enter into fulltime ministry.

By 1985, she was ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church. Five years later, she was remarried and transferred to the United Methodist Church. Since then, she has served in Shediac, New Brunswick and at St. Andrew’s in Truro, Nova Scotia. Rev. Sagar has also served as the president of the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada and was nominated for Moderator of the United Church of Canada in 2003. She retired in 2005.

“I’m here for a year — it’s a temporary position,” she explained. “I’m here to make sure we have good Sunday worship and the people are cared for. I want to support them as they go through the process of selecting someone else (as pastor)”

While Rev. Sagar is still new to the island, she has found that the spiritual needs of her new congregation are quite similar to those elsewhere and she is hearing the same concerns from her flock concerning the needs of senior members and the lack of young people.

“I’m sure I’m going to find it interesting and challenging,” she said. “The church has made me very welcome. St. George’s is a great little town. I love the history — it reminds me of the Cornish towns,” she added. “We live by the water (in Nova Scotia). I’m very glad I’ve exchanged one waterfront view for another.

Much of Rev. Sagar’s interests in the past have been related to justice, anti-racism and reaching out to the First Nations people in Canada, as well as ecumenism.

Rev. Sagar and her husband, Alan, have six children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.