About Nan
I am a rural person, raised on a small, mixed farm in Huron County, Southern Ontario, approximately 5 miles from where Bruce and I eventually lived our married life together near the little village of Bluevale. I come from a large family, having 2 sisters and 4 brothers. All of them as well as my mother still live in Ontario.
I have been married to Bruce for 36 years. We farmed together on his home farm for 31 years of that time. For the last 5 years of our time on the farm, we both had off-farm jobs and I began my schooling at the Centre for Christian Studies, Winnipeg from which I graduated in March of 2005 with a Diploma in Diaconal Ministries.
My formal training prior to my studies at CCS was as a Registered Nurse, a designation I still maintained until coming to the Maritimes, although I practiced little while we raised our children and I have not renewed my nursing registration here. In addition to my studies at CCS, in my final year of theological study I also took a parish nursing course as a way of enhancing my skills in pastoral care ministry.
I was employed in pastoral ministry over my final 3 years of study in a half-time diaconal ministry of pastoral care with seniors at Exeter United Church in Exeter, Ontario. I concluded my ministry there the end of May 2005, was commissioned to diaconal ministry at the annual meeting of London Conference in May of 2005 and was settled into congregational ministry at Great Village, Acadia Mines and Londonderry Station in Nova Scotia. There I was in solo congregational ministry
for 4 years. It was a challenging ministry in a struggling rural pastoral charge but one we both loved.
We left Great Village in July of 2009 confident that we had done many good things in that church and community and had made many good friends. Since that time we have been in Florenceville-Bristol New Brunswick where I was called to a new team ministry at Faith Memorial United Church as their Minister of Families.
Alas, just as we were finally getting the team established with the arrival of my team mate last summer, the pastoral charge began to look seriously at their ability to support a clergy team—they could not. So in January of this year I asked for a change of pastoral relations and Bruce and I began to search the church's vacancy list. Friends recommended me to Jim St. Clair, one of the presbyters on your Search Committee. He called me up and this started a chain of events that has brought us to this place and to this day of new beginnings.
Bruce and I have two grown children, Rebecca and Andrew who both now live in Nova Scotia. Rebecca and her husband Peter Garcin and their two children, Eve and Caroline, live on the south shore near Bridgewater and Andrew lives in New Glasgow. Our children are very happy with our latest move back to Nova Scotia - and Cape Breton Island. Andrew is nearby to visit now and Rebecca's husband Peter's mother was a Cape Breton MacNeil. Peter has family here.
This past month has been a blur of activity as we said our goodbyes to many people in Florenceville-Bristol. We're looking forward to spending some time walking the sidewalks and trails of Port Hawkesbury and Port Hastings to wear off all the weight we have gained at the lunches and dinners people have had us to before we left Florenceville-Bristol.
And this week we have just been working on auto pilot, getting the packing and moving all done, Bruce doing most of it as I attended Maritime Conference Annual meeting last weekend, the two
of us making an extra trip back to Florenceville on Monday to do the final cleanup of the manse there and gathering up the final few things that just would not fit into the U Haul truck. Now we are living out of the boxes that are stacked everywhere, trying to remember where we put all the essentials. We had to borrow a can opener from the church kitchen the other evening. We have greatly appreciated the welcome we have received - willing hands to help unload the moving truck on Monday and food in the fridge that has sustained us all this week. Thank you all so much. Please forgive us if our eyes look a little dazed and foggy today. It has been a lot of excitement and activity and change for both of us.
In these early days in ministry with you here I will be concentrating on becoming oriented to the two congregations, this area of Cape Breton and our new home and beginning to respond to the principal needs that were expressed in your Joint Needs Assessment Report. It is Bruce's and my intention to have a lengthy and fulfilling pastorate here with all of you - for as long as you will have us. We are excited to be here and look forward to all the possibilities and potentials of shared ministry with you.
Nan Corrigan D.M.
The Congregations of St. Mark's & St. David's
United Church of Canada
Port Hawkesbury/Port Hastings N.S.
504 Bernard Street
Port Hawkesbury, N.S. B9A 2V1
Office Phone: 625-2229; Fax: 625-3597
E-mail: stmarks1@eastlink.ca
Manse: 625-0407 Email: nancy.corrigan@gmail.com
