Tom Junkert and wife Jane moved to Wiscasset from Minnesota in June 2019. Two years later,  on July 1, he became St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Wiscasset’s priest-in charge.

Since last September, when Junkert would preach at the Hodge Street church about twice a month, members have been discovering he is a good fit. The church’s deacon of more than two decades, Westport Island’s Marcia Richardson, said she was thrilled Junkert took the job. It has been unfilled for years, which made more work for her and others. Other candidates “have just not fit what we needed.”

Richardson likes Junkert’s approach of wanting to learn, not coming in to take over. Since he had been doing some of the preaching and been helping at the church’s food pantry Help Yourself Shelf (HYS) “as a parish we got to know him.” So when he applied, “we already knew him, we already liked him, we already felt he was a gift. The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes,” she added, laughing. “So we absolutely said yes right away.”

Richardson, 82, said having a priest-in charge again has been a great relief to her, “to know if something happens to me, the church is in good hands ... I like him a lot. He’s a good man.” Junkert called Richardson the glue of the congregation.

Junkert is a retired member of the Lutheran clergy. “But we have a full communion relationship with the Episcopalians,” Junkert explained. “So they recognize my ordination, and we are welcome at the table.” The worship services are similar to Lutheran, so his adjustments to the Episcopal church have been few. There were some for the pandemic. Musical director Jim Swist helped get the services onto Zoom. “Without him, there would have been no connection for the people to have worship,” Junkert said in praise of Swist.

Swist praised him, too. “I’m very happy to have him.” Swist said attendance has declined in recent years, “and it’s been difficult to find someone to deal with that, and who wants to make things better.” He added, a minister and music director are not always conflict-free, as he and Junkhert have been. “So he’s a good guy and I think he’s going to work out fine.”

Junkert will help the church through the next few years’ “discernment process,” the Diocese’s latest look at St. Philip’s future. He said the congregation is small, but has amazing outreaches via its bargain basement and HYS. The congregation has a remarkable attitude toward helping the community, “even at the expense of their own survivability. I know the outreach is going to survive ... no matter what,” he said.

He wants people to know the church’s arms and its worship services are open to all. “We need as many people as we can gather to pray with us and converse with us, and discern with us where it is God wants us to go for the future. (Attendees) don’t have to be Episcopalian.

“People need to know that we are here, we are still alive. And at the heart of what it means to be an Episcopalian is good, wonderful music and worship. And we have that. So for those who have wondered, what is St. Philip’s doing, we are open and alive.” He hopes others will be curious about the church, like he was, and come check it out, like he did. Worship is 9:30 a.m. Sundays.

He and Jane Junkert, a retired kindergarten teacher, are members of First Congregational Church of Wiscasset; it and its pastor Josh Fitterling have long collaborated with St. Philip’s. “We hope that that relationship will only grow as the years progress,” Junkert said. At home, he spends time with the couple’s shih tzu-bichon Marley, and doing yard work and tending a small garden. 

Moving here, he purposely downsized on gardening. If he wants to do more digging and weeding, he can go to Brunswick and do all he wants of it at daughter Katie Junkert’s home, he said. Katie works at Amistad in Portland.  Her sister Meghan Delk, a probation officer, lives in a Portland, Oregon suburb. “So we have the Portlands covered,” their father said.