PARIS – The Rev. Sarah Shepley of Paris is ready to cast a wider circle.

The 51-year-old professional artist was ordained as an interfaith minister on June 5 at the First Parish Congregational Church in Saco. She wore an aqua-color silk neck stole made by a friend from material Shepley purchased while traveling in China in April.

“I wanted to work in a more secular setting, meeting the needs of people from a variety of different backgrounds and life situations,” she explained of her decision to be ordained as an interfaith minister.

Interfaith ministry, she said, seeks a “positive and cooperative interaction between people of different faith traditions or spiritual beliefs, including those who may not have a particular belief in God or belong to a church.” It tries to find common ground among individuals and foster an attitude of acceptance and inclusiveness, she added.

Shepley said she hopes to serve people who want a nontraditional service, whether it is a marriage, memorial service or naming service that she says is sacred, “one that reflects their personal values and language.” She also hopes to offer bereavement support as well as working as a chaplain.

A wife and mother of a high school student, Shepley said she began studying the ministry at the Bangor Theological Seminary seven years ago where she was being prepared for parish ministry. The seminary was founded in 1814 in the congregational tradition of the United Church of Christ and is the only graduate school of religion in northern New England.

After five years, she decided to take some time off to care for an aunt who had cancer. She then returned to study the ministry for two years at the Chaplaincy Institute in Portland, a two-year interfaith chaplaincy institute that was established in 2002 in Maine and now has a satellite schools in Massachusetts.

The change from the Bangor Theological Seminary to the Portland-based institute was made after her aunt and a dear friend died of cancer.

“These were shaping experiences that steered me toward hospice work, especially bereavement support and to a realization that my ministry was nontraditional,” Shepley said of her interfaith ministry studies.

She also liked the inclusive attitude of an interfaith ministry. “I am interested in the study of religions and I believe learning about different faith traditions gives me a better appreciation and understanding of difference,” she said.

Shepley said the Chaplaincy Institute prepared her to focus more on presence rather than role in a ministry that does not have to have “walls.”

“It is a felt sense of being there for people – even if there is not a role to play,” she explained.

The institute also focused in part on nurturing expressive arts in communication, she said.

Because she is a professional artist, who teaches bookmaking and printmaking throughout the state with works being sold to galleries and through personal commissions, Shepley said she was particularly drawn to the Chaplaincy Institute program and an arts ministry practice.

“In the past few years, I have delved into an arts ministry practice where I reach out to people, communicating compassion through art and poetry,” she said. It can include such things as memory books to commemorate a wedding or birthday or simply to acknowledge a friendship or in memory of someone who has died.

“Reaching out and communicating kindness and compassion through art can be very powerful,” she said.

Shepley may be reached at 207-743-0167, s.shepley@roadrunner.com or www.shepleydesigns.com.

ldixon@sunjournal.com