The Rev. Cindy Roberts is settling in as the new pastor at Seabold United Methodist Church.

In July, Roberts replaced Pastor Colin Cushman, who was re-assigned to Central United Methodist Church in Sedro-Woolley.

Prior to coming to Seabold UMC, Roberts served two parishes, Lake Chelan United Methodist Church and Manson United Methodist Church. Previously, she served churches in Brownsville, Washington, Douglas United Methodist Church in Juneau, Alaska, and churches in central Idaho including Grangeville, Nezperce and White Bird United Methodist churches.

Roberts was ordained in 2006 after attending Seminary at Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver British Columbia and Seattle University. Currently, she is working on a doctorate in ministry at Seattle University, with an emphasis in “how we know if the Holy Spirit is working in the church.”

“The congregation has been very gracious in allowing me to commit to only three-quarter time so I can go ahead and finish,” Pastor Roberts said.

“For the first year anyway, the plan is to help each other out with my being able to finish school, but at the end of the year, hopefully to go back to full time,” she said.

Members of the church come from Bainbridge Island, Suquamish and Poulsbo, and Seabold UMC has a history that dates back more than a century, with a sanctuary that was built in 1910.

Seabold is a Reconciling Methodist Church, which means the doors are open to everyone, including all diversity of races, sexual orientation or preferences, genders, ethnicities, political or social perspective and those with disabilities.

“There’s so much transition going on,” Roberts said. “For the church, the most surprising thing going on was how much they have embraced being a reconciling congregation, and actually have been practicing it, and thought they were completely aligned. And now, they are continuing to practice that, but are making more decisions based on saying they are a reconciling church; putting their actions into words and their words into action.”

“Everyone seems to be really committed to the welfare of those who are here with the church, and open to being a resource for people that aren’t — as churches, I think, should do,” she said.

Roberts said she has found a congregation that is faithful to the word, faithful to loving its neighbors.

“It’s all the good of churches I’ve worked at,” she said.

“People are willing to do the work and not just talk about doing the work. They are pretty open,” Roberts said. “They are willing to think of new ways to do stuff; new ways to do the old things. That’s a really hard for some people in churches to do. They are pretty progressive, I think.”

In her time so far at Seabold UMC, Roberts said she has enjoyed the church’s community campus feel, and its partnership with organizations that use its property, which includes two preschools, Seabold Montessori Preschool and Island Co-op Preschool, as well as Island Time Activities, which provides programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“A lot of churches are really just Sunday,” she added. “But this church, because of the way they use the property even, is amazing.”

“I love coming to work every day, to be with people who are doing their work,” she said.

Pastor Roberts has two adult sons and two grandchildren. Her family includes Bella, her dog, and Kitty-Kitty, her cat. She enjoys Mariners baseball when she has time.

Roberts preaches every Sunday at 10 a.m. at Seabold UMC, 6894 NE Seabold Church Road. For more information, call the church office at 206-842-3622.