HARDWICK – Members of the United Church of Hardwick called Craftsbury’s Avril Cochran to serve as their settled pastor on Sunday, Jan. 26, after she led that day’s worship. She visited with members of the congregation during an open house the day before.
Cochran has filled in at the church, leading worship on about half the Sunday’s during the last 16 months and in the 1990s, early in her pastoral journey.
In making their recommendation to the congregation, the Search Committee made note of Cochran’s diverse background, saying, it “comes with deep concern and a care for all people.”
Cochran has an Associates Degree in nursing and a B.A. in psychology. She has been the clinical director at Orleans-Essex VNA & Hospice, where she will continue to work 30 hours each week as she becomes the half-time pastor at the Hardwick United Church.
“I have been doing pulpit supply for them on and off for a year or so and starting feeling the tug to be their pastor and they were feeling the same way,” she said. “I was an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene but worked towards receiving “privilege of call” with the United Church of Christ.
Cochran and her husband have raised three children and own their business, she said.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
