The Rev. Mary Rublee, the new pastor of the Broad Street United Methodist Church, and her husband Darrell Rublee. Rublee has served as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for ten years, after working as an IT engineer for Eastman Kodak Company for 25 years. (Photo from the Broad Street United Methodist Church)

NORWICH — The Broad Street United Methodist Church saw a change in leadership earlier this summer, and have welcomed the Rev. Mary Rublee as their new pastor. Rublee has served as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for ten years.

Rublee spent 25 years as an IT engineer for Eastman Kodak Company before attending seminary at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, but she said her call to faith came long before her schooling.

"Even as a child I was sort of feeling the call to be clergy, or ordained clergy, but I was raised Roman Catholic and, you know, female pastors aren't in that denomination," she explained. "It wasn't until my husband Darrell and I were in the Rochester area and had settled in and had our first child. We happened to go to a Methodist Church near where we were living and there was a female pastor. I never knew that was a possibility. That was a start for me."

From there, Rublee said she attended Colgate for three years to earn her Masters of Divinity, adding that her path to becoming clergy has "been a lifelong journey."

Being ordained clergy in the Methodist Church means that Rublee takes a vow to go where she is needed, which eventually prompted her move to Norwich in July.