As Candace Whitman unpacks her belongings at the Amagansett Presbyterian Church’s manse, she feels not only the weight of her books — “I brought too many with me, so I have the chore of trying to pare them down,” she softly laments — but also the significance of the role ahead of her.
On Sunday, the church will open its doors for the first time in over a year, marking the occasion with Ms. Whitman’s inaugural sermon as the congregation’s newest pastor — whose own spiritual awakening took form a decade ago during long, quiet walks on the beach on Shelter Island.
“I could be still there,” she said. “We all need the quiet sometimes to hear what’s really going on within ourselves. I think, in the stillness, I was able to hear God’s voice.”
Born and raised in Garden City, Ms. Whitman attended United Church of Christ with her family, but never considered herself religious as a child, she explained. Instead, she gravitated toward art, which she studied at Yale University before teaching as an adjunct professor at New York University — and, unexpectedly, experienced a reawakening in her faith at a small, vibrant church while living in Manhattan.
“As I got more involved in my local church, people would say things to me like, ‘Have you ever thought of being a minister?’” she recalled. “Of course, I would shrug it off and say, ‘No way.’ To go to seminary looked like a big, daunting thing.”
But after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Ms. Whitman’s perspective shifted. Craving a different experience, she moved to Shelter Island and her walks on Hay Beach commenced — as did a growing call to attend seminary.
“That’s where I began to hear things,” she said. “With some trepidation, but with a lot of support, I took a step toward applying, and I said to God in my prayers, ‘If this is right, please open doors, and if it’s not right, you’ll show me and I’ll go another direction.’ Bit by bit, it seemed to be confirmed.”
Ms. Whitman graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2011 as an ordained Presbyterian minister, and received the John Alan Swink Award in Preaching, officially launching her second career as a pastor — first with Fishers Island Union Chapel, where she served for six years, and now in Amagansett.
“I felt as though I had taken the church about as far as I could, and that it was time for new leadership,” she said of Fishers Island. “I loved the East End and I’ve always felt as though there is a lot of spiritual potential here because of the natural beauty in this part of Long Island — and I wanted to move into that.”
With a strong background in pastoral counseling, organizing retreats, prayer life and crisis ministry, Ms. Whitman said she will strive to live by example here — demonstrating Christian values for both the congregation and the community.
“I’m aware that going to church is not really in fashion anymore and, for a lot of people, the church may seem like a thing of the past,” she said. “The challenge will be to let people know that church life is incredibly relevant to life today and that we might be able to do some new versions of church. So if people aren’t going to come to church like they used to, how can we bring church to the people?”
That will remain to be seen, said Ms. Whitman, who approaches her church work with the “spirit of experimentation.”
“We’re geared in that direction and we’re gonna be pleased with the results — eventually, wherever God leads us,” she said. “We’re just gonna keep going in faith and trust that God will lead us to some really joyful moments.”
For the next several weeks, Ms. Whitman will focus her sermons on where the congregation has been, and where she imagines it could go — toward a place of healing and faith, she said.
“Everybody has been in such ordeal, one way or another, with the pandemic,” she said. “I feel as though I’m coming at a time when we can support each other as we come out of it, look back on it, learn from it, but also look ahead with some hope.”
As she settles into the large, circa-1713 manse — abundant with “tremendous charm,” she said — Ms. Whitman is already daydreaming of hosting congregants and community members there, while pursuing her own hobbies, among them backgammon, and her art, perhaps adding to her roster of 13 published children’s books.
And, of course, she has reinstated her long walks on the beach — one of her first orders of business after landing on the East End earlier this month.
“I think when we’re close to the ocean, it’s like being close to eternity,” she said. “There’s something of the eternal in the ocean, and we walk very close to it, but we just walk along the edge where we’re safe. And, to me, that’s a spiritual experience.”
Michelle Trauring on Jun 22, 2021