The sun was setting on a Good Friday evening in the California desert when a chaplain assigned to Mark’s United States Army unit made a symbolic yet compelling presentation.

“He took three soldiers and he had one soldier carrying a wooden cross. You can see them off in the distance, climbing this sand dune. One soldier carrying a wooden cross, two other soldiers with their rifles, kind of like a 20th century ‘bringing Jesus to the cross in Golgotha.’ It was just so profound. Then, I knew God had something planned for me.”

From there, Mark Pilletere began his journey, going from the dunes of the Golden State to obtaining his Master’s degree in divinity from Bangor Theological Seminary, to becoming the current reverend of the First Congregational Church Church. Commonly known as Old Stone Church, Mark was drawn to the church partly due to its long history.

“It’s over 300 years old. It was around during the American Revolution. You walk around the building, and you can see some bullet holes from the war,” Mark says.

He was also attracted to the willingness of Old Stone's congregation to continuously push forward while serving as a staple of the East Haven community. He points to the upcoming Thanksgiving Ecumenical Service on Tuesday, Nov. 22 as an example. With representatives from the St. Pio of Pietrelcina Parish and the Christ and the Epiphany Church and a proclamation by Mayor Joseph Carfora, the service invites the community to join in celebration, embracing one another on the national holiday with its tradition of giving thanks for each other for the grace of God.

“At one time, there was a rich history for all of the churches to do ecumenical services throughout the year, and over the years, they kind of diminished,” Mark says. “When [the coronavirus] hit, that killed everything. What we’re trying to do is bring all that stuff back, get churches involved, [and] let people know in East Haven that the faith community is there.”

Mark says the holiday service can serve as a platform upon which Old Stone and its fellow local congregations will further their community involvement following a two-year detour from in-person services and other related events through their churches.

“We’re gonna try to get more active in the community, not only as the Old Stone Church, but [with] the East Haven churches. Let people know that church is still a place they can go to, rely on, seek help, seek comfort, whatever things they could possibly need.”

With one of the fall season’s central holidays approaching, Mark says that Thanksgiving is not only a time of festivity but also one of understanding and education through faith.

“We are all thankful people, no matter what faith tradition you’re from [or] what you practice. With our perspective, we’re giving thanks back to God for all that we have. Not only for that first Thanksgiving, not only for the founding of the country. A lot of families will be saying, ‘This is Thanksgiving, it’s a day we eat turkey.’ Now, what we should be teaching our kids is why we are eating turkey. Why are we giving thanks? But we’re taking it that one step forward in giving thanks to God for all that we have.”

As the senior pastor at Old Stone, Mark views himself not so much as a community leader, but more appropriately as a “community pastor,” someone who can take on the renewed community outreach mission of Old Stone along with its neighboring congregations. In the swing of autumn, pastors such as Mark tend to meet more often with families, especially those who are facing difficult times due to a host of stressors, including be it the first time they are separated from a loved one during the holiday season due to their passing. In Mark, they look to find comfort and strength through such stressful events.

The greatest joy Mark receives from his leadership at Old Stone is “seeing the miracles happen,” specifically seeing members of the community unite to help the church and the congregation realize its goals and projects for the town, such as when donations poured in for fixing the color organ of the steeple, which would display colors at night and Christmas colors following this Thanksgiving, after having been struck by lighting.

“I just put it out on Facebook one day, and before I knew it, people from the community, not even church members, started making donations to have this light system repaired. And within two weeks, we were able to get it repaired because the community responded.”

Its occurrences from community-wide donations to providing safety and comfort for people that remind Mark that Old Stone still maintains its presence as a place of worship and unity for East Haven, but he also understands that there are more steps to take beyond now.

“The community knows that the church is here. I’ve been focusing on trying to get the church back into the community. Let them know we’re available and we do things.”

To nominate someone as Person of the Week, email Aaron Rubin at a.rubin@shorepublishing.com.