McLain new deacon at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Abbeville

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church welcomed Rev. Deacon Madge McLain to Abbeville a little more than three months ago.
It is another stop on the journey, one that has brought her through various jobs and eventually to the church.
“In August of this year,” McLain said, “I was ordained as a transitional deacon, a ministry that must be fulfilled for a period of six months. In February of 2018, I will be made a priest in the Episcopal church and my hope is to continue at St. Paul’s for many years.”
McLain’s early years took her to many places.
“Having a petroleum engineer as a daddy and being born in an era of exploration and oil production, meant that our family moved considerably,” McLain said. “I was actually born in Lafayette and growing up, I would call numerous places in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma home. As a junior in high school the family returned to Lafayette where I finished high school and graduated from U. S. L. with a degree in Behavioral Sciences.”
McLain said she enjoyed living in different parts of the country, but is happy to have made Lafayette and Acadiana her home for the last 35 years.
“It has been my experience that each part of the country is unique and wonderful in its own way,” McLain said, “but there is nowhere quite like Acadiana.”
As for the career part of life, McLain spent most of that time in retail purchasing and management.
“I spent a number of years with the J.C. Penney Co. and then with Marshall’s Nursery, a retail plant nursery and gift shop, for 28 years,” McLain said. “When Marshall, the owner, retired and I was forced to go once again into the job market, I was “adopted” by Ted Viator, a landscape architect and event coordinator in Lafayette.
“While working for Ted, my call to ordained ministry rang out and I began the journey toward ordination.”
That journey began with a simple question.
“I did not know that I was called to ordained ministry until I was asked by my parish priest to consider the discernment process,” McLain said. “Quiet prayer and reflection made it clear that I would begin this process that I was called to begin. Overall this process, in the depth and thoroughness of discovery, took about two years. After obtaining approval from our Bishop and the commission on ministry, my ministry education of three years began.”
McLain is happy to have found herself in Abbeville, a place that has had a welcoming feeling.
“It is an extraordinary thing to me that being only 21 miles apart that Lafayette and Abbeville are so very different,” McLain said. “Abbeville moves to a rhythm of kindness and gentleness and where the days move in a dimension of time that I have not ever experienced. People in Abbeville make time for others, time for family, time for friends, time for strangers, such as I was only three months ago.
“I have been welcomed into this community with open arms.”
Abbeville is a place, McLain said, she is certain has strong ties to faith, regardless of the denomination.
“This is a community that is rooted in faith of a number of different faith traditions,” McLain said. “One need only drive around town on Sunday morning for witness of where the heart of this town exists.”
After only a few months, McLain’s heart is in Abbeville.
“Perhaps the best way that I can summarize how I feel about Abbeville and my St. Paul’s family, is that I just believe that I will stay awhile,” McLain said.