On June 2, Rev. Rebekah Cochrane arrived in Ely to a warm welcome by members of Grace Lutheran Church, which voted May 3 to call her as their new pastor. Pastor Cochrane’s first Sunday leading worship was June 14.
Cochrane and her family previously lived in Missoula (comparable in size to Duluth), where she served as an associate pastor for a traditional congregation and as the mission developer of an “alternative worshiping community formed and fed by art, music, poetry, and the natural world, (as well as) the gifts of wisdom and story and how those things come to us in different ways.”
She also brings three years’ experience as a youth director there, and time on staff at Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington.
But she and her family are not new to Minnesota.
Cochrane attended St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, where she double-majored in biology and religion. She has spent time in the Boundary Waters, has family and friends around the state, and completed her Master of Divinity degree through Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN.
Cochrane’s parents are both Lutheran clergy.
“That led me down a really positive path,” she said. “I’ve had such wonderful experiences with the church. I was very much formed by the small country churches my parents served in south-central Pennsylvania.”
Camping ministry has also been important to her. She grew up going to church camp and was closely connected to a Lutheran camp while ministering in Montana.
She looks forward to learning about Voyageurs Lutheran Ministry, which has camps near Cook and Deer River and with which Grace has a ministry relationship.
Cochrane’s wife, Dr. Maddy Cochrane, grew up in Grand Marais and earned her master’s at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She holds a PhD in ecology from the University of Montana and is currently conducting research on how climate change impacts different aquatic species across the country.
The couple has a three year-old daughter who is enrolled at the Ely Adventure School. The family has already participated in the Hidden Valley Hammer mountain bike race and looks forward to getting more involved with the Ely community.
“As a whole family, we’re pretty outdoorsy,” said Cochrane. “We like to paddle and ski and bike and run. I’m (also) an amateur knitter and enjoy reading a lot.”
In conclusion, Cochrane shares: “I am very encouraged and excited with everybody’s energy (at Grace). One of the things that was really clear to me early on was that the people here wanted a pastor who was going to be connected in the community. So I’m excited to obviously be the pastor, but also be a pastor in the community.”
She said she’s eager to work with other area clergy and with groups like Young Life, to learn what’s already happening and to figure out “what are the needs, where are there open places to help form the faith of young people and adults.”
She said Ely is “starting to feel like home. This is such an amazing community to drop into. We couldn’t have asked for better. We feel really blessed.”
