Wheatland, Iowa, pastor serves church on Mackinac Island

By Shirley Davis | Thursday, October 25, 2007

TODAY: (Updated 2:56 p.m.) MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Talk about a dream-come-true retirement job.

After many years in the ministry, including 27 as a Navy chaplain, the Rev. Vincent Carroll of Wheatland, Iowa, was offered a retirement call he couldn’t refuse.

A pastor was needed at the picturesque Little Stone Church, located across the street from the historic Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. It is a century-old church open only from mid-May to mid-October, which would give him plenty of opportunity to winter in Sarasota, Fla., host cruises around the world and write books of poetry.

In fact, the pastor’s mother, Lorraine Carroll, who still lives in Wheatland, and Rev. Carroll have just published her book of poetry. It’s called “Poems from the Heart Land,” and his mother chuckles when she says she doesn’t sell the books. “I just give ‘em away,” she adds with a laugh. “Do you want one?”

Rev. Carroll is working on a new book of poems called “An Iowa Mother and an American Son,” which will involve poems by both of them.

 His brother, Clayton, who is with Hawkeye Foods, lives in Davenport. Another brother, Lynn, who lives in Gilbert, Ariz., also has a new book out. A former Air Force fighter pilot, Lynn’s book is titled “Entertaining War.”  

Asked how he ended up at the century-old church where he sometimes performs as many as three weddings on a Saturday, Rev. Carroll began by explaining his Iowa connection: “I graduated from the University of Iowa in 1965 and attended the Iowa Writers Workshop Program there.” Thus his interest in poetry.

 “After attending United Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, I served in Rochester, Minn., then San Diego, Calif., and, in 1970, applied to be a combat chaplain in Vietnam.

 “I was the last protestant chaplain with the Marine Corps to leave Vietnam,” he said. That stint inspired him to write the book of poetry accompanied by his own black-and-white photographs, “Poems From Da Nang,” which was published early this year — two years after his first book of poetry, “Biblical Characters With An Attitude,” came out.

The biblical poems, he explained, were written initially for children’s sermons, but his Michigan congregation talked him into adapting them for adults.

“In the spirit of our fast-food culture, this one-minute rhyming read of our Biblical friends becomes an almost sport-like activity while retaining the value of the message without miring the word of God,” he added. The poems have somewhat of a rap or reggae tempo.

Lorraine Carroll says her son was inspired to enter the ministry by the late Rev. Harold Koenig, who served his entire career at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Wheatland. “Vincent, who was a teenager when Rev. Koenig came here, really admired him.”

She points to some of her son’s career highlights: Head chaplain at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., serving as one of the chaplains at Camp David during George H.W. Bush’s presidential administration and — most recently — as senior chaplain for the Navy in Europe and the Mediterranean while living in London for three years.

He and his wife, Molly, whom he met in 1972 when he was a Navy chaplain and she was a civilian working for the Navy in drug and alcohol education, had already retired to Florida when the Michigan opportunity presented itself.

“When Molly said, ‘Either you get a job or I do,’ we started doing cruises where I served as pastor for Holland American lines,” he said, “and four years ago we learned that the pastor of the Little Stone Church was retiring. I made an application on the spot.”

 “He fell in love with it the minute he saw the church. I could tell by the expression on his face that we’d be staying,” Molly said.

“We have about 100 members in summer and 225 on a Sunday morning — mostly cottagers and visitors to the Island,” Rev. Carroll said. One of his most faithful attendees is Lucy Evashevski, formerly of DeWitt, Iowa, who takes the ferry over to the island from her home in St. Ignace, Mich. “He gives the most wonderful sermons!” she said.

His interest in poetry was responsible for founding a poetry festival at the Stone Church.

The Carrolls built a home in Sarasota eight years ago, and, now that they’ve returned to Florida for the winter, they are volunteers at the Opera Guild, Theater Guild and Ringling Museum Campus on Florida’s Gulf Coast. He’ll share host duties this month for a two-week University of Iowa-sponsored cruise on a French riverboat in and out of Paris, and Carroll admits he still enjoys an occasional stint as guest pastor on a Holland America cruise.

He’s also a popular speaker and has done graduation commencement addresses, library presentations and book signings.

 “I’ll be coming through the Quad-Cities next May,” he said, and, with a twinkle in his eye, added, “Maybe you can book me for a speaking engagement or a book signing.”

   

Shirley Davis can be contacted at (563) 383-2281 or sdavis@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.