He's been all across New England, but Seth Fortier had never seen Westport before he and his wife Alexa arrived here late last month on his newest mission, as pastor of the Westport Point United Methodist Church.

Fortier, who was raised in Maine, earned his master's degree in divinity at Boston University and most recently oversaw two Methodist congregations in Naples and North Sebago, Maine, arrived on Thursday, June 28. His first service at the Westport Point church was Sunday, July 3.

Though he admits to feeling a bit of culture shock when he arrived, he said Westport is similar in many ways to the area he was serving in Maine before learning that he was being transferred here some months ago.

"Shock's probably too big of a word," he said. "But I was kind of surprised at how rural it is."

"But being here on the ocean is very unique and very nice," he said. "I didn't get a chance to come here (before taking over). Usually when you get appointed to a new place, you go there and you're introduced by the staff parish committee; it's a face to face thing. Because of the pandemic that didn't happen."

So far, Westporters have been very welcoming and friendly, he said — "The first day I was here a couple from the church greeted me. And then I had some people waiting here with food and what not."

Though he is still learning the community, Pastor Fortier said he wants to work in his time here on re-establishing many of the community-centric things churches excelled in prior to the pandemic. Participation has slowly transitioned to more "remote" forms of interaction, he said, and while that is good in many ways he hopes to re-establish more in-person ways of doing things.

The pandemic "has just wreaked havoc on relationships in congregations," he said. "But it's opened up doors too. For me, it's just trying to figure out, 'How do we move back and figure out what to leave behind, what to embrace from covid and what to do moving forward?

"I'm looking forward to it."

Pastor Fortier replaces former Pastor Kate Galop, who was transferred to a congregation in Western Massachusetts at the beginning of July.