In a small church on Bremen Road in Waldoboro, Reverend Michael Murphy sat – a little hunched these days – at the organ. He got up and moved behind the pulpit.
Though Murphy is a small man, further weakened by age, his voice came through clear and strong. As he delivered his sermon on Palm Sunday, March 28, his eyes probed the small congregation at West Waldoboro Community Church.
His sermon that day focused on attitude. He smiled as he asked the congregation to consider their own attitudes – the whole of their person. “If you described yourself with one word, what would it be?” he said.
This sermon was his first in two months. Until Palm Sunday, Murphy hadn’t taken his place behind the pulpit since the car accident earlier this year.
That accident factors heavily into Murphy’s life these days, but he doesn’t like to talk about it. Sometimes his memory goes blank. He feels like he’s lost chunks of time he might not get back, but he prefers to carry on.
Murphy started serving the West Waldoboro Community Church 17 years ago. He was living in Waldoboro and preaching at a church in Bremen. When he heard the Community Church didn’t have a pastor and might close, he offered to step in.
“Their service was early – 9:30 on Sundays – so it was easy to fit it in,” he said.
When Murphy talks about fitting something in, no matter how easy he says it is, he means that he has that time open in his schedule, but likely not much more.
Until a few years ago, Murphy was preaching at West Waldoboro Community Church, teaching math at the University of Maine in Rockland, running the Waldoboro Food Pantry, and volunteering at the Animal Shelter in Thomaston.
He retired from teaching in 2009, and since the accident he hasn’t worked at the food pantry or animal shelter. On March 21, he was honored for his time at the food pantry at a ceremony at the United Methodist Church in Waldoboro.
“Helping people was a seven-days-a-week job,” Murphy said. “I come from a factory family. Everybody worked hard for what they had. I was determined not to go into the factory, but I knew I still had to work hard.”
He grew up in Massachusetts in a poor family. During the Great Depression, his family, largely out of work, survived on government handouts.
“I think I decided then that I would always try to help anyone I could,” Murphy said.
He knew that the life of a factory worker wasn’t for him, but his upbringing wouldn’t let him sit idle.
He entered the seminary and completed six years of school there. With only one year left, he decided he didn’t want to be a minister, and left to become a teacher. He’s not sure now why he made the jump, but he has always been glad that he did.
Murphy went on to teach at several schools in many subjects at all grade levels for 61 years. When he started he was teaching every subject.
“They don’t teach math at seminary, but I had always been good at it,” Murphy said. “So when I got tired of teaching social studies, I went back to school.”
He got accreditation to teach math, and spent most of his career as a math teacher at Bonnie Eagle High School and George’s Valley, and later spent 19 years teaching math at the University of Maine in Rockland.
Though teaching was a constant throughout his life, he was always working outside his chosen profession.
He met his wife, Maria Kraus, while they were both volunteering at a mission in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City in 1942. They were working with children, taking them off the street and feeding them and putting them to work.
It would be another 16 years before the two would wed – Murphy spent some of that time at school and working at a mission in St. Louis – but since their marriage in 1958, she’s been as constant in his life as his service work.
Every place Murphy has lived, he’s found a way to volunteer, to help people get the basic necessities they need to get by. He doesn’t brag about the extent of his work and is matter-of-fact about the reasons behind his efforts.
Like all his volunteer work, Murphy is succinct in his explanation of why he loved working at the animal shelter in Thomaston.
“The animals needed clean cages, so I cleaned them,” he said.
When he moved to Maine in 1974, he lived outside Portland. There were five Lutheran Churches in the area, and he and his wife decided to give each one a test drive.
The last of the five they attended was in Cape Elizabeth. They walked through the door and saw the minister at the front of the church. The minister turned, smiled, and called out, “Mike Murphy! What are you doing here?”
Murphy had attended seminary with the minister, and though the minister was two years behind Murphy, they had been friends.
Shortly thereafter, a church nearby became vacant. All the ministers in the area got together to decide what to do. Murphy’s friend from seminary stepped forward and offered Murphy’s limited expertise.
Despite not being ordained, the ministers decided to put Murphy in front of the church, and let him fill in until a permanent minister could be found.
“I was there for 10 months,” Murphy said. “When I left, I had an adult bible class that was bigger than the whole congregation when I started.”
He filled a similar role at a number churches in the Portland area, taking over when ministers left and serving until a permanent one could be found. At one point, he was serving two churches at the same time. Then in 1986 he moved to Waldoboro, and Portland “wasn’t exactly in the backyard,” he said.
A church in Bremen had been empty for a long time, and Murphy stepped in to serve there. He was still not ordained, but everywhere he preached the congregations grew.
While he was serving in Bremen, Barbara Teale was the pastor at West Waldoboro Community Church. She would often come down and sit for Murphy’s sermons and would rate them on her way out.
“I usually got a ten,” Murphy said. “I don’t think I ever went below a seven.”
It was Teale who would eventually ordain Murphy. She stepped down as pastor at West Waldoboro Community Church, and when Murphy heard that it was in danger of closing, he volunteered to take over.
On June 21, 1992, Murphy was finally ordained at his church in Bremen, and served at the West Waldoboro Community Church until two months ago. During that time, he was also running the Waldoboro food pantry, volunteering at the animal shelter in Thomaston, and teaching math at the University of Maine in Rockland.
All that work ended with the accident.
Murphy has memory problems now. He sometimes forgets the names of his friends, and has trouble piecing together the dates and chronology of his life. He is still a caring and friendly man, but he gets frustrated when it becomes apparent that his mind isn’t as sharp as it once was.
His wife’s scars are physical. She was seriously injured during the crash and has trouble getting around the house without a walker.
She was bedridden for some time following the crash, and Murphy stepped down from the church and gave up his work at the food pantry and animal shelter to stay home and care for her.
“She’s much better than she was, but it doesn’t look like she’s getting any better,” he said. “It’s time for me to get back to work.”
The West Waldoboro Community Church is on land donated by a family years ago. Their contract states that if the building ever ceases to be a church, the land will go back to the family. After Murphy left two months ago, attendance started to slide. He knew they needed him back, and Murphy has always been there for those who need him.
On March 25, before his Palm Sunday return to the West Waldo Community Church, when he talked about his future, there was a touch of defiance to his voice. It seemed that he wasn’t just talking about preaching.
“I’m coming back this Sunday, and I’m going to stay as long as He lets me,” he said, pointing to the ceiling and smiling.
