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The Rev. Harold Babcock
A native of Castine, Maine, where he grew up, he is a life long Unitarian Universalist. He was ordained at the First Church of Boston in 1982. Before coming to Newburyport in 1995, Harold served churches in Hanska, Minnesota (1982-1985) and Attleboro, Massachusetts (1985-1991), as well as completing interim ministries in Rockland, Maine (1993-1994) and Norway, South Paris, and West Paris, Maine (1994-1995). Before attending Divinity School, he worked briefly as a university English Instructor, a Town Planning Assistant, and a steeplejack and housepainter. He also worked in the Career Services Department of Maine Maritime Academy. Harold recently celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife, Sabrina Petterson Babcock, a class teacher at the Cape Ann Waldorf School in Beverly Farms. Sabrina is also a native Castine. Harold and Sabrina have two grown sons, Ben (Bowdoin College ‘05), currently a Field Geologist with Haley and Aldrich in Boston, and Josh (Newburyport High School ‘04), currently a student at ITT Technical Institute in Woburn. In addition to his ministerial duties with the First Religious Society, Harold is active in the Unitarian Universalist Association. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of the UU Partner Church Council, as an Executive Committee member of the UU Society for Ministerial Relief, and as a Board member of the Unitarian Service Pension Society, as well as belonging to a number of professional organizations. He is a past Secretary/ Treasurer of the UU Ministers Association and a past Secretary of the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Council. In Newburyport, Harold has served as Secretary of the local chapter of the American Red Cross and as President of the Clergy Association of Greater Newburyport, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Swasey Health Fund.
Harold and Sabrina enjoy traveling and have made multiple visits to the First Religious Society’s Unitarian partner church in Ujszekely, in the Transylvanian region of Romania, as well as recent trips to India to visit with Unitarians in the Khasis Hills region, to other destinations in Western Europe, to Canada, and to the American Southwest. They enjoy road trips, hiking and camping, and biking, having biked the Erie Canal in upstate New York during the summer of 2009.
