WILLIAMSBURG — A Missouri native and former interim pastor at First Churches of Northampton has been chosen as pastor of Haydenville Congregational Church.

Following a unanimous vote by the congregation, the Rev. Mark R. Seifried began his role as a designated-term minister March 1.

The church has been without a pastor since January 2022 when the Rev. Donald Morgan retired.

Under United Church of Christ guidelines, a designated-term minister is a transitional position, which allows for the possibility of calling him as a settled pastor at the end of two years.

Seifried, 60, attended Purdue University, where he acquired a degree in hotel and restaurant management, and Andover Newton Theological Seminary. Before entering the seminary, he said, he worked as a chef’s apprentice and head chef for a time, and managed a high-volume casual dining seafood restaurant in the Southeast for 10 years. He said cooking remains one of his chief interests.

He has received training to serve congregations as an interim, transitional minister, and has served 12 congregations across Massachusetts in that capacity over the last 25 years, helping them work on their mission and vision.

“This one is different,” he said of the Haydenville position. “I have the option at the end of my two-year contract to stay on as settled minister.”

Before coming to Haydenville, Seifried was intentional interim minister of the First Congregational Church in Williamstown. In 2010, he stepped in as interim pastor at First Churches in Northampton upon the retirement of the Rev. Peter Ives.

“I served First Churches as interim for two years,” he said. “I loved serving that community. I’m really happy to be back here.”

Haydenville felt like it was the right fit for him when he first met with the pastoral search team.

“It’s a progressive congregation that has really strong leadership, a strong witness for peace and justice, particularly racial and environmental justice,” he said. “Those are both things that I’m passionate about.”

Like most congregations, the church saw a decline in worship attendance during the pandemic, but Seifried said he’s optimistic about the future.

“It taught us new ways of doing and being church,” he said. “In many ways it’s helped us to retool.”

Among the fresh approaches he’s bringing to Haydenville, Seifried mentioned pop-up church, in which congregants meet with their neighbors in coffee houses, pubs or people’s homes. It’s a way of getting the congregation to be more active in the community, he said.

Seifried and his partner live in Northampton in one of the former Clarke School buildings.

The 172-year-old Congregational church on Route 9, with deep ties to the history of the Haydenville section of Williamsburg, has 92 members.

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