After years of building community on MDI, Rev. Rob Benson begins a new chapter.
Jun 01, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Viridian Law.
BAR HARBOR — After more than a decade leading Bar Harbor Congregational Church and helping launch community initiatives ranging from the MDI Backpack Program to racial equity efforts, Rev. Rob Benson will leave Mount Desert Island this summer to become the multifaith chaplain at Bates College.
He will begin at Bates on August 3. His final Sunday at the church is July 5.
“In the last few years I’ve been especially excited by my work with COA students, both in our congregation and also in my teaching classes there. When this opportunity arose, I found myself more and more intrigued, and subsequently meeting the people at Bates solidified my interest and moved my heart from interested toward ‘called,’” Benson told his congregation.
In a message entitled, “First, last, and always—love,” Benson announced the move to his congregation last week, calling his time at the church “a tremendous honor” and expressing both excitement about the new opportunity and grief at leaving a community he described as an “oasis” during difficult times.
Benson’s departure marks the end of a ministry that extended well beyond the walls of Bar Harbor Congregational Church. During his tenure, he became known not only as a pastor but also as a community collaborator, educator, volunteer chaplain with the Bar Harbor Fire Department, advocate for racial equity, and supporter of programs addressing food insecurity, especially among local students.
“Rob is such a special fixture and source of love in our community. I am lucky to know him. He has always made a point to see others and to make everyone feel like they belong. A true gem of a human!” said Jena Young, chair of the Bar Harbor Food Pantry.
Rev. Benson also spent 12 years pastoring to island communities with Maine Seacoast Mission.
“For as long as we have lived on MDI, BHCC has been a beacon of faith, hope, love, and joy: her people shine bright lights wherever they are, your welcome is sincere and enthusiastic, your prayers earnest, your wisdom steadfast. Serving as your pastor has been a tremendous honor, and your collaborative, supportive, faithful spirit especially in difficult times – whether COVID, sprinkler mishaps, a corrosive political climate, or most of all, through heart-wrenching struggles and losses – has made even the harder days tinged with grace. Love fills me with gratitude,” Benson wrote.
WHY BATES
“Bates has this strong (and to be honest a bit intimidating) legacy of deep theological thinkers and determined social justice advocates—William Stringfellow, Peter Gomes, to name a couple,” Benson said. “I explored some of their work and found it resonating quite deeply with some of the peace building/theology and social justice avenues I’ve been exploring lately.”
The college’s webpage announces that the college is focused on “ardour and devotion,” a place where what people do is aligned with who they are.
That alignment has led Benson throughout his years on Mount Desert Island.
“From the moment I stepped on campus I could sense Bates’ friendly, inclusive vibe, the deep engagement, and the passion for connecting academic learning with the world’s pressing needs,” Benson said.
The newest chapter will bring new faces during his journey.
“Meeting such interesting and kind people there (faculty, staff, students) made Bates feel like a good fit,” Benson said.
He’s no newcomer to working with students.
After college he worked as a high-school English teacher, swim coach, and dorm parent in a small private school in Worcester, Massachusetts.
“I’d always had an interest in philosophy/theology and was raised Presbyterian, and after a couple of years teaching and coaching went to Divinity School for a Masters in Divinity,” he said. “My internship was with a Lutheran campus ministry, and it was the most vibrant and engaging faith community I’d been a part of in some time. After M. Div. – more teaching, but a summer of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as a hospital chaplain in inner-city Chicago sunk the pastor hook. More CPE, and then hospice chaplaincy in suburban and inner-city DC, a position to which I was ordained. It’s a much more nuanced story but that’s the short version.”
He’s also performed chaplain duties for Bar Harbor’s fire department and ambulance service.
He learned about the position at Bates because of that Worcester connection.
He happened to be chatting with a pastoral colleague who mentioned that Bates was looking for a chaplain.
“I was intrigued. One of my first students in Worcester went to Bates, and I’ve known many other great folks who did, too,” he said.
Bates College has a multifaith chaplaincy. The mission is to “warmly and creatively nurtures the religious, spiritual, secular, and searching community at Bates College, encouraging students to live into fullness and build deeper connection.”
It speaks to ”radically inclusive hospitality,” for “deep sacred expression, devotional exploration, community connection, reflective contemplation, and compassionate transformation.”
According to Bates, “Before moving to Maine in 2002, he (Benson) served as a program and communications associate for the Faith and Politics Institute in Washington, D.C., and a hospice chaplain for Hospice Care of the District of Columbia and Hospice of Northern Virginia.”
His divinity degree is from Yale. His bachelor’s degree is from Williams College.
“I am delighted to welcome Rev. Rob Benson to the Bates community, and look forward to seeing how he will bring his deep experience in inclusive ministry and spiritual leadership to his work with our Multifaith Chaplaincy,” said Bates President Garry W. Jenkins in a press release. “Rob seems to intuitively understand what makes Bates, Bates — our tight-knit community, our commitment to responsible stewardship of the greater world, and our immensely thoughtful, engaged, and talented students.”
“At Bates it feels like I can be open — with myself and with others — and not have to apologize for wanting to foster equity and pursue justice,” Benson said. “Bates feels like a great ‘fit.’”
LOOKING BACK AT HIS TIME IN BAR HARBOR
Benson said he will miss Bar Harbor and the island. He and his wife, Cristy, who teaches at Mount Desert Island High School have raised their family here.
“I will miss so much, “ he said. “The congregation, the community, the people, Echo Lake … how Hannaford takes an hour to get through because you run into people you’d love to have more time to talk with. How basketball games, concerts, and school plays are such strong community events. How people from so many backgrounds and perspectives call this place home.”
And in his time here he’s proud of the work he’s done with the community.
“I’m proud of BHCC’s collaborative community ministries like the Backpack Program and the Thanksgiving baskets, of our wonderful music programs for church and community, and of the ways our community supports our young people with incredible opportunities. I’m proud of my catalytic role in many things that have flown way under the radar, like the community piano. More than proud, though, I think I’d have to say I’m grateful to be a part of a church and a community where these things are valued — where I’ve been given flexibility, and even encouragement, to play a part in of all this,” he said.
He wishes he’d had more time to swim outside and hike, to have more cookouts and ice cream with his neighbors and friends.
During his time here, however, he has co-founded the Mount Desert Island Racial Equity Working Group and the MDI Backpack Program.
According to Bates, “He also finalized the church’s adoption of an ‘open and affirming covenant,’ a commitment to welcome and affirm congregants of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions.”
There is also a level of fun to the things Rev. Benson does—the way he creates connections with joy and sometimes goofiness right alongside intellectualism and compassion.
“I’m thrilled for Rob and this new opportunity but, selfishly, I’m sad for myself and the town. Rob has been an integral part of the year round community with his leadership and volunteerism,” said Bar Harbor Town Councilor Steven Boucher. “I was really able to know him through working with him for the MDI Backpack Program over the last 10 years, which he was part of founding. I also know Rob as a strong confidant who has always been there to listen and support me, particularly through my past struggle with cancer. Most importantly, I’ll miss him putting together the annual shaving cream Wiffle ball games and cranking home runs off his lazy pitches.”
MAKING COMMUNITY BETTER
“I cherish students’ honesty and enthusiasm. Life matters, and we don’t have time to waste on superficiality or irrelevance,” Benson said in the Bates’ press release. “Questions of who we are, what to do and say, how to live together, how to cultivate hope and joy, how to tend the earth — questions of meaning, purpose, justice, and belonging — aren’t just abstract concepts, but pressing, real-life pursuits. I’m inspired by students’ willingness to try new things, challenge outdated systems, and forge together a better world for all.”
While singer and writer Dar Williams often speaks to the power of positive proximity in creating stronger, happier communities, Benson has a slightly different way of looking at it.
“I have a very simplistic theory of change and that is, you get people together—eating, playing games, shaving cream Wiffle ball, our Glen Mary block parties, acts of compassion or mercy—and by doing so you build community, and you build capacity— capacity for more ambitious, more broad-reaching, more transformational programs and policies that move the needle from ‘me’ to ‘we,’” he said. “I’ve seen it happen here, at BHCC, and I hope to learn about how it happens at Bates, too, and perhaps add my vision and voice to the mix.”
In 2014 Rob Levin wrote for the Mount Desert Islander that Rev. Benson walked the path of spirit. At that same time, when Rev. Benson was first coming to the Bar Harbor church, he said that engaging in the community and to have the church be a place that is authentic and caring and loving of one another and tuned to an understanding a love of God and understanding God’s presence in our lives was one of his goals.
“I’m honored that Rob would think that, and even more that he’d say and write that,” Rev. Benson said. “Now I’d say that—to be more accurate—BHCC already was that sort of place and I have found myself living into that reality and that vision. BHCC is a church that lives faith beyond its walls, and has done so for a long time. Especially in the upheaval of the last several years, BHCC has been an oasis to many seeking shelter and hope.”
Often, those seeking comfort, hope, and ice cream have found that shelter with Benson and with Cristy Benson at the church, at their home on Glen Mary in Bar Harbor, or even at that Hannaford Grocery Store.
There is meaning in those connections and there is purpose there too.
“Meaning and purpose are tricky things, right? Cultural norms loudly preach the primacy of the individual and their ultimate measure in power and wealth. Church can —and should—champion higher values: inclusivity, compassion, common good. The fact that these sound counter-cultural isn’t an indictment of the church; it’s an indictment of the ways we’ve allowed ourselves to be seduced by systems of power and privilege. Community—as it’s so often lived on MDI, as in wanting the best for both self and neighbor—helps realign us toward living out our shared core values,” Benson said.
Many people here have helped him do that on Mount Desert Island, he said. There are many he could thank.
“Waaaaaaay too many people to list individually,” he said, “but generally—and I hope each of you will read yourselves into this—a special word of gratitude for everyone who just pitches in and helps out in so many unheralded ways, who make this position more of a joy than a job. And an extra special word of thanks to our ecumenical partners whose generosity of spirit and service lift up the hope and vision of unity, compassion, service, and love—especially in these fragmented times.”
The BHHC’s Leadership Council (TLC) has approved June 28 as a time to celebrate Rev. Benson’s ministry.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BATES’ MULTIFAITH CHAPLAINCY
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BAR HARBOR FOOD PANTRY
https://www.barharborfoodpantry.org
Disclosure: I’m a Bates College graduate.
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