Northport’s Trinity Church Interim Pastor Karen Haygood is set to retire from her role by the end of the month, with her last Sunday service scheduled for July 27. While Haygood is retiring from the work as pastor at the church, she will remain living in Northport, where she recently purchased a home.
Haygood, who was ordained 42 years ago as a Presbyterian minister, has served as interim pastor in Northport since October of 2021, when she made the decision to come out of retirement to fill the role. She had previously served as Trinity Church interim pastor for about a year in 2014, so she was familiar with the area and people when she decided to return. With the post-COVID situation in 2021, Haygood said the church was looking for time and stability in leadership while they waited to see what would happen next, taking into consideration how they would manage everything financially in terms of membership and what public health would look like.
“I retired once before in February of 2020 and then the whole world fell apart and I was stuck in my house. As we started coming out of the COVID shut downs and the vaccine became available and I was starting to re-engage with the world, Trinity’s pastor was retiring and they asked if I would consider coming back,” Haygood said. “Knowing what a wonderful community it is up here and it was a church that I knew and loved — I was thrilled to be able to come out of retirement and serve that congregation again.”
