“DYNAMO OF ENERGY AND CARING SENSITIVITY:” Reverend Alexis Fuller-Wright, most recently from Farmington, Maine, has taken over the pulpit at Christ Congregation and looks forward to leading the church in new directions, with emphasis on the church as a relevant presence in the community and the world.

Reverend Alexis Fuller-Wright, Pastor Alexis as her congregation knows her, explained that “God is still speaking, continuing to point us in new and interesting directions, and our job is to listen.”

After just one month in the pulpit at Christ Congregation Church in Princeton, Ms. Fuller-Wright, who came to Princeton from a large parish in Farmington, Maine, is determined to listen assiduously and to lead her new congregation in meaningful new directions.

“I wanted a church that was looking to be a relevant presence in the world today,” Ms. Fuller-Wright said. “There’s a different level of connection here to the current world events. People here are grappling with what’s happening in our culture on a much deeper level.”

She went on to observe that the Christ Congregation community has proven to be exactly what she was looking for in fulfilling her vision of what a church’s role should and could be in 2017. “It’s been fantastic so far. People have been so kind, thoughtful, and interesting — looking for ways in which the scriptures are relevant today. They’re there to engage with what it means to be a progressive Christian in society today.”

Young, progressive, “a dynamo of energy and caring sensitivity,” according to Carol McCollough, church moderator and leader of the search committee, Ms. Fuller-Wright said she “wanted to be part of a congregation that is willing to take more risks. Times are changing and churches are changing. I’m less interested in the old, traditional model of the church that is rote and disconnected from our culture, and more interested in taking risks and finding new ways to build community and do justice work. Those risks might result in failure, but if we haven’t failed at anything, then we haven’t tried anything new, either.”

In coming to Princeton, Ms. Fuller-Wright, with her wife Liz and their young daughter, was also happy to be moving closer to friends and family in the area.

Christ Congregation, at the intersection of Walnut Lane and Houghton adjacent to Westminster Choir College and Princeton High School, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Church, attracting members from a variety of faith backgrounds looking for a more inclusive theology.

Prior to Ms. Fuller-Wright’s arrival, the pulpit was temporarily filled by former Princeton Seminary professor Reverend J. Randall Nichols, with the help of Reverend Bob Moore, director of the Coalition for Peace Action and a member of Christ Congregation.

Ms. Fuller-Wright said she is looking forward to exploring the larger role of the church, asking “Who is God calling Christ Congregation to be in the 21st century?” She emphasized the priorities of building relationships in the church and in the wider community and of “empowering people to use their gifts.”

She noted her surprise at how few people in the larger community knew about Christ Congregation. “Their gift has not been sufficiently communicated to the community,” she said. “More people need to know that this congregation exists.”

One prominent initiative on her agenda is to reach out to Princeton’s Latino community, whose Assembly of God congregation meets in the Christ Congregation Church. “I hope we can make connections and build a relationship with them. We want to be part of a sanctuary movement, to help protect them, to be allies, to stand in solidarity with them. We will advocate for laws that will protect them.”

Highlighting the importance of the challenges ahead in her new post, Ms. Fuller-Wright stated, “There’s often press about how churches are shrinking and questions as to whether organized religion is relevant anymore, but there couldn’t be a more critical time to be the church. We are living in a world filled with fear and anxiety, and people are searching for hope and meaning and a way to turn what is broken into something beautiful. This is what God and God’s people do best.”