WEST POINT — When she was a young girl living in Tallahassee, Fla., the Rev. Rita Cochrane told her grandmother she wanted to preach. Maybe someday, she was told, but not now.
So, Cochrane, a devout Presbyterian, went about her life. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor”s degree in science, married, had two sons and ran a real estate company.
But that desire to be in the pulpit was always in the back of her mind, said Cochrane, who has now served more than 15 years at First Presbyterian Church in West Point.
Cochrane, who is retiring this week, waited. And waited. And then, years after her confession to her grandmother, she got her chance at Columbia Theological Seminary in DeKalb County, Ga., where she graduated with a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology.
After she was ordained at her home church in Baton Rouge, La., she accepted her current position, making her the first ordained woman minister in West Point, she said.
When did you first know you wanted to preach?
I knew when I was a very young girl, but that didn”t seem possible then. That changed. When you decide to do something, the timing isn”t always right. I was learning patience, and I”m still learning.
I always felt a desire to work in the church. But there weren”t opportunities to use my talents, which are pastoring, ministering and things like that.
When did you that opportunity come?
When things were right, things fell in place and I was accepted into seminary. It was more of a discernment process than a decision. It”s knowing that God wants you to do what you”re doing. We”re each called to do what we do — God called me to the ministry.
Have you ever encountered opposition to you being a pastor?
I”ve encountered discrimination. People question whether I should be in this position. I understand where they”re coming from — I don”t believe what they do, but I understand them.
I have a wonderful, spiritual experience every time I baptize a baby; every time I bury someone I”ve cared for, worked with and loved; every time I break the bread at communion and say the benediction before people leave the church. I don”t know if I would classify those as mountain-top experiences, but they have been very meaningful, spiritual experiences to me.
I love what I”m doing. I”ve always loved it. If you”re happy at whatever you”re doing, that”s a good sign that God wants you to do it.
What do you consider the greatest accomplishment of your ministry?
One of the things I”m proudest of is the ministry at the West Point Regional Medical Center.
When I came to town, they didn”t have a chaplain on staff. There was no one to help people who were from out of town or had no family in West Point. I saw a need.
We started gathering a group of pastors who were interested for training two years ago. Now we have 12 who provide spiritual guidance and help to people who don”t have anybody here.
I”m very proud of that. That program has helped a lot of people who were scared and alone. It”s one of the happiest things I do.
What do you enjoy most about being a minister?
I”m a happy girl. I love to preach, but I especially love the setup to preach. It”s like putting together a puzzle, like finding pieces of a mystery.
I”m a good student. I love being a student. I read Hebrew every day, just to keep it up. I love figuring (the Bible) out, putting it all together to find out what it meant to the people who wrote it. It”s a living document. It talked to people back then and it talks to us today.
I don”t like the budgets and administration work, those kind of things, but I do them.
With retirement looming, what are your future plans?
My first stop is my son who lives in Texas. Then, I”ll take a trip before coming back to West Point and deciding what to do with the rest of my life. I”m not one to do nothing. I have to stay busy.
Ministers just retire — they don”t stop being ministers. Retirement is just the paperwork.
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