news article
Remembering clergy, clergy spouses, and lay members
June 7, 2019 / By Shannon Hodson
On Thursday June 6, a Memorial Service was held at the 2019 Upper New York Annual Conference session to remember clergy and clergy spouses who have passed away since the 2018 AC session.
In both Upper New York Area Resident Bishop Mark J. Webb’s introduction and Cornerstone District Superintendent the Rev. Sherri Rood’s Memorial Service message, they were able to bring about a spirit of positivity.
Bishop Webb referred to a pear tree at his grandparents’ house that he deeply desired to pick a pear from as a small child.
“When I was about 4 years old, my grandparents lived on a farm, and there was a pear tree on the side lawn and the pears were too high to pick … for some reason I had the desire to get pears. The only way I could get them was if my dad put me on his shoulders.
“What we celebrate tonight is people who allowed us to stand on their shoulders, to pluck the fruit that God has invited us to. Many of these that we remember tonight were our mentors, teachers, pastors, colleagues, and friends. Our lives are better, fuller because of the lives that they lived and because they were willing to bend down so that we could climb on their shoulders and reach for what we believe that God was calling us to.”
Rev. Rood based much of her message on the story of Lazarus’ death as captured in the book of John, chapter 11. She zeroed in on the anger Martha and Mary felt toward their friend Jesus for not healing their brother.
“Martha lays it out for Jesus – she doesn’t pull any punches ‘Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.’ I can almost hear Martha saying, ‘Jesus, where the hell were you?’ And sometimes we feel the same way,” she said. “Where were you when we needed you – in the hospital, by the bedside, at the clinic, in the ambulance? Where were you in Orlando, in Sandy Hook … at the Mexican border, in natural disasters and human disasters, and in all the places where people are wounded and hurting and dying? Where were you Jesus? We needed you.”
Though Martha was angry at Jesus, she still held onto faith; she said, “I know God will give whatever you ask.”
Rev. Rood reminded the Memorial Service attendees, those who have lost loved ones and who are very likely still grieving, that there is good news even in death.
“Is it not a true, that even in the midst of death, we are in life? Are we not resurrection people? Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has destroyed the power of death,” Rev. Rood said. “We don’t have to wait for the end of our days for everlasting life. We don’t have to wait for the end of our days to be with Jesus. As followers of Jesus, everlasting life is both here and now and at the end of our days – it’s the fulfillment of the promise of the inbreaking of God’s beloved community. We don’t have to wait for the sweet bye and bye. It’s here for us now.”
Rev. Rood suggested that United Methodists should take a cue from our Jewish brothers and sisters and keep shiva, where we would practice silence during a week-long mourning period after the funeral, a time when family share about their loss and receive the comfort of others.
She said that after the death of a loved one, “when we’re done sitting shiva, when we’re able to breathe again, when we live into the new normal and our head and our hearts make peace with the knowledge that our loved one is not coming back, our task is to spread the love we have for them around, often walking by faith and not by sight. Having confidence that in sharing the love, by meeting the world’s needs with our gifts, through the blessings and tender mercies we have so abundantly received, we are bringing about God’s beloved community.”
After delivering her message, the names of the following clergy spouses and clergy were lifted, and attendees had the opportunity to lift the names of laity who have died in the past year.
Clergy spouses:
Bruce Wheeler, Jan. 16, 2018
Grete Dodson, April 25, 2018
Evah Jane Northrup, May 15, 2018
Joy Ferguson, May 26, 2018
Miriam Laundry, June 30, 2018
Barbara Steen, Aug. 23, 2018
Richard Davidson, Aug. 24, 2018
Joyce F. Ware, Sept. 8, 2018
Dorothy Brandon, Sept. 13, 2018
Sharon H. Melius, Oct. 8, 2018
Audrey Foley, Nov. 3, 2018
Billie Jean Townsend, Dec. 6, 2018
Barbara Jean Linza, Dec. 15, 2018
Edward Schaus, Dec. 22, 2018
Bertha Pierce, Jan. 12, 2019
Roberta Fishbeck, Feb. 13, 2019
John M. Hicks, Feb. 22, 2019
Joy Cruikshank, March 20, 2019
Louise H. Howe, March 21, 2019
Dorothy Groshans, April 3, 2019
John F. Mowry, April 14, 2019
Clergy:
Hon. Loc. Orrin Frederick Hall, April 8, 2018
Rev. George Dewey Armitage, Jr., April 26, 2018
Rev. Wendell E. Minnigh, Jr., May 9, 2018
Pastor James A. Smith, July 2, 2018
Pastor Robert Case, July 5, 2018
Pastor Charles Forbes, July 25, 2018
Rev. Olav Danielson, Aug. 27, 2018
Pastor K. Gordon Brownlow, Sept. 11, 2018
Rev. Robert Wallace Zimmerman, Sept. 27, 2018
Rev. Thomas F. Schafer, Sept. 29, 2018
Rev. Donald Modisher, Oct. 17, 2018
Rev. Milton Vahey, Oct. 30, 2018
Rev. Terrance Millbyer, Nov. 15, 2018
Pastor Lyman Pelkey, Dec. 11, 2018
Rev. Richard Sears, Dec. 11, 2018
Rev. Robert T. Anderson, Dec. 20, 2018
Pastor Barbara Jeanne Allen, Jan. 18, 2019
Rev. Richard E. Grant, Jan. 22, 2019
Rev. Hallock Norton Mohler, Jan. 25, 2019
Hon. Loc. Robert E. Pennock, Feb. 10, 2019
Rev. Carlton G. Van Ornum, March 9, 2019
Rev. Guy Lewis Burt, March 26, 2019
Rev. Mardean Moyer, April 4, 2019
Laity:
Jim Krager, July 3, 2018