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    United Methodists of Upper New YorkLiving the Gospel. Being God's Love.


    news article

    Rev. Corey Turnpenny selected as Annual Conference 2018 Memorial Service speaker

    March 28, 2018 / By Shannon Hodson / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    The Rev. Corey Turnpenny, pastor at Whitney Point UMC, has been selected as the Memorial Service speaker for the 2018 Annual Conference held May 30-June 2 at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena in Syracuse; the Memorial Service takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday May 31.

    Rev. Turnpenny grew up in a Methodist church in Wilkes Barre, Pa. She felt God calling her to ministry at the age of 11! Her bond with Christ was strengthened through summers spent at Sky Lake Camp. Eventually she would receive her Masters in Divinity from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity and begin serving the Upper New York Conference in 2013.

    Upper New York Area Resident Bishop, Mark J. Webb, said ““I am grateful to Rev. Turnpenny for accepting the invitation to preach at the 2018 Memorial Service. Corey’s passion for Christ and the Church is contagious and as one of our gifted young adult clergy persons, we will be blessed by her willingness to share her gift of preaching.”

    Rev. Turnpenny enthusiastically accepted the invitation to be the Memorial Service speaker; she said, “I am so honored to have the role as the Memorial Service speaker at this year’s Conference. The theme of the Conference (Together in prayer: Boldly living our Call) fits so well with the Memorial Service because we are honoring and celebrating clergy who have lived their call.”

    Rev. Turnpenny continued, “Any type of Memorial Service is meant to honor and remember people who have gone on to their next life in heaven, but I also want this service to be geared toward people still here, encouraging them to follow the legacy of those who we honor.”

    As Rev Turnpenny begins planning her focus of the Memorial Service sermon, she finds inspiration in the story of Lazarus in John 11, where after Lazarus’s death, Jesus comforts Lazarus’s sisters, assuring them that those who believe in Jesus will live even after they die. And then he performs a miracle; he raises Lazarus from the dead.

    Rev. Turnpenny said, “I think a lot of pastors can relate to being present with others as they experience grief and these words from John 11 can bring comfort.”

    Rev. Turnpenny has also felt drawn to Isiah 25, reminding people that God is a refuge, a shelter from the storm.

    Various verses from Hebrews 12 also speaks to Rev. Turnpenny as pertinent to a Memorial Service, such as these lines from verses 1 and 2, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

    While Rev. Turnpenny continues to weave her own inspiring words with passages from the Bible, she hopes attendees at the Memorial Service “will feel inspired to follow the footsteps of clergy who have paved the way.”


    With more than 100,000 members, United Methodists of Upper New York comprises of more than 675 local churches and New Faith Communities in 12 districts, covering 48,000 square miles in 49 of the 62 counties in New York state. Our vision is to “live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be God’s love with our neighbors in all places."