News and Views

‘Like the stars, let your light shine,’ bishop tells mourners

Posted by Linda Worthington on

This article was updated on June 8, 2016.

By Linda Worthington
UMConnection Staff

Rev. Joseph Daniels assists a family in lighting a candle in memory of a loved one during the Memorial Service.
Rev. Joseph Daniels assists a family in lighting a candle in memory of a loved one during the Memorial Service.

Bishop James King Jr. of South Carolina preached Friday at the Memorial Service to remember  the 29 clergy, 27 clergy spouses and lay members of the conference who have died since the last annual conference. He called his words of comfort, “Twinkle.”

Family members, friends and pastors representing the deceased ones processed in to “God be the Glory” and “For All the Saints.”

Leading the audience to recall the past, Bishop King asked them, “What would Jesus say to you today? Or to those we remember this day, what would Jesus say?”

“I don’t know,” he answered himself, “but I think Jesus would say, ‘Twinkle.’”

Bishop King grew up in Ashland, Ala., and, as a child, sometimes walked home from his father’s dry cleaning business across a cornfield after dark. His mother placed a light on the porch to guide him through.

“In the name of the saints who have gone before us, is your light shining bright so someone can see the way home?” he asked.

As is the tradition for the Memorial Service at annual conference, the Rev. Mary Jo Sims, conference secretary, read each name as a portrait of the deceased was projected on the screens; family members or representatives came forward to light a candle as friends in the audience stood in silence.

“The saints were born to shine,” Bishop King had said earlier, “and I believe they are shining and living on through the light in our faith community.”

All sang “This Little Light of Mine” as the guests departed.

Bishops’ spouses

Eunice Jones Mathews
Julia Wilkie

Clergy of BWC

Rev. Edwin Bang
Rev. Milton Walter Benny Jr.
Rev. Morris Bratton
Pastor Carroll Brown
Rev. David C. Casey
Rev. David Cho
Rev. Al Clipp
Rev. Patti Smith Fenske
Rev. Lillie Gray
Rev. Peggy Groseclose
Pastor Lester W. Hall
Rev. Jessie Lee Griffith
Rev. Dr. Bruce Haskins
Rev. Ed Heydt
Pastor Leonard Walter Hill
Pastor Karen Jones Johnson
Pastor Norman Kemmerer
Pastor Marianne Lamark
Rev. George M. Manhart
Rev. Ellen Barnes Muller
Rev. William Nelson
Rev. William Peters
Rev. Stephen Rettenmayer
Rev. Betty Roche
Pastor Thomas Scheel
Rev. Donna C. Snodgrass
Rev. Richard D. Thompson
Rev. Jimmie Ward
Rev. Robert “Bob” Zimmerli

Clergy spouses

Frances B. Allis
Jean Barrett
Mary Blair Buchheister
Thomas “Tom” Busby
Lillian Chuckla
Roberta Funk Dorsch
Joy Smith Earp
Virginia Lovella Evans
Laura Jester
Harriette Johnson
Lucille E. Kemper
Marlene King
Kathryn Lewis
Ronald Ellsworth Moon
Ralph Morgan
Maxine Mote
Darryl Nelson
Marlene Richardson
Margaret Roper
Mary Catherine “Mary Kay” Shannon
Christine Umstead Sharpe
Margaret “Peggy” Smith
Belle W. Sunderland
Virginia Varner
Arlene E. Veith
Bobbie Walker

 

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