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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

The 2008 retirement class is a large one; with 36 members, it is 40 percent larger than last year's group of 21 retirees. Of the class, five are either full or part-time local pastors and one is an ordained Deacon. One retiree is an Associate Member.

With such a large retirement list, one might wonder how the pulpits would be filled in the year ahead. However, there are almost as many people being ordained or coming in as probationary members as there are those vacating.

The 31 Elders and one Deacon together have provided The United Methodist Church with 900 years of service.

A few, like Larry Neumark, Sharon Bourgeois and Eugene Matthews, spent several years in other conferences before transferring their membership here.

Jacqulyn Thorpe, who has been a professor at Howard Divinity School since 1993, was ordained a Deacon in 1999. Retirement won't change much for her, since she'll continue teaching as well as writing. She'll pursue curriculum and spiritual formation writing as an independent contractor. "I'm interested in writing for whoever wants to hire me," she said.

Added to the 900 years are 37 years that five retiring local pastors have served, most in one church only.

Roosevelt Oliver started as a part-time local pastor at St. Luke's in Reisterstown 15 years ago, growing the church from 15 members to 200 and becoming a full-time local pastor. Even though turning 70 forced his retirement, he said, "The calling to ministry doesn't end," and he'll continue ministering "in another arena."

Fourteen retirees are women with a combined 285 years of service, reflective of the fact that most women could not enter the clergy ranks until the mid-1970s. Linda Coveleskie broke the gender barrier the earliest in the 2008 class, starting at Trinity UMC in Cumberland 34 years ago. Eight other women have served 25-29 years.

Coveleskie, who since 1997 has been out of the pulpit, said she's retiring on paper, but not in fact. "I have a child with special needs so can't be in the itinerant system," she said. Instead she works and will continue to work as development director at her child's school, St. Elizabeth's School. "I'll really retire in 2011 when my child graduates," she said.

Among the male retirees six men have served 40 years or more, with a total of 256 years of service. Warren Watts tops the list with 45 years of service, 31 of which have been as a pastoral counselor. Another seven clergymen have served churches from 32-39 years each, for a total of 257 years.

Jackson Day is close to the top. He has spent much of his ministerial service outside the local church, both as a chaplain in the Vietnam War and in health ministry with the General Board of Church & Society.

These two areas are where he plans to spend retirement, working with a Vietnam War Chaplains organization and with the general board. "I'll just keep doing more of the same I've been doing," he said. "Only have more time for it."

The district that will feel the biggest impact from the retirements is Baltimore-West, where District Superintendent Eugene Matthews is among the 11 clergy retiring this year. Burton Mack, one of nine African-American clergy retiring, and Larry Neumark are the only two retirees from Cumberland-Hagerstown District.

Neumark is leaving campus ministry at Frostburg State University, where he has served for 29 years. Sometime in late summer he plans to move to Boonsboro to be closer to children and grandchildren. "For a while I may just take it easy and just "be," he said. "As I have jokingly said to many, we are supposed to be human "beings" not human "doers."