Guest Pastors | Bicentennial 2024
January 12, 2025 | 11:00 worship service| Celebration Sunday!
Guest Clergy – Bishop Tom Berlin
Bishop Tom Berlin is Bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Celebration Sunday! A litany at the site of the first church at the corner of Bronough Street and Park Avenue will begin at 10:00, followed by a procession to the present church. Organist Viktor Billa will present a pre-service concert at 10:45. The 11:00 worship service will feature special music, a proclamation by Mayor John Dailey, and the sermon by Bishop Tom Berlin, Bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Lunch will be served following the service.
Tom Berlin is a native of Winchester, Virginia. His faith in Christ was formed at Braddock Street UMC in Winchester, in a family that remains active in The United Methodist Church today in the communities in which they live. He received a call to ordained ministry while serving as a summer counselor at the Tennessee Outreach Project (Mountain TOP), a mission camp in Ozone, Tennessee.
Bishop Berlin attended Virginia Tech and received a BS in business with a major in public administration. He received his Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Bishop Berlin was ordained an elder in 1990.
At the beginning of his ministry, Berlin served the Brucetown-Welltown UMC Charge and Toms Brook UMC. He served churches of all sizes in the Virginia Conference, including 25 years as the Lead Pastor of Floris UMC, a multi-site, multi-staff congregation near the nation’s capital. He believes in the value of our connectional church and cares deeply about its vitality and unity. He longs for a church where all people feel that they belong. Tom has experienced the power of our global connection through Floris’s partnership with the Sierra Leone Conference of The United Methodist Church, helping to create and support the Child Reintegration Centre and Mercy Hospital. He is a speaker and author of books that focus on the Christian life and stewardship and has co-authored books on church leadership.
Bishop Berlin was elected as a Bishop of The United Methodist Church on November 2, 2022, by the Southeastern Jurisdiction and was assigned to serve the Florida Episcopal Area beginning January 1, 2023.
The bishop has chaired the Board of Governors at Wesley Theological Seminary, led delegations to General Conference, and served on the Commission on a Way Forward and the team that created the Protocol of Grace and Reconciliation through Separation. In a time of difficulty in The United Methodist Church, he finds hope in the love and resurrection of Christ and the ways he sees the Holy Spirit active among those committed to the congregations where they live and serve.
Tom is married to Karen, and they have four daughters. These five women have enabled him to grow in sanctification and see people and life in ways he would have missed without them. He enjoys spending time with family and friends, woodworking, and hiking.
Sunday, January 14 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Judi New
Judi New is Archivist for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
The Reverend New comes to our congregation appreciative of the history of Methodism in Tallahassee and its historical significance to the Florida Conference. Since the spring of 2019 Judi has been the Director and Archivist of the Florida United Methodist Heritage Center and Archives on the Florida Southern College campus in Lakeland. She is an ordained elder in the North Carolina Conference, having her Master of Divinity from Duke University. Moreover, she has her Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida Southern and both her Certificate of Archival Studies and her Master of Library and Information Sciences from Louisiana State University. She has prepared herself very well to follow in the footsteps of her renowned predecessor, Nell Thrift, who was the daughter of Florida Southern President Charles T. Thrift, Jr., and Conference Archivist for 23 years. Judi has worked in many areas of church life as a senior minister, as an associate minister, and as a director of children’s ministries. Since high school her parallel interests have been in national and local politics, presently preparing to run for a Commission seat in Polk County.
Judi is married to Ed New, an ordained Florida Conference minister. After serving as Associate Pastor at First United Methodist Church, Lakeland for three years, he then served as Director of Advancement at All Saint’s Academy in Winter Haven. He is now the President of the Florida United Methodist Foundation. They have three children Riley (15), Bailey (11), and Shelby (almost 8) who attend public schools in Polk County.
Sunday, February 11 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Bishop Charlene Kammerer
Bishop Charlene Kammerer is Retired Bishop of the Western NC and Virginia Conferences of the United Methodist Church and former District Superintendent of the Tallahassee District of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
Charlene Payne Kammerer was elected to the episcopacy at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference (SEJ) at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina in July 1996, the first woman to be elected from the Southeast. She was assigned to the Charlotte Area where she served the conference for eight years. At the SEJ meeting in July 2004, Bishop Kammerer was assigned to serve the Virginia Conference. She served there eight years and retired in September, 2012.
Charlene was born in Orlando, Florida. She spent her growing up years in Winter Garden, where her home church was First United Methodist. She graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia with an A. B. degree in Religion and Philosophy in 1970. Wesleyan is the first college in the world chartered for the granting of degrees to women. She obtained Master of Christian Education and Master of Divinity degrees from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. She was ordained Deacon in 1975 and Elder in 1977 in the Florida Annual Conference. She received a Doctor of Ministry degree in 1991 from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. She is the recipient of three Honorary Doctorates from Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida, Pheiffer University in Meisenhimer, North Carolina, and Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia.
Bishop Kammerer’s service in the church has included equal years in parish ministries and connectional ministries, including service as a campus minister at Duke University and as a District Superintendent of the Tallahassee District, Florida Conference. Her longtime passions in ministry include higher education, mission involvement, the spirituality of administration, and justice and peace issues.
Bishop Kammerer served as Chairperson of UMCOR, the relief agency of The United Methodist Church, on the Commission on the Status and Role of Women as a board member, member of the Commission on Pan-Methodist Cooperation, the Vice President of the Commission on Religion and Race, the President of the General Board of Discipleship, a member of the Board of Governors of Wesley Theological Seminary, Secretary for the Bishops Initiative in Children and Poverty, and a member of God’s Renewing Creation Task Force. She was presented the VA Council of Churches Faith and Action Award, the Lifetime Ecumenist Award, and also received recognition as a Social Justice Maker from the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
She is married to Leigh Kammerer, a native of Wisconsin, whose career was practiced in addiction counseling. They are the parents of one son, Christopher Hal, and four grandchildren – Christopher, Noelle, Elton, and Max.
In retirement, Bishop Kammerer has served as Co-Chair of the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference Design Team, and enjoys writing, reading, preaching, and practicing the art of being a grandparent.
Sunday, March 10 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Phil Roughton
Rev. Phil Roughton is a former Trinity Associate Pastor, now retired from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
Rev. Phil Roughton was born in Ft. Pierce, FL and comes from a long line of United Methodist pastors, including his grandfather, father, brother, and two uncles.
Phil received his BA from Asbury University with majors in history and psychology, an MDiv from Asbury Theological Seminary, and an MAR in Pastoral Counseling also from Asbury Theological Seminary.
From 1975-1980, Phil served as Associate Pastor at Trinity UMC, Tallahassee. From there he went on to serve as pastor of Boca Grande UMC and senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, Largo, First United Methodist Church, Ormond Beach, and Christ Church, United Methodist in Fort Lauderdale.
Prior to graduating from college, Phil was a cast member of Up With People and gave concerts in 48 states and 6 countries. He’s served in many capacities in the Florida Conference of the UMC, including the Florida Conference Commission on the Status and Role of Women, Board of Ordained Ministry, and Institute of Preaching. Phil has been a delegate to multiple General and Jurisdictional Conferences and served as a trustee of Bethune-Cookman University and a member of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology Advisory Committee. Also at Candler, he was a fellow in the Marcy Preaching Fellowship, a lecturer in Practical Theology, and president of the B.W. Simpkins Wesley Study Retreat. He has participated in many short-term mission experiences in Kentucky, Tennessee, Japan, Korea, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.
He and his wife, Mica, have two sons, Keller and Collin, and four grandchildren, Jack, Ellie, Sam, and Calder.
Sunday, April 14 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Tony Fotsch
Tony Fotsch is a former Trinity Associate Pastor, now Pastor, St. James at Tampa Palms UMC.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
Rev. Tony Fotsch is an Ordained Elder in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He grew up in St. Paul, MN, and still has strong connections to his home state through the many siblings in his large family. He moved to Ft. Lauderdale in 1997 to pursue his first career in yacht and ship design. To prepare for that career, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Structural Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master’s Degree in Naval Architecture & Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Tony considers himself another example of our Lord who works in mysterious ways. After just a few years into a career he loved, he found an even greater love in God’s calling to be a Pastor. He received his M. Div from Asbury Seminary – Orlando. He has served the churches of First UMC, Ft. Lauderdale; Trinity UMC, Tallahassee; River of Life UMC, Jacksonville; and currently, St. James UMC, Tampa Palms. He has served on a number of District Operational Leadership Teams, and Conference teams for Congregational Vitality.
Tony is also a Certified Coach with Spiritual Leadership, Inc. He loves connecting people into generative teams, where their unique God-given gifts & abilities combine to strategically accomplish God’s creative & innovative designs toward adaptive challenges, within an environment of loving, learning, and leading together.
Tony is married to his wife, Debbie, and they’re blessed with two middle-school aged boys, Christian and Joe. In addition to keeping up with their boys’ activities, Tony enjoys outdoor activities, especially time at the beach or pool. His hobbies include fitness & sports, reading or just watching movies or football with the family.
Sunday, May 12 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller
Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller is a former Trinity Associate Pastor, now retired from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller is a retired elder in the Florida Annual Conference, UMC. She is married to the Rev. Dr. Jim Fogle-Miller, who is also clergy, and they have one adult daughter. Over her 34 years of active ministry, Beth has served a wide range of appointments in the Tennessee and Florida Annual Conferences. After graduating from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, she went from Atlanta to a 2-point rural charge in a community smaller than her high school graduating class, which was a massive culture shift. After that, she served a range of county seat and suburban churches in every role from solo pastor to associate pastor to senior pastor. From 1988-1991, she served as Associate Pastor at Trinity with Rev. David Hortin. Other pastorates included Arlington UMC in Jacksonville, First UMC in Sanford, and St. John’s UMC in Winter Haven. She and Jim also served several times as co-pastors, pioneering that model in the Florida United Methodist Conference in 1991. She also was on the conference staff as the Director of Connectional Ministries from 2008 – 2013 before being appointed to Memorial UMC in Fernandina Beach, from which she retired in 2018.
In her first five years of retirement, Beth volunteered in many settings in her hometown of DeLand. This included leadership at the Stetson Wesley campus ministry and also a stint as an interim University Chaplain at Stetson University, her alma mater. She also teaches Church Administration and UMC Polity in the Emory Course of Study. As she starts her second five years of retirement, she is practicing saying “yes” to fewer ongoing commitments, though guest preaching is an occasional delight.
Since moving to Smoke Rise in September, Beth continues working on settling into their new home, reads just about anything, and bakes bread weekly. She and Jim also enjoy the annual family tradition of snow-skiing in Whitefish, Montana.
Sunday, June 9 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Dr. Wayne Wiatt
Rev. Dr. Wayne Wiatt is a former Trinity Senior Pastor, now retired from his roles as pastor and District Superintendent of the Northwest District of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The Reverend Dr. Wayne D. Wiatt, who began his service at Trinity in 2016, grew up in rural North Florida. He holds a Master of Divinity degree and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Wayne has served Florida Conference congregations including First Jacksonville, Palm Coast, Southside, Jacksonville, and completed 14 years of serving on the Bishop’s Appointive and Extended Cabinets. He concluded his tenure as Senior Pastor of Trinity UMC on June 30, 2022, serving one additional year as the North West District Superintendent.
Wayne is a past director for the Office of Clergy Excellence, where he had responsibility for the care and oversight for all licensed and ordained clergy in the Florida Conference.
His leadership and involvement beyond the local church include membership in Rotary International, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, Community Outreach Ministries, and Advocacy for Racial Justice and Inclusivity. He formerly served on the United Methodist Publishing House Board of Nashville, Tennessee, Board of Trustees for Bethune Cookman University, and the Board of Ordained Ministry of the Florida Conference. An avid water sports enthusiast, retiring fully in June 2023, Wayne enjoys swimming, sailing, kayaking, water-skiing, and paddle boarding.
Wayne is married to Ramona Folds, formerly of Titusville, who is a former employee of the Disney Corporation. They have two grown children: Matthew (Katie) Wiatt, film makers in Lakeland, Florida, and Taylor (Phillip) Stokes, both employed with the University of Florida. They have two granddaughters, Coraline Mae Stokes and Mariam Lily Stokes.
Sunday, July 14 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. E. Wayne Curry
Rev. E. Wayne Curry is a former Trinity Senior Pastor, retired pastor and District Superintendent of the Deland and Gulf Central Districts of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, now Minister of Pastoral Care at Trinity.
Reverend Wayne Curry was born and raised in Miami, Florida, surrounded by the love and support of his parents, two older sisters, and the nurturing congregation of Grace United Methodist Church. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University in 1971 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, he attended the Candler School of Theology, where he earned his Master of Divinity degree in 1975.
For the next 43 years, Reverend Curry served as an active minister in the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He started his journey as an Associate Pastor at Christ United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg from 1975 to 1979. Then, he moved on to Palm Harbor United Methodist Church in Palm Harbor, where he served from 1979 to 1988.
In 1988, Reverend Curry was appointed to Anona United Methodist Church in Indian Rocks Beach, where he stayed until 1993. Following that, he served at First United Methodist Church in Orlando from 1993 to 2001.
Reverend Curry was appointed as the District Superintendent of the Deland District in 2001, serving that district until 2005 when, after a re-structuring of the conference districts, he served three more years as the District Superintendent of the Gulf Central District.
In 2008, Reverend Curry was appointed to Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, where he served until his retirement in 2016. After his retirement, he was invited back to Trinity as the Minister of Pastoral Care, a role he still serves today.
Reverend Curry’s personal life has been as fulfilling as his ministry. He has been happily married to his wife, Beth Ferkany Curry, for 36 years. They have raised three children, Marshall, Christopher, and Brittany who have been a source of joy and inspiration throughout his journey.
Sunday, August 11 | 11:00 worship service
Guest Clergy – Rev. Dr. Mark Caldwell
Rev. Dr. Mark Caldwell is a former Trinity Associate Pastor, now Senior Pastor at North Naples United Methodist Church.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
Rev. Dr. Mark Caldwell is a Florida native and a graduate of Duke Divinity School.
“I have two questions for you: how do you feel about contemporary worship and how do you feel about being a Seminole?” These questions were posed by the Tallahassee District Superintendent, J.C. Powell. The interesting thing about this question was that as a graduating seminary student, I had never thought about serving in the panhandle as I was raised in central Florida, and I anticipated taking a church close to home. What a difference Trinity made in my life and ministry! Not only did I have two of the finest pastors to work under, along with a tremendous staff, but I was introduced to a recent FSU nursing graduate who would soon become my wife. Trinity gave me the opportunity to work with the launch team for the SUN service.
After Tiffany earned her Master’s in Nursing, we decided it was time to take a church where I could be a senior pastor. With great mentors and a wealth of ministry experience, Tiffany and I took this next step where we were able to serve for six years in Miami at the Miami Lakes United Methodist Church. In 2006 in our sixth and final year there, we were blessed with twin sons, Cooper and Parker. Our next appointment was to First United Methodist Church of Fort Lauderdale, and it was nice to use some of the experience and skills from Trinity to minister in a downtown setting.
After nine years, we were moved to St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Wellington. The community is known for its equestrian activity and neighborhoods that contained many families with children. It was during this time that I pursued a Doctorate of Ministry focusing on cultures of intentional connection between churches and their preschools. This led me to study programs around the state that had rich relationships between the church and school that led families into the life of the congregation. One of my study sites was North Naples Church which founded a school with grades Pre-K to 12th grade. I was assigned to this congregation in 2019 where I remain in ministry today.
Much of my experience started at Trinity, and the mentoring and nurturing that I received in this appointment has had a lasting impact on decades of ministry. I am proud that this was my first appointment and that my life was impacted by marrying that special member of Trinity. I want to express my gratitude for the clergy—both appointed and retired who invested in me. The staff was patient and nurturing with their new Duke Divinity School graduate. Finally, the members of this congregation modeled faithful Christian living through word and deed. Those were three wonderful years, and I am grateful for them. I am also grateful to have the opportunity to stand in the pulpit of the congregation that hosted the Founding Annual Conference for Florida. I am humbled for this invitation and grateful for this opportunity to spend another week in worship with you all.
Sunday, September 8 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Dr. Bob Gibbs
Rev. Dr. Bob Gibbs is a retired pastor from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and former District Superintendent of the Florida Conference’s North West District.
Bob Gibbs is the son and grandson of United Methodist pastors. He was born in Gainesville, Fl., and grew up in parsonages across the state. He was educated at Florida Southern College (BA in History), Candler School of Theology at Emory University (MDiv) and United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio (D Min).
While at Florida Southern, Bob, Waite Willis, and Angelo Fuster formed a folk group called Rainbeaux, which managed to make a living for them for a few years mostly in and around Atlanta. But God was calling him to a different path.
After seminary he came back to the Florida Annual Conference and served as pastor at First UMC, Ocala (Associate), John Wesley UMC, Tallahassee, First UMC, Miami, Englewood UMC , First UMC, Lakeland and St. Andrew’s UMC, Brandon. He also served as campus minister at UCF and Rollins College, and as District Superintendent of the Northwest District. During his ministry Bob served on several District and Conference Committees and Boards, including the Annual Conference Board of Ministry. He was chair of the Annual Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry.
Bob retired in 2016 from active ministry and with his wife, Brenda, settled in Tallahassee. He enjoys writing, playing guitar, and kayaking, and together they love traveling any chance they get. They especially enjoy visiting their children, Dr. Beth Gibbs, Director of Choral Activities at Florida Southern College, and Rob (McCoy) Gibbs, a professional musician in Nashville, Tenn.
Sunday, September 29 | 9:00 and 11:00 worship services
Celebration Sunday!
Guest Clergy – Bishop Tom Berlin
Bishop Tom Berlin is Bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The liturgy and processional for the 11:00 Bicentennial Celebration service will begin at 10:30 at the site of the first church (the southwest corner of what is now Bronough Street and Park Avenue) with prayer and bagpipe music.
Luncheon following the 11:00 worship service
Tom Berlin is a native of Winchester, Virginia. His faith in Christ was formed at Braddock Street UMC in Winchester, in a family that remains active in The United Methodist Church today in the communities in which they live. He received a call to ordained ministry while serving as a summer counselor at the Tennessee Outreach Project (Mountain TOP), a mission camp in Ozone, Tennessee.
Bishop Berlin attended Virginia Tech and received a BS in business with a major in public administration. He received his Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Bishop Berlin was ordained an elder in 1990.
At the beginning of his ministry, Berlin served the Brucetown-Welltown UMC Charge and Toms Brook UMC. He served churches of all sizes in the Virginia Conference, including 25 years as the Lead Pastor of Floris UMC, a multi-site, multi-staff congregation near the nation’s capital. He believes in the value of our connectional church and cares deeply about its vitality and unity. He longs for a church where all people feel that they belong. Tom has experienced the power of our global connection through Floris’s partnership with the Sierra Leone Conference of The United Methodist Church, helping to create and support the Child Reintegration Centre and Mercy Hospital. He is a speaker and author of books that focus on the Christian life and stewardship and has co-authored books on church leadership.
Bishop Berlin was elected as a Bishop of The United Methodist Church on November 2, 2022, by the Southeastern Jurisdiction and was assigned to serve the Florida Episcopal Area beginning January 1, 2023.
The bishop has chaired the Board of Governors at Wesley Theological Seminary, led delegations to General Conference, and served on the Commission on a Way Forward and the team that created the Protocol of Grace and Reconciliation through Separation. In a time of difficulty in The United Methodist Church, he finds hope in the love and resurrection of Christ and the ways he sees the Holy Spirit active among those committed to the congregations where they live and serve.
Tom is married to Karen, and they have four daughters. These five women have enabled him to grow in sanctification and see people and life in ways he would have missed without them. He enjoys spending time with family and friends, woodworking, and hiking.
Sunday, October 13 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Bishop Ken Carter
Bishop Ken Carter is the former Bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, now Bishop of the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. was elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church in 2012 by the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference. He is currently the resident bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. Along with the Cabinet, he gives pastoral and administrative leadership to over 1000 congregations, fresh expressions of church, campus ministries, and outreach initiatives in an episcopal area that stretches across the 44 western counties of the state.
Bishop Carter served as the president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church from 2018-2020, and he was one of three moderators of The Commission on a Way Forward, from 2016 to 2018. In addition to his responsibilities with the Western North Carolina Conference, he is bishop-in-residence and a consulting faculty member at Duke University Divinity School. He served as bishop of the Florida Conference from 2012-2022.
Bishop Carter is the author of eighteen books, most recently a memoir, God Will Make a Way (Abingdon, 2021). He has also written two books on the Fresh Expressions movement with Audrey Warren: Fresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church (Abingdon, 2017), and Fresh Expressions of People Over Property (Abingdon, 2020). His editorials have appeared in the Charlotte Observer, Greensboro News and Record, and Winston-Salem Journal, and his commentary on Christianity in the United States has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and on National Public Radio.
Bishop Carter has preached in camp meetings, prisons and jails, college and university chapels, synagogues, megachurches and house churches, and in twenty countries on four continents. He was a local church pastor in the Western North Carolina Conference for twenty-eight years. His ministry at Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte was described by the American Religious Historian Diana Butler Bass in her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us. In the annual conference he served as chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Committee on Episcopacy, and in five delegations to Jurisdictional and General Conferences. He has served on the Board of Visitors of Duke University Divinity School and the Institutional Review Board of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He earned degrees from Columbus College, Duke Divinity School, the University of Virginia, and Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition, he is a graduate of Leadership Greensboro, Leadership Winston-Salem, and the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.
Bishop Carter’s great hope for the church is that she will rediscover an orthodox Christian faith that offers the radically inclusive grace of God to all people, and at the same time calls every follower of Jesus to inner holiness, missional compassion, justice rooted in the gospel, and a hopeful story of transformation. He travels extensively across the conference, preaching in local churches and encouraging lay and clergy leaders.
Bishop Carter and his wife Pam have been married for forty-two years. Pam has served as an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, most recently in disaster recovery, and she has a deep involvement in God’s mission in Haiti. They are blessed with two adult daughters. Liz is married to Yoonie and is a professor of Chinese at Vassar College, and Abby is chief officer for Communications and Marketing at the University of Tennessee Southern. Abby and her husband Allen are parents of Paige and Natalie, the bishop’s granddaughters.
The Carters reside in Charlotte, North Carolina, and consider it a great blessing to serve the people of Western North Carolina.
Sunday, November 11 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. Clarke Campbell-Evans
Rev. Clarke Campbell-Evans is a former Trinity Associate Pastor who also served as District Superintendent of the North West District of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church prior to his retirement earlier this year.
Reception following the 11:00 worship service
The Rev. Clarke Campbell-Evans served his first appointment as the Associate Pastor at Trinity in Tallahassee from 1986 to 1988 when Dr. Walter Kalaf was the Senior Pastor. His last appointment before retirement is as the District Superintendent for our North West District. In his ministry, he has served as a missionary in Latin America, pastor of a multi-ethnic congregation, worked as liaison to the Evangelical Methodist Churches in the Southern Cone, the Andes and Cuba and also served nine years at Saint Paul’s United Methodist on Lake Ella here in Tallahassee. Clarke is married to the Sally, an ordained Presbyterian pastor. They have three adult children.
Sunday, December 8 | 9:45 and 11:00 worship services
Guest Clergy – Rev. John WillisRev. John Willis is a former Trinity Senior Pastor, now retired from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Soon after my family moved to Atlanta where I grew up. I graduated from North Georgia college. And then spent two years on active duty in the army. One of those years was served in Vietnam is a century dog platoon.
After leaving the army, I entered the insurance business as a claim adjuster. I was sent to Fort Lauderdale Florida.
While there I started attending a United Methodist Church and this is where I met Pat. In this church I felt my call to the ministry and attended Candler school of theology at Emory University. After my first year, Pat and I were married.
After seminary I began serving churches in the Florida conference. Before coming to Trinity in 1999, I served six other churches during my ministry – First United Methodist, West Palm Beach, Mulberry United Methodist, Mulberry, First United Methodist Church, Clearwater, Carlson Memorial United Methodist Church, Labelle, St. Luke’s United Methodist, St. Petersburg, and First United Methodist Church, Kissimmee.
Pat and I have two sons, Keith and Todd. Both of them are married, and we have five wonderful grandchildren from ages 12 to 19, Bradley, Katelyn, Carter, Cooper, and Campbell.
I have always felt that the nine years I spent at Trinity were the most wonderful time of my ministry. It was thrilling to be a part of so many great things here at the church.
I approach coming back to preach with joy, and if I’m honest, a little bit of fear and trepidation. But one thing I do know for sure, you don’t wanna miss it!