Made for God: Memorial service preached by White honors 58 souls
By Jessica Brodie
We are made for God.
No matter our pain, our joy or any of our circumstances, all we are and all we do comes down to this one fact, preached the Rev. Sara White during an Annual Conference memorial service Monday that remembered 58 souls who have died in the past year.
Drawing from Revelation 7 and the vision rolled out before us, that we are indeed made for our heavenly Creator, White emphasized that our understanding of who we are in the Lord is now, not at some distant point.
“It happens not at the end of the trials and tribulations but in the center of them,” White preached.
As we mourn those who have passed on this year—pastor, retired pastors and spouses—White offers these words of comfort and hope.
“For us to live our lives is for us to risk seeing the people we love going away from us, and sometimes it will feel very final,” White said. “We need a mighty God who comforts us and says, ‘Yes, we will get through this together.”
It is God’s power that is the comfort, White said—knowing God is faithful to His word.
As she said, God looks at the scariest and most painful parts of our world and says, “I can take care of that. I can change that. I can defeat that.”
Active ministers honored during the service were Henry Mat Brewington, Thurmond O’Neil Flowers, Linda Tedder Jenkins, Troy Lane Metzner, Alice V. Jones Quarles and Marvin Taylor Sr.
Retired ministers honored during the service were Gary Bruce Adams, Benjamin Bellinger Barnes, Hugh Johnson Bickley, Ralph Truman Bowling Jr., Jonathan Brown Jr., William Paul Carlson, Samuel Oscar Clardy, Robert Beaty Clyburn, James Ben Cunningham, Richard Glenn Davis, Elizabeth Cavagnaro Dill, Albert Eugene Eaddy, Clifford Furman Ferguson, Donald Sidney Haton, John Kirkwood Hendricks Sr., Robert Earl James Sr., Willie Jerome Key, James Mack, Reese Martin Massey Jr., Ludie Carolyn Matthews, Louis McClam, William Whitfield McNeill, George Henry Nichols Jr., James Paul Rush, David Kenneth Townsend, Bobby Gene Waddell and Vergil Gamewell Wright.
Spouses honored during the service were Dorothy Dale McCarty Bickley, Alma Lydia Long Cooper, Imogene Holder Graham, Burton Lavon Malphrus, Olivia Goodman McCray, Yvonne Snowden Reece, Adell Dean Wilson Watson and Adrienne Thompson White.
Surviving spouses honored during the service were Catherine Browning Davenport, Athalee Tidwell Dickerson, Joanne Comer Dunn, Frances Earle Mills Faulkner, Mary Broome Finklea, Betty Morten Fowler, Ida Lee Jones Green, Alice Adelaide Adams “Tumpy” Hudnall, Mary Alice McLaughlin Kinnett, Marie Hodge Lee, Vera Canaday Lupo, Anne Duncan Morris, Elzie Brock Phillips, Bobbie Gillis Poston, Dorothy Smith Smoak, Eulee Alice Moseley Williams and Nettye Ann Adams Williams.