Worship Arts July August September 2022

F E L L O W S H I P N E W S & N O T E S

D ear Fellowship members and friends, This has indeed been a chal

as a volunteer, is learning to play the harp, and hopes to travel to faraway places with her husband, Steve. Catherine Stapleton Nance has resigned her job of 21 years as Director of Music Ministries at St. John’s UMC Aiken, SC, and accepted a position on the staff at the Robert Webber Institute of Worship Studies. Jay Regennitter graduated with a Doctor of Ministry degree from Christian Theological Seminary in India napolis this May. He married Rebecca Carmack on June 18, and begins a new appointment as directing pastor of Coal City UMC in Coal City, IL. He continues to serve as an affiliate lecturer, teaching the liturgics courses at CTS. keeping our Fellowship alive and well! Your Executive and Administrative teams have worked diligently under the wonderful leadership of president Nancy Farrington to ensure that our organization’s communication and programming components continue at a high level: Reflections, WorshipArts , Fellowship Facebook page, financial stability, MWAW 2022 and 2023 planning, Convocation 2023 design and worship teams, and many more. We would ask your support, patience, and grace as we continue the transition process. We will do our best to answer your emails and phone calls as soon as pos sible and to help you with website and membership is sues. Please understand that we are available to answer your questions and to provide any help we can for you, our valued friends and colleagues. Contact information can be found inside the front cover and near the end of every issue of WorshipArts . Reach out anytime! May God richly bless you, dear friends, as we antic ipate the strong and inspiring future of The Fellowship! Thank you again for all the support and grace you have offered during these last nine months of my service. With peace and love, Tom Taylor

From the Interim Executive Director Tom Taylor lenging yet exciting past year for our Fellowship family. We sadly accepted the resignations of both our Executive Director and Communications/Editorial leadership. As you well know, both David and Carla were ex perts at guiding our Fellowship and keeping everything running smoothly for our organization as well as being close friends and colleagues. We are thrilled to have announced the hiring of Camisha Chambers as the new Executive Director of The Fellowship and we know you will love getting to know her and the gifts she brings to us. As I write this column, the process has begun for hiring new Communications and Editorial leaders. Meanwhile,

Fred Lewis has stepped out of his 2018 retirement to become the 3/4 time Intentional Interim Minister of the Ames UCC in Ames, IA. He will serve until a permanent minister is called to serve this congregation. The Ames UCC is the community’s historically oldest church and known for its annual Theologian-in-Resi dence program, community outreach and social justice ministries, and for being among the first Iowa con gregations, of any denomination, to publicly support LGBTQA persons and families. Fellowship Family updates we extend our gratitude to Katharine Alexander (Communications) and Dave Wiltse ( WorshipArts editor), for helping us during this transition period. Through all of these transitions, your elected and appointed Fellowship leadership has been exemplary in

Beverly Clement McAlilly retired as Director of Music Ministries and Organist from First United Meth odist Church in Tupelo, MS, after serving in that capacity for almost 38 years. Prior service includes

Steven Tharp, Jr. , celebrated 2 years of Music Ministry at the United Methodist Church of Uniontown, OH, in March.

churches in Jackson, MS; Greenwood, MS; and Nash ville, TN, for a total of 45 years in music ministry. Beverly has been involved in The Fellowship since 1984, held multiple leadership roles and was National Presi dent (2003-2005). She plans to continue making music

___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 30 July-August-September 2022 • WorshipArts • umfellowship.org