SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

Women of Aldersgate: meet your new best friends.

After graduating from college, Jane spent almost eight years working at Davis Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. For six of those years, she led the children's choir at her home church. But in 1990, God began to tug at her heart. "I started going on a quest...but I didn’t have the example of a Christian educator or woman minister," says Jane. Perceiving her calling, Jane's pastor encouraged her to visit Duke Divinity School, even offering to go along. She then connected with the late Margaret Ann Biddle, an accomplished Christian Education minister. That sealed the deal. In August 1991, she quit her job and began her Master of Religious Education at Duke. " It was my biggest leap of faith," she says. Thus began three fruitful decades of ministry. Jane was consecrated a Diaconal Minister in 1994 and ordained Deacon in 1997. She served churches in Goldsboro, Greensboro, Durham, Burlington and Elon. She taught, preached, led, and served. Her work ranged from teaching Vacation Bible School to helping guide a congregation through a complicated building transition & church merger. In 2024, 31 years after graduating from Duke Divinity School, Jane retired from professional ministry. "You really see the best of the church and the worst of the church," she says, "but I never once thought about leaving the UMC. It’s where I belong." Aldersgate was Jane's second-to-last appointment. She remembers us as "people who really have a heart for mission both globally and locally." She remembers a church with something going on every night of the week, a church with a hands-on commitment to service, a church with very active laity. Bustling Wednesday evenings and packed Sunday mornings feature most prominently in her memory. "It was a busy time," she says. "I found it very fun and fulfilling." During her six years here, Jane also observed that Aldersgate is a "neighborhood church." When I told her about our recent book study on The Art of Neighboring , she was not surprised that its message had resonated so well with Aldersgate's people, even today. "Aldersgate had more of a neighborhood feel than any of the other churches I was at," she said. Some things never change! Looking back on Jane's years of service reminds us what God has in store for those who follow his calling. Jane, like the first disciples (Matt. 4:18-22), "left [her] nets and followed Him." She took the leap of faith, and God brought us--and many other churches too--the fruits of her obedience. Are you feeling God tug at your heart? Do you think God is calling you to more? Perhaps Jane's mother's advice from 1991 will encourage you. " When I asked my mom what she thought, she said, 'I think you should have done it a long time ago.'”

John Wesley personally authorized Sarah Mallet to preach in 1787. Helenor M. Davisson became the first ordained Methodist woman in 1866. The Methodist Church granted full clergy rights to women in 1956, the same year Aldersgate UMC was founded in Durham. Like many others , these examples demonstrate Methodism's longstanding commitment to women in leadership. Today, the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women "advocates for full participation of women in the total life of The United Methodist Church." Our church has benefited from the ministry of five women clergy who served Aldersgate a total of 23 years. Since our founding in 1956, two women elders and two women deacons have been appointed to our congregation: Rev. Amanda Riley Smith, Associate Pastor, 2004-2006 Rev. Nanette de Andrade, Deacon, 2009-2018 Rev. Jane Brannock, Deacon, 2010-2016 Rev. Tara Culp Lain, Associate Pastor, 2011-2015 Next week's blog post will feature an interview with Rev. Jane Brannock, who served Aldersgate for six years. Until then, consider how God may be inviting you to participate in Methodism's long history of supporting women in ministry. Perhaps you can: Pray for all women in ministry Write an appreciation note to a woman ministry leader you know and ask how you can support her Learn more about Methodist women's history through the Commission's online resources If you are part of a woman's group, consider doing the UMC's six-session Women Called to Ministry study Let's give thanks together during this Women's History Month for the work God has done through women leaders here at Aldersgate and throughout Methodist history.

Your gift arrives Wednesday, the moment the ashes touch your forehead and Lent begins. Beneath the ashen wrapping, you'll find the gift: forty days of rest. Long ago, God commanded his people to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). Holy things are set apart, cared for, tended to, honored. When is the last time you set apart time for your soul to rest? When did you last care for your own peace? Could your calendar use some tending? Have you honored your need for play? As we begin this Lenten season, let's sit with those questions. We will journey together through them as a community of disciples during the next 40 days. If you aren't sure where to start, keep reading for ideas on how to start receiving God's surprising gift of rest. Book Recommendations from our Adult Christian Formation Team Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting by Marva J. Dawn This book invites the reader to experience the wholeness and joy of observing God’s order for life—a rhythm of working six days and setting apart one day for rest, worship, festivity, and relationships. Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller We need not even schedule an entire day each week. Sabbath time can be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, or a Sabbath walk. With wonderful stories, poems, and suggestions for practice, Muller teaches us how we can use this time of sacred rest to refresh our bodies and minds, restore our creativity, and regain our birthright of inner happiness. The Third Day: Living the Resurrection by Tom Berlin, Mark A. Miller Tom Berlin uses his gifts of storytelling and understanding of the Scriptures to connect the reader to the experiences of several individuals around Jesus in his final days, focusing on new life and redemption rather than loss. Beginner Sabbath Practices Not sure where to start? Try these tiny first steps. If you usually have radio/TV on in the background, turn it off for just 20 minutes. Go to your phone settings. Choose one app and turn off push notifications for that app. Set a timer for five minutes. Sit totally still and silent until the timer goes off. Print out this coloring page and listen to calming music or your audio Bible while coloring it in. Go to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual tonight. "A peace which the world cannot give; joy, that no man taketh from you; rest from doubt and fear and sorrow of heart; and love, the beginning of heaven. And are not these for you? Are they not all purchased for you by Him who loved you, and gave himself for you?" John Wesley

Aldersgate is a tiny neighborhood in London, England, named after one of the city's northern gates in the Middle Ages. Its name first appears in the year 1000 as Ealdredesgate . Like all London neighborhoods, today it elects an "Alderman" to represent its interests in city councils. So why is our Durham, North Carolina church named Aldersgate? On May 24, 1738, Anglican priest John Wesley visited a Moravian church on Aldersgate Street in London. There, he experienced the pivotal moment which birthed the entire Methodist movement. He wrote in his journal: "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart.'" Wesley's experience of grace in a Moravian assembly on Aldersgate Street would one day change the face of global Christianity. 80 million people in 138 countries claimed membership in Wesleyan and Methodist traditions in 2018. The Moravian reading Romans aloud to John Wesley could hardly have known how many people would one day hear the echoes of his voice. So, in thanksgiving for that place, Methodists honor the name Aldersgate. In the United States alone, nearly 100 churches today bear this name, including ours. And this is our prayer: just as the little church on Aldersgate Street warmed John Wesley's heart, may we here at Aldersgate UMC offer warm welcome to all who cross our paths or step within our doors.