NTC Memorial Service honors servants
Rev. Anna Hosemann-Butler places a rose in memory of the late Rev. Wilfred Bailey
By John A. Lovelace
Special Correspondent
Thirty people - 15 clergy and 15 spouses - were remembered and celebrated in a traditional NTC Worship Service, June 5 at the Plano Centre.
Rev. Thomas Q. Robbins took his sermon text from Psalm 116:15: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
"Is't that an audacious statement?" he asked. "How dare God do that!"
"But ... But," he said. "As followers of Christ, we live and die differently...We celebrate life and death in Jesus Christ."
He told of a woman in the Red Oak church, one of the first he served, and how she never missed a funeral no matter whether that of a Methodist or another church, or no church. When he asked her why, she answered, "Because I like to hear how wonderful Jesus was."
Robbins said, "The promise is that God finds it [death] precious, and so should we."
He said those who have died "have known the love of Jesus Christ and they have persevered. They kept on keeping on. They're done it!"
He reminded the congregation that the Book of Hebrews identifies us as "sojourners," just passing through, "heading for the home over yonder."
He told of the death of his wife. "I know that death is real, but my image is that she has crossed over. The baptismal vows are complete. She is part of the church triumphant."
Closing, he said, "In faith in Christ we live knowing that because he died, we shall live eternally."
Members of the incoming commissioning class placed a rose in a vase as each of the following names was called:
Clergy: Revs. Thomas Dudley Dancer, George Howard Wheeler, Wilfred Maurice Bailey, Bishop Rhymes H. Moncure, Jr., Revs. Garland T. Lavender, James E. Reaves, Linwood John Roberson, John Moore Rentfro, Jackson W. Fielder, Ira M. Thompson, Randy G. Newkirk, Edward Loren Miller, Gene Miller, Lila E. Coffey, Renee Giles
Spouses: Juanita Logan, Lydia Mood, Mildred VanZant, Maurine P. Howell, Mary Ann Neal, Rosa Pauline Butler, Addie Hood Wright, Dorothy Broyles Lawson, Grace Cardwell, Celesta Anderson, Mary Calvary, Marjorie Hyde, Ruth Poore, Julia Keightley, Frances "Jo" Smith
Vocalists Rev. JoNell Lindh and Ryan Lungwitz, accompanied by Linda Thompson on dulcimer and David Barton on recorder, performed a special arrangement of the Charles Wesley hymn, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul."
Rev. Thomas Q. Robbins preaches words of hope at the 2007 Memorial Service.
Alleluia Singers Children’s Choir prepares to sing the benediction.
