Minister and educator/CLP share creative ministry
Joan West Stewart and Kathryn McCrary

Joan West Stewart enrolled in seminary at Union PSCE in 1999 and left behind her 18 year career in banking in North Carolina. Her passion and call were for mission. Kathryn McCrary’s passion and call was Christian Education; she had retired and had been coordinating the Presbytery of West Virginia program for Commissioned Lay Pastors and doing supply preaching. Joan, a native West Virginian, was called back to West Virginia to serve as pastor of two small Presbyterian congregations, Falls View and Montgomery. Kathryn, who has lived in West Virginia all her life, met Joan when she was chair of Joan’s Installation Committee. Both share a passion for worship.

Both the Falls View and Montgomery churches, located about five miles apart, were struggling financially, yet both were involved in outreach through a clothes closet and food pantries. In seeking a way to maximize mission opportunities for the large church building in Montgomery, folks from the church where Joan had been a member in Wilmington, North Carolina, (St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian) worked with the Montgomery church to transform empty Sunday school rooms into available housing for mission work groups. The church then partnered with West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps as a mission location.

In the fall of 2005, the position of Executive Director of West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps became available. The sessions of the two churches agreed with Joan’s call to accept that position and remain as their pastor for 25 percent of her time. They would call a Commissioned Lay Pastor to assist her. That’s when Kathryn came into the mix; she had been approved to be a CLP in the presbytery for many years, but had not wanted to completely leave the congregation where she is a member. A part time call seemed right! Joan preaches on the first and third Sundays of the month, Kathryn on the rest. Joan does most of the pastoral care, weddings, baptisms, funerals. Kathryn is pastoral care backup and moderates both sessions. They share responsibilities for special services, officer development and Bible studies. Kathryn is a pianist so she leads hymn sings and plays for special events when the regular pianist is not available.

Since this arrangement began in 2006, they have often shared worship leadership. This year Easter and Pentecost fell on Kathryn’s Sundays; she prepared the liturgy, Joan added to it, and together they led the congregations in worship, even doing much of it in dialogue. It is a collaboration that has produced a deep friendship and a true, rewarding partnership that allows them to creatively and practically serve God in their fields of call and minister to two congregations.