I have been ordained over twenty years in the United Church of Christ. I have worked as head of the cataloging department in the library shared by Eden Theological Seminary and Wester University in St. Louis, MO. While at Eden, a UCC related seminary, I took a few courses from faculty there, including the Old Testament scholar Dr. Walter Brueggemann. My husband, Kerry W. Smart, and father-in-law, William Smart, are both ordained UCC ministers.While a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN for my masters degree in church history, I worked at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, a group which has been in relation to the UCC for many years. I am a member of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference Ecumenical Relations Team, and serve on the UCC / EKU (Evangelische Kirche der Union) Working Group on the national level of the UCC.
I grew up a Lutheran, and was an involved member of LCA (pre-ELCA) church in Miami, Florida and St. Louis, Missouri. I received my Masters of Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.Trinity was in the vanguard of Lutheran theological education by combining both ALC and LCA students and faculty even before the ELCA was formed.
Previous to my theological training, I worked to set up a library at the Halepaghen Schule in Buxtehude, Germany. While in Germany, I was a member of the St. Cosmi Kirche, an Evangelische Kirche--which is the official Protestant Church of Germany. This was my first experience with a church that did not make a distinction between Reformed and Lutheran backgrounds. I found I like it very much. Little did I know that someday I would become a pastor and be privileged to serve one of the twelve shared ministry churches in our area of Pennsylvania.
It is indeed exciting to be doing cutting edge ministry that stands as an example to others of what true Christian cooperation means, sharing backgrounds, traditions, and worship experiences in order to make a more meaningful witness to Jesus Christ. At a recent workshop for shared ministry congregations, we again heard the prayer of Jesus "that they may all be one."
At Huffs, we work together, praying that we can be a witness to our unity in Christ, even while maintaining our diversity of backgrounds, talents, and worship styles. |
