N. White

White

Assumes

Ministry

By BRUCE SLOANE

and MORRIS PETERS

Rappahannock News Writers

The Rev. Nancy B. White, the new pastor at Amissville Methodist Church, conducted her first service there recently. The church has an enrollment of about 250.

She was a minister at the Culpeper Circuit for two years before coming to Amissville. Rev. White was recently ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church at their Annual Conference in Hampton.

She is a graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., and did her internship with the U.S. Army in Germany.

“I’m very pleased to be here,” said Rev. White. “I particularly enjoy preaching and teaching. I hope that I can help the parishioners develop a deeper faith.”

Before entering the ministry, Rev. White was a school teacher in Prince Georges County, Md. With her husband, Douglas, who has recently retired from federal service, the Whites have raised three children. They have one granddaughter.

The Whites moved to Fauquier County in 1979, and became members of the Morrisville United Methodist Church in 1982. Rev. White was a lay speaker for several years before she entered the ministry.

“The church is important in any community because it offers a message of hope,” she said. She hopes to help people “learn the word of God so it’s relevant in everyday life.”

“Spiritual life overlaps all other areas of life.” said Rev. White. She added that family life often can improve when the spiritual life improves, and that she hopes she can help with values: "The spiritual message, how life should be lived - a more fruitful, satisfactory life.”

She said that it is too soon to know the exact needs of the congregation. In the Methodist Church this is cooperative enterprise. “Lay people join with the pastor in making the church what it is,” she said.