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Van Wormer, Patricia A. Clark
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PATRICIA A. VAN WORMER
8'1
Home Church:
College:
Seminary:
Appointment:
l3/5hC? p
D 6Yl
Ott
Brighton First United Methodist Church
University of Michigan, 1970 B.A.
United Theological Seminary, 1991 MDiv.
Capac:First and Zion United Methodist Churches
Statement to Conference:
" ... take authority as an elder in the Church ... " It is a humbling and awe-filled experience to accept
this authority and this servanthood.
Capac minister
he8dS. ,Cali
'Pastor Pat'
ministers
to diverse,
varied flock
By TANYA GAZDIK
Times Herald
CAPAC - Rev. Pat VanWonner
had no idea two years ago that
she would be living in a rural
western St. Clair Coun'ty community.
But it's the big city compared
to her last appointment in Samaria, just north of the Ohio border.
"It was literally just a slow
spot in the road," she said.
"Capac is a lot bigger."
In the United Methodist
Church, pastors are appointed by
the bishop to serve in a location.
Rev. VanWonner, 44, has been the
pastor of Capac First United
Methodist Church and Zion United
Methodist Church for two years.
Rev. VanWonner grew up south
of Detroit in Melvindale - the
"real Downriver," she says with a
laugh. But she spent summers on
her aunt and uncle's dairy farm in
Wisconsin, so she's not unaccustomed to country life.
She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's
degree in French and education.
She remains an avid Wolverine fan
and the pastorage isn't short on
maize and blue memorabilia.
Before entering the seminary
five years ago, Rev. VanWonner
taught and was a director of
Christian education. She also was
active in volunteer work, including
By OOIOTHY NEATON, Times Herald
The Rev. Patricia VanWormer says one of her tasks is to show people thal being a Christian
goes beyond attending church on Sunday. She has been pastor for two years at Capac First
United Methodist Church, shown above, and Zion United Methodist Churc~.
the Jaycees, the American Red
Cross and the American Cancer
Society.
She had thoughts of entering
the seminary in the back of her
mind since high school. But in
1966, women still weren't wellreceived in such vocations.
"I just wasn't ready to do those
kinds of battles ~t that point,"
Rev. VanWonner said.
But the thoughts didn't go
away and she finally responded to
the voice in her heact - God telling her to go into the ministry.
A speaker, Ted Sample, who
teaches at St. Paul Seminary in
St. Louis, summed up her attitude
toward becoming a pastor.
"He said 'Entering the ministry
is a lot like thro\ving up. You can
avoid it for so long, but.... ' That's
how it is," she said. "It sometimes sounds a little hokey to
people wllo aren't church people
or who don't have a relationship
with their God, when I say 'God
wanted me to do this.' ... You say
something and they're like 'this
woman is an alien, I'm sure.' "
Despite ler initial reservations
about bein~ a woman in the ministry, the 1 5 members of the two
Capac ch1.rches have been very
receptive, s)e said.
"The p~ple who were concerned ani didn't really think
they wantel a woman in the pulpit are no,v among the strongest
supporters of what I do/' she
said.
Pastor }at, as she is known
throughout town. has overcome
far greater obstades than being a
woman in the ministry. She has
had multiple sclerosis for about
16 years, but hasn't let it interfere
with her goals.
Nowadays, it means she must
make daily choices about how to
ration out her energy. She sometimes uses an electric cart to get
around. Nothing compares to a
period in 1985 when she couldn't
stand up without assistance.
"I tend to be a positive attitude
person," she said. "Besides, God
didn't give us life to sit and watch
the world pass us by."
Her husband, Dennis, a General
Motors engineer, and her two
sons, Matt, 15 and Jeff, 11, pitch
in \vith household chores that are
difficult for her. Too many trips
up and down the stairs wear her
out, she said.
It's not a role Dennis is unaccustomed to - when Pat was in
the seminary she was gone four
days a week to Dayton, Ohio and
he became Mr. Mom.
''Whoever is in an activity and
needs support, the other is there
for them," she said.
In her spare time - what little
she has - Rev. VanWormer enjoys cross stitching, needlepoint
and spending time \vith the family
dog, Toto, a cocker spaniel mix.
She also collects Hummel figurines, old milk bottles and Noah's
Ark sets.
Although she doesn't have
much say in where the bishop
sends her, she said she wouldn't
mind spending some time in
Capac. She's involved in Gov.
John Engler's "Communities
First" P~oject, i,n which Capac is
a p11ot Clty."'She s a1so a leatler in
an area multiple sclerosis support
group.
"Being a Christian is more than
si~in~. in church on Sunday," she
satd. My task is to get people to
see that."
~
,.
Capac pastor face~ greater challenge
Catherine Minolli-Oudln
Tri-City Tunos Contributing Wrilor
CAPAC -The Rev. Patricia VanWormer believes that
life is a working process toward
the achievement of positive experience and joy.
Having recently performed
her last official duties as pastor
of First United Methodist
Church and Zion United Methodist Church, the Rev. VanWormer is entering another
process in which she hopes to
build upon her life's experience,
strength and faith.
The Rev. VanWormer went
on permanent disability leave
as pastor of the United Methodist churches in Capac at the
end of October. She said she
made the difficult decision
based on medical advice and
concerns related to her diag-
noses of multip~ sclerosis and
degenerative disc disease.
"Life needs /to be a joyful,
positive experiEjllce," the Rev.
VanWormer s&id. "Everyone
has challenges, but why let
them bring you down? The last
Sunday in church was very
internally traumatic for me, but
when I went to ~nter the sanctuary, the congregation was
gathered arounq and two teenagers escorted me to the
church. When ' I opened the
doors, the entire front of the
church was filled with helium
balloons and I thought to myself, 'yes, they're reminding me
that this is a celebration of all
that has been good.'"
The process that led the
Rev. VanWormer and her family to Capac in 1991 actually
began in the mid-1960s. She
felt called into the ministry
upon graduation from high
school in 1966, but based on the
lack of available opportunities
and unfavorable perception of
women entering the seminary,
she decided to study education
at the University of Michigan.
"At the time, I felt I wasn't
able to deal with the roadblocks
placed before women entering
the ministry. I obtained a bachelor's degretl, got ma.tTit:d, and
became very involved in church
and voltmteer work," the Rev.
VanWormer said.
She spent many years volunteering for the Red Cross,
Turning Point (a now defunct
Rochester-based drug abuse
outreach service), and the Jaycees.
Although the Rev. VanWormer was officially diagPASTOR page 6-A
The Rev. Patricia VanWormer recently stepped down from
her duties as pastor of Capac's United Methodist churches.
PASTORFrom page 1-A
nosed with multiple sclerosis
(MS), a disease of the brain and
spinal cord which affects muscular coordination, in 1984, it
was through her volunteer
work with the Jaycees that she
first suspected she had the disease in the late 1970s.
"One summer I familiarized myself with the various
companies that we would become involved with, and one of
those companies was the Multiple Sclerosis Society," she said.
"I read the brochure, they printed some of the wa~ning signs,
and some of those' signs were
very familiar to me."
The Rev. VanWormer
served as community vice president and then state president
for the Jaycees until reaffirming her call to enter the seminary while in her late 30s.
"I realized that it was time
again for me to consider my
calling into the ministry. Although we had a family and I
was serving two small churches, I asked my husband how he
felt about the decision and he
told me to do whatever I had to
.,t
j
do. He was very supportive.~'
While raising a family and
working, the Rev. VanWormer
commuted on a weekly basis to
the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, and obtained a master's degree in divinity.
While admitting that it
was a bit of a strain on her
fainily during the three years in
which she sought her degree,
the Rev. VanWormer said that
she and her husband, Dennis,
benfitted by sharing the same
beliefs about marriage.
"I think that in a marriage,
it has to be a two-way street.
My husband was suppudiv~
and understanding, and there
were times during his career
with General Motors that I had
to be understanding and supportive," she said. "If this isn't
occurring, you have a situation
where only one person is happy."
The Rev. VanWormer was
ordained as a Deacon of United
Methodist churches in 1990 and
received ordination as an elder
in 1993.
"Bein ordained was an
in nearly as much pain as ~
might be in because my nervefl
are a little messed up. But
because of the degenerating
discs, and not just because tht
MS ha,s gotten worse, standing
for peciods of time is increasingr
ly difficult, which makes walkt
ing more difficult, and so on."
a
The Rev. VanWormer sai§
another fall in October made it
abruptly apparent that sh~
would have to discontinue serving the church.
1
"I have known for a while
i.ltaL I might have to consider
leaving the church within a few
years, but as long as I continf
ued to work, it was something
that was "'out there,' and as long
as it's 'out there,' I don't have to
deal with it. But after the fall hi
October, my doctors advised m~
that I should not consider work.;
ing any longer, and I had tQ
consider my health and thd
health of the church."
-1
The Rev. VanWormer said
she is still dealing with the
emotional loss and upheaval
prompted by the decision. She
said she and her famil have
