by Kathy Drake, Member of the Bicentennial Publicity Committee
Rev. Wayne Curry arrived here at Trinity in 2008 after serving numerous churches around the state and as District Superintendent in two different districts.
Born and raised in Miami, Wayne and his two older sisters attended Grace UMC surrounded with the love and support of their parents. After graduating high school, he continued his education at Florida Atlantic University obtaining a bachelor’s degree in education (1971). Heeding the call to ministry, Wayne attended Candler School of Theology, earning his master’s degree in 1975.
The Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church benefited from Wayne’s many gifts for the next 43 years, as he served at various churches around the state. He began his journey as Associate Pastor at Christ UMC in St. Petersburg (1975-79), Palm Harbor UMC (1979-88), Anona UMC in Indian Rocks (1988-93) and First United Methodist Church of Orlando (1993-2001).
Rev. Curry was appointed as the District Superintendent of the Deland District in 2001 and served until 2005, when, after a restructuring of the conference districts, he served three more years as the District Superintendent of the Gulf Central District.
From 2008 until his retirement in 2016, our own Trinity United Methodist Church was blessed to have Rev. Curry as Senior Pastor. We loved Wayne and Beth so much, we invited him back to be our Minister of Pastoral Care.
Wayne brought us an added gift of his wife, Beth, who has worked tirelessly to get us all in shape since she started the BFC program (Becoming Fit at Church) and the BFO program (Becoming Fit Outdoors), which have raised thousands of dollars for various charitable causes. She also makes a heavenly carrot cake! Wayne and Beth have two adult sons from his previous marriage and a daughter, as well as a “fur baby” named Chewy (who has big paws to fill after Sadie!)
Besides granting the space for the establishment of the Historical Preservation room on the third floor, we discovered Wayne’s photographic abilities as he graced the walls of our education building hallways with an ever-changing photo collection of Trinity members and their activities. During his time as our Senior Pastor, he helped guide us through the long and time-consuming Visioning process, pointing us toward the future of Trinity and the church we are striving to become. Most importantly, each week he ended the service with the reassuring words, “Always remember how much you are loved.”
Our first meeting with Wayne occurred in the parking lot of Tallahassee’s airport in the wee hours of the morning. Though that sounds a bit suspicious, we were there dropping our teenagers off for their mission trip to Juarez, Mexico, and Wayne had come to offer a prayer for their safety and success. We soon learned our new pastor had a special gift when he not only greeted us by name, but added, “Are Alex and AnnaLee excited about the trip?” We had not even met Wayne and yet, he not only knew our names, but which children belonged to us! I fondly call him a “freak of nature” as his ability to remember names is amazing! Maybe that has something to do with his previous job with the CIA. (Ask him about that sometime!)
We have since been blessed to call him and Beth our good friends and were so happy to have them back after his retirement to serve as our pastoral minister. We are now spiritually and physically in better shape, and Wayne continues to call our Trinity family members by name! Wayne’s role as pastoral minister doesn’t offer many opportunities for him to preach, so it will be a special occasion when we welcome him as our guest clergy on Sunday, July 14.