by Sally Huggins, Member of the Bicentennial Publicity Committee

To continue our Bicentennial Celebration we welcome the Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller to our pulpit on Sunday, May 12th, at the 9:45AM and 11AM services. (There will be no 8:30AM service that day.)

In 1988, Dr. David Hortin and Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller were appointed to Trinity.  The date of their appointment is important to me for two reasons.  First, not quite six months after they arrived in Tallahassee, my mother died.  Dr. Hortin and Rev. Fogle-Miller conducted a funeral service that was truly a celebration of her life.  It was a service that helped to lift my family out of the depths of grief.  The second reason is a much happier one – about a year later, my dad found love again when he married my stepmother, who was a member at Saint Paul’s UMC.  Rev. Fogle-Miller and her husband, Rev. Jim Fogle-Miller, Saint Paul’s associate pastor at the time, officiated at my dad’s and stepmom’s wedding.  It was a joyous celebration, the joining of two families who had each suffered unique forms of loss, and we always remember the Fogle-Millers’ part in such a happy time.

As part of Trinity’s year-long Bicentennial celebration, we are delighted to welcome back Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller to the pulpit.  Beth is a retired elder in the Florida Annual Conference.  Married to Rev. Dr. Jim Fogle-Miller, who is also clergy, they have one adult daughter, Carlene.  After graduating from Candler School of Theology, Beth was appointed to a variety of churches, both rural and suburban, in every role from solo to associate to senior pastor.  She and Jim also served several times as co-pastors, pioneering that model in the Florida Conference in 1991.  Her final appointment was at Memorial UMC in Fernandina Beach, from which she retired in 2018 after more than 34 years in active ministry.

Beth says that serving at Trinity was formative for her in many ways.  In her years serving with Dr. Hortin, he taught her much about the overall role of pastoral leadership as well as many practical aspects to church administration.  He modeled for her “…how to live a life that includes, but is not consumed by, pastoral ministry.” Daughter Carlene was born in Tallahassee and is named for Charlene Kammerer, former District Superintendent and retired Bishop, and also for Dr. Myron Carl Munday, Trinity’s former organist.  Beth says that Trinity’s loving support of Myron until his death was a good example of how to be a loving church family.  She says the way Trinity is always eager about its future, rather than anxious about it, is perhaps because a church with a 200-year history has learned to trust God in changing times over many generations.

We welcome you back to Trinity, Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller!