Rev. Mary Jane Fullerton

There is a song in The Faith We Sing hymnal supplement that begins:

    "I was there to hear your borning cry,

    I'll be there when you are old.

    I rejoiced the day you were baptized,

    To see your life unfold."

Amidst whatever challenges or joys, success or heartache, I have always felt the wondrous comfort that this song provides me.  God's presence has permeated

my life for as long as I can remember.  As a child attending the Buhl Jr. Space Academy on the Pittsburgh's North Side, I can remember looking through the newly ground lens of the telescope I had just made myself and looking at the  moon, Jupiter, Saturn, the Crab nebula, even the Seven Sisters and thinking it just can't have happened by chance, but perhaps I get ahead of myself though.  My 'borning cry' was heard first at Allegheny General Hospital around 6:30pm on March 19, 1947.  I was a North Side girl, born and bred, attending Mary Junkin Cowley Elementary School, LatimerJr. High School and Allegheny High School, walking all the way every day.  Where there was rejoicing in heaven on that occasion, or not, is not mine to know, but if the lyrics of the song are correct, then indeed God rejoiced just three months later as I was baptized in the living room parlor of my grandmother's house, where we lived on Beech Avenue.

    But is not so much the 'borning' nor the baptizing that are interested in but the life that unfolded as the years played out.  My grandmother was a staunch 'pillar' of the Trinity Methodist Church and being her first grandchild, and a granddaughter at that, I was the heir apparent to her authority and position.  In those early years, I dutifully learned my Christmas pageant lines, my Children's Day speeches and my Mother's Day songs.  I eventually sang in the choir, having a much better voice then, than I do now.  I was the youngest person, male or female, to be the chair of the then Council on Ministries and the youth representative to the Official Board.  I taught Sunday School for a couple of years and was part of a contemporary folk music group at Allegheny United Methodist Church which we called Allegheny Five (six, sour, seven - it all depended on how many showed up).  All the while, even when I "wandered off to find where demons dwell", God was close at hand - picking at me, tweaking me, never letting me off the hook.

    I attended Duquesne University, graduating with a degree in Education in 1971.  My major areas of study were psychology and political science, which translated into being a Social studies teacher for about a before I moved on to Shuman Center where I worked for over eight years at everything from office clerk to wing supervisor to Social Services Coordinator, receiving another degree in Administration of Justice from the University of Pittsburgh before finally giving in to God's call on my life.  In the fall of 1981, I entered Methodist Theological School in Ohio to graduate there years later with my seminary degree as a Master of Divinity.  "Imagine me", I said to myself, "a master of divinity".  I never conceived of myself in this role, but God most assuredly called me to it.  I have tried to live out that calling, to the best of my ability, over the past 25 years.

    I have served in a variety of setting in that time.  From city churches in Beechview in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, to a country setting in southern Westmoreland County, to Mercer County and back to Pittsburgh area along the Allegheny, finally back to my old stomping  grounds of Pittsburgh's North Side and most recently McKeesport, where my brother once lived.  I have traveled from place to place bringing my gifts, graces, faults, and foibles to the settings that God, the Bishop  and the cabinet have called me to serve.

    Personally, while I have spent much of raising my nieces and nephew, I have always been a single woman.  Currently my mother lives with me.  She will be 90 this July and while she is mentally still sharp, physically experience great challenges in mobility due to spinal stinosis.  She can still walk, but it is with great effort and help and steps just don't work well for her.  Oh, did I mention she is deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other??  Okay, so it's 30% hearing in the left ear and 70% in the right.)   Although we don't always agree about things, I am well blessed to have her with me.

    On a person, leisure time level, I enjoy working with wood.  Creating something tangible that has beauty and functionality, is soothing to my soul.  I don't have enough time to do as much with my wood as I would like.  I am still fascinated by astronomy as well and pray for the day when I will have a great telescope again.  I have been a 'Trekker" (as in Star Trek) since it's inception back in the 1960's.  God's creation all around me, though is my primary motivator.  I am the product of a mixed marriage - my mother is a clutter bug and my father was a pack rat.  I have inherited the worst of both worlds, but I keep trying to get organized and rid myself of the extraneous 'stuff' I have dragged around with me for years.  I need to improve some of my time management skills, I can get distracted by perceived more important things.  I am a 'big woman', but I am working at being less than I am now.  The 'getting to know you process' which may come easily to some, can be a daunting task for me.  I could use some help on those first rounds of 'getting to know you visits'.  I am not a mind reader, when something requires attention or needs to be addressed, if you are bothered, befuddled or think I am out of my mind, please tell me of the need before it becomes a problem.

    My ethnic heritage speaks of the company my mother once worked for - I am a Heinz 57 variety.  I hold my Scot, Irish, English, and even German heritage most dear, but you find that I resonate most nearly and dearly with my Native American roots in the Lenne Lanape and Carlise Indian School backgrounds.  Yes, there are still Indians in Western Pennsylvania.

    Within the Pittsburgh District and the Western Pennsylvania Conference, I have held several responsibilities:  I was a member of the Pittsburgh East and subsequently the Pittsburgh District Board of Ministry, where I had the responsibility to pair and appoint mentors for the candidates as they began and came through the exploratory and candidacy process.  I also served as a member of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, a Pittsburgh District Trustees, member of Conference Spiritual Formation Resource Taskforce and The Native American Liaison and Voucher Agent for our Annual Conference Native American Ministries Outreach.

    I hope to bring to this new appointment an interactive, story telling preaching style; a cooperative sense of teamwork to the mission and ministry of the local church and the greater church;  a deeper sense of who we are and whose we are through a deepening of our faith and spiritual journey together; and possibly, just possibly, a few moments of fun and fellowship along the way.  God Says:

"I was there to hear your borning cry,

    I'll be there when you are old.

    I rejoiced the day you were baptized,

    To see your life unfold."

    We shall be born together, it would seem come July an dif God so chooses and we respond, perhaps we shall find the grace and healing to indeed grow old together as well.  I pray that our lives will unfold in praise and thanksgiving to our God in Christ Jesus who has put on this path together.