Smithfield UM Church to host three speakers
Smithfield United Methodist Church, located on Church Street, will host three guest speakers during June with its regular pastor is at the annual conference. John F. Brownfield, Mary Beth Kelley and David Bell will fill the pulpit on June 13, June 20 and June 27, respectively. All three are certified lay speakers in the Connellsville District of the United Methodist Church.
Certified lay speakers are those members of the United Methodist Church who have felt a calling of greater participation in the workshop service and have completed both the basic lay speakers course and the advanced lay speakers class. Basic lay speakers are permitted to preach in their own local church and certified speakers are permitted to speak at any United Methodist Church in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The three became certified this year at classes offered by the Connellsville District of the United Methodist Church that were held at Asbury United Methodist Church in Uniontown during March and April.
Kelley is a counselor/social worker for Catholic Charities in Waynesburg. She is a member of the Point Marion United Methodist Church, where she belongs to the administrative board and serves as church treasurer.
Brownfield is a local funeral director and belongs to Smithfield United Methodist Church. He is also a member of the administrative board of his church and serves as church secretary and historian.
Bell is a history professor at St. Vincent College in Latrobe. He is a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Scottdale, where he also teaches Sunday school.
Among their responsibilities will be “hearing the Word,” the common lectionary Scripture reading for that day, “Response to the Word,” or the sermon, and children’s time or children’s message.
The Rev. Jay Polosky is the regular pastor at Smithfield and Point Marion United Methodist Churches. Worship services begin at Smithfield at 11 a.m. on Sundays.