Longest Serving Pastor in the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church Gets Plaque and A Key To The City of Dixon
Modern Christianity Longest Serving Pastor in the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church Gets Plaque and A Key To The City of Dixon
By Ben Edokpayi, Staff Writer ©
Word Count 1964
Reverend Cathy Morris who pastored the local Methodist Church for 35 years is now retired in Washington.
On Tuesday the longest serving Minister in the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church (This reporter and Senator Hillary Clinton are foundational Members of the United Methodist Church) was honored by Mayor Steve Bird with a Plaque and a Key to the City of Dixon in what Council Members say was a “well deserved” honor.
“In appreciation of Pastor Cathy M. Morris who served the Dixon community for 35 years at the Dixon United Methodist Church from July 1 1987 through July 26th 2022. She was the longest serving Pastor in the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church. She was deeply involved in the Dixon Community by helping the Youth and Seniors of the Community with Grace and determination. She was Citizen of the Year. In appreciation of the service to the city of Dixon the City is honored to have been served by Cathy Morris,” read the Plaque in the brief ceremony which the Reverend watched via Zoom from home in Washington.
Just before she departed California for Washington this reporter sat down with the Reverend Morris for an interview. Especially memorable was her recall of the Citizen of the Year award in 2017.
“ It was quite a surprise. I had no idea I was nominated. I had mentioned to Carole Pruitt that I never expected to be nominated because I considered myself a regular part of the community. I was late for the ceremony because I was at a Talent Show on the same night as the award. The talent show went longer than expected. Was nervous when I arrived at the venue late midway through the ceremony and it was not only when the MC picked up the Mike that I realized they were talking about me as the 2017 Citizen of the year. It was a pleasant surprise,” the anointed woman of God recalled with joy in her eyes. A member of the Safe Schools Task Force, Pastor Morris’ many positive impacts on the community includes collaboration with the Dixon Unified School District to prevent drug and alcohol abuse amongst Dixon Students and was “instrumental in the reformation of the Dixon Teen Center, where she has served on the center’s board of directors.”
On how the once in our lifetime pandemic impacted her ministry, here is what she said: “ The pandemic changed everything,” she emphasized and added “Unfortunately it happened in 2020 a few weeks before Easter, a crucial time on the Christian Calendar. Suddenly we were told in-person worship was not possible so we switched to audio-visual alternatives. A few weeks later we were able to move to small gatherings to create a worship atmosphere. At first it was pre-recorded on Saturday’s and then we moved to live-streaming on Sunday’s outdoors because indoor singing was not logistically possible. We introduced a daily devotional video as well during the weeks of the shutdown. The congregation of 250 found it spiritually meaningful.”
She was happy to point out that the Coronavirus did not adversely affect giving from her diverse congregation which includes a Nigerian-American couple Shola and Femi. “People were faithful in their giving. Support remained steady. Only adverse effect of the Coronavirus was on the Building fund raiser,” she said.
As a born Methodist whose Mom served as a Deaconess (Ordained by the Leader of the Methodist Church of Nigeria and former President of World Council of Churches) at the Methodist Church Laity, Benin City, Nigeria Tuesday’s City Council Honor for the Reverend Cathy Morris was a personal win for all Methodists, true Crhistians and most especially for the Church leader who left positive indelible marks in the community and as leader of one of the oldest churches in Dixon, once located in the Silveyville area before it moved to its present location at 209 North Jefferson Street, across from the rail tracks. John Westley is the Church’s Founder. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wesley
In her June interview with this reporter she said “ I Will want to definitely express sorrow in leaving Dixon. There is definitely a sadness in moving away from a job that I have loved for 35 years,” she said.
“It was once said, ‘If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life,” said Barbara Beckworth at Reverend Morris’ 2017 ceremony, a year after a remarkable event in my life, a separation. Added Beckworth “ [Morris] has been immersed in the welfare of our community and has been a positive influence, touching many lives in the city of Dixon for the greater part of 30 years.”
In the same month of her retirement and relocation to Washington I witnessed a similar service, ordination of a new Methodist Minister in Akwa Ibom Nigeria in 2014.
My report of that service which was published in a Nigerian newspaper is worth republication in honor of a leader in the United Methodist Church, America.
This article is a front page lead in the November 20, 2022 edition of the Dixon Tribune, the newspaper of record for the city of Dixon, population 21,000.
Methodist Church Nigeria Leader Dr. Sunday Mbang on Fake News, Tribal Nonsense, Gossiping and now Senseless American Propaganda!
By Ben Edokpayi © 2014 I dream of a world where every human being respects and treats each other as equal and all from one creator. And having been a Methodist all my life I believe the role of the church is more important now than ever in helping America revive its global leadership and help restore moral failures. And my analysis of this church service in Nigeria, which I attended, provides my mindset on the moral turpitude facing countries like Nigeria and America. There are some church services you attend and sermons you hear and know are divinely orchestrated. And one of them, for me, happened to be the service from the dedication of a new Methodist Church in the heart of Eket, in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria during a visit to Nigeria in 2014. Prelate Mbang, who I lived with when I first started work in Lagos and who ordained my Mother as a Deaconess in the Methodist Church, is a blessing for the family. In 1995, my ex-wife Debra and children visited the Prelate and his family, not only for spiritual covering. We visited then and several other times because we always enjoyed the company and spiritual wisdom of Prelate Mbang, his wife who died last year, and three children Nyakno, Idorenyin and Brandini. The church in Eket took roots more than 104 years after Methodist missionaries established their first mission in the area. Although a modest church by any standards, the line up of dignitaries at the dedication indeed signified how seriously the people of the area take their religion and community involvement. The lineup of dignitaries included Senator Helen Esuene, the state’s former first lady and governorship candidate for 2015 elections; Barrister Dan Abia, the former Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Retired Brigadier General Etukudo, Professor Attah and several serving and former state and federal legislators as well as many other dignitaries. The icing on the cake had to be the sermon delivered by Dr. Sunday Mbang, Prelate Emeritus of the Methodist Church of Nigeria and former president of the World Methodist Council of churches. Mbang preached about a world that is now dominated by “hearts that are as black as charcoal”. He admonished the audience to put the nation before their ethnic origins, saying “Seek peace and live in peace and leave this tribal nonsense and gossiping alone. I am a Nigerian living in Akwa Ibom State, and what are you?” he asked the audience. The overarching message of his sermon was that “with the Lord on my side, what can man do to me?” Don’t serve God and mammon because the God we worship is not a simple God, and our God is everywhere, he said. The event was followed by the 50th birthday celebration of the former speaker of the State House of Assembly and chief organizer of the event Rt. Hon. (Barrister) Bassey Essien at the prestigious Villa Marina, which afforded me the opportunity to connect with some University of Calabar alumni, including Chris Mammah, special advisor to the former Vice President of Nigeria Abubakar Atiku. I last saw Mammah during a visit to Nigeria in 1999, when I visited him at the Sheraton Hotel in Abuja, where an appointment in the then administration of President Obasanjo was discussed. The offer never materialized so I returned to the United States. It was also great to see my former roommate at Unical Imo-Abasi Jacob, a former Arthur Andersen staff in Nigeria and Executive Director of the Akwa Ibom Investment Corporation. So the essence of this message is that whether you are in Delta, Akwa Ibom or Edo State or anywhere else in Nigeria, California or the World you must seek peace and escue tribal nonsense and gossip which is now a problem for democracy in Nigeria and America! The hazardous wood that pierced the anus of our adopted son while I prayed for him on September 5, 2013. She said she was sick and politically misled! No child or grandchild of the Reverend Johnny Etukudo Essien has ever done something like that. I and Methodist Church Trainee wife in 2014 (we lived at the Church House, attended Bible Study together in addition to extra curricular activities) drove with me to this service. She is recently married and is a District Attorney in Abia State.
The Great Equalizer and Balance for Modern Christianity: Exceptional, Cerebral Soldiers in the Army Of The Lord!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuBY_8zm0KM
‘The Sport of Love’: Ping-Pong, the Great Equalizer https://nyti.ms/3LIwY3d
As a lawyer and dear friend I (Ihunanya Chisom-John) told him part of his healing from a terrible incident — blasphemous sodomy was return to America challenge the devil and rule of law violators and if they kill you we will escalate, pray for an end of the World and organize to come and march naked to the White House. But they dare not because America will now became known as a persecutor of Christians and Journalists Which is why we think Joe Biden’s gesture in Saudi Arabia is reckless and ill-advised. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3742145-washington-post-publisher-blasts-biden-hes-granting-saudi-crown-prince-a-license-to-kill/
Ben Edokpayi and Nonya Chisom-John Private Faith On Display as Shield for the Methodist Church and Public Good in 2014, After I filed for Separation With The Ex-Wife (Irreconcilable Reasons, Divorce finalized on June 12, 2019) with The US Embassy and Solano Supreme Court
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-private-faith-of-hillary-clinton
https://www.oikoumene.org/ Chisom 2014, Elevate Ben
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoFBcPClkI5/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGWyoxlHa2t/
https://www.instagram.com/p/8TRE7WHnTK/
https://www.instagram.com/p/45VtoSnnRi/
https://www.instagram.com/p/7GWOF4HnVe/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQXwfF4jEKl/
Still On The Church Advocacy and Judicial Matter; Some leads from Nonya Chisom, married mother of two healthy and beautiful children and my “Methodist Church wife”, my bible and ping pong partner, and legal advocate in 2014. After blasphemous sodomy by the ex-wife We lived in the same house — the home of the leader of Nigerian Methodists and former President of the World Council of Churches, during my Spiritual Hiatus between 2013 and 2015. She is now a District Attorney in a South Eastern Nigerian State. https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-acting-general-secretary-to-patriarch-kirill-of-moscow-raise-up-your-voice-so-that-the-war-can-be-stopped https://www.instagram.com/p/BHRY6eMA95T/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/12/what-does-president-biden-know-and-when-does-he-know-it/
