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About Oconee Street United Methodist Church
Rev. Lisa Caine is a life-long United Methodist, growing up at Trinity UMC and then Haygood UMC in Atlanta. After a career as a college English instructor both at Tift College in Forsyth, GA and Union College in Barbourville, Ky., and then as a medical office administrator for a group medical practice in Atlanta, she answered the call to ordained ministry in 1993, graduating magna cum laude from Candler School of Theology in 1997. Lisa was ordained a probationary Deacon in the North Georgia Conference in 1997 and an Elder in full connection in 1999. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from Georgia State University and the M.Div. degree from Candler School of Theology of Emory University. She served for one year as the part-time student associate pastor of the Lavonia UMC, 4 years as the pastor of the Corinth-Pentecost Charge in Winder, and was appointed to Oconee St. UMC in 2001. She also serves as the Director of Athens Urban Ministry. AUM, a local outreach of Action Ministries, Inc., operates Our Daily Bread, the primary noon feeding program for the hungry in Athens. ODB is open seven days a week and in 2006 served over 50,000 meals to the hungry and homeless in the Athens area. Lisa serves on the Boards of the Athens Nurses’ Clinic and of Lanier Gardens, and is a member of the Athens Choral Society. Her personal interests include resuming piano lessons after a 50 year hiatus, choral singing, and reading, especially mysteries (Amelia Peabody, anyone?). Lisa’s son Sean lives in Roswell and works at Kimberley Clark Corp. Her daughter Meg lives in Alpharetta and is a full time nursing student at Kennesaw State University. Contact Information Athens Urban Ministry/Oconee St. UMC
The church has had an interesting and vital ministry in the Athens community since its beginning in 1871 with 16 members to the present membership of just over 100. In its early years, a Sunday School class was held in the afternoon and the building was then located on Oconee St. near Broad St. on the other side of the Oconee River. In 1882 John Wesley Brown organized a Sunday school on the east side of the Oconee River, and this class soon became associated with the Oconee Street church, as was another Sunday school class, located in the Baldwin Street community. In a special meeting of its quarterly conference, December 8, 1902, the three Sunday school classes were consolidated. In 1903, during the ministry of the Rev. M. H. Cakes, the old church building was moved to its present location at the corner of Oconee and Poplar Streets, and a parsonage home across from the church was purchased to house the pastor and family. Beginning in 1920, and continuing until the present, many improvements have been made to the buildings and grounds. During the summer of 1910, when the Rev. A. F. Nunn was the pastor, the Stone-Nicholson Sunday school rooms were built into the balcony section of the church sanctuary. In March, 1968, during the pastorate of Rev. C. L. Harris, and under the leadership of Harry Kirk, building chairperson, a much needed new educational building was added, consisting of nine classrooms, nursery, church office and pastor’s study, music room, fellowship hall and restrooms. In 1975 the church approved a plan for upgrading and remodeling the church and in 1979 completed the renovation of the sanctuary. In 1980, Oconee Street welcomed the Rev. Carolyn Morris as pastor, making it the first church in the Athens-Elberton District to receive a woman as pastor. In 1989, Oconee Street affirmed its commitment to mission by joining with Athens Urban Ministry to open the city’s first noon kitchen, Our Daily Bread, under the direction of Rev. Ted Staton, who served as both pastor of Oconee Street UMC and director of Our Daily Bread. Our Daily Bread served about a dozen people at its beginning and now serves in excess of 125 persons Monday-Friday for lunch, as well as having added a breakfast meal and a Saturday sack lunch program. Rev. Lisa Caine is the current pastor of Oconee St. UMC and the director of Our Daily Bread. The church’s commitment to mission is demonstrated in many other ways both to the community and the world at large. In 2004 the church completed the requirements to become a Church of Excellence in Outreach in the North Georgia Annual Conference.
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717 Oconee Street, Athens, Georgia 30605  (706) 543-1327 |