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About Oconee Street United Methodist Church
Rev. Lisa Caine is a third career pastor. She was a college English instructor at Tift College in Forsyth, GA and Union College in Barbourville, Ky. before becoming a medical office administrator for a group medical practice in Atlanta. After the death of her husband Bruce in 1992, she answered the call to ministry in 1993, graduating magna cum laude from Candler School of Theology in 1997. She was ordained a probationary deacon 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 4 years as the pastor of the Corinth-Pentecost Charge in Winder, and for 8 years as the pastor of Oconee Street UMC in Athens and the Director of Athens Urban Ministry. AUM, a ministry of Action Ministries, Inc., operates Our Daily Bread, the primary weekday feeding program for the hungry in Athens from the kitchen/fellowship hall of Oconee Street UMC. In June 2001 she retired from the directorship of AUM to serve as the pastor of Oconee St. UMC only and to assume new and exciting responsibilities as a first time grandmother to Isak du Plooy, her first grandchild. Lisa continues to serve on the Boards of the Athens Nurses’ Clinic and Lanier Gardens and is the clergy advisor to the Athens-Elberton District Committee on Lay Speaking. Lisa’s son Sean, and daughter and son-in law Meg and Braam du Plooy live and work in the Atlanta area. Contact Information Oconee Street 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. 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.
Work Areas and Committees, 2010 Worship Study: Children’s Education and Ministry Study: Youth Education and Ministry Study: Adult Education and Ministry Missions Nurture PPR Committee on Lay Leadership Trustees Finance Committee Church Council |
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