August 6, 2025
Dear First Church Family,
With deep gratitude and tender hearts, we share that Rev. Nancy Childress will be concluding her role as part-time Assisting Pastor for Pastoral Care at First United Methodist Church. Her last Sunday with us will be August 31, when she will preach during worship. We hope you will join us for a reception in her honor following the service as we give thanks for her ministry among us.
Rev. Nancy has accepted a full-time position as a chaplain at St. Mary’s Hospital. This new role allows her to continue offering exceptional pastoral care—this time to patients and families navigating moments of illness, uncertainty, and healing. It also allows her to prepare for a financially stable retirement, which requires full-time employment at this stage in her journey.
While Nancy has found deep joy in her work at First Church—especially in walking alongside our homebound members and senior adults—this new opportunity is a faithful and thoughtful decision that balances her call to ministry with her personal needs for the future. We celebrate her discernment, her courage, and the compassion she will bring to her new role.
Over these years together, Nancy’s prayerful presence, wise preaching, and steady pastoral care have been a true blessing to our church. We are deeply grateful for the love she has shown to this congregation and the many lives she has touched.
We encourage you to share your words of gratitude over the next few weeks. Cards, photos, memories, and notes can be mailed (First UMC 203 Wisconsin Ave, Madison, WI attn: Nancy’s Reception) or brought to church on or before August 31st. In the reception following worship there will be time to write blessings and share memories. Please join us.
As we prepare to bless Nancy in this transition, we also remain committed to the ongoing ministry of pastoral care. More information will be shared in the weeks ahead about how this important work will continue in our life together.
We send Rev. Nancy with our blessing and trust that the God who calls us is the God who goes with us. As we read in Philippians 1:3, “I thank my God every time I remember you.”
We thank God for Rev. Nancy’s faithfulness, and we hold her in prayer as she begins this new chapter.
With gratitude and peace,
Ann Herrold-Peterson, SPRC Chair
Rev. Cathy Weigand