wfn.org | UMNS# 05099-United Methodist makes Sunday school a lifelong

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United Methodist makes Sunday school a lifelong commitment

Feb. 17, 2005	 News media contact:   Kathy  Gilbert * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05099}

NOTE: Photographs, a UMTV report and a related story, UMNS #100, are
available at http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=6744.

A UMNS Feature
By Kathy L. Gilbert*

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (UMNS)-On a cold, snowy, Sunday morning, Gene Pitzer
is the only person on the street warming up the truck and shoveling snow
from the driveway.

He knows his wife is serious about getting to church. Mary Lou Pitzer
hasn't missed going to Sunday school in 51 years, and she is not going
to let a little snow make her miss church today.

Pitzer fell in love with Sunday school when she joined the United
Methodist Church in 1953. She was 11 years old and soon started teaching
Sunday school for the 2- and 3-year-olds.

"I didn't start off to make any record," she says. She is surprised
everyone is making such a big deal out of her attendance record. "I
never thought about it; that is the thing you do, you go to Sunday
school. Everybody keeps telling me that this is really something else,
but I never really thought about it." A high school math teacher, she
never misses a day of school either.

The first church she joined was United Methodist Morgan Chapel, a small
rural congregation in southwest Virginia that shared its pastor with
another church. "We didn't have worship service every Sunday, but we had
Sunday school every Sunday," she says. "Sunday school seemed to me to be
the part of church that I belonged to."

Push her on her record and she has an answer for every excuse most
people would use to miss church.

She has never been sick; both her children were born on Sunday, and she
made it to the hospital chapel; when her children were sick, her husband
took care of them; and when the family went on vacations, Sunday school
was part of the destination.

Even her wedding day was arranged to accommodate Sunday school.

Laughing, she says she planned a Sunday afternoon wedding.

"I refused to get married on Saturday because I knew it would be asking
too much to drag him to church on Sunday morning," she says. "It didn't
seem like a big deal to him, but I guess for most people that was a big
change-most weddings are on Saturday. That was one of the biggest
decisions I had to make."

She didn't always insist her husband and two children attend church with
her, but most of the time they went along.

"Someone asked me, 'Didn't you ever complain?' and no, it was just an
expectation-you go to church and that was that," says her daughter
Valerie Wicks, who along with her mother and father is a member of St.
Matthias United Methodist Church. "I grew up with an expectation that
you would go to Sunday school and go to church every Sunday. We never
fought, we never complained."

Having a brother came in handy on those occasions when they made a stop
along the road to attend church, Wicks recalls. "That was probably one
of the few times I was thankful I had a brother because when we would go
into strange Sunday school class it was always nice to know one other
person."

Not every church Pitzer has attended has been United Methodist. "I have
been to a Mormon church, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist, Catholic,"
she says, counting them off on her fingers.

Her husband says the pressure was on a few times to find a church at 10
a.m. on Sunday. "Sometimes it gets down to the wire. I think we may have
been a few minutes late for some of them, but we managed to get there."

"In my travels, I have learned so much from other churches about how
people believe," Pitzer says. "They open up their hearts to you in a
Sunday school class. ... You just feel a part of God's work."

St. Matthias held a reception to celebrate Pitzer's special achievement.
She received a letter from Bishop Charlene Kammerer of the Virginia
Annual (regional) Conference, and her daughter ordered a specially made
pin from the United Methodist Publishing House. "I'm not sure they ever
had a request for 51 years before," Pitzer says, smiling.

The Publishing House doesn't track Sunday school attendance, but Senior
Vice President Harriett Olson says she hasn't heard of anyone with such
a record as Pitzer's. "It is unusual evidence of the formative power of
Sunday school in the life of a faithful United Methodist," she says.

At St. Matthias, the Rev. Paula Werner kicked off the reception with a
prayer and praise for Pitzer's faithfulness.

"She doesn't just come to church, she literally comes and helps with
children ministry, she helps with worship," Werner says. "We thank you.
We thank you for being so faithful."

Jim Haney, who has been Pitzer's Sunday school teacher for about 12
years, says she is someone he can always depend on.

"You know what it is like when you have a Sunday school class, you need
that little group that's always there. Mary Lou is always there, and she
is also the substitute teacher. Whenever I leave town, I can just call
her at the last moment and she will take over and do something."

Joe Dunkin, another member of Pitzer's Sunday school class, calls her
the "backbone of the church."

"I have known Mary Lou for about 30 years. We taught at Stafford High
School together. She is probably one of the best people I know."

On most Sundays, Pitzer's three granddaughters-Brandi, 11, Lauren, 6,
and Maya, 14 months-also attend.

Brandi loves Sunday school too. When she got up to a snowy Sunday
morning, she didn't have any second thoughts about making it to the
church.

"After what my grandmother has done, gone through snow and blizzards
just to get to church, I don't think it was too bad," she says.

"I hope someday I break my grandmother's record for being in church for
that many years."

# # #

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in
Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org