Reconnecting at SEJ ‘life-giving’ for South Carolina delegate now in ministry in Paris
The Rev. Elizabeth Murray. Photo by Derek Leek.
By Jessica Brodie
LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C.—Some Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference delegates came from nearby. Some came from Mississippi, western Tennessee, southern Florida or northern Virginia, driving long hours to join their counterparts in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. But one delegate claimed the farthest distance to travel—from Paris, France.
The Rev. Elizabeth Murray, a delegate from South Carolina, has been the associate pastor for youth and young adults at the American Church in Paris since 2021.
The first American church established outside of the United States, the interdenominational American Church in Paris began in 1814 and established its official charter and first sanctuary in 1857. Its mission is to bear witness by word and deed to the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, to provide a place of English language worship in the American Protestant tradition, and to engage in ministries and services that enrich the lives of residents and visitors in Paris.
Originally from Atlanta, Murray is an ordained deacon in the South Carolina Annual Conference who served as the youth pastor at Lexington United Methodist Church in Lexington, South Carolina, and as the South Carolina coordinator for Hispanic/Latinx Ministries. Elected as a delegate to SEJ Conference in 2019, Murray flew from Paris to serve at the 2022 Jurisdictional Conference and returned this summer to serve at the 2024 conference.
“I feel I had a sense of duty and obligation to fulfill my role,” said Murray, who noted that even though it was challenging to find new and creative ways to fund her trips home to attend the conferences, it was important to her to do so.
Not only did she know her vote and voice were important, and she wanted to honor the commitment she had made to those who elected her as a delegate, she also came for the sense of connection and camaraderie—something she has been missing since her time in Paris.
“In football season, I do feel like a Gamecock in Paris,” Murray said, with a nod to her alma mater, the University of South Carolina. “But otherwise I feel like a South Carolinian in Paris because being an American in Paris is too generic for me.”
She acknowledged it can be difficult to be not only an American living and doing ministry there but also a United Methodist, one of very few in her region. The experience can be isolating and lonely.
“There are not a lot of Protestant pastors there in Paris, and I don’t have any pastor friends in France. Coming here and reconnecting with my pastor friends in South Carolina and around the SEJ was something I knew would be life-giving,” Murray said.
She has found a few United Methodists living in Europe, and a small association of international English-speaking Protestant pastors in Europe meets once a year, but there are not any United Methodists in her circle on a daily basis.
“I’m not part of the connection, so to speak, and sometimes I speak a language (of Methodism) that people are not familiar with.”
Still, Murray said her time there is fulfilling, even though she does miss home, and she’s been heartened by the opportunity to gather with fellow United Methodists across the SEJ this week at Lake Junaluska.