Relief United Methodist Church

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Blessings to you!

I’m the pastor of two wonderful churches, Mt. Olive United Methodist and Relief United Methodist. My name is Rev. Kathleen W. Haynes, but most folks call me Pastor Kathleen. If you’re reading this, it is probably to get a sense of our church’s leadership which is much larger than just me. So, I’ll keep my ‘bio.’ brief and tell you this first:

If you come to worship with us looking for an encounter with God’s loving presence, you WILL find it here!

Now that the truly important thing has been said, I’ll share a little about me.

I am currently in my 19th year of ministry. I’m married to another minister, Rev. John B. Haynes Jr., who is the pastor of Strasburg UMC. We are the parents of two wonderful young men who are now in high school. Our family is also blessed to have my parents living with us.

I’m a native Texan, happily established in my adopted state of Virginia. In between official places of residence, I lived in six different states and one foreign country. I studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York for my undergraduate work and attended Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia for my Master of Divinity degree. I served four rural churches for four years in Georgia as a student pastor and was a full-time associate pastor for three years in Northern Virginia. I was ordained an Elder in the United Methodist Church in 2008 and moved to Virginia Beach where I happily served as the pastor for Heritage UMC for six years. We moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 2014. My ministry was with Mt. Olive and Shiloh UMCs. After a year off in 2019 to care for my parents, I returned to serving as a pastor mid-Pandemic in June of 2020. It has been an interesting couple of years at Relief as we learned how to worship together through COVID-19. The people are so welcoming here and I give God thanks daily for allowing me to come to such a wonderful place and to be among such caring people!

Serving as a pastor is one of the greatest joys of my life. I give God thanks that through good times and times of struggle, God is always by my side, teaching me how to better love, lead and learn from the people around me. I try to live out Christ’s commandment to “love God and love our neighbor” by preaching, teaching, counseling and practicing God’s love, mercy and justice. This is also the calling of Christ’s body, the Church, and though neither the Church nor I love perfectly, we are all called to never stop trying.

If you are looking for meaning and purpose in your life, I hope that you will join us at Relief United Methodist Church this Sunday morning. You will be welcomed no matter who you are or where you are in your journey. That is our promise. You are already accepted and loved by God. That is God’s promise to you, made known through Jesus Christ.

Everything you need to travel with God is right here. Start the adventure.

What are you waiting for?

Dr. Sue Marston Boyd was a member of the keyboard faculty at Shenandoah University for 37 years and was awarded the title of Professor Emerita of Piano at her retirement. She holds a Doctor of Music from Catholic University of America, Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati, and the Bachelor of Music Education from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. She is the current pianist for Winchester Arts Chorale. Performance experiences have included numerous concerts as accompanist and chamber musician. Some of these concert appearances have been at the Terrace Theatre of the Kennedy Center, the German Embassy, and with the Shenandoah Conservatory Trio on a concert tour of Western Germany. In her retirement, Dr. Boyd continues to actively perform chamber music recitals on the University campus and in the area.