Rooted in Faith, Growing our Future
Meet our Pastor —
Rev. Dr. Morar Murray-Hayes
She has chaired committees at the highest levels of the United Church, taught at two
United Church seminaries, sat on the editorial board of a leading journal of
ministry, authored numerous scholarly articles, and after five years of hard work was awarded her Doctor of
Ministry degree by Princeton University in May, 2006. Yet neither scholarship nor academia is what attracts Rev. Dr. Morar Murray-Hayes the most. It's doing what she's doing right now — pastoring the congregation of Maple Grove United Church. And she's been doing it since 1987.
First experiencing her personal call to ministry at the tender age of 17 ("I knew nothing about life, and even less about ministry," she says, "but I was called") Morar has always felt that pastoral ministry is her primary calling, and the congregations she has served have always agreed with her.
Not that there weren't challenges, especially early on when women sometimes still experienced difficulty being accepted in ministry. In her first congregation after her ordination in 1975, Rev. Morar Murray-Hayes was the first woman to touch the communion elements and serve the sacrament, and introduced female ushers and elders. On the whole, her experience has been positive. She says: "My experience has been that a Canadian church that actively seeks out a woman to call to ministry has certain exceptional characteristics that allow for creative ministries to emerge."
That certainly seems to have been the case at Maple Grove, where Morar describes herself as "happily wallowing in ministry with these faithful people." A chatty extrovert with a conversational preaching style, a multi-tasker who is a "multi-worrier" when it comes to caring about people's problems, and a leader who treasures teaming with the lay people in her church (and who gives her secretary the credit for making her appear competent), Morar says that at Maple Grove she has experienced "a deeper level of ministry than I thought possible." Anyone who has personally received Morar's deeply compassionate caring and wise counsel will testify to what an inspirational, healing and encouraging ministry it is.
Her doctoral thesis was entitled: " 'As Christ Has Welcomed You': Hospitality and the Movement from Stranger to Member at Maple Grove United Church".
Morar with her husband Alan
Her goal is to continue developing her own resources for ministry to better enable this congregation to carry out its ministry: as Morar puts it, "to minister in the really difficult places of life."
Together, the team of Morar and Maple Grove will continue to make both the difficult and the happy places better.
You can read – or, better still, listen to – some of Morar's recent sermons by clicking here.