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Snyder is one of 32 clergy retiring this year, representing more than 772 years of service to God and the church.

In The United Methodist Church, ordained clergy may retire at age 65, and must retire by age 72.

Exactly half of the 2014 retiree class is clergy women.

The longest serving clergywoman retiring is the Rev. JoAnne Alexander in the Frederick District who has served 37 years. Her ministry has been as part of a clergy couple, with the Rev. Kent Tice.

Together, they have served Oakland UMC in Charles Town, W. Va., for more than 20 years. She said she did not encounter opposition to clergywomen “even back then,” when she stepped into a three-point charge that had had seven student pastors in seven years. She assured them she wanted to grow the church and put down roots in the community. That she did, and she’ll continue serving there with her husband as a part-time church hire.

The Rev. Sandy S.W. Taylor, the only retiree from the Washington East District, has served 29 years.

Snyder is the longest serving clergyman, with most of his years served elsewhere, but 17 of them in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, including the past 12 as senior pastor of Foundry UMC. Among his memorable moments, he said, is “receiving Frank Schaefer into membership at Foundry church after he was defrocked for conducting his son’s wedding.” He also recalls “writing stories about the work of the UMC in Zimbabwe.”

Perhaps what he’ll remember most, he said, were the “important moments (that) were not high profile,” such as the homeless man on the streets of Philadelphia who picked up coins and took them to the church, “because he wanted to make an offering to the church that welcomed him.”

Close behind Snyder in years of service is the Rev. Al Clipp, who, along with 10 other retirees, is from the Frederick District. He has served 47 years; almost 20 at Calvary UMC in Martinsburg. Many will remember Clipp as the Secretary of the Annual Conference in the 2000s.

On the other end of the spectrum – clergy serving the fewest years– is the Rev. Janice Leith with nine years, all at the Texas Charge in Cockeysville. The Rev. Stella Tay, an ordained Deacon, is credited with nine years, but before her ordination she served another dozen years. Most of the dozen pastors who are retiring with fewer than 20 years of service had another career before heeding the call to ordained ministry.

One former district superintendent, the Rev. Mark Derby, is retiring. He was a D.S. from 2000-2004, then two more years while also pastoring the church from which he is retiring, Grace UMC in Gaithersburg.

Serving as a district superintendent “helped me to see the importance of our connection,” he said. As a local church pastor, he sought to help congregations to become Christ-centered, he said, then as a D.S., “I saw much more clearly the importance of our relationships as colleagues and as sister churches.”

Derby said he’s looking forward to continuing ministry in other forms. “I plan to work with Ambassadors for Christ International, a mission agency,” led by a seminary classmate. And “when I’m not traveling, I’m looking forward to working with Habitat for Humanity.”

Each retiring pastor has poignant memories of his or her time serving the church, not all good, but by this time in their lives, they say, along with Alexander, “I have been blessed!”

The retirees will be honored at a luncheon at the Conference Center May 13.

Retirees share 772+ years of service