Alumni trio earns Candler honors

Cecil McFarland 55T, Carolyn Morris 79T, and Kenneth Marcus 92T (from left to right) show off their Distinguished Alumni Awards, which were presented to them by the Candler School of Theology at a luncheon on October 13.

The Candler School of Theology annually recognizes three alumni who have achieved distinction in their service to God, the church, and the community. The Distinguished Alumni Award 2009 recipients are Cecil McFarland 55T for service to the community, Carolyn Morris 79T for service to Candler, and Kenneth Marcus 92T for service to the church. Each of these exemplary individuals has made extensive contributions to the field of ministry and their communities.

Marcus received the call to preach while he was a young undergraduate at Morris Brown College. Following graduation, Marcus followed his dreams and was ordained an itinerant deacon of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1978 and an itinerant elder in just a year later. He went on to attend Candler, where he earned his master’s degree in divinity.   

Marcus started serving the church with an assignment at the St. Luke/Nimno Circuit in Athens, GA. He then moved to Atlanta to head the Greater Smith Chapel AME Church. In 1988, Marcus was appointed pastor for the Turner Chapel AME Church in Marietta, GA.

At the time, the church’s membership stood at 150 people. Now, just 21 years after Marcus entered the pulpit, the Turner Chapel congregation has grown to more than 6,000 members. Marcus shares his job with his wife, Cassandra Young Marcus 93T, who serves as the assistant pastor. Under their leadership, Turner Chapel has housed Candler’s Contextual Education program since 2001.

A United Methodist minister and former pastor, McFarland has served as president of the Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia since 1995. This nonprofit agency has provided chaplains for the state’s prisons and juvenile correctional centers since 1920, and the Chaplain Service is supported by 18 denominational bodies. McFarland ensures inmates have a chance to pray, study the Bible and, hopefully, get their lives back on path.

McFarland served as a Navy chaplain for nine years, during which time he fulfilled duties as destroyer squadron chaplain, senior chaplain on the U.S.S. Intrepid, and senior chaplain at the Naval Station in San Francisco. McFarland also spent a year abroad in Vietnam with the First Marine Division, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

In 1970, after resigning his commission, McFarland became the first executive director of Goodwill Industries, a position he held until 1986. During his tenure as executive director, he oversaw work in communities in Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama. McFarland continued his commitment by joining the corporate staff of Goodwill in theWashington, DC area until 1995.

Before coming to Emory, Morris was ordained as a deacon in the United Methodist Church in 1974. By 1980, she had earned the title of ordained elder. She began her career in religious life working as a pastor in five Methodist churches in North Georgia. Morris reached new levels when she became the first clergywoman to be appointed district superintendent and to be elected as delegate to both the General and Jurisdictional conferences in the North Georgia United Methodist Annual Conference.

In those early years, when clergywomen were just beginning to get their feet in the door, Morris held a position on both the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Council on Finance and Administration for the conference.

Morris has devoted time to Candler in many ways over the years. Not only has she been a member of the Candler Alumnae Council and the Candler Clergy Advisory Council, but she has also given back to Candler serving as a candidacy supervisor for students, a contextual education supervisor, and a preacher in Cannon Chapel. Since retirement, Morris and her husband have kept busy by serving as co-pastors at a number of local churches in the area and participating in the Athens Elberton retired clergy group.—Cory Lopez 10C