About Worthington United Methodist Church

And I Remember.Personal Church Histories

Don and Debbie Moon

A quiet couple, Don and Debbie Moon have been members at Worthington Methodist far longer than most: since 1956. They had met 11 years earlier at Epworth-Euclid Methodist Church in Cleveland and were married there two years later, following Don's release from military duty. A few years' sojourn brought them to central Ohio, when Don joined the metallurgical engineering department at Battelle, while Debbie was busy at home with their three little girls, Adrienne, Barbara and Carolyn.

Don joined the Chancel Choir, which during those years was directed by Roberta Christman. He remembers that, just a year or two after he started singing with the choir, Roberta broke an arm and thus was having difficulty in sorting and storing the many musical scores. Don volunteered to assist in this enterprise and soon developed a system in which anthems were indexed and cross-referenced according to several criteria, including scripture reference, liturgical season and difficulty level. The choral library then consisted of a couple of filing cabinets in an alcove just south of the Potter Chapel's chancel; for a comparison, consider that our current collection occupies many dozen shelf-feet in two rooms that are adjacent to the South Fellowship Hall. Although the intervening years have seen refinements to Don's original system, the basic outline remains: a volunteer effort that has served the church and its music program well.

Meanwhile Debbie became involved in the children's Sunday School, first as a teacher. During the late 1950's our congregation hired its first Director of Christian Education, Gloria Laubheimer. Gloria was a Deaconess, a rank which represented the highest level of ministry that was then sanctioned for women by the Methodist Church; she had studied for two years at seminary in order to earn that designation. Under Gloria's leadership, Debbie agreed to become head of the children's division and later served as treasurer for Vacation Bible School. She remembers the many talented people who gave of their time year after year for our children's Christian education, including Irma Morse, Clara Milhoan, and Marcella Cady.

Debbie and Don joined an adult Sunday School class known as the "Merryweds," one obviously intended for couples. Before the 1940's our congregation's adult classes had for many years been segregated by sex, until some brave souls [please inform your historian if you know anything about this!] formed the Friendship Service class. The Merryweds were a half-generation or so younger than the Friendship-Service folks and did, indeed, have a merry time of it. Their teacher was Charles Ketter, whom the Moons describe as a "fireball." Among other things he prodded the Merryweds to cook, over many years, hundreds of gallons of chili con carne; their chili suppers eventually raised enough money to purchase a grand piano for the Browning Lounge. What to do with surplus funds? The Merryweds learned that Rev. Buckey routinely dipped into his own pocket to help worthy individuals, and so they established our Ministers' Discretionary Fund, which to this day enables our pastors to provide needy persons with emergency assistance. Other couples in that class included Bob and Ruth Brooks, Bill and Marcella Cady, Clara and Orville Milhoan, and Joe and Ruth Walker.

The Moons' most arresting recollection of the Merryweds class concerns one particular pancake breakfast that was held at Blendon Woods Metro Park. [Why do pancake breakfasts figure so importantly in the history of our congregation?] In those "olden" (1960's) days the park system's amenities were: fireplaces, picnic tables and outhouses. Note the absence of shelter house and cooking grill. Early one morning Don set out to cook many pancakes on a stone fireplace, full of confidence because his baking sheet was made of an experimental high-temperature alloy that had been developed at Battelle for aircraft engines. Blueberry pancakes, they were, so that the sudden downpour diluted the batter and left many lonely blueberries sputtering on the baking sheet. Meanwhile, hungry would-be pancake consumers sought shelter under picnic tables. Certainly no one perished of malnutrition, and the event still occasions chuckles among those who were in attendance.

Don and Debbie also remember the municipal garden plots that were available for rent on the northeast corner of West New England Avenue and Oxford Street. Ethel and George Campbell cultivated one of those plots, and one year they recruited the Moons to pull weeds and harvest produce during their vacation. As it turned out the peas were perfect that week, so Debbie prepared creamed peas with meatloaf for a dinner that they served to Rev. Kenneth Clark, who was then our interim pastor following the death of Rev. Harold Buckey. The meal was a great success! Only later did they learn that the peas belonged not to the Campbells but to the gardeners of an adjacent plot. Although they now think that George, a notorious jokester, was "just kidding" about the ownership of the peas, Don and Debbie nonetheless refer to that as "the dinner with the stolen peas."

In the mid 60's Don and Debbie withdrew their membership from Worthington Methodist in order to support a new community church that would be built on High Street at Larrimer Avenue. They believed that our congregation was becoming too large and bureaucratized; they recall fondly the many months after Rev. Buckey's death when the members themselves assumed most of the ongoing organizational responsibilities, while Rev. Clark took care of the pastoral duties. They and others within the congregation felt that large numbers tend to overwhelm "the people." After a few years, however, the proposed new church failed, and Don and Debbie re-joined our congregation.

For many years Don has served as an usher, and he provides one of his prized roses for each 8:30 service during the summer. Debbie is active in UMW, where she values the camaraderie in the kitchen. Also, she is a founding member of the Monday prayer/study class led by Vivian Brey, a group that started in 1987 at the request of Milly Kristoffersen, then president of UMW, who asked Vivian to lead a 6-week study on intercessory prayer. They're still going strong! Each member pledges to pray every day for those in special need, and Debbie believes that this group provides one of the most important spiritual ministries of our congregation.

Don and Debbie Moon have given great service to this congregation and to the kingdom of God. They are quiet, and they make a difference.
-Jean Parks Lynn, historian