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About Us - Bethany's Pastors
Robert J. Howell Jr., Senior Pastor |
Marty Canaday, Minister of
Discipleship
Mark E. Fentress, Associate Pastor |
Adriane McGee, Associate Pastor
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Robert J. Howell Jr.,
Senior Pastor |
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In his
twelfth year in Summerville, the Rev. Dr. Robert J. “
Bob” Howell, Jr., is the Senior Pastor of Bethany United
Methodist Church. For more than 30 years, he has served
the United Methodist Church in South Carolina as a
pastor in churches across the state including the
Bethune Charge in Bethune, Buncombe Street UMC in
Greenville, Trinity UMC in Blythewood and St. Paul UMC
in Florence.
Bob is a graduate of the
University of South Carolina. He earned the Master of
Divinity degree from the Divinity School at Duke
University and the Doctor of Ministry degree from the
School of Theology at Drew University, in Madison, New
Jersey. He has been a member of the National Alumni
Council of Duke Divinity School and has served as that
organization’s president.
Bob served the United
Methodist church as a member of the South Carolina
Delegation to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference
of the UMC in 1996, 2000 and 2004. He also served on the
S.C. Conference Board of Evangelism and the S.C.
Conference Committee on Congregational Development.
He is a former member of the
Board of Directors of the Pee Dee Mental Health Center
and the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Manor of the
Pee Dee, both in Florence. He currently serves as a
Board member of The Oaks, an adult retirement community
of the South Carolina United Methodist Church, in
Orangeburg, SC.
Bob is married to the former
Patricia L. Gasque. The couple has two sons, Robert III
(Trey) and Thomas Bryan, and a daughter, Price Gasque.
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Marty Canaday
Minister of Discipleship |
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The
Rev. Marty Canaday joined the Bethany ministerial staff in
August 2008. As Minister of Discipleship, he is responsible
for developing and supporting the persons who lead
ministries that grow discipleship. A recognized leader in
the field of Christian Education, he provides supervisory
support to our directors of Sunday School, children's and
youth ministries.
Marty came
to Bethany from the
Derbyshire
Baptist
Church
in Richmond, Virginia, and is a member of the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship (a branch of the Baptist Church).
He is a
native of
Beaufort, S.C. His wife,
Connie, grew up in
Bamberg,
S.C. and is a family nurse practitioner at
Mabry
Cancer Center in Orangeburg. The Canaday’s have three
daughters. |
Mark E. Fentress
Associate Pastor |
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 The Rev. Dr. Mark E. Fentress
is an Associate Pastor at Bethany UMC and serves as the lead minister of
pastoral visitation to our ever growing congregation.
Mark came to Bethany in June 2006 after retiring
from a 30-year career in the U.S. Army. As an Army chaplain, he served at 26
military installations, providing ministry to more than 100,000 people. His
final military assignment was in Washington, D.C., as Command Chaplain of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers.
An ordained elder and minister in the United
Methodist Church, Dr. Fentress comes to Bethany from the Kentucky
Conference. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Scarritt College in
Nashville, Tennessee, as well as Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry
degrees from Vanderbilt University.
Mark and his wife, Becky, have three children
and three grandchildren.
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Adriane M. McGee
Associate Pastor |
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The Rev. Adriane McGee, associate pastor at
Bethany UMC, joined the ministerial staff in August 2009. A native of
Greenville, South Carolina, she grew up in an intellectually rich, musically
talented and faith-filled United Methodist family. Adriane completed her
undergraduate study at the University of Virginia, where she attended on an
ROTC scholarship and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in government. Adriane
holds a Master of Education in Counseling from the University of Maryland
and completed a pastoral care residency at the Veteran Affairs hospital in
Atlanta. She attended Emory University’s Candler School of Theology as a
Woodruff Scholar and graduated with honors. Adriane continues to serve in
the U.S. Air Force Reserves. She has a heart for the ministerial areas of
worship, mission and pastoral care. |
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