LIVERMORE FALLS — Kay Webb, pastor of the Eaton Memorial United Methodist Church, is retiring Monday, June 30. She will serve communion for the last time during the church service on Sunday.

The 67-year-old woman who lives in Poland has been a pastor since 1996.

During part of her education to become a pastor, she rode the overnight train to Washington, D.C., to attend Wesley Theological Seminary and drove herself to Kentucky to attend another seminary.

Webb previously worked with a ministry team at churches in Phillips and Kingfield and served as a executive director of the United Methodist Economic Ministry in Salem Township and Solon for 14 years. She retired as executive director in October 2012.

She is in her fourth year as pastor of the Livermore Falls church.

Her husband, the Rev. Walter “Wally” Webb, also is retiring from his work as a minister after nearly 50 years. He has retired twice before: once from churches in Farmington and New Sharon, and the second time from a church in South Paris. He serves as co-pastor of the United Methodist Church of Minot.

He is making strides in his recovery from a debilitating accident in 2011 that left him with paralysis in his arms and legs. He has regained use of his arms and has been able to stand with the use of a walker.

His wife, who still faces challenges from a debilitating accident years before, hopes that his retirement sticks this time.

Kay Webb plans to do some sewing and continue working on prayer squares. The prayer squares are similar to quilting squares, made of cotton or flannel material with strings attached. They are passed around in church so people can say a prayer, tie a knot in the string and pass it to the next person.

“Each knot represents a prayer,” she said. “We have people say they have taken them into the hospital and put them under their pillow.”

The first square she did was for a woman in Farmington who was dying, she said.

She took it to the hospital with her. Her husband had to come back and ask for another one because all the strings had been tied in prayer knots by doctors and nurses.

“It just became a ministry of caring,” Webb said.

The ministry started in California, where they create prayer quilts.

“We can touch a lot more lives with these small ones,” she said.

Eaton Memorial members will continue the ministry after she leaves.

“I’m going to be working on it in Empire Grove,” she said, and her plans are to encourage other churches to do it.

Her husband is going to do some writing, and they’ll work on some joint projects.

Wally Webb also served the Livermore Falls church for nearly a decade in the 1990s and a sister church in Livermore that no longer exists.

Kay Webb began her ministry schooling while he was serving those churches.

The members of Eaton Memorial will honor her with a retirement tea from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, at the church. Anyone who knows “Pastor Kay” is invited to attend and wear her favorite color, purple.

“It has been kind of fun serving a church (Wally) served for nine years,” Kay Webb said. “I knew all of the people,” except for new members.

The Rev. Doris Morgan of Auburn will become the new pastor of the church in July. She will be pastor of the Livermore Falls church and continue as pastor of the Bartlett Memorial United Methodist Church in North Jay.

“I’m going to miss the people, being out with the people,” Webb said. “I enjoy the people. We’ve got some sweet people here. That is why I came back.”

She also said she will miss the sanctuary at the church.

“It is such a beautiful sanctuary, but in the wintertime, we cannot heat it,” she said.

She convinced members to hold church services in a room in the basement during the colder months.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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