We celebrated the arrival of our new pastor in the summer of 2008! We anticipate a long relationship and a shared ministry with her for several years to come. The Reverend Trudy R. Morphew and her husband Randy joyfully anticipate the same extended presence and service with us.
Pastor Trudy and Randy came into this world as cradle Presbyterians and have been invested in the Presbyterian Church all of their adult lives. She grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, though born in West Virginia. Randy was born in Paris, Texas and eventually moved to Longview, Texas. The two met while students at the University of Texas. After marrying, they moved back to Longview, where they joined St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in which they both served as elders and Trudy became the Youth Director. Randy was self-employed, owning a muffler and brake and general automotive repair shop and an auto parts store. Longview is where they raised their two sons, Chris (now in Austin with his wife and their daughter and son) and Phillip (now in Dallas with his wife and daughter).
In 1998, Pastor Trudy experienced what she now recalls as a holy moment when she knew God was calling her into ordained pastoral ministry. Until that time, she served as Youth Director of their church, and was active in Grace Presbytery, the Synod of the Sun and the General Assembly of the PC(USA). Having married before finishing her college degree, Pastor Trudy took the next five years to finish the remaining 2 years of her bachelor's degree in English and history at the University of Texas at Tyler.
In the fall of 1994, after both sons graduated from college and were students at Austin College, she entered Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and graduated with a Master's of Divinity in December of 1997. She was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in February of 1998, after accepting the call to be the Associate Pastor for Education at First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where she served for five years.
Following that pastorate, she became the Chaplain and Vice President of Programs at the Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a camp and conference center for the Synod of the Sun, located in the Texas hill country. (Mo-Ranch is similar in purpose and program to Ghost Ranch here in New Mexico.)
After serving at Mo-Ranch, Pastor Trudy accepted the call to be the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, before coming to Rio Rancho. During her ministry, she has remained active in the wider Presbyterian Church, including serving as a minister commissioner to the 213th (2001) General Assembly and as vice moderator of one of the Assembly's standing committees.
Trudy enjoys several hobbies and interests, including gardening, cross-stitch and needlepoint, sea shell collecting, reading and spending time with Randy and their four-legged canine child, Nowell. In the last five years, they have learned the joys of grandparenthood because of 5-year-old Billy, his 2-year-old sister Macy and their almost 2 year old cousin Madelyn.
Pastor Trudy says that ministry with God's people is a true joy. She has come to learn that the congregation of Rio Rancho Presbyterian Church is a group of good and faithful people with whom to share worship and ministry. "God's people can do amazing things when we remember who and whose we are! I am excited to see where God is taking us and to discover the possibilities for serving Christ as the Spirit of Pentecost blows us into the future."
