Ed Beddingfield, MDiv78

Class of 
1978
Denomination: 
Baptist

These days I'm still a pastor, just grayer, fatter and slower. My church family is Memorial Baptist Church in the metropolis of Buies Creek, NC, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation (the more progressive group that split off from the Southern Baptists in the early '90s) located just off the campus of Campbell University. I have two daughters: Shannon lives in New Haven, is all-but-dissertation on a Yale PhD in medieval English, and works for a start-up company that coaches students, mostly from China or Korea, as they select and apply to colleges in the U.S. Meghan is an alumna of the Peace Corps (South Africa) and Princeton Theological Seminary, now in her second year of PhD work in religion and culture at Southern Methodist in Dallas. Some of you may remember Hickory, the black Lab. These days the dog in the house is Laila, a rescue pit bull that Meghan took in before she headed off to Africa, leaving the dog with wife Sarah and me. The last year or so has been hard in our family. I had an aortic valve replacement 18 months ago. The surgery was more dicey than anticipated but the recovery was quick, easy and complete. But then on Christmas Eve of 2017 our house burned down. Sarah died in the fire and Shannon spent six weeks in the burn unit at UNC hospital recovering from smoke inhalation and burns on her hands. Linda Ronstadt had a line in a song: "Life's full of loss." Ain't it the truth. I find that the older I get, and the more I endure, the less I believe, but the more I believe it. In David Kelsey's class we had to write a credo. I remember one from Lisa Matthews, Kelsey's TA: "We live and die in the presence of a loving God." That has sustained me through many a dark night. Working helps get me through the days. I still rejoice in the preaching and pastoral relationships. I also still play guitar - country, folk, bluegrass, electric blues, even the dreaded praise band at church. And I ride a big motorcycle, sometimes a long way. A couple of years ago my brother and I took an 8-day ride to Key West. I liked it and thought it might be a nice place to be a pastor, but I can't remember meeting a single person who I thought was looking to join a Baptist church. Jim and Judy Fisher remain close friends; we vacation together every year. And a week ago Cam West and I had lunch together - two rubes from the South who were lucky, or blessed, enough to have our lives shaped by Yale Divinity School and all of you. Grace and peace to you all.