Dr. Walter Limehouse Retires as Diocesan EfM Coordinator

Dr. Walter Limehouse, a member at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Charleston, was honored on Sunday, September 13, 2020 during the Sunday service at Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston, for his 24-year lay ministry as Diocesan Coordinator for Education for Ministry (EfM), a program of theological education. He has announced he will retire from this role, and Archdeacon Callie Walpole presented him with a plaque of the diocesan seal for his service.

Dorothy Gervais Carter, longtime EfM mentor shared the following article about Dr. Limehouse's retirement:
 
“The gift of the Holy Spirit is never for personal gain or glory but always for the blessing of others … the encouragement for each person to be the person God called him or her to be.”
                  - Karen Gorham, Bishop of Sherborne
 
These words, written in reference to Pentecost, could just as easily be applied to the 24-year lay ministry of Dr. Walter Limehouse, our newly retired diocesan coordinator for Education for Ministry (EfM), a program of theological education by extension of the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee). During Walter’s tenure as diocesan coordinator (1996-2020), he oversaw and enabled EfM mentors who shepherded hundreds through the EfM program, as well as actively mentoring a group at Grace Church Cathedral, which encompassed participants from around the diocese, for many of those years. At the same time, he had a full and rewarding career as an emergency department physician and medical ethicist at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). In the roles of EfM coordinator and mentor, Walter valued and imputed value to everyone’s point of view – quite the feat as the EfM community is a richly diverse crew!
 
When faced with challenges, Walter did not avoid the “hard things” but approached them always with an eye to their possibilities – engaging with and working through them as opposed to around them.  In 2007, when the diocesan leadership severed ties with the Sewanee-based program, he quietly, creatively, and determinedly cobbled together an umbrella of supporting parishes to sponsor EfM in the diocese under the umbrella of Grace Church (now Cathedral) in Charleston. This alternate arrangement allowed the program to continue with uninterrupted availability until the diocese reaffirmed its sponsorship of the program in 2013.
 
Walter’s “hand at the EfM helm” in the Diocese of South Carolina has been a steady one with a gentle touch -  a quiet and enabling leadership of encouragement. His spirit of clear-eyed openness invited others to “come and see.”
 
Godspeed and joy in the next season of your life!

---