Rev. Dr. In-Yong Lee – Mount Gilead, NC
Rev. Dr. In-Yong Lee is the new Uwharrie District Superintendent of the Western North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. She was born and raised in South Korea. She came to the United States in 1997 to go to Duke University/ Divinity School, where she earned M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. (Theology and Ethics). She was ordained an Elder in 2008 and served three local churches in Asheville, Charlotte, and Rutherfordton, before she came to the Albemarle area.
On top of the local church ministry, she has had extensive experience working in the larger settings. Among others, she served on the Board of Ordained Ministry for 8 years; led the Dismantling Racism Task Force within the annual conference for 7 years; went to General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference as a voting delegate 4 times; and served on the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters of the UMC for 12 years, which is the only denomination-wide committee in which Americans are outnumbered by non-Americans.
Those meetings were held in Hungary, Mozambique, the Ivory Coast, the Philippines, Germany, and the USA. Three different languages were used – Portuguese, French, and English – during all the meetings. She learned a valuable lesson that a multi-language group can effectively communicate with one another with mutual respect and cooperation. She was involved in the work of the General Book of Discipline while she served on the Standing Committee.
Also, within the communities where she served as a pastor, she actively collaborated with ecumenical groups of clergy and with other organizations for the betterment of the cities. Most recently, she was instrumental in creating and coordinating the Stronger Together worship services in Rutherfordton, which are held twice a year, in a local high school auditorium. Hundreds of people from more than 25 different denominational churches in the area gather on those Sunday mornings at 11:00 am, celebrating oneness and working for the community together.
In-Yong lives in Mount Gilead with her husband, Heesoo, her mother, Yohee, and their older son, Ethan. Their younger son, Ju-Sung, and his wife, Mimi, live in Carrboro, NC.