The Rev. Timothy J. Allen, who has served as a Methodist minister for 40 years, will be ordained in the Episcopal Church, Diocese of West Virginia, by Bishop Matthew D. Cowden, at 7 p.m. today at St. Thomas a Becket Episcopal Church, 75 Old Cheat Road, Morgantown.
A reception will follow and the public is invited to attend.
Allen was born and raised in Huntington, where he received his undergraduate degree in counseling from Marshall University. Following his graduation, he achieved two extended units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Cabell County Hospital while pursuing his master’s degree at Marshall University. He received his Master of Divinity and his Doctor of Ministry degrees from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
As an ordained United Methodist clergy, Allen pastored several appointments throughout West Virginia and served on numerous denominational committees. Throughout his years of service to his parishioners, Allen felt drawn to the Episcopal Church.
“Although my mother’s side of my family was ‘dyed-in-the wool’ Methodist, my father’s side of the family had an Anglo/Catholic heritage, which was at work in me even while in the UMC,” he said. “During my doctoral studies in sacramental theology I developed a deep appreciation and yearning for the Episcopal Church. The appreciation and yearning continued to develop. I realized to truly be Wesleyan was to embrace the Anglican Communion. Following retirement, I came home to ‘Mother Church.’”
During the past two years when St. Thomas a Becket Episcopal Church was without a rector, Allen stepped in on a regular basis to lead services for the congregation. In this capacity, he assisted in advancing the mission of the church as a faith community of love, inclusion and action.
