The Rev. Beverly K. Weatherly, a former missionary who served parishes in North Carolina, Connecticut, Virginia, and Maryland, died May 28 after a year-long battle with MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of cancer) and leukemia, at 71.
Weatherly was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and raised near Columbus. A graduate of Ohio State, she worked in business and public administration before beginning studies for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary and General Seminary. She met her husband, the Rev. John Weatherly, working at a neighborhood Vacation Bible School in Trenton, New Jersey.
She was ordained in 1986, and following ministry as a curate in New Jersey, she served with her husband as Episcopal Church appointed missionaries in Brasilia, Brazil, for two years. Following ministry in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Darien, Connecticut, Weatherly was associate rector of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, for 10 years. She became rector of St. Andrew’s in Leonardtown, Maryland, in 2019, and continued in ministry until shortly before her death. She served for many years as moderator of the Randolph Church, a nondenominational summer chapel in Randolph, New Hampshire.
She is survived by her husband, and by three children and seven grandchildren.
The Rev. Willis Barnum Coker McCarty, a onetime vice president of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies and the long-serving rector of one of Jacksonville’s largest parishes, died May 30 at 91.
A native of Jacksonville, McCarty was a graduate of the University of the South, receiving a bachelor’s degree from the college and a master’s in divinity from its seminary. Following his ordination in 1956, he served as rector of parishes in Apalachicola and Panama City, Florida, and as the director of the Diocese of Florida’s Camp Weed and its youth department.
He became rector of St. Mark’s in Jacksonville in 1971, and served until his retirement in 1995. The church grew significantly under his leadership, and he oversaw a series of expansions and renovations of the church plant, including the construction of a youth center.
He represented the Diocese of Florida as a deputy to 10 successive General Conventions, was vice president of the House of Deputies for three years, and served two terms as a member of Executive Council. He also was a chaplain to the Florida Army National Guard, retiring with the rank of colonel. He served as an interim in several large Florida parishes in retirement.
McCarty is survived by his wife of 65 years, Betty Ann, and by three daughters and five grandchildren.
The Rev. Edgar Elijah Shippey, a priest and entertainer who founded two youth leadership programs focused on music and service, died May 27, at 83.
Raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Shippey was a graduate of the University of Arkansas and the Seminary of the Southwest, and began his ordained ministry in 1963, leading two rural Arkansas parishes and assisting the chaplain at the University of Arkansas.
He became an assistant at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock in 1964, and founded the Retreat Singers, a folk music choir, shortly afterward. Shippey wrote some of the music the group performed, including “A Folksong Life of Christ.” The Retreat Singers traveled across the United States and Canada during summers in the late 1960s in a bus dubbed “The Holy Roller,” performing in churches and engaging in service projects, including building a school on a Navajo reservation in Utah. They recorded two albums and were featured in Life magazine. In the summer of 1968, they made an eight-week tour of Europe, performing for the King of Sweden and the assembled bishops at the 1968 Lambeth Conference.
Shippey moved to Novato, California, in 1969, to serve as assistant rector at St. Francis Church, and founded a similar group, the California Wind Children. He was rector of Holy Trinity Church in Ukiah, California, for 11 years, and completed his active ministry at St. James in Coquille, Oregon. He was chaplain to the retired clergy of the Diocese of Oregon at the time of his death.
Shippey served as chaplain for summer camps for several dioceses, and had a ministry to troubled youth and people suffering from addictions. He was also a gifted ventriloquist, performing several times on television, and a longtime Rotarian. He is survived by his wife, Tina, and by a son, Adam. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Abigail.