Rev. Ellwood "Woody" Wiggins (Pastor)
The Reverend Ellwood H. Wiggins (who prefers to be called Woody) and his wife Susan, moved to the upstate from North Charleston UMC where they served for six years. Prior to North Charleston, he served churches in Summerville, Greenville, Saluda, Dorchester Circuit, Lancaster, Orangeburg & Fort Mill. He graduated from Wofford College and Duke University Divinity School. The Wiggins have two grown children, Rebecca and Eli.

Deborah Lemke (Director of Children and Youth Ministries)
Deborah joined our staff July 2004.  She is a very positive and innovative person, whose background is as an educator and trainer.  She is a Certified Lay Speaker and is passionate about teaching and inspiring our children and youth to discover their talents and grow in their faith in Jesus Christ.

Judy Wenger (Administrative Assistant)
Judy grew up not far from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the heart of the Amish Country.  At the ripe old age of 21, she moved to the East Tennessee area (Johnson City and Bristol) where she lived for 16 years.  She joined Anderson Street UMC and when they needed extra office staff, she became a part-time secretary.  That was the beginning of her church secretarial experience.

She moved to Spartanburg in 1986 and says that "I felt fortunate to find a secretarial position at St. James and have had the good fortune to be employed at this wonderful church ever since."

Judy has 2 sons and a daughter and 3 wonderful grandsons.

Betty Farley (Music Director)
Betty grew up in Sumter, SC and graduated from Winthrop University with a BS in music education and from Candler School of Theology at Emory University with a Masters in Christian Education.  She has taught piano privately and  teaches elementary music at Mary H. Wright and Jesse Boyd elementary schools.

Betty has 2 sons.  Burke works in marketing in New York City, and Gordon is a Spanish teacher at Jesse Bobo Elementary School.

Betty has lived in the Spartanburg area since 1990 and has taught at several different schools in District 7.  She came to St. James in January 1999 and feels that coming to St. James, both as a member and as music director, was an answered prayer in her life and continues to be a real blessing for her.

Mary Sczechowicz (Financial Secretary)
Our Financial Secretary grew up in Woodruff and graduated from Woodruff High School, Spartanburg Methodist College, and Limestone College.

After moving around the country for a number of years, she came back home and joined our staff at St. James.

Mary has 4 children, 5 stepchildren, and 20 grandchildren.

Connie Gillespie (Organist)
Connie grew up in Woodruff.  She studied music at Converse College and teaches private piano lessons.  She is married to David Gillespie and they have 2 children, Donna and David, and 3 grandchildren.

Connie says that the thing she enjoys most is spending time with her grandchildren.

Nancy Barton (Custodian)
Nancy Barton was born in Pendia, Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.  Her father was with the CIA, so her family moved at least every two years.  After his retirement they settled in Manassas, Virginia and later moved to Spartanburg.

Nancy has worked at St. James for a number of years, first as Director of Parents Morning Out and later with both Parents Morning Out and Latch Key.  She shared custodian responsibilities with Charles Brown.  After Charlie left St. James, she took on full responsibilities as Custodian.

Nancy's husband was a member of our staff for four years as Youth Director.  Perry and Nancy have two children, David and Blake, and two grandchildren, Tyler and Felicitie.