b. May 12, 1947
by Lucy Couch Payne Paynter, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, NC, 2016
Barbara Kay Kelly Morgan
After retiring from 31 years as an educator (teacher and administrator), Kay transferred that same passion for service and ministry to the many outreach opportunities at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem, NC. There she was drawn in by the beautiful sacred space and warm hospitable parishioners.
With Kay’s gifts of hospitality, administration and service she immediately found ways to help our community through her church and to build up the strengths of services inside St. Paul’s. She used her ever-smiling face and willingness to work to make events and dinners at our church fun and festive. Kay is a real ambassador for St. Paul’s Church and for the Lord as she has served on the Funeral Reception Committee, Agape Hosts for Funerals and Hospitality Committee.
She is also an ambassador to those in need outside our parish. She took on the role of coordinator for St. Paul’s Place to Stay – an apartment made available for families who had loved ones in our local hospitals. This included gathering the resources to furnish this welcoming place for people in great emotional pain and reaching out to many distressed families who were temporarily in our city. Kay was able to once again encourage others to come along in service for this mission.
Kay is passionate about outreach. When Kay worked as a principal, she encouraged her staff to assist her to meet many needs of their families and children. At St. Paul’s she gravitated to helping others through local and world outreach. Kay has been ECW president, member of St. Anne’s Circle, a vestry member, and on the ECW Council in a leadership position for 10 years.
In her leadership role on the ECW Board of the Diocese of North Carolina, she learned about the dynamic missionary, The Reverend Lauren Stanley. Kay introduced Lauren to our parishioners and began an outreach program to support Lauren’s work in Sudan, Haiti and later with the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Kay and her husband have also traveled with a mission group to help begin St. Paul’s by the Sea, a new church in Tamarindo, Costa Rica that St. Paul’s is sponsoring.
Kay is currently a leader in our church’s effort to feed children in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System. She helps to coordinate the BackPack Program at St. Paul’s by delivering food from the Second Harvest Food Bank weekly. Under her leadership with others, we are able to provide weekend food for 125 children every week during the school year at a local partner school. Once again she has helped to encourage many volunteers to be a part of this on-going project.
Kay is a life-long resident of Winston-Salem, a graduate of Wake Forest University and completed graduate work at both Wake Forest and Appalachian State University. She and her husband Chip have four children and six grandchildren. Her God-given talents have been poured out at St. Paul’s and in our community. We are proud to be able to shine a light on her ministry.