Among the participants in the Haddonfield United Methodist Church’s livestreamed services on Sunday, April 19 – 9am (contemporary) and 10:30am (traditional) – will be The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Sayre, the retired senior minister of the church. One reason he’s been invited to participate? April 19 will be his 100th birthday.
Dr. Sayre served as senior minister for 25 years, retiring in 1990. He has remained involved with the church during the past 20 years, and also with the Rotary Club of Haddonfield, which he joined in 1965. (Prior to that, he was a Rotarian in Asbury Park for more than ten years.)
Among Dr. Sayre’s many legacies is Respond Inc., in Camden. The program began in 1967 as a daycare center at the State Street Methodist Church. Respond now owns and operates seven childcare centers with the capacity to serve more than 1,000 children, infants to 4 years old, and has branched out into housing, homeless shelters, counseling programs for adults and teens,and drug and alcohol addiction programs.
Respond also offers job training programs in culinary arts, automotive technology, and lawn care and outdoor property maintenance at a center at 8th and Erie Street, named for Dr. Sayre.
The party the church was planning for Dr. Sayre will take place online, as will a family-and-friends celebration during the afternoon.
Click HERE to connect to the livestream.
And HERE for Dr. Sayre’s “Meditation on my One Hundredth Birthday.”