faith! - Martha Beckman

Hospitality and welcome are vital components in a life of faith for Martha Beckman.

Whether they know it or not, everyone who finds their way to St. Martin’s has been touched in some way by longtime member Martha Beckman.

As the parish’s membership secretary for the past 25 years, Martha records church baptisms, confirmations and deaths plus the names of those who transfer into the parish and those who transfer out. In addition to the paperwork involving transfers, she makes sure a welcome packet with a letter from the rector is sent to all new members.

Those are quiet jobs that most people don't realize take place, but jobs that are essential to the parish's infrastructure, nonetheless. The work brings Martha into the office each Tuesday and involves several hours of work at home each week, time that she gives freely and considers a labor of love.

Long drawn to hospitality, Martha's career was built on the belief that people respond to being seen and appreciated. She is retired from the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department where she trained the staff of the Welcome Centers, traveled the U.S. and the world to promote the state and ended her professional career as director of community development. Martha also worked in the S.C. House of Representatives and on the staffs of Govs. Robert McNair and John West.

In church life, that understanding of hospitality translates into the effort of building relationships between people. She hopes her work plays a part in ensuring the parish lives into its reputation of being a welcoming church with a strong sense of community.

“So many people have said, ‘We just feel at home here,’” she said of her connections with new members as they come into the parish. “This is a very loving, supportive group of people.”

Martha recently experienced that love firsthand after suffering a broken hip.

“When I fell, all the prayers, cards, flowers, food and voices of concern … it makes me tear up just thinking about it,” she said. “You just never know when you’re going to need that community.”

Martha and her husband Sterling have been members of St. Martin’s since 1968, not long after marrying in Martha’s home church of St. John’s in Florence. While Sterling had grown up at Shandon Presbyterian, he was soon won over by the kindness of the congregation at St. Martin’s and became an Episcopalian. The couple raised their two children, Ramelle and Trey, here and now have four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and three more on the way.

Martha serving as a greeter at St. Martin’s.

Looking back over those early years as a parent, she recalls how she leaned into the traditional experience of her own childhood when deciding about her family’s involvement in the church.

“We never questioned it,” she said of church attendance as a child. “It was just something we did.”

She fondly recalls Sundays after church when her father, a surgeon, would take her with him to the hospital where he made rounds. Martha was intrigued by the switchboard operator and would stay with the operator while her father completed his patient visits.

“I was fascinated,” she said.

Church attendance was equally important in her own young family’s life. She knows it is a habit that can be hard to develop in these busy times, but she believes it can be such a meaningful way to navigate the challenges of parenthood, especially in today’s unpredictable world.

“It’s like they said when seatbelts first came about, ‘Three times in a row and it becomes a habit.’ For us it became a family habit,” she said.

That habit also included many different ways of being involved in the parish. In addition to her work as membership secretary, Martha has been chairperson of the Membership Development Committee, a member of the Altar Guild, the St. Martin’s Foundation Board and the Backpack Committee. Martha also helps proofread brochures and the church bulletins each week before they are printed for either a Sunday service, a funeral or special event.

As the parish approaches its 75th birthday, Martha looks back with fondness over the 57 years she and her husband have been attending. Their time here has involved knowing and building relationships with five rectors and one interim rector as well as countless staff members and parishioners. All different and all valued members of creating the community that St. Martin’s is.

She loves the formal and informal mix that St. Martin’s has mastered and believes this to be a unique part of the parish’s charm.

That comes with having a congregation of many ages and walks of life. “Everybody just blends together.”

The rhythm of the church year is significant to Martha as well.

“I like the contrast between the quiet and waiting seasons of Lent and Advent and the joyous celebrations of Easter and Christmas,” she said.

While some folks unfamiliar with Episcopal liturgy may fear the repetition of prayers and patterns of worship could be boring, Martha offers that those things are constantly changing if you pay attention. “The prayers change. The hymns change. It keeps it interesting.”

And it keeps someone who oversees church membership records and who proofreads parish bulletins and brochures on her toes.

“I love being retired,” Martha said, “but I kind of missed the office setting, so one day a week is good. I just enjoy doing it.”

But her favorite volunteer work is that of greeter. Martha is one of the friendly faces who greets people as they come to church on Sundays, a job she has enjoyed for many years.

“It’s important for people to be welcomed whether they have been here a long time or are new,” she said.

She expects her appreciation for the job is connected to her training with the state’s Welcome Centers where people from all over the country, and sometimes, the world, are welcomed across the Palmetto State’s borders.

“I’m sure that’s why I love greeting so.”