WOMAN'S LONGING FOR MINISTRY COMES TRUE

CHAFFEE -- Clara Stidham Hormann has wanted to be an evangelist ever since she was "saved" at age 16. Last month, at age 89, her wish came true.

Her son, Ernest Stidham, sent $25 on her behalf to the World Christianship Ministry in Fresno, Calif., and by return mail they received credentials ordaining her as an evangelist in the church.

"It was an answer to her longing for ordination," Stidham said. "She's seen a lot of people become preachers. She said, 'Why haven't I?'"

Some folks might not think two gilt-edged certificates and a laminated card qualify anyone for anything, but they did wonders for the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz," and they make a difference to Hormann.

"I feel closer to the Lord," she says.

A devout Pentecostal churchgoer all her life, Hormann long played the role of a quasi-holy woman in the small town of Rockview, where she has lived on the same street for 70 years. Rockview is situated at a railway crossroads halfway between Chaffee and Scott City.

Friends and neighbors often came by for her to pray for them and treated her as they would their minister. "They'd say, 'We've got to be careful what we say in front of you,'" she recalled.

Her knowledge of the Bible also is valued. She has read the New Testament 37 times and is part way through the 38th reading. "They ask me what the Bible says about different things," she said.

It only seems natural that Hormann should have a piece of paper certifying her as a religious woman.

The Rev. Ed McElroy, who founded the nondenominational church 12 years ago, says its ministers can legally perform the same ceremonies other members of the clergy do.

Some states have restrictions, he said, "But I've never had any negative feedback from Missouri."

Hormann's desire to become an evangelist at 16 was thwarted by her mother, who gave birth to 17 children and discouraged her eldest daughter from running off to become a preacher. "She didn't want to give me up," Hormann said.

She herself married at 19 and reared four children over the course of two marriages. She also worked in a factory for 15 years and ministered to people and prayed for the sick.

She just never got around to getting ordained until now.

Hormann, whose youngest son, C.B., is a Pentecostal minister, thinks she is too old to start her own church but says she will preach wherever she is asked to go and never will take up a collection.

"I hope I do what the Lord wants me to," she said.

She and Stidham aren't clear whether her ordination entitles her to perform marriages without further certification, but said she would tell people to get a more experienced preacher anyway.

"I'm just starting out," she explained.