CRESTLINE – A Crestline native has dedicated his life to spreading God’s word and doing His work.
And so much more.
Now, the Rev. Matthew Laferty, 35, is the director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office in Rome, Italy, and serves as the church’s representative to the Holy See (Vatican).
He’s also a presbyter with many leadership roles in The United Methodist Church.
“I look at my childhood as the most important formative thing that has led me to do the work of the church,” said Rev. Laferty, the son of Allen and Sherrill Laferty of Crestline.
“From birth, it was really in my own DNA. When I look back, it set the trajectory for everything I did.”
Rev. Laferty, who grew up attending Crestline First United Methodist Church, has not only served the Lord in this country but also in Russia, Austria, and for the last year in Italy, where he lives in central Rome near the Tiber River, just two-and-a-half blocks from the Vatican.
“From my office on the sixth floor, I can see the Pope when he speaks from the window and the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica,” said Rev. Laferty, who returned to Crestline last week to visit his family and preached Sunday at his home church on “The Return of the Prodigal Son.”
His spiritual journey is lengthy and diverse.
It started at age 15, he said, when he had “the calling to full-time ministry, ordained ministry.”
As a youth, he represented the region at the United Methodist General Conference, the church’s top legislative body, in Pittsburgh, Pa. He worked with other representatives on political issues within the denomination.
By his senior year at Crestline High School, he said he decided to go to seminary and went on to Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware – founded by Methodist leaders – where he graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies.
In 2011, Rev. Laferty received a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and was awarded the Downes Prize for worship leadership. Studying with Baptists, Catholics, and other denominations in the School of Theology was important, he said, and gave him a broader perspective of the church.
During his last year at Yale, he decided to devote one year to mission work and received a permanent assignment in Russia, where he was also ordained. There he served two roles – as executive director of MPC Social Services in Moscow to counter racism, human trafficking, and other social issues and as the chaplain to the international, interdenominational Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy.
After four years, he requested a transfer and moved to Vienna, Austria, to become pastor of the English-Speaking United Methodist Church of Vienna. He also served as the UM Church’s representative to the United Nations, which has an office in Vienna, until his move to Rome last year.
Rev. Laferty said his office in Rome was established in 2016 to give the UMC a permanent presence in “The Eternal City.” As the official liaison between Methodist and Catholic church leaders, he said he regularly meets with Cardinals, Bishops, and other senior clergy members in the Vatican.
Rev. Laferty is a member of the World Methodist Council and serves on the International Committee on Faith and Order of the United Methodist Church. In 2013, he was appointed as a delegate from the UMC to the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, Korea.
His interest in social justice has also paved the way for other ministry placements over the years, including Tabor Lutheran Church in Branford, Conn., the United Methodist Church’s ecumenical agency, and Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition, which is now AIDS Connecticut.
Rev. Laferty, who speaks Russian, is now studying Italian. He heads back to Rome on August 9 to begin a fellowship in interreligious dialogue, with a week of training in Vienna first.
“For me, it’s been important as I’ve lived in several places in the world to return home to connect with family and friends,” he said. “It helps give me perspective and reminds me of my roots and what’s important in my life.”
