She’s one of the longest-tenured church secretaries in the city.

Tate works Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Friday 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

She and her husband Robert, both natives of Uniontown, have been members of First Presbyterian since 1975 – 30 years in September.

First Presbyterian is home.

Tate worked briefly in the Dallas County Courthouse before moving to First Presbyterian as a part-time church secretary in 1984, where she was already a member.

She recalls that at the time she was hired, the Rev. Dana Waters of Birmingham, who is now pastor emeritus of the congregation,

asked her if she could separate her duties at work from her participation as a member in the life of the congregation.

At that time the church, as many congregations, had a policy of not hiring church members for the church staff.

She answered yes, and has been on the job since.

Church secretary can’t imagine doing anything else

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Tate has served under six pastors and interim pastors in those 20 years, and has something good to say about each one.

She is especially fond of the Rev. Dr. Ron Stone, who has been the church’s pastor for the past year.

“He is so gracious, considerate and kind,” she said. “He’s been wonderful for the church.”

In fact, Tate has nothing but praise for the whole team – seven support staff members in addition to the pastor and director of Christian education – and said she could not imagine working with a more talented group of people.

“We work so well together. We are so good to each other. We care for each other. (The Rev. Dr.) Ron (Stone) is such a caring person and fits in so nicely,” she said.

Tate smiles and laughs a lot, suggesting that to survive for two decades as a church secretary requires a sense of humor. And there was no talk of retirement in the interview.

Tate grew up Baptist. Her family was not active so she joined on her own in Uniontown as a teenager, she said. Her husband’s family was very active in the Presbyterian church in Uniontown, so when they got married they became Presbyterians.

“In those days, it was expected that the wife would join the husband’s church,” she said, “but I certainly had no objections.”

“The role of church secretary can best be described as ‘varied,'” she said with a laugh. “It’s developed into a variety of things. We have a very small staff here and everybody has to be prepared to do whatever is needed at any given time, including cleaning the floors, dusting and doing the bathrooms. We’ve done all of these things at times over the years,” she said.

Tate said that as church secretary she serves as the pastor’s secretary, does all the secretarial work for the church session (governing body of elders), is receptionist, scheduler, deals with all matters relating to members.

She also said that she has helped new pastors get into the life of the congregation as easily as possible.

Also she handles all church correspondence and activities relating to memorials.

Tate assists the other members of the staff who work closely together as a team, she said.

In addition to seven support personnel on staff of the church, there are six persons serving on the staff of the nutrition center which has been housed in the church for nearly two decades.

“The thing I like best about the job is the people. A church secretary has to meet the congregation, know them and treat them so that they feel they are part of the church. The people here are wonderful,” she said.

“Also, I have a very deep faith and believe that in my job I’m helping to further the Kingdom.

“There are challenges,” she added. “We face mysteries every day that take some time to figure out.

“The church is really very busy – all the time – though some people believe that not much goes on here between Sundays. “In fact, it gets stressful at times. There are deadlines every day and our staff is small. We’re down to the bare minimum,” she said.

Tate makes sure she takes time for her other life – primarily on the weekends – though she and her husband are in church most Sundays.

She loves the outdoors. “I love deer hunting, I love to fish, I love to ride our 4-wheelers and we have a golf cart as well.”

Husband Robert, retired for several years from International Paper, has an 1,800-acre hunting camp near Boguechitto and manages another in Autaugaville.

They both love the outdoors, including gardening.