Rev. James H. (Jay) Carey, Jr. was ordained and appointed to Bethia United Methodist Church in July, 1998. Prior to coming to Bethia, he served as Assistant Pastor at Discovery United Methodist Chuch in Richmond, Virginia for five years. While serving as Assistant Pastor at Discovery UMC, he attended seminary at The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Soon after, he earned his Master of Divinity degree.
Before entering the ministry, Jay graduated from Longwood College (BSBA) and worked as a sales rep for a wholesale
drug company. Rev. Carey is married to Ann Noel Carey and has three children, Kathleen (a senior at Longwood University), Daniel (a junior at Cosby High School) and Charlsley (a freshman at Cosby High School).
In addition to his pastoral duties at Bethia, Rev. Carey also serves as Chair of the James River (formerly Petersburg) District Committee on Ordained Ministry and the James River District Finance Committee. He also served on the VA Conference Board of Discipleship from 2003-2011 and was Vice-Chair from 2009-2011. From 2008-2010 he served as chair of the Division of Evangelism. He also served on the Mid-Sized Church Task Force, a special project of the VA Conference Board of Ordained Ministry in 2008.
Rev. Carey is a member of the International Emmaus Advisory Committee, a division of the Upper Room and the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, TN. He is currently the Richmond Emmaus Community Spiritual Director and past Richmond Chrysalis Community Spiritual Director. He received the Harry Denman Evangelism Award for Clergy in the VA Conference in 2003.
His spiritual gifts include encouragement, faith, leadership and teaching. His interests and hobbies include reading, sports (especially Baseball and Duke Basketball) and spending time with family.
