Shirley Cauffman, Conference Lay Leader

Shirley was born and grew up in West Tennessee. She has lived in Arlington for many years. She is married to Frank Edmondson and they have four adult children and two grandsons.

Shirley is a member of Cherrydale United Methodist Church in Arlington where she has been an active member for many years. She has served as lay leader, chair of the Council on Ministries, Sunday school superintendent, president of the United Methodist Women (UMW), teacher, trustee and chair of the parsonage committee.

She has been active with the Arlington District UMW serving as coordinator of Christian Personhood. She has been the Arlington District lay leader for the past six years and serves on the Finance Committee, Committee on District Superintendency, Northern Virginia Board of Missions, Bi-District Finance Committee, Committee on Nominations and Personnel Committee. She has attended 51 charge conferences with the district superintendent each year.

Shirley has been active on the conference level for several years. She served on the Board of Discipleship for eight years and as its president for the last four of those years. She was also active with UMW serving on the conference level as coordinator of Christian Personhood for four years.

For the past six years, Shirley has served as Associate Conference Lay Leader for Retreats and Conferences which plans the Spiritual Life Retreat sponsored by the Board of Laity and the Academy of Servant Leadership. She is a member of the Goodson Foundation and the Committee on Episcopacy. Shirley was elected as a delegate to the 2004 General Conference and has been a delegate to several Southeastern Jurisdictional conferences.

Shirley says her vision for the Board of Laity is “that we can make a difference in the lives of persons in the Virginia Annual Conference. As laity, we need to reclaim the ministry to which we have been called.”