In its nearly 149-year-old history, First United Methodist Church has had a total of 39 pastors.

Sunday, the congregation — one of Lawrence’s oldest — did something special to honor the longest-serving pastor among them.

The Rev. Virgil Brady, 63, who served as senior pastor from 1983 to 1999, was installed as pastor emeritus during worship services at First UMC, 946 Vt.

After the services, the congregation had a reception and luncheon in Brady’s honor.

Then came a form of recognition that completely surprised Brady. First, UMC announced the church’s fellowship hall had been renamed Brady Hall.

“I couldn’t even talk. I was pretty choked up about it. I don’t even know what I said for about five minutes,” said Brady, who lives in Lawrence.

“The pastor emeritus was an honor in itself, something I never dreamed of. But when they did that (fellowship) hall thing, I could hardly say anything.”

Brady first heard about the idea of naming him as pastor emeritus from a conversation he had with the Rev. Sharon Howell, First UMC’s senior pastor.

“Sharon had lunch with me about a month ago and said that’s what they wanted to do and talked to me about it — some of the ideas they had, a couple of responsibilities,” Brady said. “It’s a pretty big honor; they don’t do that much in churches. Emeritus is something that’s usually associated with the academic community. But Sharon had felt the timing was right.”

As pastor emeritus, Brady will have two main responsibilities.

“I’m going to build up the church’s endowment fund and help people understand how they can give to the church through estate planning. And the other thing is pastoral counseling, something I have been really interested in,” he said.

Brady and Howell worked together to come up with the areas he will focus on as pastor emeritus, an unpaid position.

“Sharon had some things she thought I would like to do, and I had some things I would like to do. So we kind of married them together,” Brady said.

Honoring Brady as pastor emeritus and renaming the fellowship hall were suggestions that emerged from the church’s sesquicentennial committee, which is preparing for First UMC’s 150th anniversary in 2004.

“This is really what we’re considering the kickoff of our celebration, and Virgil has served the longest of any pastor that has served our church in the last 150 years,” said Lee Hedrick, church council chairperson. “We felt it was appropriate to rename our fellowship hall in his honor because all of that area was built while Virgil was pastor.”

The new name for the hall is intended to recognize not only Brady, but also Elaine, his wife of 40 years.

“We didn’t say ‘Virgil Brady Hall’ because we also wanted to honor Elaine, who was right beside him all through his ministry. So we named it Brady Hall,” Hedrick said.

The recognition of Virgil Brady is richly deserved, according to Bill Paddock, chairperson of the staff parish relations committee.

“Virgil taught us that we receive blessings through grace and not because we deserve them, but if anyone deserved the status of pastor emeritus, Virgil Brady is one,” he said. “He was an indefatigable worker and source of energy in performing the mission of the church. He was and still is a ready friend to those who need his counsel.”