Jan./Feb. response: Member Profile

Remembering Home Missioner Helen Ryde (Sept. 11, 1965-Sept. 2, 2025)

by Megan Halle

United Women in Faith member Home Missioner Helen Ryde (they/them) left an indelible mark on United Women in Faith, the Order and Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner, the entire United Methodist Church, and beyond. 

Ryde was consecrated as a home missioner at General Conference in 2016. At that time, their ministry was serving as a regional organizer for the Southeast Jurisdiction of the Reconciling Ministries Network, where they advocated for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the UMC. Over the years, their ministry expanded to encompass more regions of the denomination, and they were elected to serve as a delegate to the 2020/2024 General Conference, where the harmful anti-LGBTQ+ language was removed from our Book of Discipline.

Ryde became the first nonbinary or agender home missioner in the Order of Deaconess and Home Missioner, prompting the DHM community to begin important conversations about the gendered language in our Book of Discipline, which had defined deaconesses as women and home missioners as men. 

At the 2020/2024 General Conference, this language was successfully removed, and today, people may choose the title that best reflects their identity—not one determined by gender.

Ryde also believed that we cannot move forward as an inclusive denomination without committing ourselves to antiracism and anticolonialism. They frequently brought these convictions into conversations at DHM gatherings and classes, helping the DHM community and candidates recognize the deep connections between justice, inclusion, and the ways we live out our call to mission.

Ryde regularly participated in the education and formation of future deaconesses and home missioners by joining the foundational course, Theology of Mission, each time the class met. 

In 2020, Ryde also served on an advisory committee evaluating the education and formation process. A visionary, Ryde thought beyond the education of DHMs and invited us to consider our role in shaping the education and formation of all laity across the denomination.

For those who knew them, you probably also knew that Ryde was drawn to the margins. Based on their own experience and change of heart, Ryde believed deeply in the power of transformation—that everyone is capable of growth and renewal. This conviction led Ryde into spaces that many of us might avoid. There, they built genuine relationships and community, recognizing that what often presents as hate, rejection, or condemnation is often rooted in fear. 

By being willing to listen, engage, and stay present, Ryde literally changed hearts and minds.

Ryde helped move our denomination forward, beginning with regionalization and continuing through the removal of harmful anti-LGBTQ+ language from our Discipline. We would not be where we are today as a denomination without their tireless work and witness.

Ryde’s legacy reminds us that relationships, trust, dialogue, and steadfast commitment to those whom society, and even the church, have left behind, are at the heart of transformation. 

Through their example, Ryde’s light rose brilliantly in the darkness.  It will continue to shine for generations to come. 

DEACONESS MEGAN HALE is United Women in Faith’s executive for the Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner.

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