Kathleen Rae Moore

Kathleen Rae Moore was born in 1951 in Massachusetts and has lived most of her life in Iowa. She is the daughter of a pastor and a college English teacher, from both of whom she received her love of words. She is a United Methodist pastor in the Iowa Annual Conference, ordained elder in 1991. She attended Simpson College and Iowa State University, and graduated from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL in 1988. She studied ecological sciences at Simpson and Iowa State, preparing to teach in outdoor education. She also ran for the state legislature and was involved in politics, until beginning to work for the church in 1979, which led to her listening more closely to God's call to ordained ministry.

Kathy wrote her first hymn in 1986 while in seminary and determined to write a hymn for Advent or Christmas each year. This led to a flowering of around 100 hymns in all. She looks forward to finding time in retirement when she hopes to focus on writing. She has always loved preaching, and enjoys being able to put theological messages into the poetry of hymnody.

Kathleen Rae Moore, by permission