Elvira Rogers will have two roles in a wedding on Saturday.

Her husband, John, will escort her to the front of the church, where she will light a candle in her role as the mother of the groom. And then she will step back and officiate as a United Methodist minister, uniting in marriage her son Dwayne Rogers and longtime girlfriend Lucy Millsap.

"I was very flattered to be involved," said Elvira Rogers, administrative services director for the city of Suwanee. "I'm excited they're getting married. It's really special to perform the ceremony."

This won't be the first wedding for Rogers, who has supervised Suwanee's municipal court and elections, among other duties, for the past six years. She performed a wedding for her niece on Valentine's Day in a small, family-oriented ceremony.

Rogers, who's in her 40s, said she is probably the only United Methodist minister who holds a full-time job with the city of Suwanee.

One day, she said, she hopes to work in the United Methodist Church on a full-time basis. But until then, until her training at Emory's Candler School of Theology is complete, she will continue in a part-time capacity with Suwanee Parish UMC. Created in the mid-1990s, Suwanee Parish combined three African-American United Methodist congregations: Farmer's Chapel, Antioch and Suwanee Grove. Together, they represent more than 100 years of history.

Rogers' faith journey began with Dwayne's birth 25 years ago. A native of Buford who grew up in Allen Temple Methodist, she had strayed from church as a young woman, she said. Having a son, as well as an older daughter, Cassandra, prompted her to seek a church home.

She and her husband joined Faith Free Full Gospel Church, a Pentecostal church in Buford.

"They ministered to me where I was, and helped me with the brokenness in my life," Rogers said. "I learned how a personal relationship with Christ could heal me."

She was "nurtured and taught," she said, and then ordained in the Pentecostal church by the bishop and the church elders.

In 1996, John Rogers, a Suwanee native, decided it was time to attend a church in Suwanee. The family was living in the city and was tired of driving to Buford to attend church. He had grown up in Suwanee Grove, so the Rogerses joined Suwanee Parish.

Coming home to the Methodist Church seemed right to Elvira Rogers as well, she said. She felt a call toward the ministry as a Methodist.

In 2002, she began more formal religious studies by entering into the process to become a UMC ordained minister. It may take as long as 12 years for her to finish her studies, but she's in no hurry.

Rogers attends Candler at Emory for two weeks every summer. She may start taking Saturday classes as well. The flexible schedule allows her to continue in her government job while moving toward her goal "of one day having my own church."

In May 2003, she was licensed as a local pastor and assumed responsibilities for Suwanee Parish's missions, both local and international. The congregation supports a missionary in Haiti and one in Mongolia and is involved in many local activities.

Come Saturday, Rogers won't be wearing "the fancy momma dress," she said. Instead, she will be attired in a cream-colored suit.

She'll take off the suit jacket and put on her robe for the ceremony, then shed the robe, don her jacket and become the mother of the groom. And she'll enjoy the reception.