November 16, 2008

Dear friends in life and in ministry . . .

Thanks to all who emailed me to comment on last weekends reflections on the election of Barack Obama. While not everyone who wrote shared my opinions, I appreciated the feedback. Sometime I wonder if anyone actually opens these weekly emails. But apparently quite a few of the 485 people who receive this email did read it and many more than usual responded. In next weeks column, I expand on my hopes and visions for our country and its new president.

Life settled down a little last week. Wednesday morning (following a trip to my dental hygienist) I joined deacon friends at Mt. Savior Monastery for a few hours on scripture meditation technique called Lectio Divina.

On Thursday afternoon I was privileged to minister to the house-mates and friends of Julie Grey, who until her rather sudden death was a resident of one of the ARC homes in our community. Although there were tears, there was also laughter. The funeral service provided her friends an opportunity to remember Julie fondly - with lots of humorous stories. I'm sure that it is difficult for some to understand how a funeral service could be a joyful. Yet, when we can celebrate the ways that a friend has touched our life - we also express our belief that in death - life is changed but not ended. Faith can make such a difference in our perspective. What a blessing

In my column this week, I share highlights of a wonderful tribute paid last week to our parish Deacon Ed Wight by parishioners and his children and grandchildren. While the article centers on a parish event - its always good to read good news - and aspects of Ed's celebration were really quite inspirational.

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Pat and I invite you to join us on a "Lands of the Bible Cruise" that we've scheduled for November 11, 2009. Follow the link below to download our itinerary. Then, if you are interested, drop me an email and I'll send you a brochures and registration form. (http://www.deaconray.com/travel.htm)

This Week's Column: November 16, 2008

A Memorable Night for Deacon Ed, a Very Busy Week for our Parish

Last weekend, our parish paid tribute to Deacon Ed Wight in recognition of his 25th anniversary as a permanent deacon. Friday night’s dinner at O’Malley Hall was, by Ed’s choice, a dish to pass meal. Ed didn’t want to place a special burden on Mary Faucett, who like himself, already generously gives of her time and talents well beyond the call of duty. Never-the-less, in addition to the home-made casseroles and luscious desserts, Mary prepared her own dish-to-pass - a baked ham entrée which she topped with a spicy/sweet hot apple glaze.

But delicious food, including the surprise entrée, was only the beginning of this very special celebration. A highlight for me was another surprise to Ed - the presence of his children Lynne, Scott and Kelli and several of his grandchildren. Just how this surprise came to be is - in itself - a remarkable tribute to Ed.

Although the dinner had been scheduled a month ago, program planning didn’t begin in earnest until Tuesday morning when I called Ed to ask if we could borrow his family scrapbook. I also requested the phone numbers of his kids so we could invite them to share via letter, a few stories about their dad.

While I finished up work on last week’s bulletin (which was at deadline,) office volunteer extraordinaire Paula Gardner called Ed’s daughter Kelli in Saranac Lake who suggested that she and her siblings Lynne in Big Flats and Scott in Maryland would also like to attend the parish’s tribute to her father. Kelli suggested that she enlist Lynne to help her contact a few people that Deacon Ed had ministered to when he served as deacon and Pastoral administrator of St. Henry’s Church in Long Lake, NY. She thought that a few might send brief congratulatory letters to share at the event.

She was right to think that people in Long Lake would want to pay tribute to Ed - but not just a few. Following brief tributes by parishioners Al Hanning and Ken Hopkins, (on behalf of the Prayer Group), Kelli took center stage to share a beautiful personal tribute to her father. Then she and Lynne read no less than fifteen letters - most much longer than the suggested few paragraphs. Each told of how Ed the Deacon or Ed the Industrial Arts teacher, or Ed the friend had touched their lives. Former students wrote of how Ed’s influence as a teacher had helped them succeed in life. Parishioners of St. Henry’s wrote of the special ministry that Ed had to several elderly women in the parish. “They just loved him. He called them his girlfriends.” Others wrote of Deacon Ed’s generosity in sharing his time and talents with them.

Following these tributes, Ed took the microphone to humbly underplay his own accomplishments and sincerely thank his “ex” Wendy (who was also present) for the support and encouragement she had contributed to his ministry. He also thanked our parish for its support since moving to the Bath area following his retirement.

Two more tributes closed the evening: a spontaneous very emotional testimony from Ed’s grandson Steve and a video tribute prepared by Paula from pictures in Ed’s scrapbook. (We shared that tribute before our weekend Masses.)

All in all - it was quite a week for me personally (65th birthday), for Deacon Ed, for the K of C Ladies Auxiliary which hosted dinner on Wednesday night, for Bath Community Day Care which held a very successful pizza party of their families on Thursday night (word is that our custodian and day care parent Dan Barefoot took a pie in the face) and the Knights of Columbus year-end dinner on Saturday. All this, plus faith formation classes, Scouting, AA, NA and Weight Watchers. O’Malley Hall and the Zimmer Center were hoppin’ all week. Thank God (and you for giving so generously to the Partners in Faith campaign) we have a facility that can be a center of activity for our very vibrant parish.

Next week, some personal reflections on our new president and hopefully on the success of this Sunday’s Christmas Craft Fair and our RCIA Informational Meeting.

Have a good week. Serve each other well.

Deacon Ray

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Bulletin: November 16th, 2008