Last week after I had carried Emily Helen Salvadeo down the aisle to introduce her to the congregation following her baptism, I found myself thinking of all the times members of St. Elizabeth's walk down that aisle at different times of their life.   Often after their baptism, children come down the aisle carried by their parents as they come forward for communion, but that is, of course, just the beginning. 

The Angel Gabriel becomes a bride   Recently Gigo Taylor and Debra Anderson invited the children of the Church School to write down some of their favorite memories of St. Elizabeth's in preparation for the celebration of our 85th Anniversary on June 22nd.  Not surprisingly, a great many mentioned the Christmas Pageant - which is largely a series of processions of groups of children, starting with the youngest and working up to teenagers.  Watching children advance from angels to sheep to townspeople, and then to speaking parts as shepherds, kings, or principals, we see them grow up before our eyes.  Not long ago I blessed a bride and groom at the end of their wedding at exactly the same spot where, it seemed to me not that many years ago, the bride had stood in full Angel Gabriel costume declaring, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy..." 

Last Sunday I shook hands and congratulated one recent Confirmand who, when she was an infant, I had carried down that same aisle after her baptism.  And as I was baptizing Emily on Sunday, I looked down to see her young cousin Drayton Barrand and remembered how June Bové once observed to me how much he reminded her of his father, David, who had been, at the same age, a very active younger member of St. Elizabeth's.  And, of course, Emily Helen Salvadeo takes her middle name from her great-grandmother, Helen Barrand, a long-time member of St. Elizabeth's and, for many years, our neighbor a few doors down Fairmount Road.  And when the Barrands moved from their house, Debra Anderson and her family moved in. 

Let memory bewilder time...  Aidan Walsh, recently turned 11, when asked to choose something at St. Elizabeth's which he especially valued, identified the jardinière given in memory of Frank Kraus.  He liked it, he wrote, because it reminded him of Mr. Kraus and all the times he went to the Kraus's farm in Mahwah, to share in the making of maple syrup, to attend the picnics, and to enjoy Mr. Kraus's many skills.  Frank taught Sunday school into his nineties, choosing our younger children to be in his classes.  Aidan was six when, five years ago, we carried Frank's ashes down the aisle and committed them to their final resting place in our Memorial Garden.   

Think for a moment of what it means to be in a community where someone 90 can make such an impression on someone 6 that, five years later the image, the memory, and the life is still actively present.  The jardinière just beyond the courtyard, Frank's name on the Memorial Garden plaque in the narthex, and again read aloud at all of our All Saints' Day services - none of these conveys immortality, but each serves as a reminder that when our lives here have reached their limit, our larger life with God extends undiminished. 

Doris Coviello completed her days with us twelve years ago, and not long after, her family gave St. Elizabeth's a window, depicting The Visitation, in her memory to be placed in the Sacristy.  The inscription, taken from St. Luke's account of Mary's visit to St. Elizabeth, is "Blessed is she who believed," and that text, interpreted and made lively by the representation of the window, was the starting point for a reflection I offered at a recent service in celebration of The Visitation.  Doris, and her family's honoring of her, continued that day to shape how we understand our own lives - they offered counsel and encouragement to us years after Doris could do that in her own voice. 

Two years after Doris Coviello entered her larger life, Patricia Scheelje Reinauer made her pilgrimage from the kingdom of this world to the Kingdom of God, and her husband Franklin offered to underwrite a stained glass window for the Chapel in her memory and in thanksgiving for their life together.  It has been ten years since her funeral, but each morning she blesses our community anew as the colors of the scene of the children offering Jesus the food he blesses to feed the 5,000 come alive again with the rising of the sun.  Who can say how that image, seen week in and week out, may shape the character of the young people who gather in that space - generosity, cooperation, benevolence, a community of many generations gathered around the Lord, the sharing of a meal - Patricia Reinauer is a Church School teacher in each term and in every year through the story her window tells again each day. 

And let there be a garden...  The southwest corner of our parking lot has not always led to a garden.  For many of our 85 years it was where we stowed the trash pending collection by the Village.  But as our new Parish House neared completion, Irene Habernickel offered something very like a small miracle in honor of her mother Marie  - the turning of the trash corner into a beautiful and inviting garden designed especially for children.  Sue Sargen, Sue Snyder, Ardie Runckel, and the Garden Committee immediately caught the spirit of the gift, and soon a beautiful cypress tree, a majestic stone lion, a single lightpost, a small teak bench, boulders for climbing and sitting, a circular path, and a variety of plants to delight all the senses populated this formerly neglected corner.  Irene observed that her mother loved gardens, children, and the church, and as Marie took such delight in blessing her family, through this garden and her daughter's vision, she extends her welcome to our parish young people and to the whole neighborhood as they pass by en route to Willard School.  Marie finished her 104 and a half years with us on the first day of this calendar year, and her ashes, too, are now in our Memorial Garden, not many yards from the beautiful, gracious, and inviting space which she inspired and her daughter provided. 

...and Peace   Those of you who were with us on Pentecost this year shared in the blessing of our newest window, the Dove Window, given by the Hermance family in thanksgiving for the blessings of God and in memory of their family members who have entered their larger life with God.  The dove, with the olive branch in its beak, reminds us of the healing power of God's love, and the invitation for all of us to receive that love and become ourselves agents of God's peace.  The image itself is based on a photograph I took on sabbatical of the doves in residence at Monte Cassino, St. Benedict's mountaintop abbey between Rome and Naples, which was reduced to complete rubble in the course of one of the bitterest battles of World War II.  The abbey has been restored, and, like the world after the Genesis Flood, the doves live there to remind us of our need for peace among ourselves, faithfulness to God, and the deadly and world-destroying consequences of arrogance and violence.  To walk through the doors beneath the dove and enter St. Elizabeth's is to take the first steps toward a life and a world of peace.  What a blessing it is to have that proclamation, eloquent in its symbolism but quiet in its presence, at our door. 

So many of our objects and customs tell a similar story.  They remind us of those - loved and known in some cases, anonymous or no longer recognized by name in others - who shaped our community by their presence and continue to shape it now.  And all of our beautiful windows, textiles, silver and brass, pageants and liturgies would have little chance to be appreciated were it not also for our roofs and heating systems, the daily and weekly acts of faithfulness and generosity of volunteers and staff, and the continuing presence and priority you each give to make St. Elizabeth's a lively and graceful community. 

Think of what we would miss if we did not have this store of memories and a place to come, apart from the pressing cares of daily life, to step for a moment into a time where those who have died continue to teach, encourage, bless and be present, where six year olds and ninety year olds can rejoice side by side, where the Angel Gabriel can turn into a beautiful bride before your eyes, where trash corners become gardens, windows tell stories, and we all have a place to rest at the last. 

I confess that when the prospect of a major parish capital effort of some sort - possibly a campaign - was first raised, I did not throw my hat in the air with rejoicing.  But the more I came to understand what was at stake, the more I knew that I needed - that I wanted - to help find a way to ensure our health and well-being for the next generation.  God sustains churches through the Holy Spirit moving through all of us, so that we all may be both blessed and blessings. 

Keeping the Embassy open...  I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that when we talk about capital issues at church, we are talking about roofs and stones and organs and the like.  But actually we are talking about preserving a place where we can enter into the life, the heart, the mind, and even the time of God - where all the ways in which we are categorized in the world fade away and we all experience ourselves and one another as bearers of the image of God.  If we - individually or as a culture - were to lose places where we - or anyone else - could walk into the Embassy of the Kingdom of God for a few hours of refreshment and renewal, what a great loss that would be, and in what darkness would we and the world find ourselves. 

May our awareness of the magnitude of the gift we have been given elicit in us a comparable spirit of grateful and gracious generosity to one another and to God.  

As we come to the end of a school year, it is fitting for me to thank all of you for the way you have blessed St. Elizabeth's, and me, by your faithfulness in these past months.  May we each find some Sabbath time in the summer months ahead and return renewed and inspired for our next year together. 

The Rev. Canon John G. Hartnettt
Rector
June 2008 - Volume 81 Number 6

If you, or a friend, or member of your family goes to the hospital...    

Visiting parishioners who are hospitalized is a priority for clergy and lay chaplains.  Currently, no hospital notifies us when you register.  Even if they ask to which church you belong, they use that information only for their internal records.  It would be a great help to us if you or a friend or family member let us know when you are going to be in the hospital. 

If you are at home but unable to come to church, we would very much like to bring communion to you.  There is a special, and very brief, service for communion at home which uses bread and wine consecrated at a regular service at St. Elizabeth's.  John Hartnett and I have celebrated this service with a great many of our parishioners at their homes or hospital rooms, and we offer it as a reminder that nothing separates us from the love of God, nor does absence remove us from the fellowship of the congregation.

LAC

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