ARCHANGEL
A Publication of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Raleigh, NC • V ol. 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
SEEKING GOD, FINDING EACH OTHER
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Table of Contents 4
In Seeking God, We Built a Home
The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones takes a look back into our 70-year history and the story we have helped create.
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I Will Always Sing
Choir member Helen Moses knows first hand how becoming a choral scholar can change the direction of your life. She profiles our own choral scholars to see how their lives are changing, too.
14 A Worthy Cause
Longtime parishioner Ford Worthy reflects on more than 60 years in our parish, the growth of Raleigh around us and his hopes for the future.
18 Young and Seeking Church Lay Curate Anna Page ponders what young people are looking for in church, and how we can make a seat at the table.
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Who’s Who at St. Michael’s Church Phone: (919) 782-0731
All area codes are 919 unless noted
FEATURES 6 8 12
Pondering, on Holy Ground The Rev. Dr. James Pahl Jr. spends some time waiting on the church’s front porch, pondering all who have occupied that space. Finding Your Center Writer Beth Grace talks with the Rev. Holly Gloff about why it was important to bring a labyrinth to our grounds Nurturing a New Song Mentors in a new program work with kids to nurture a lifelong love of singing. Cherie Vick shares how.
THE GOOD NEWS 22 25
Message on the Mirror Melissa Raley looks into her mother’s mirror and finds the secrets to living into a 100-year-old life. Angels All Around Molly Painter quits her day job and answers the call to make a new kind of friend
The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones, Rector ext. 117 • jones@holymichael.org (c) 559-2004 The Rev. Holly Gloff, Associate Rector ext. 127 • gloff@holymichael.org (c) 612-7228 The Rev. James L Pahl, Vicar ext. 105 • pahl@holymichael.org 919.339.3854 Anna Page, Curate page@holymichael.org Marion B. “Chip” Chase, Verger (h) 851-9576 VESTRY
Class of 2020 Ashleigh Black •789-8284 |John Connell • 336-407-891 Rob Griffin • 510-9982 |Marty Munt • 847-6780 Karen Wagoner • 604-4701 Class of 2021 Liz Driscoll • 886-3424 | Matt Marchione • 426-8504 Katherine Poole • 623-3498 | Logan Price • 270-3700 Melissa Raley • 219-2746 Class of 2022 Amanda Carson • 961-4952 Claren Englebreth • 252-205-4126 Robert Marshall • 260-4363 Sam Taylor • 908-339-5566 Rose Vaughn Williams • 922-0386 STAFF
Stella Attaway, Director of Early Childhood Christian Education attaway@holymichael.org • ext. 106 Ann Garey, Publications garey@holymichael.org • ext. 103 Charlotte Griffin, Director of Development griffin@holymichael.org • ext. 121 Lee Hayden, Director of Operations & Newcomer Ministry hayden@holymichael.org • ext.108 Abby Van Noppen, Director of Youth Ministry vannoppen@holymichael.org • ext. 115 Kevin Kerstetter, Director of Music kerstetter@holymichael.org • ext. 101 Susan Little, Financial Administrator little@holymichael.org • ext. 113 Carolyn L’Italien, Director of Primary Sunday School Christian Education and Assistant to Operations litalien@holymichael.org Jean Olson, Parish Secretary olson@holymichael.org • ext. 112 Susan Rountree, Director of Communications rountree@holymichael.org • ext.122 FACILITIES STAFF
Jesús Epigmenio, Groundskeeper Marcela de la Cruz, Housekeeper
On the Cover: Our church nave, captured at sunset, by Anna McLamb.
PARISH DAY SCHOOL 782-6430 Mandy Annunziata, Director annunziata@holymichael.org • ext. 110 Cason Maddison, Assistant Director • ext.114 maddison@holymichael.org
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In Seeking God, We Built a Home Words: The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones, Rector
Photos: Parish Archives
IN MY 20-PLUS YEARS OF ORDAINED MINISTRY, I HAVE COME TO BELIEVE THAT A CHURCH IS A PLACE WHERE ALL THE PEOPLE TEACH AND SERVE EACH OTHER. WE FEW PEOPLE WHO SERVE AS PASTORS ARE BUT A SMALL PART OF THE WHOLE STORY. THE REAL STORY IS ALL OF YOU, ALL WHO HAVE COME BEFORE US, AND ALL WHO WILL COME AFTER US AS LIVING MEMBERS OF THIS PARISH.
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s we
reflect on the 70th anniversary of our parish’s founding in 1950, I have been asked to discuss how four rectors of St. Michael’s might be best remembered, in terms of their work here. And while it is true there have only been four rectors, there have been many interim rectors, assisting clergy, youth ministers, organists and lay church professionals to serve alongside us in the building of this wonderful parish.
In the scheme of Episcopal Church history in North Carolina, our parish’s 70-year history is quite short. We were organized in the Spring of 1950 with 117 charter members. Not that many people, and not that long ago. But with more than 2,150 members in good standing, a large and impressive physical campus, and major outreach and mission to the world every year, St. Michael’s has come a long way! The four rectors who have been called to lead this place over the years, for all our ups and downs, have a lot for which to be grateful. The Rev. Jim Beckwith was our first rector, and he served for a long time, from 1950-1977. Unlike the rest of us, Jim started with almost nothing, save a temporary building, a tiny budget and a few people. When he retired, the essential look and shape of the physical campus was as it is now, and the identity of St. Michael’s as a large suburban parish had taken form. In his tenure we grew from a mustard seed to a tree. The main worship building and parish hall were built under Jim Beckwith’s leadership, and the parish hall bears a plaque in his honor.
His successor, Larry Brown, was on staff as Jim’s assistant and when he became rector, he carried on much of the founder’s vision. From the late 70s to the early 90s, St. Michael’s continued as a large Episcopal parish, in a city that continued growing rapidly. Larry kept the focus of the parish in some ways on the growth of North Raleigh neighborhoods, and attracted as new members people who moved to Raleigh and largely settled in those parts of town. Among his key contributions were the founding of the Church of the Nativity, an Episcopal congregation in North Raleigh, which has more than 600 members today. Larry also had a heart for the poor and needy and dedicated ministry to meeting their needs, including the founding of the Episcopal Housing Ministry. The most notable additions to the campus from his time are the stained glass windows and the memorial garden. We honored Larry’s memory by naming the Youth Center for him a number of years ago.
The third rector, Ken Henry was here for five years and retired after a long career in the Episcopal Church. But despite a short tenure, he remains fondly remembered as warm, intelligent and broadly appealing. He brought stability to the parish after a period of internal conflict began to tarnish the final years of Larry Brown’s tenure. During Ken’s time, the parish embarked on several improvements and expansions to the campus. Notably, the parking lot was greatly expanded, the interior of the nave was beautified with extensive wood molding, new flooring, an ornate pulpit and a gilded high cross above the
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altar. A wing of offices and large educational rooms was added on the south side of the campus. I came to St. Michael’s at a curious time. On the one hand, thanks to Ken’s leadership, the parish was poised and ready for great growth. Improvements to the parking lot and physical plant meant we could begin to welcome larger number of worshippers and programs. On the other hand, there was an extended interim gap between Ken’s retirement and my arrival, and discord had arisen. Remnants of earlier disgruntlement remained, from even before Ken’s time. As well, different groups sought to chart conflicting futures for the place. One such group was very worried about the direction of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of North Carolina, particularly in light of North Carolina Bishop Michael Curry’s open support for Bishop Gene Robinson, the partnered gay bishop of New Hampshire. A number of people even maneuvered to try and steer the parish away from the direction and leadership of our bishop. In my first year as rector, I was asked by a small group if I would lead the parish out of the Episcopal Church, and I said I would not. A significant number of key people, including members of the parish and even some staff, would ultimately leave St. Michael’s to join alternative Anglican parishes then forming in Raleigh. To be sure, my first work here was to manage us through a period of division. My aim was to keep our focus as unified as possible on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, while also centering us on the beauty of Episcopal worship, in line with the Prayer Book and Hymnal. In my first few years, we launched the Holy Michael Foundation from a single bequest. It now holds more than $1.1 million. We also placed a grand piano in the nave, bells in the bell tower, a new slate roof on the whole campus, and planted a rose garden in the circle in front of the church. After a few years, with the parish stabilized and our growth taking off, it became clear we were going places. By 2007, we were so full at our main service on Sunday that we needed more space. We changed services times to accommodate active families, developing our current Sunday schedule with the 9:30 a.m. service as its centerpiece. Music would be at every service, but the full choir only at 9:30 a.m. We also knew our children’s chapels continued to be integral to our parish’s appeal to families with small children, and we wanted to ensure they remain a thriving part of our parish. Under our new schedule and blessed by a remarkable Newcomer ministry, we started to grow. But the nave was too small. So we launched a campaign to increase the church’s worship space by adding the north transept. Our music program under Kevin Ketstetter was a jewel in the crown, and it
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would continue to draw musicians from all over the area. A world-class organ and first-rate choir facilities became high on my list of priorities to equip Kevin well for his ministry. We launched the campaign in the fall of 2008 — just when the Great Recession began. Amazingly, we raised nearly $5 million, built all the new space, and installed the world class pipe organ — despite the Great Recession and without longterm debt. In the past half-decade we have attained new levels of outreach and mission while developing a wide range of programs from children and youth to young adults and older members of the parish. The Canterbury Shop, Gifts of Grace and the ECW Spring Event alone have raised more than $120,000 annually for outreach work. Our new refugee ministry has taken care of an entire family from a refugee camp in Africa this past year. It’s amazing what God has done in the past 16 years, and I am grateful to have been here as rector. I am proud to stand in line with Jim Beckwith, Larry Brown and Ken Henry, but I am very well aware that it is the lay leadership and rank and file of this parish which do most of the leading, working and living around here, all in the name of Christ. In my 20-plus years of ordained ministry, I have come to believe that a church is a place where all the people teach and serve each other. It’s clear that in 70 years of seeking God, we have found each other. We few people who serve as pastors are but a small part of the whole story. The real story is all of you, all who have come before us, and all who will come after us as living members of this parish. This year in Archangel, we’ll be taking a look at some of our history and how time has shaped St. Michael’s and the many who worship here. In this issue, we spotlight our two collegeage choral scholars, who have brought a new dimension to our already stellar choir. We visit with Ford Worthy, one of our old-timers, who came to our parish after the church was built but spent much of his time in those early years making sure all was right with the building. We take a walk on the labyrinth with Holly Gloff, who brought this important spiritual practice to our grounds. And we hear the wisdom of a 100-year-old about how to live a life of Christ. Join us in celebration of our 70 years of seeking God.
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Pondering, on Holy Words: The Rev. James L. Pahl Jr., D. Min., Vicar Photos: Susan Rountree &Jamie Pahl
I recall
a time when a friend and I planned to meet at St. Michael’s to go over some music on a Saturday afternoon. As I wait on the front steps of the nave, standing and leaning between the brick pillars, I check my watch. He’s late, but I wait, still, by myself for two hours.
Oh, but the sounds of well-tuned instruments and voices gathered to give life to the words and notes of the anthem that holy day — the voices of hundreds lift us all heavenward week after week — and I join in, too! And then there is a voice of comfort and inspiration that captures our hearts and minds, for but a few moments of the morning.
As the sun begins to set, I watch the streams of light and shadows dance across the porch like beams on a sundial. I notice the difference in colors and shapes - large squares morphing into long rectangles, bursting in bright, gleaming light; illuminating the entrance, as shadow and light collide with brick on the covered breezeway and the wooden doors.
As the light fades and the shadows grow longer, it is as if I can hear the Lord saying, “This is Holy Ground.” Of all that is seen and done in this place, there is great importance found in the celebration of life in all its forms. The somber, yet alleluia-filled hymns as casket and urn are processed in and out of the holy space. And the appeal to God for a special peace and love that knows no bounds.
All throughout my youth I loved to day-dream — to dream of ways things could be, though not as they are. I was a ponderer, maybe even speaking with God in subtle ways. The pondering has never left me, and on that day I wonder: How many folks in the history of this place have passed through these doors, and where are they now?” And yet, the quiet of the moment struck me — there were no voices, no footsteps; just me, light, shadow, brick, stone and wood. I could see and hear the gentle breeze moving the tree branches about ever so softly, and the sounds of children playing and lawnmowers humming.
I ponder it now as memories of a few still reside within me: Robert Hill, Ben Woodruff, Larry Brown, Bill Duff and so many more to name. Of course, all now with the whole host of heaven, waiting for us on that Holy Ground. Yet, wherever the Lord is present and moving (which is just about everywhere) it is holy — it belongs to Almighty God.
And then, the memories come: that time when I was captured by a family member on old 8mm film running out of the Narthex, down the steps and into the circular driveway — the Rector, Jim Beckwith had just finished baptizing my brother Kevin. I was only 2 or 3 years-old, but I feel myself fall and scrape my knee, as I can hear the crying echo across the porch. And then there is the voice of song, as the organ roars and bells chime, and the folks gather to lead worship with guitars and stringed instruments – a folk mass – now that is something different from the past!
The Lord said to Moses in Exodus 3:5, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Moses encountered God that day, standing upon sacred space — set apart and consecrated to God alone; and he stood there with the people on his heart … it was all about leading the people to the presence of God. Jesus did this. He was all about reconciling people like you and me to God, to himself, because, that is what God wants – it is where we belong. People consecrate many holy spaces just for that purpose. And yet, of all the holy spaces set apart – places where we are to remove our sandals and “stuff”… it is right here in our hearts. This is holy ground. Our hearts belong to God, and they are consecrated and set apart every bit as much
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y Ground as the light, shadow, brick, stone and wood of this church, where so many have passed through and stayed. Our hearts are like sacraments of holy calling, sealed and ready for God’s spirit to set ablaze, ready to be moved. And it happens in a place like St. Michael’s. Today, the light and shadows still do their dance upon the holy space — it is happening even now; it will happen tomorrow, too! The organ and voices fill the air with ringing sounds of grace and love. Lives are celebrated with the highest Godly respect and awe. Holy words of inspiration continue to rest upon consecrated hearts. And the brick, stone, and wood continue to witness these hearts of God pass in and out of the nave. No matter who we are, where we have been — young or old, new or old-timers — this place is our spiritual home, set apart for us to be consecrated. My friends, this is holy ground, and you and I continue to build upon its sacred tradition. And we do this every time we pass through its doors and “lift up our hearts” — moving forward with the presence of God, making living history.
Images captured from an old 8mm film show Jamie Pahl as a toddler. Above, the Rev. James Beckwith pours water into the baptismal font; center, Jamie’s parents, Alice and Larkin Pahl watch as the Rev. Beckwith baptizes their son, Kevin, circa 1974. Bottom, the Pahls rescue young Jamie after he takes a fall in what is now the rose garden. Photos: Jamie Pahl
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Finding Your C Accept what comes from silence. Make the best you can of it. Of the little words that come out of the silence, like prayers prayed back to the one who prays, make a poem that does not disturb the silence from which it came. — Wendell Berry
It was
a toasty July afternoon in 2006 when the Rev. Holly Gloff, then brand new to St. Michael’s, took a stroll around campus to familiarize herself with where everything was.Her travels took her outside into the bright sunlight, and she wasted no time making for the shady grove on the northwestern side of the slate steps that lead to the church’s front door. She found some shade there … and an unexpected sense of peace and calm. She looked around at the trees and bushes that created such a natural sacred space. This, she thought, would be the perfect place for a labyrinth. And an idea was born. “I thought it would be a wonderful addition to St. Michael’s, but I didn’t want it to be my idea,” she says. “I wanted it to come from the parish, so it would be something everyone wanted.” Sometimes, time does the work for you. Holly didn’t push for the idea, but her interest in labyrinths prompted her to offer some adult education classes. Around the same time, she learned she had some money in the budget —about $2,000 – for educational materials. “So I went straight to labyrinths.com and bought a big plastic one,” she says with a laugh. “I started teaching about labyrinths, interest grew and eventually we had a committee that took this on as a memorial project.” So … what exactly is a labyrinth and what on earth do you do with it? A labyrinth is prayer on the move. It’s a meditation and prayer tool in the form of an ancient symbol that combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a purposeful, sometimes meandering path. The path is a metaphor for your life’s journey or your spiritual path
— and takes you on a contemplative, prayerful sacred journey. Our labyrinth is patterned loosely after a famous labyrinth at the Cathedral of Chartres, built in the cathedral nave between 1215 and 1221. With its rounded sides and 11 concentric circles filling a diameter of about 42 feet, this bit of sacred geometry is believed to have been the largest labyrinth in the Middle Ages world. The finished project was more an act of sheer grace than deliberate planning, Holly says. The more parishioners used the plastic labyrinth, the more interest grew in creating a permanent one. “We started to think through how to get that done and someone told me to call Tom Monaco. I didn’t know who he was, but I made the call and said I didn’t know exactly what he could do to help but I hoped he could help me and tell me what I need. He said, ‘Give me three days.’ He called back with a plan and I learned then that he was the retired dean of the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State.” He contacted a teacher in the department, Anne Spafford, who was looking for a project for her senior landscape architecture students. She toured the site with Holly and could see the possibilities. She knew at once this was the perfect project. She assigned each student to produce a plan. One ultimately was selected. “We also wanted to make sure this site would be pleasing to the eye all year round,” Holly says. “We asked for plants that bloom at different times of the year. You can see those efforts paid off, all these years later. There are camelias, Lenten roses, Redbuds … Beautiful.” The installation of the labyrinth took longer than expected — after all, seniors sometimes get busy in other areas as they get ready to leave school. The students did all the work by hand — each one physically put hand to shovel, rake and trowel to create the space. Waiting was a little frustrating, but the work finally got done.
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enter A year- and-a-half after that sultry July stroll, a dream — a dream of many, not just one — came to be.
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Words: Beth Grace Photo: Susan Rountree
“My mind tends to have a lot of chattering going on. Walking the labyrinth is like following the yellow brick road — it keeps me focused and more centered.”
The funding came from many sources. “We treated this as a memorial project, so there was no major fundraising campaign,” Holly remembers. Parishioners who wanted to support the work made donations. A few years ago, the Rev. Meta Ellington spearheaded a small campaign to raise funds with memorial pavers creating walkway to the labyrinth. You can still buy a paver in honor of someone you love and want to remember. Contact Ann Garey at St. Michael’s. Among the early donors was parishioner Nell Finch, a beloved leader at St. Michael’s, who passed away in 2012. She donated the benches that still provide a place for quiet thought by the labyrinth. Since it was built, countless pilgrim feet have walked the path. Visitors from all over the world drop by. Our labyrinth is listed among open, public labyrinths on several websites that list locations of labyrinths worldwide. St. Michael’s parishioners provide most of the traffic. Holly has held classes for newbie labyrinth walkers, and it gets great use during The Gathering, held every other year. One parishioner walks it every day, Holly says.
She reflects on that inspirational moment under the trees outside the church that started a project that would impact lives and hearts for years to come. “It wasn’t me or my idea that did it,” she says. “If it works, you know it’s of God. If it doesn’t, it isn’t. “his was God’s work through human hands.”
The point of a maze is to find its center.
The point of a labyrinth is to find your center.
-- Unknown
For those who use the labyrinth as part of their regular spiritual practice, the path is one that helps lead them to comfort, peace and a deeper understanding of what God wants of us. “The brick path to this space is lined with names of people who have inspired and challenged me on my faith journey. The circle pattern of the brick and the need to intentionally seek out that space remind me that faith is a process I have to step into by choice,” says parishioner Susan Sullivan. “I am not alone on that journey. Those etched names in the brick invite me in for a moment of contemplation and centering prayer. The garden always has something in bloom. I notice what has faded, what is ready to open up and even a few weeds. That’s life. I hope you find this space as special as I do!” For Holly, it’s the silence that draws her.
Beth Grace is a freelance writer and editor. She is communications director for the NC Masonic Foundation and writes frequently for Archangel.
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I WILL ALWAYS SING Words: Helen Moses Photo: Susan Rountree
It was
the ideal college job. Other than not getting to sleep late on Sunday mornings, the Wednesday night/Sunday morning schedule integrated beautifully into my life as a vocal performance major. It was great to earn a little money, but I quickly discovered this was much more than a “job.” In the choir at Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis, Tennessee, I found a group of friends who welcomed me into their lives, loved me and supported me as my surrogate family when I was 750 miles away from home. Singing with them also changed the trajectory of my life by introducing me to the Episcopal Church and leading me to St. Michael’s, where I have sung with the choir since 1991.
summer at a mass in Salzburg when studying abroad). Like me, the stipend associated with being a scholar was what initially drew him in. But “what has kept me here is the people,” Cole said. He was even offered oth-
St. Michael’s began its Choral Scholar program several years ago. Kevin Kerstetter, our talented and beloved Director of Music since February 1998, wanted to start the program as a way to expand the choir’s foundation — the bass section. “Nearly 60 dedicated singers participate in St. Michael’s adult choir,” he says. “But obviously, all singers are never present at the same time. Although our choir’s men make a great sound, the tenor and bass sections have the fewest members. So, when several are away, it can be difficult to balance the sound of the choir’s four voice parts. And the bass section truly is a choir’s foundation. I knew having skilled choral scholars (one bass and one tenor), who are expected to attend every rehearsal and service, having learned the music thoroughly, would benefit the entire choir considerably.” Coleridge “Cole” Nash was our first choral scholar, joining the bass section in September 2017. Raised in Winston-Salem, Cole is now a senior at NC State, majoring in physics and applied math and minoring in music. Cole said he was reluctant to accept the position after his audition because he wasn’t raised in the church and he “wasn’t big into religion. ”In fact, Cole’s first service at St. Michael’s was just the second time in his life he had been to a church service (the first was the previous
Coleridge Nash, left, and Johnny Gillings Jr., are both students at NC er church gigs with larger stipends since starting at St. Michael’s, but didn’t take them because he enjoyed the adult choir members so much and felt so welcomed. During his time as a choral scholar at St. Michael’s, Cole has been exposed to sacred hymns and anthems he might not otherwise have come across. He also credits his experience with improving his overall skills as a singer, especially when it comes to sight reading new music. The biggest impact being a choral scholar has had on
The Choral Scholars’ Program brought two very talented individuals into the choir, adding strength and
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vocal precision to the music. Their talents provide a number of benefits - for regular choir members, exposure to singing skills that can enhance their own capabilities; for the choir as a whole, a better blended and tuned overall sound; for the congregation, the opportunity to hear choral music at it’s finest. For the scholar, the opportunity exists to experience music/singing in a church setting, establish potential contacts for future opportunities, and who knows — maybe a seed will be planted for an individual to come to know Jesus. — VAUGHN WAGONER Cole is helping him decide that he wants to pursue music as a career. He plans to get a master’s degree in voice or opera performance and go on to sing opera professionally. He has applied to multiple graduate schools and hopes to know which program he will attend by the end of April.
which he says was “directly related to my success as a singer.” Johnny learned about the tenor choral scholar opening at St. Michael’s through Dr. Nathan Leaf, the director of the NC State chorale, and former music director at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Durham. (Since NCSU doesn’t offer a music major, Kevin likes finding qualified singers who are looking to broaden their singing experience while completing their degrees, and has found Dr. Leaf to be a good resource for identifying exceptional choral scholar candidates.) Johnny currently attends Oak City Baptist church in Durham in addition to being a choral scholar at St. Michael’s. (The services of the two churches happen to be timed so that he can just make it to Oak City immediately after the 9:30 a.m. service at St. Michael’s.) He has enjoyed the educational aspect of his scholar experience, singing famous and unfamiliar settings of traditional sacred music and learning new performance techniques for anthems in the Anglican church tradition. He says the Episcopal church, with its roots in Catholicism, is quite different from the African American church tradition from which he comes, and which is rooted in the slavery era. While almost everything about the two traditions is different, Johnny found that the primary commonality of the two is many of the songs— such as the Doxology — have the same words, just different settings. He’s learned to find his place in the hymnal and prayer book,’ he says, and knows when to kneel and can process down the aisle without fear of tripping over my choir robe. As any Episcopal choir member can attest, these are important skills that require some practice to master!
State and serve as choral scholars for the St. Michael’s Choir. Cole is grateful to St. Michael’s for making his experience here such a pleasant opportunity. Johnny Gillings Jr. has been our tenor choral scholar since November 2018. He is a native of Fort Worth, Texas, with undergraduate degrees in math and music from Morehouse College. Currently he is in his fifth and final year of graduate school at NC State, and will receive his Ph.D. in operations research in May. As an undergraduate, Johnny held a similar choral scholar position in a church choir
Like Cole, Johnny has loved getting to know the people in the choir. “They are a loving group of people,” he says, “who take the time to get to know you, invite you and genuinely want you to feel loved and appreciated.” The welcoming nature of our church and choir community inspires Johnny to be a more pleasant person to others, so they in turn can feel more comfortable in new and unfamiliar situations. After earning his Ph.D., Johnny will likely move to Texas or Georgia to pursue his career in research or industry. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time at St. Michael’s and is confident that “No matter where I go, I will always sing!” Continued on page 28
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Choir member Dan Mason, right, spends time mentoring young choir members in a new program designed to nurture singers at their own level toward a lifetime love of singing in the choir.
Nurturing a New Song Words: Cherie Ann Vick Photo: Kate Wisz
Kevin Kerstetter
stands behind the piano to lead the St. Cecelia and St. Gregory choirs through music they are learning for Christmas, which is three weeks away. Behind the semi-circular row of young singers stand first one, then two, then a small group of adult choristers— mentors tapped by Kevin to work with the younger singers. Kevin finishes reviewing a few measures, then lets the young people know their mentors are here. Most stand and look behind them. Mentors and mentees begin searching for each other and pair up. Soon the pairs (or trios) fill the room with a soft buzz of conversation, the occasional tapping, and even a couple of softly sung pitches. Like a one-room school house, each mentee is reading a lesson and writing answers in his book, guided by the mentor. “Young people can learn to sing and read music as well as any adult,” Kevin says. “And we believe that we are called
to offer our very best musical gifts in worship. The goal of the program is to prepare our busy young singers as well as possible to sing to the Lord a new song, and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” Under Kevin’s tutelage, the young singers work through two books: Voice for Life and A Young Singer’s Journey. Voice for Life is actually a series of workbooks that comprise the official choir training workbooks of The Royal School of Church Music, an international organization founded in England in 1927 to promote the improvement of music in Christian worship. St. Michael’s is an affiliate of RSCM. Most of its members are Episcopalian, from churches around the country. I use the Light Blue Level book with my mentee. That book begins by inviting the student to observe different singing postures and comment on how posture affects vocal production. Later topics include the basics of reading music— names of notes, recognizing how long a note lasts, types of rests, time signatures, intervals, scales, key signatures, acci-
Archangel dentals, dynamic markings, and other basics about reading music and singing in a choir. While there is no instructor guide version, I am relieved to find that most of this information is something I have learned over the years singing in choirs. (It did reinforce the difference between half and whole measure rests that I am forever confusing.) I like that this basic curriculum is a workbook that the students will keep when they have finished all the exercises. The Voice for Life study includes five levels: White, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Red and Yellow — the yellow level the equivalent to a college-level music theory class. The RCSM also provides a system of rewards offered through assessment by a specially trained examiner, where singers can earn Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals to wear on their vestments. While most of the St. Michael’s mentees are at a beginning level, others are working on next-level books. “We’ve had success with Voice for Life,” Kevin says, “but the problem has been that each singer is working at a different level. So teaching a large group, with some being very experienced musicians and others encountering music for the first time, was a challenge.” He developed the mentor program so adult choir members can work with the singers in small groups, so each singer can progress at his or her own pace. Eighteen choristers take part in the program — four boys and 14 girls. The boys are in 4th and 5th grades and two of them have never sung in a choir before. The girls, in grades 6 through 12, all have different levels of experience. In the early fall, Kevin invited all members of the adult choir to become members. Twelve signed up, surprising him. “I was thrilled when so many adults volunteered to be mentors! We have nearly as many mentors as choristers. We have mentors of all ages … both men and women.” The mentors meet on Wednesday nights before the adult choir practice begins. It’s not a simple undertaking. Any adult who works with children is required to complete an online course on Safe Church. This Diocesan-sponsored training is required for all Sunday school teachers, nursery volunteers, volunteers working with a partner less than three times a month. St. Michael’s Youth Director Abby Van Noppen, now coordinates the training at St. Michael’s and arranged for the mentors to complete the two-hour course on recognizing and reporting sexual misconduct, ranging from harassment to molestation. But the choral mentoring program at its essence is about creating lifelong singers. The musical background of mentors ranges from choir experience to degrees in music performance. Some have experience mentoring young people in other subjects and others have none. What motivates them is a desire to work with young people and give back.
13 Linda Rogers has sung in church choirs since high school, where her 50-girl choir sang one service every Sunday. “I just think it’s important for young people to have more adults in their lives, and I enjoy young people,“ Linda says. “Music is important and sacred choral music is especially important. That’s the way I worship and enjoy participating. I hope to convey that to these young people.” Christine Haarvig Taylor recently retired from professional performance as a violinist and had some time she wanted to use productively. “I am pretty conversant with things a young musician would find helpful to know,” she says. Christine doesn’t really consider herself a singer, though she has sung in choirs since 1995. “I read music well and have really good pitch. I think intonation for string players is even fussier than it is for choral singers.” Currently the mentoring program is scheduled for two Wednesdays each month in the school year. Kevin plans to continue the program indefinitely, so young singers who are motivated can even prepare for exams that allow them to receive international singing awards. “The girls who have gone to the RSCM Carolina Course [offered each summer] at Duke most recently have seen other singers who have award badges,” he says. He expects some singers to complete an entire level or more in a choir season. Others will move more slowly, and he is ok with that. The mentees are learning more in the program than just how to read choral music. “They learn breathing awareness, posture, and develop self-esteem,” Christine says. “They can stand up and sing in front of someone, which means they can go to middle school and do an oral book report in front of the class without panicking.” Parents are supportive, too. “Our choir parents are so appreciative of the musical training their children receive,” Kevin says. “I’m grateful that our choir families make a considerable investment of time and energy to support their children’s choir training, because I know families are very busy. It’s a gift that can bring their children joy for a lifetime.”
Cherie Vick designs and writes educational programs for adult learners and articles for local publications. She sings in the choir.
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A Worthy Cause
FORD WORTHY CAME TO ST. MICHAEL’S IN 1957, JUST AFTER THE NAVE WAS BUILT. BUT HE’S SPENT A LIFETIME LOVING AND CARING FOR THIS PARISH THAT BEGAN WHEN HE MET THE MAN WHO HELPED CREATE IT. Words: Will Lingo
Ford Worthy
hasn’t been at St. Michael’s since day one. He wasn’t here when it was nothing but the Little Red Church. But you won’t find anyone better suited to trace the parish’s history from her humble beginnings to the present day. Worthy is almost 96, but you wouldn’t guess it from hanging out with him. He’s sharp, independent, engaging. He still drives himself to church, and you’ll find him in his usual pew area — front left — almost every Sunday, usually with his wife Isabel. He dealt with viral pneumonia last year, and his wife has overcome illnesses as well, but as the calendar turned to 2020, there they both were in their familiar spot. The Worthys are not charter members of St. Michael’s. They aren’t even Raleigh natives. But they’re definitely connected to the heartbeat of Raleigh’s modern history, reflective of the way St. Michael’s has become an integral part of the community over the last 70 years. The Worthys arrived in Raleigh in 1957, a few months after St. Michael’s had its first worship
Photo: Susan B. Rountree
service in the new nave. Worthy remembers looking at a punch list — a builder’s to-do list for completing the final details of a project — with Willie York, the man who brought him to Raleigh and one of the founding members of the parish. If you want to learn about the history of Raleigh and the history of St. Michael’s, Willie York is a key character. His father started York Construction at the turn of the 20th century, and the company built Raleigh landmarks like Memorial Auditorium. Willie took over the company and diversified into real estate development and management, and the name changed to York Properties. His son, Smedes, eventually took over the company and still serves as chairman after handing the reins to his son George in 2009. Smedes and his wife Rosemary are longtime members at St. Michael’s. It was Willie York and his family who donated the land for St. Michael’s. York’s go-to architect, Leif Valand designed the St. Michael’s nave — along with more than 100 other structures and projects in and around
Ford Worthy has been a member of our parish for more than 60 years.
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Raleigh, including Cameron Village. Cameron Village is regarded as the first shopping center in the Southeast, but it was a comprehensive development that included offices, apartments and houses in addition to stores. Worthy worked down the hall from York and Valand when he was with York Properties. It gave him a unique view to the growth of St. Michael’s, and the city around it. In addition to helping York oversee the final details of the construction of St. Michael’s, Worthy still remembers seeing brick laid out in a particular pattern in a company storage room. York wanted the bricklayers to use a Flemish bond, which alternates stretchers (the long side of a brick) and headers (the short side) to create an out-of-the-ordinary pattern in which you can see crosses. Flemish bond was common in colonial-era churches, but less so in modern churches because it’s more expensive and time-consuming to execute. The brick wall at the back of the nave (behind the altar) uses Flemish bond, though much of it is now obscured by wood added in a subsequent renovation. But if you look carefully you can still see it, and particularly if you go to the playground in back of the church and view the exterior. Worthy brought experience beyond his years when he moved to Raleigh. Born in Washington, N.C. – Little Washington to North Carolina natives – he graduated from high school in 1942 and headed to Chapel Hill for college at the University of North Carolina. He entered the Navy’s V-12 program, which used universities to produce officers for service in World War II. Worthy spent about a year at Carolina before getting sent to midshipman school at Columbia University in New York. He was commissioned in October 1944, just past the age of 20, and soon began serving as an assistant gunnery officer for a fuel tanker in the Pacific. “They were trying to commission a lot of officers in a short amount of time, because continued on the next page
Continued from page 15
Willie York, left, who oversaw much of the building of the nave, stands with the Rt. Rev. Edwin A. Penick and the Rev. James Dunbar Beckwith, rector, at the laying of the cornerstone of the church in 1956. Photo: St. Michael’s Archives.
they anticipated a lot of us dying when we invaded Japan,” Worthy says matter of factly. “We were the sorriest gun crew in the Pacific. I always tell people Harry Truman saved my life.”
Worthy managed a lot of York’s key relationships, from mortgage partners to contractors. He said one thing was always true: “People were nervous about any job Mr. York had a direct interest in.”
Truman, of course, made the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, bringing a swift end to the war in the Pacific. So Worthy spent his 21st birthday at anchor in Tokyo Harbor. He returned to the U.S. in 1946, and graduated from Carolina in 1947 with a degree in physics and accounting.
And that was certainly the case with St. Michael’s. Not only was York a charter member, he was a key figure for St. Michael’s as a member of the Raleigh establishment who left the old guard Episcopal churches downtown to establish this new thing in the suburbs.
Worthy returned to Little Washington and went into business with his brother-in-law as general contractors, doing everything from building bridges to clearing land. Seeking broader horizons, Worthy moved to Charlotte to work for Equitable Insurance. Rather than insurance, though, Worthy sold mortgages, or more to the point, money to real estate developers. His territory covered the Carolinas and western Virginia, so he worked with many of the key figures in postwar development in the region. One of them was York. They didn’t do any big deals with each other, as Equitable was more interested in central business districts, while York was looking to the suburbs and developments like Cameron Village — which, yes, used to be considered suburban, as did Canterbury Road. But in 1957 York offered to double Worthy’s pay if he would move to Raleigh and come work for him. Worthy asked about his job title, or at least a job description, and he said York looked at him quizzically. “He just said, ‘Whatever I’m working on, you’ll be working on,’ “ Worthy says. “He loved making the deal, and once he made the deal I took it from there.”
York not only brought Valand to the project to design the church — Valand had his own architecture business, but he was York’s go-to guy — but he got York Construction to build the church at cost, with no markup. The fact that he had a mason lay out Flemish bond in a store room to make sure he was going to do it right illustrated his interest in the project. “If you had to pick a prime mover for St. Michael’s, he was it,” Worthy said. “I didn’t know when I went to work for him how deep he was into it.” Interestingly, though, York did not remain deeply involved beyond the first 10 years or so of St. Michael’s history. He and Mary Smedes Poyner York divorced in 1960, and while he remained on the rolls at St. Michael’s, York moved out to the “country” — what is now Pleasant Valley Road — and usually attended church out there. The extensive legacy he left behind, aside from family and the literal foundations of the church, has to include the Worthys. Ford became deeply involved at St. Michael’s, and he and Isabel raised four children in the parish. (He also struck out on his own after working for York for years.)
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“St. Michael’s, it kind of grew on me. I feel like it’s part of me, my church, and I couldn’t tell you whether that happened after 10 years, 20 years, 30 years . . .” — FORD WORTHY
“St. Michael’s, it kind of grew on me,” he says. “I feel like it’s part of me, my church, and I couldn’t tell you whether that happened after 10 years, 20 years, 30 years . . . “ His voice trails off as he reflects on more than 60 years of membership at St. Michael’s. What he remembers most from the early days is how young the parish was. “We went for years without having a funeral,” he says. He has served on the Vestry several times, and he says that for years he thought of St. Michael’s as a sand dune. People would come in to the church, while others would move on, so while the church wasn’t stagnant, it also wasn’t growing. And it’s true that while the history of St. Michael’s does track the growth and expansion of Raleigh after World War II, the parish did not grow at the same steady clip as similarly situated churches like White Memorial Presbyterian on Oberlin Road (founded in 1946), or Hayes Barton Methodist on Fairview (founded in 1957). Worthy looks back fondly on the tenure of St. Michael’s original rector, James Beckwith, an almost universally held view. But he remembers a lot of turbulent years as the church went through adolescence, and the search for clergy who loved St. Michael’s as much as the parishioners always have. “We have had some people who were not 100 percent committed to the church,” he says. “People who were just as nice as anyone you’d ever want to talk to, but weren’t dedicated to the work of the church. I remember threatening to take one of them out to the woodshed. I said, ‘I know we can’t fire you, but we can stop paying you.’ “Things like that were a disaster for our church. We lost lots of young people during those years, longtime members or people who would have been . . . We went through a period of about 10 years where it seemed like every time a senior warden’s term ended, he left the church.” Part of that was leadership, and of course St. Michael’s got pulled into the turbulence of the larger Episcopal Church at the turn of the century, when the church consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003. “We were not a harmonious group,” Worthy says.
So it should not be a surprise that Worthy looks back fondly on the parish’s early days, with Beckwith at the helm. Beckwith had a different story for each of the 12 timber arches that soar above the nave, he says, and he held the congregation rapt when he told one of them. But if you haven’t figured it out already, Worthy is not overly sentimental about days gone by. When asked if Beckwith still rates as the best rector St. Michael’s has ever had, he quickly shakes his head no. “The best is the one we’ve got now,” he says, referring to Greg Jones, who became rector in 2004. “Our church right now is running better than it ever has.” Worthy, like many longtime parishioners, knew St. Michael’s was a sleeping giant, and the last 15 years have been an awakening. In fact, he cites three people as “favorite turnaround artists” of his lifetime: Lee Iacocca, who famously revived Chrysler Corp. in the 1980s; Red Balantine, who founded Cameron Village institution Balentine’s Cafeteria and returned to save it after new owners nearly failed; and Jones. “Our church was in disrepair spiritually, and needed a leader something awful,” Worthy says. “We added people and expanded the church at a time when the economy was sliding down. He has already done more for St. Michael’s than most lifetime priests do.” Having witnessed St. Michael’s ups and downs for more than six decades, Worthy still likes to look forward as much as he likes to look back. “I’d like to see us get two mission churches in the next 20 years,” he says. “That should be his next goal. We can’t have the entire county come here, so I think it’s time for us to branch out.” As long as people of vision like Worthy remain dedicated to the mission here, the next 70 years could be even more exciting than the first. Will Lingo is a writer, editor. He writes frequently for Archangel.
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BEING YOUNG A SEEKING CHURC Words: Anna S. Page Photos: Susan Rountree
As the
young woman sits down in one of the back pews, she feels the gaze of the long-time church goers. She knows she does not fit the typical “mold” of this environment. She wears jeans and a sweater under her old, worn jacket. Her shoes scream young professional on a budget and wearing formal jewelry makes her feel like she’s playing dress-up in her grandmother’s closet. To the congregation, she is a living mystery. As discomfort and self-doubt set in, the young woman reminds herself that she woke up, drove to church and entered this holy place for a reason. She just needed some time to remember. To be young in church means that there is a genuine desire to be in church. It doesn’t take a formal study to point out that the church generally and the Episcopal Church specifically lack young adults aged 18-39. One need only to look around the pews, inventory church leadership or survey
children’s church to see that the age distribution is skewed to the right and to the left (may we not forget our youngest saints), causing more of a “U” shaped age distribution than a normal curve. Though no formal study needed, the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study quantifies the above reality. Conducted in 2014, this study surveyed over 35,000 Americans from all 50 states. The study looked both across and within faith traditions and denominations to study demographics, beliefs, practices, social views, and political views. Not surprisingly, the survey concluded that more than 66 percent of the Episcopal Church is over 50 years old, with the other 35 percent of membership falling between 18-49 (the survey did not include children under the age of 18 in its findings). This 35 percent number, however, is mislead-
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AND CH ing. Considering that the average mainline tradition caps “young adult” at 39, the 35 percent includes an entire decade not considered “young adults.” Thus, the percentage of 18- to 39-year-olds in the Episcopal Church is an even smaller sliver of the pie. Adding to this dismal picture is that average Sunday attendance continues to dwindle across ages since Pew conducted this study in 2014. Given that, statistically, young adults do not come to church, to be young in church means that there is a genuine desire to sit in a pew on a Sunday morning, attend Bible Studies, stay for adult learning forums and engage in a religious community. No one is forcing young adults to attend, nor is there an added social pressure from peers. Rather, our own volition compels us to forego the status quo and draw closer to God. So how should we, the Church, engage our young adult population? What is it that this demographic — often deemed the most puzzling continued on the next page
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YOUNG ADULTS
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or enigmatic demographic in the church — really wants? Let’s return to the young woman who entered the nave and tried to blend in by sitting on one of the back pews. Though she knew the statistics and that she, more than likely, would be a unicorn, something compelled her to attend. That “something” is the church’s unique ability to offer authenticity, depth, connection and impact — all rooted in a divine being which gives meaning and purpose to all of life.
Research from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts’ 20s and 30s Task Force and the church consulting firm Ministry Architects highlight the above in findings. Both sources conclude that young adults want to be seen, taken seriosly as valuable contributors to the church’s life, and afforded opportunity to push the church out of the myth of the “glory days.” Young adults don’t want to be banished solely to the Land of Misfit Toys. Instead, they want to engage in intergenerational relationships, lead (committees, worship, ministries) and undergo substantive study and formation. They are concerned about life both within the church and
Words to live by: Curate Anna Page’s office is filled with mementos that inspire her in her ministry to young adults. Prayer flags from Bali, left, provide the inspirational words. Above, a Young Adult gathering over Christmas brought singles, marrieds and even a few kids.
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outside of its four walls. They are hungry and, when given the opportunity, will not just consume a feast but prepare one for the masses.
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Anna’s guiding philosophy has always been to find a seat at the table for everyone. This print by artist Sayoler Laine, below, serves as a daily reminder of how important this is.
The 18 to 39 crowd is not a mystery. Rather, the young adults of today could be the church. The research shows us that we don’t even need to buy a projector or smoke machine to attract them — our liturgical worship and tradition is enough! The problem is not that the church is unattractive to young adults but, rather, that young adults are stigmatized and tokenized. Young adults know how to do church, but the church — in a way only the church can — over-complicates the situation and doesn’t know what to do with young adults once they walk through our doors. In a world of “Boomer vs. Millennial,” what if the church were the one place in which we leave our preconceived notions at the door, accept all persons, and treat everyone with dignity, value, and worth? The beautiful thing about the cycle of life is that, one day, the church’s current young adults will be the Old Guard. When that time comes, it will be our responsibility to empower, rather than tokenize, those once little saints who comprised the left skew of our age distribution. If we model this behavior now, through saying hello to a young adult just as you would anyone else, considering how meeting times and locations may or may not be conducive to a young professional’s schedule, or normalizing young leadership, then this process will occur naturally. Yet, as long as we view young adults as “other” and tell them to wait their turn, young adults will forever occupy a minority position within our church and unnecessarily remain a mystery —thereby perhaps preventing them from developing a healthy, personal relationship with Christ. May we solve this “mystery” and realize that to be young in church means, simply, to want church.
The problem is not that the church is unattractive to young adults but, rather, that young adults are stigmatized and tokenized. Young adults know how to do church, but the church — in a way only the church can — overcomplicates the situation and doesn’t know what to do with young adults once they walk through our doors.
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A Lifetime of Good “Jeans” Words & Photos: Melissa Raley
January 27,
2020. My mother, Jean’s, 100th birthday. Her mailbox should have been full of birthday cards, phone ringing off the hook with birthday wishes, doorbell announcing visitors or flower delivery, numerous luncheon dates with friends and family. Pittsboro United Methodist Church family honoring her on this special day. Family and friends should have enjoyed all the chocolate treats created for the “Chocolate Birthday BakeOff” announced at her 99th birthday party. Mother died June 5, 2019, unexpectedly, following a stroke. You may question the passing of a 99-year-old as unexpected, but it was. Mom lived alone on the family farm since 2003. She drove her 2007 Honda downtown almost daily to take care of business at the grocery store, bank or post office, to church for services, meetings or knitting and to visit the
“Eat healthy from the garden.”
former pastors. She was answering a question my sister had asked her in June about what mother had shared as her secret to a long life. Here is her secret: Eat healthy from the garden, exercise, try not to worry, live a life of faith, be a part of a church community of support and be around young people
“Try not to worry.” “old” people, avoiding “rush hour,” and if the handicap parking space was taken, she came back later. So, no party. My sisters and families attended church in Pittsboro and sat in her pew, listened to the music, prayers and preacher’s message, hugged and talked with her friends. Instead of a party, we took time to remember and celebrate 100 years. One hundred years of a life well lived. No, no party. But the celebration of her will continue! In early December, my sister Ann received a text message from Sarah Alexander, the wife of one of mom’s
with new ideas. Don’t get caught up in the way things always were! “Eat healthy from the garden.” When I was growing up we had a garden, a big garden. A garden that needed planting, weeding, harvesting. The harvest needed to be prepared for eating, sharing and preserving. Her
early wake-up call was the last thing we four girls wanted to hear on a summer morning, but our plates were full of fresh garden harvest. “Exercise.” Mother was hard working, never seeming to stop, often with perspiration rolling down her face and off her nose. Even in her 90s she would comment that anyone she reluctantly hired to help her would “run out of steam and need to sit down”! I don’t remember her doing anything that would be truly considered exercise until she was a senior citizen. Then she participated regularly in exercise classes offered at the Senior Center. Mom often experienced back pain running down her legs from the sciatic nerves. Doctors gave her special
“Live a life of faith.”
exercises that she did religiously multiple times a day. I’m reading her 2011 journal now, and she documents daily the number of times she did her exercises — some of them were done at 4 a.m.! “Try not to worry.” I don’t remember Mother as a worrier. She grew up in Ohio and Illinois with a great role model — a father born in 1886, who was very optimistic despite all the troubles he faced in his 107 years. Rather than an optimist, I would classify mom as a analyzer — ready to dissect or rationalize issues and others. I guess this is how she
“Be around young people with new ideas.”
“ E xe r c i s e . ”
avoided worrying. My father was her rock. He took care of so many things and yes, he worried for her. “Live a life of faith, be a part of a church community of support.” The four Reeves girls grew up as active members of Pittsboro UMC, following the example set by our parents — MYF leaders, Sunday School teachers, members of the Administrative Board, choir members, organizer of the church bazaar … I could go on. or 73 years it was just what she did, no questions asked. “Be around young people with new ideas.” My parents were always active with the youth in the church and the community. Cousins, of which I have many, ooked up to my parents and found willing listeners who might offer needed comfort and advice. As Mother and Daddy’s siblings and life-long Continued on the next page
Melissa Raley with her mother, Jean, and sisters: counter-clockwise from bottom right: Kay, Sarah, Melissa, Jean and baby Ann.
“Don’t get caught up in the way things always were.”
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Lessons from 100-year-old Jean Reeves stay taped to her bathroom mirror, even after her death last summer.
Jeans
Continued from page 23
friends passed away, these cousins and friends became our “chosen sisters and brothers.” In the later years, a group of much younger ladies in the church often included Mother in their outings. Off she’d go, fishnet stockings and all. Let’s just hope they didn’t plan for her to be the designated driver. “Don’t get caught up in the way things always were.” Leave Illinois to go to grad school in Connecticut, volunteer for the Red Cross, find a husband in New Guinea, move to a dairy farm in North Carolina, find that your father-in-law has registered you as a Democrat, get a computer, live alone for over 15 years, lose friends and make new friends, discover the joy and time for reading. Just a few ways she embraced change over 99 years! These words can still be found taped to her bathroom mirror:
“Be part of a church community.”
Happiness keeps you sweet. Trials keep you strong. Sorrows keep you human. Failures keep you humble Success keeps you glowing. But only God keeps you going… Both these messages are words to live by, and she did it so well. I pray that I can do the same. I’m Blessed to inherit such good “Jeans.”
Melissa Raley is a retired music teacher with Wake County Schools and a member of the Vestry.
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Angels All Around Us
God is
everywhere, even
at the DMV.
Jackie and I met in a Bible study class at the Alexander YMCA on Hillsborough Street. We got to be friends, and I had served as her champion with Jobs For Life, a program to help people find stable, long-term employment. Jackie is a single mom on disability who battles sickle cell disease. She has been homeless in the past and cares for her 9-year-old granddaughter and her 21-year-old- son. She is a survivor. I really love Jackie. After she graduated from Jobs for Life, she worked and saved for a year to get her driver’s license. I took her to the Division of Motor Vehicles office on Avent Ferry Road three times before she was finally able to pass both the written and driving test. The lady at the DMV was so generous and recognized us each day as we tried and tried again. (The second time she was unable to drive my car for the test because the registration was
expired — oops.) After the third try, the DMV worker said she could see something special between us and that she saw angels all around us. Not the typical conversation you expect while obtaining a license, but God shows his glory in extraordinary ways, even through ordinary people like Jackie and me. Unlike Paul’s transformation, though, my awakening to what God wants me to do has been somewhat slow. In his book Everybody, Always, Bob Goff writes: “Do you want to do something amazing for God? Trade the appearance of being close to God for the power of actually being close to God. Quit talking a big game and go live a big faith. We need to live a life worthy of the calling we’ve received. The call is to love God and the people around us while we live into the most authentic version of ourselves!” This spoke to me because my awakening came about as I got to know myself better. I stopped pretending to be the things
I thought I should be growing up — or what people expected or wanted me to be — and I started trying to be who God made me to be. I started paying attention to what delighted me, what filled me with purpose, what fired my imagination, what drew me closer to God. And then I up and quit my job and started doing those things. I had worked as an interior designer and built up my own business over a 15-year span. I loved my job, thought I was pretty good at it and was thankful I could use my creativity and strengths in my day-today work. But I started to feel restless and unfulfilled. I looked around and realized almost everyone in all of my circles was just like me — the same color skin as me, the same background as mine. I felt Jesus working to pry open my neat little life in what felt like calling me out of my tomb like Lazarus. I joined Manna, an interracial Bible Study
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Angels
Continued from page 23
at the YMCA, and met Jackie. At Manna, black and white women come together across racial and socioeconomic lines for study and fellowship. Jackie and I bonded talking about our daughters, and when Jackie called me saying she was in Jobs for Life and needed a champion, who works with the candidate to help ensure their success.
business to devote my time to these women. I see Jesus in them, and who wouldn’t want more of that? I try to make myself more available to be there, and they call me and Katie and Betty and Sally. It’s humbling. Two friends, a mother and a daughter named Carol and Sierra, have called me every week to keep me up to date on their new apartment.
Jackie and I met twice a week in class and outside of class, where we started getting to know each other over shared meals. Jackie lived off Poole Road, and she introduced me to a part of Raleigh I had never experienced, even though I grew up here.
“Only one more week,” Carol said expectantly into the phone. She had been so patient waiting to get out of shelters and off the street with her daughter. They finally moved in a few months ago. They didn’t have a pot or a pan to their name, a mattress or even a sheet to put over the window for privacy, but they had a roof over their heads and a place to call their own.
She showed me a different way of life than what I had known growing up white and privileged. I learned about another side of myself, too, one that wasn’t defined by my accomplishments or pedigree, education or upbringing, but by grace that illuminated my intrinsic God-given worth. As I grew spiritually, I wanted more. I began volunteering at the Wake County Women’s Center, on Cox Avenue behind Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. Here I found Jesus in the flesh. The Women’s Center is the only shelter for women in Wake County that is open during the day, when overnight shelters are closed. It’s a refuge where homeless women come to rest, to find clothing, food and shelter, and to form community. My dear friend Katie Koon gathered a group to have Thursday morning “coffee talk” at the center. Katie, Betty, Sally, Marcie and I bring in coffee and breakfast, and we sit and get to know these women, as we’d do with our friends at Starbucks. We bring Starbucks to them, right down to the cups. If we can carry a Starbucks cup why shouldn’t they as well? Many of these women suffer from mental health issues and addiction, or they have dealt with extreme trauma. We sit and hear their stories, their dreams, their childhood memories, sometimes even about their favorite desserts. They encourage me with their resilience and teach me every day about hope. At times, I feel more comfortable with Rebecca, Carol, Sierra, Victoria, Brenda and Melinda than I do with my own friends. Feeling that I am connecting with the most rejected, vulnerable women in our community gives me life. God opened my heart, and I realized I could be friends with women very different from me, so I closed my design
Some of the women at the WC have jobs but can’t afford housing. Most have children living with other family members so they don’t have to be on the streets — separation seems a better alternative. They talk about their kids just as we do, swapping stories about teenage daughters’ eye rolling, football games, dance recitals — except they don’t get to see them every day like I see my three daughters. Some women sleep in shelters at the Helen Wright Center, the Salvation Army or Healing Transitions, but 25-30 of them sleep in the parking lot of the Women’s Center on any given night. Right off Hillsborough Street, these women sleep on concrete, night after night. The Center is a loving environment during the day inside, and they have numbers, so they feel safe at night. But it is a false sense of security. No one is there to protect them from predators on the street after dark. Some women don’t shower for days as a deterrent, but mainly they rely on each other for protection. They are a community, and they are sleeping on the concrete right here in our back yard. This just isn’t right. I’ve met Jesus and his name is Jackie, Gwendolyn, Beth, Cici and Cathy. I feel so grateful for the way in which these relationships have shaped and changed me. I have a real sense of purpose because they are showing me what it is like to love. We appear very different from each other, but we are actually the
Previous page: Molly Painter, center, changed her life and that of others when she started sharing coffee and friendship with women with backgrounds so different from her own.
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same. We all experience pain and joy and just want to be loved.
the hours the center is open, so we need more people to bring lunches and weekend meals.
At times this can be unpredictable and tough. Mary comes in on Thursday mornings angry and hoards food and Tupperware. But when I ask Mary about her children and she smiles, I have accomplished my purpose for the day.
The path can be scary. I don’t know what the future looks like or what God has in store for me or my friends, but I do know that I’m living into my authentic self more than I ever have before, the one God created Molly to be. I’m not trying to fix these women or even serve them. I’m just loving them, and learning that I am loved just as I am.
Mary is made by God and loved by Him, no matter what she says or does. As Goff says, “God wants me to love the ones I don’t understand, to get to know their names. To invite them to do things with me. To go find the ones everyone has shunned and turned away. To see them as my neighbors even if we are in totally different places.”
I can feel Jesus in the room, and it feels free and it feels like good news. And though I am just an ordinary woman, by stepping into these new friendships, life has come to feel extraordinary.
I want to fill my life with these people. I want to treat them with love, respect and dignity. In doing this, I believe we can show the world what we know about Jesus by having them see the way we love the people around us, particularly the difficult ones. I hope that you will join me there. The Women’s Center is a little gem in the heart of Raleigh that has changed my life. New director Brace Boone has expanded Molly Painter is the mother of three girls and a lifelong member of St. Michael’s. She volunteers at the Women’s Center and with many other non-profits in Raleigh.
Molly quit her interior design business to spend time with homeless women served by the Women’s Center of Raleigh. She volunteered her expertise to transform the living spaces of the day shelter into a more home-like atmosphere for the more than 30 women who come there for respite. At night, many of them also sleep in the parking lot.At left, the living room, left, is warm and inviting. Now Molly is working with others in our community to raise money for permanent, supportive housing for the chronically homeless.
If you would like to get involved at the Women’s Center, contact Molly at mwpinteriors@ mac. com. You can also follow the Wake County Women’s Center on Facebook.
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The choral scholar program is a great opportunity for the scholars, but it benefits the choir too. “When our choral scholars began singing with us,” Kevin says, “we were able to achieve consistent balance between sections. Standards for music at St. Michael’s are kept high, because we believe that in worship we should offer our very best gifts to God. The choral scholars help ensure that every singer can do his or her best musical work each week.
“The decision to initiate the choral scholars program was a positive move,” adds Chip Chase, the St. Michael’s verger and a tenor singer since 1991. “We should by all means continue this practice, as it strengthens not only the sections in which the choral scholars are singing, but strengthens the choir as a whole. St. Michael’s has long been known for its music. The choral scholar program has now become a part of this tradition.”
Our choir members, some of whom have been singing at St. Michael’s for decades, embraced the choral scholar program, and Cole and Johnny were welcomed enthusiastically into the choir community. ”
“A strong voice helps boost the confidence of those around them and encourages them to sing out with confidence,” says Chris Laco, a soprano singer since 2005. “This is certainly true for me. The choir can learn and perform a more difficult repertoire if Kevin knows that he has enough voices in each section to carry it off. It is also good for a choir with many ‘middle aged’ singers to have younger voices added to the mix. They bring energy and a fresh perspective on the music.”
“The college singers provide excellent support for our volunteer singers,” says Bob Spaziano, a bass singer since 1977. “ The students get exposure to singing in a church choir and attending our church. In addition, singers who receive a financial scholarship are more accountable an dependable.” “It is fun for the choir members to get to know our scholars and to bring them into our community,” says Frank Haynes, who has sung tenor since 2002. “It is good for the scholars to be part of a dedicated choir under such a skilled leader.” “The choral scholars provide consistent, high-quality leadership in their sections,” says Jean Tedder, who has sung alto since 1986. “We know they will be prepared and will have practiced so they can set a great example. The choir sings better when better singers are in it — no matter where they come from!”
All of us in the choir are grateful to both Cole and Johnny for their leadership and beautiful voices, and we wish them success in life and in singing as they move on to what’s next after graduation. We also look forward to continuing to produce quality and inspiring music for the congregation with our next choral scholars, bridging relationships between our church and aspiring college singers. You never know what their experiences can lead to in the future!
Helen Moses, adult choir member since 1991 and former St. Michael’s Senior Warden, is a voice and messaging coach, helping her clients make a bigger impact when they speak.