PHOENIX COPE

by David Flick

Fr. Casey was immediately struck by the beauty of the vestment he saw online last spring: made of hand-embroidered gold damask, the clerical garment — properly known as a cope —was emblazoned with the figure of a phoenix, a traditional symbol of resurrection or rebirth. A fitting symbol, Fr. Casey thought, for what at the time seemed the end of the pandemic.

Fr. Casey shared a photo of the cope with Frances Martin, a friend and longtime parishioner.

“Casey thought it was beautiful, and I thought it would be wonderful for the church to have a new cope, so I said, ‘Let’s do it’,” Mrs. Martin said.

Furthermore, there was a perfect moment to display it for the first time: the upcoming ordination of the Rev. Ted Clarkson, the first such ceremony at Transfiguration in a generation.

Through her generosity, the cope was commissioned from Watts & Co., a London firm whose creations since the 19th Century have included not only clerical vestments, but coronation robes for the British monarchy.

“We thought, what a perfect debut for the cope, to be worn for this celebration of something brand new in the church,” Fr. Casey said. “It all came together perfectly.” At first.

The robe was commissioned June 10, with assurances that it would be ready well before Fr. Ted’s ordination on July 8.

A week before the ceremony, the company notified Transfiguration officials that the robe had been shipped and would arrive July 2. But July 2 came and went.

Sophie Lowrance, the church administrator, was assigned to track it down. The next three days were the Fourth of July weekend, and no one at the delivery service was available.

Two days before the ordination, she received a note from Watts & Co. that the vestment had been held up in customs. On July 7, the day before the ordination, she was assured that the vestment was still scheduled for delivery — in three to five days.

Concluding that the cope was not going to arrive in time for the ordination ceremony, Fr. Casey called Mrs. Martin with the disappointing news.

“She was sad. She was so looking forward to seeing it,” he said. “But she understood.”

On the morning of the ceremony, Fr. Casey received a text saying the vestment was still sitting in the Miami airport and the import duty had not been paid.

Church officials went online and made the payment. To their relief, they immediately received a text acknowledging receipt, and that the vestment had been cleared to be sent to Dallas.

Meanwhile, the subject of that ordination, Ted Clarkson, had another distraction. A few days before the ceremony — which would require lots of standing — he had sprained his ankle.

“I knew all the concern about the cope was going on. But for me, it was kind of in the background,” he said.

And the drama of the cope continued.

Ordinarily, the item would be flown to a North Texas warehouse and delivered to the church in a few days. But the ordination was scheduled to begin in fewer than 12 hours.

“The morning of the service, I’m on the phone to DHL, frantically trying to find out what was going on,” Sophie said. “Luckily, I got a sympathetic staffer. He said I could drive to the distribution hub to pick it up.”

At 3 p.m., she secured the vestment and drove to Transfiguration, where Fr. Casey opened the package in the sacristy with only hours to spare — just time enough to let the creases hang out.

“It would have been a wonderful day no matter what happened,” Fr. Casey said. “But we felt that God was smiling on us.”

In the rush of events, he hadn’t had time to let Mrs. Martin know the cope had made it to the church on time.

Only as she arrived at Transfiguration did someone inform her that the cope was safely in hand.

“I was so happy, I burst into tears,” she said. “I had prayed, ‘Please, God, let it get here on time,’ and it did.”

“Her first sight of it was when I was wearing it as I was walking down the aisle in the procession,” Fr. Casey said. “I looked over and gave her a little wink.”

She bowed in return.

And Fr. Ted’s ankle did not slow him down.

“With the help of ibuprofen, I made it through the service,” he said. “In the end, it all worked out.” 6

THE ENDOWMENT FUND AT TRANSFIGURATION

by Alan Dunlop

We have all seen the acknowledgements like, “Thanks to a grant from the Transfiguration Endowment Fund, we will be ordering a magnetized name tag for everyone who would like one…” But what is this mysterious endowment fund behind acknowledgements like these?

The Church of the Transfiguration Endowment Fund was created more than 40 years ago, and operates in a similar way to university and college endowment funds by investing a significant amount of capital and making grants from earnings to support the church in its various ministries. The capital has grown slowly over the years from a mixture of lifetime gifts, memorial gifts and (especially) legacies left by parishioners either directly to the Endowment Fund or to the Church. Careful stewardship and market appreciation have also helped, and the current capital value of the Endowment Fund is approximately $2.3 million – not enormous by the standards of Harvard University, perhaps, but significant enough to allow helpful grants of around $90,000 to the Church every year.

Grants are made to assist with special projects beyond the scope of the annual operating budget. For instance, last year the Endowment Fund assisted with the improvements to the courtyard area outside the Parlor, installation of the handrails in the Chancel, and sponsored the Stations of the Nativity project. Recently, grants have been made to assist with seminary fees for the two seminarians currently sponsored by Transfiguration.

Over the years, donors have created with their generous gifts a number of specialized funds within the Endowment, which support particular ministries: