Copyright © 2004 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee

On June 27, St. Elizabeth, Farragut, members and friends gathered to mark the parish founding 20 years before.

The morning service brought together more than 220 people, including a number who, after having moved on, returned to help celebrate the anniversary of their former church home.

Sumptious Sonny’s barbecue was followed by homemade pie — 27 pies had been entered in a contest — and members and guests listened to recollections of church life, assisted in the process by emcee Alan Grizwold, tables of memorabilia and a “Celebrate the Journey” historical booklet.

Throughout the afternoon, participants gathered in Tharp Hall and outside behind the nave to chat, reminisce, laugh and dance to the music of Caribe Sounds steel drum band. At one point, the Rev. Matthew Dutton-Gillett, rector, started a conga line that underscored the relaxed, friendly mood.

“All who attended felt the warmth of family and friendship that has been a hallmark of St. Elizabeth’s life,” he later wrote in the parish newsletter, “Crossties.”

Nan Henderson and Jane Gouffon co-chaired the event.

St. Elizabeth: 865-675-0450

By Emily McDonald
South East Area Correspondent

Seven United Parcel Service managers spent four weeks immersed in the work of human service agencies in Chattanooga and returned to their respective hometowns with a desire to get involved in community service.

The managers were part of the UPS Community Internship Program that was started in 1968 by Dr. Ed Cahill in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York and brought to Chattanooga in 1977 after he joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dr. Cahill, who retired from UTC in 1996, is the husband of the Rev. Pat Cahill, rector of Thankful Memorial Church in Chattanooga.

For the past three years the program has been based at Thankful Memorial, and at the end of the four weeks a dinner was held there for the interns and representatives of the agencies they served. “It is a good thing to see people from different agencies in an Episcopal church,” Cahill said.

“We’re going to take (back) a lot more than we brought down,” said intern Tony Taylor of Duluth, Ga. “We are taking back a desire to do more in our own community.”

“We’re taking back a lot of what you guys are doing,” said another intern, Devang Vaidya of Warren, N.J. “We see the dedication, and the dedication is the true thing that is going to make us succeed.”

The interns worked with Head Start, the Community Kitchen, Widow’s Harvest, Chattanooga Area Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, Signal Centers and the Family Neighborhood Center at the Harriet Tubman housing development.

On their day with Widow’s Harvest, the interns started building a wheelchair ramp at a house and returned the next day to finish it. As it says in Job, Widow’s Harvest director Anthony Mendonsa said, “You caused the widow’s heart to sing.”

At the food bank, the interns helped redistribute the food collected by United Postal Service personnel during the annual postal service food drive. “They worked their cans off,” Dr. Ed Cahill said.

The interns provided a male presence at Head Start, a program generally known as a “woman’s program,” said Tennie Lindsey, special projects coordinator for Head Start in Chattanooga. “Your visit to us will be remembered,” she said. “You learned a lot about Head Start you didn’t know. When you go home, seek us out if you want to volunteer.”

The internship program was started after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a way for UPS managers to understand the Civil Rights Act, why the act was necessary and how managers would have to implement it.

Senior personnel manager Walter Hooke called Cahill, then-coordinator of field services for the Human Resources Center at the University of Pennsylvania, about a program CBS-TV was doing on the Inner City in Philadelphia. Hooke wanted a way for managers to understand what was going on in Chicago, then-UPS headquarters. “He wanted to do more than academics,” Cahill said. He felt UPS managers “needed to learn more about their cities.”

Today, sites for the internship program are in New York City, San Francisco and McAllen, Texas, as well as Chattanooga. As part of the program in Chattanooga, interns visit Civil Rights related sites in Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala.

Between 1968 and 2004, 1,257 senior managers participated in the program, according to a UPS fact sheet. The cost is approximately $10,000 per participating employee, and the total UPS investment is more than $14 million.

“It has really been a wonderful experience,” Cahill said. “I never had any idea it would grow to be what it is today or that UPS would continue to support it.”

Thankful Memorial: 423-821-3131

By the Rev. Kathryn Mathewson
Associate Rector

“Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, sheep of your own fold, lambs of your own flock ...” This morning, I pray these words as I lay pieces of paper in a grave dug in the Memorial Garden at St. Timothy’s. Each paper bears the names of children who died before they were born. These children were named and entrusted to God’s care in a liturgy celebrated here on June 1. This was the second year we offered “A Service of Blessing and Consolation” for parents and families of a miscarried or stillborn child.

In 1988 I experienced a miscarriage. It was a life-changing event for me. I was hearing God’s voice in a whole new way, and God was nagging! Following the trail of discernment took me through years of spiritual direction and eventually to ordained ministry. While in seminary, I came upon prayers and liturgies from other traditions that offered assurance of God’s presence in a tragedy many parents experience.

I recognized, as had many chaplains, that baptism was not the appropriate response after a stillbirth or miscarriage. But some of the components of baptism — the naming of the child and the assurance that the child was entrusted to God’s care — were what the parents needed in order to affirm the life of their child and seek God’s blessing on him or her. Senior year at Seabury-Western, I wrote a bedside liturgy which was a compilation of all these prayers from authorized prayer books from all over the world. Upon urging from my professors, I sent it to the Standing Liturgical Commission, and they responded that they might consider it for future use in liturgical supplements. Then I tucked it away in a box in the closet.

While serving at my second parish since ordination, I again experienced this agony. Our daughter had miscarried our first grandchild. My consolation was the women of the parish who came to me to describe the pain of their miscarriages as well as those of their daughters. Their number was legion. Yet it was like we all shared some secret, seldom having spoken of it in public.

“Only 30 percent of pregnancies actually end in a healthy birth,” says Dr. David Adair, a Chattanooga perinatologist specializing in crisis pregnancies. ”Miscarriage can occur a few days after conception or well into a pregnancy.” I was stunned. By these statistics, giving birth to a healthy baby is not “normal.” And yet the guilt can be overwhelming and the sense of failure crushing when a child is miscarried. Pain is also heaped upon the grief by well-meaning friends who encourage the parents to “forget and try again.” Then the experience is buried, along with the life of this child – deep, deep in the bowels of denial – until God finds a way to call it into the light.

When I came to St. Timothy’s in March of 2003, the rector, George Choyce, told me, “There’s one thing on the front burner we are being called to do at St. Timothy’s right now. A member of the parish, Dr. David Adair, is asking if there is some kind of ritual or liturgy the church can provide to speak to the open pain of parents who have lost a child in pregnancy.” I took the liturgy out of the box in the closet, met with Dr. Adair, and George and I planned the liturgy. The original bedside liturgy was augmented to the form of a Rite III Holy Eucharist, using the Eucharistic Prayer from the Child-ren’s Sabbath of the Episcopal Church. The service was held Thurs-day evening before Mother’s Day.

Last year there were about 25 people in attendance. This year the number doubled. I don’t anticipate it will grow into a large service. The intimate setting of the small number is a special gift of peaceful space. And people tell me each year, “What a wonderful idea this is, but I’m just not ready to come yet. I can’t go into that pain again. I thought it was over. Maybe I can come next year.”

Yet some of them came anyway and found “a great peace that I have not known for years. I had no idea how much the grief of that miscarriage had stayed with me. I can now weep and feel release.” The most profoundly powerful part of the service is when in the silence of the haunting oboe solo, the parents choose a name for their child, write it on a card and come forward in a stream to place their cards on the altar, to be offered to God — these cards, which today are laid in the dust of peaceful rest.

The cycle is complete. For me, celebrating this service feels like I have given birth to the child I “lost” 16 years ago, strangely enough during a business trip in Chattanooga.

St. Timothy: 423-886-2281

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and School held a May 23 groundbreaking for a $4 million facility expansion and renovation.

The campaign is the result of a five-year long-range planning process, which considered input from the church, school community, staff and parents.

The new space will address the shortage of additional Christian education classroom space and will provide larger, more comfortable teaching facilities.

The capital campaign to support this project has already raised $2 million toward its $2.4 million goal. A joint project, “St. Peter’s Episcopal Church & School Cookbook,” is assisting in the fund-raising effort. Fifth-grader Sydney Rupe’s artwork appears on the cookbook cover as the winning entry of a student art contest, and other student artwork and thoughts embellish the book’s contents.

“I am so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, both church and school together,” said St. Peter’s School Headmistress Kathy Lanza. “It will be wonderful to finally begin our dream of building a facility worthy of our wonderful programs.”

The building project will include a 9,000-square-foot renovation and new facades for existing buildings and construction of a 21,000-square-foot two-story classroom and administrative wing for church and school.

The school expansion will support an additional class at each level from kindergarten through fifth grade.

The new facilities also will enable library expansion, a new music center for education and church choral programs, counseling and meeting rooms, nursery facilities for church members, a teacher workroom and extra administrative and storage space.

The general contractor for the project is Strauss Construction and the architect is Derthick, Henley and Wilkerson. Construction should be complete for the 2005-2006 school year.

A projected “phase two,” with an estimated cost of $2 million, includes plans for a new 10,000-square-foot gymnasium and a multi-purpose area.

St. Peter’s will work on fundraising for the second phase of the project over the next several years.

St. Peter: 423-877-2428

By Ingrid Luffman

Students in most grades and many adult volunteers gathered June 6-9 at St. Christopher in Kingsport for an island of fun and adventure at “Lava Lava Island” Vacation Bible School.

St. Christopher, St. Paul and St. Timothy Episcopal parishes joined with Holy Trinity Lutheran Church to produce an extremely well-attended, well-enjoyed week for kids and adults alike.

Since 1999 the four area churches have come together each summer to pool resources and fun for VBS. Each year a different church hosts the event, and coordinators from each church meet regularly to plan during the year. This year, St. Christopher hosted 62 children, 18 middle and high school volunteer crew leaders and more than 22 adult volunteers.

Each church hosted an evening meal, then everyone gathered for music and praise in the sanctuary. The children’s Island Crews rotated through four stations: Jungle Gym Games (cooperative games), Crater Crafts, Hot Bible Adventures and Chadder’s Island Adventure Theater (a chipmunk’s exciting times learning about the love of God). Each evening ended with a return to the sanctuary for more music and praise and a recap of the day’s Bible point: “Jesus followed God’s word,” “Jesus gives us courage,” “Jesus saves us” and “Jesus gives us a reason to celebrate.”

A collection of loose change each evening was gathered for donation to “Small Miracles,” a riding center just outside the Kingsport city limits that serves children who have disabilities. Our efforts raised $327 for Small Miracles – that’s over fifty pounds of coins, spurred on by a contest between the boys and the girls. One bucket was provided for the boys and one for the girls. The buckets were weighed each evening, and at the end of the week, the group with the heavier bucket was declared the winner. Should the girls win, the Rev. Howard Hess would get a pie in the face, and should the boys’ bucket be heaviest, then Ingrid Luffman would be the target. At the end of the week both buckets weighed 25 pounds. This produced a dilemma, which was quickly and emphatically solved by the children – no pies or two pies? Two pies it was.

St. Christopher: 423-239-6751

The Tennessee Depart-ment of Environment and Conservation awarded the Episcopal School of Knoxville with a 2004 K-12 Environmental Awareness Award on May 25. The award recognizes the school’s incorporation of conservation awareness and stewardship into its curriculum. Last year, 18 schools were recognized. This year, only five schools in the state were so honored.

ESK students have been working all year on several environmental programs:

• The school participates in a mixed-paper recycling program, which the seventh- and eighth-graders administer. The second-grade class and parents manage aluminum can recycling. Students collect these materials both from the school and from the nearby Diocesan House facility.

• Sixth- through eighth-graders study wetlands and water quality with the local Izaak Walton League.

• The seventh grade works in conjunction with Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont to collect specimens and data for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory. In the classroom, students graph and analyze acid rain data collected at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Last May, ESK also was the site host for the Tennessee Ornithological Society’s spring meeting, and TOS members kept track of bird species on the school campus. At TOS’ request, the school has reduced mowing the more than 10 acres to the beginning and end of school year, which will allow grasshopper sparrows to nest in the fields.

In the former farm’s barn, another project thrives: Students are caring for a flock of chickens as a 4-H project and had plans to sell eggs during the summer.

In a vegetable garden nearby grow lettuce, squash and radishes, destined for school salads. And this past winter, students raised two prize-winning pigs.

Episcopal School of Knoxville: 865-777-9032

By Gary England

Karen Strain, a communicant at Christ Church in South Pittsburg, teaches an Ecology and Greenhouse Class at Marion County High School. This is the second year her students have planted a community garden on the farm of Ginger and Gary England, also communicants at Christ Church. 

The garden produce – cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, zucchini, peas, beans, bell peppers, corn and cantaloupe – goes to feed the hungry in Marion County. It is distributed through the Marion County Food Bank, where the Englands are volunteer coordinators. Last summer, the community garden produced more than 1,000 pounds of fresh produce.

Instead of using environmentally damaging chemicals, the farmers rely on sustainable or organic techniques including black plastic mulch for weed control, compost and other organic nutrients for fertilization, and insecticidal soaps for pest control. Rows are individually tilled with wide grass strips between them to provide walkways and to minimize washout. 

Strain also is a sponsor of the MCHS Beta Club, and each year she organizes a Beta Club food drive that nets several thousand pounds of canned foods for the food bank.

Christ Church: 423-837-7715

By Bryson Bosson and Kelli Smith

Church of the Ascension, Knoxville, members Caitlin Bibb, Bryson Bosson, Tyler Henry, Steven McLaurin, Kelli Smith, Ben Stratton and Joey Vrba embarked May 31 on a pilgrimage to follow in St. Paul’s footsteps through the ancient country of Greece. The Rev. Alex Barron and Sunday school teacher Mary LeMense accompanied us.

As each of us said goodbye to our families at the airport, we knew we were leaving home to grow spiritually as well as to learn more about Christianity’s roots. We didn’t realize the trip also would bring the pilgrims closer to each other.

Our travels started in the northern Greek region of Macedonia, in the cities of Thessaloniki, Kavala and Phillipi, and then we turned south. In Phillipi we visited the Baptistry of Lydia, where Paul first baptized outside of the Holy Land and where Christianity entered Europe. The site is only a creek with a newer constructed baptistery, but we understood that it was through this water that Christianity was introduced to a country that would eventually have a 98 percent Christian population.

Our next stop, Meteora, is known for monasteries that hang from enormous rock cliffs and overlook the central valley of Greece. Clouds passed by as we ascended to the beautifully frescoed and mosaic chapels, giving us the feeling of being in heaven. These and the cities’ basilicas are amazing expressions of the Greek Orthodox Church.

We also stopped at sites famous in Greek mythology to understand what was there 5,000 years ago and Paul’s impact in changing the society from paganism to Christianity.

We saw Delphi, home to a temple and the archeological site of Apollo, the Greek god of prophesy, music and healing. The site also has a stadium where the ancient Olympic and Peloponnesian Games took place. Athletes trained for the games at the nearby Temple of Athena.

In Delphi, we slowed our pace to worship on a private balcony at sunset, overlooking a field of olive trees and the Aegean Sea.

The following morning we were on the road again. We stopped in Corinth to see its dilapidated ruins and to visit the Corinth Canal, which connects the Ionian and Aegean Seas over a span of about 3 kilometers.

As we entered the capital city of Athens at rush hour, we saw the Acropolis in the distance – a wonder of the ancient world, and a landmark we’d all seen in pictures for years. We spent our first full day there at and around the Acropolis, visiting the Parthenon and Mars Hill, where Paul preached.

On our final day we traveled to three Aegean islands: Hydra, Poros and Agina. Hydra is the perfect expression of a Greek island, a beautiful island where no vehicles are allowed. Poros is more commercially developed, but still beautiful. Agina, the largest, is a major port for the surrounding islands and is home to two Temples of Poseidon, the god of the sea.

We returned to Athens for a farewell gala, where we watched the sun sink behind the mountains one last time.

Through our own personal discoveries and our numerous group discussions, we all decided that God truly led us in our journey, choosing this path for each one of us — in the footsteps of St. Paul.

Ascension: 865-588-0589

Watauga Lake was the scene of the annual all-church picnic June 13 for members of St. Columba, Bristol; St. Mary the Virgin, Erwin; St. Thomas, Elizabethton and St. Bartholomew, Mountain City – all the churches served by the Rev. Harry Bahlow.

Before the picnic, Bahlow and the Rev. Wendie Jekabsons celebrated Holy Eucharist in an atmosphere of serenity and peace.

Afterward, picnickers enjoyed fresh-grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and a potluck assortment of salads, fruits and desserts. Then, some simply relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of the setting, while others played games or swam.

“It was an excellent opportunity for members of the four churches to gather to praise God in love and fellowship,” said Brenda Hale.

St. Thomas: 423-543-3081; St. Columba: 423-764-2251

The books in the new library at St. John’s Cathedral will someday run the gamut of the Dewey Decimal System, but volunteer librarian Rick Boyd says the 200 section – religion – obviously will have more entries in the bar-coded card catalog. Poetry and biography also have a strong share of the more than 1,000 volumes in the collection. Boyd says that’s about half the capacity of the cozy former conference room just inside the rear hallway leading to the Great Hall.

The library opened “almost exactly one year since the date it was discussed,” Boyd said.

A Jane Pettway Foundation three-year grant is funding the purchase of Education for Ministry volumes – including four complete Bible commentaries already on hand – and seed money given the cathedral in memory of Wadie Joseph Harb and Alice Makla Harb by the Harb family has helped round out the fledgling collection.

In addition to a number of rich wood bookcases, the high-ceilinged room is furnished with a reading table and chairs and several upholstered chairs. Small sculptures, paintings and simple floral arrangements create a quiet atmosphere. A desk area holds the library’s two computers: One houses the card catalog, and the other is for use by library staff. Boyd is assisted by nine volunteers.

Any Episcopal church member is welcome to come in and complete an application for a library card, Boyd said. Summer hours are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays, and the library is open 8:30 to 10 a.m. and 11:25 to noon on Sundays. Boyd expects to expand the hours come winter. Adults and children may check out up to four books for a period of three weeks.

When asked whether lending by mail would be offered to members of churches in other communities, Boyd said policies likely would develop in response to requests.

“Our real goal is to let everyone in the diocese know the library’s here,” he said and added that he felt this was one way the cathedral could be a resource to the whole diocese.

St. John Cathedral: 865-525-7347

By Kathy Douglas

Parishioners of St. Stephen, Oak Ridge, are working hard this summer with members of 12 other churches to construct one of three new houses for Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County. The houses on Wakeman Lane are the first two-story units Habitat has built in the county.

Much of the parishioners’ work has been on weekends, but several members and friends of St. Stephen’s belong to the “OFC’s” — Our Friendly Carpenters — who volunteer every Tuesday and Thursday on this and other Habitat homes to keep the projects on schedule. Weather has delayed progress, but workers expected the five-bedroom house to be ready for occupancy in mid-July.

St. Stephen: 865-483-8497

By Stan Johnson
Tribune staff writer

All Saints Episcopal schoolteacher Jim Claborn was late for his own funeral Tuesday, May 11.

His tardiness was not a big surprise to his longtime friends, although a few did say he would have had a better excuse for moving slow if he had actually been dead.

Claborn rode in an antique hearse to his funeral, and his pallbearers carried him up the steps into the Dean Coffman Activities Center at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Morristown.

Morristown Mayor Gary Johnson and Hamblen County Mayor David Purkey both read resolutions proclaiming Jimmy Claborn Day in the city and the county. The entire event was to honor a man who has long been a leader in East Tennessee education, an award-winning writer and widely known storyteller, an actor and soldier.

Knoxville television personality Bill Landry and News Sentinel columnist Sam Venable acted as funeral directors as nearly two dozen friends, teachers and public officials rose to offer eulogies. Hollywood producer David Zucker and Paul Hutton flew in from California to pay their respects.

“Instead of sitting up with the dead, we are here tonight to ask the dead to sit up with us,” Landry told the 350 people gathered to honor Claborn. “We are not here to raise him, but to praise him.”

“We’re here to honor one of East Tennessee’s true legendary characters,” Venable said.

Claborn is known nationally for his interest in Davy Crockett, the frontiersman who grew up in what is now Morristown.

Claborn was once director of the Crockett Tavern and Museum and has portrayed Davy Crockett in personal appearances, film and on television.

For hundreds of students, Claborn is the best teacher they ever had. He has been named Teacher of the Year numerous times over his 30-year educational career for his unique, hands-on approach to helping students form an interest in history.

Proceeds from the sale of tickets for the barbecue dinner were used to buy Claborn things he has always wanted, including a goat named Spunk and a rare Dexter cow and calf.

Following the eulogies, Claborn rose to turn the tables by talking about the many people he respects, those who have helped him through the years, and he included a few Claborn-style tales about his old friends.

“This is the greatest night of my life,” Claborn said after his funeral.

Story printed by permission of the Citizen Tribune.
All Saints Episcopal School: 423-586-3280