Copyright © 2004 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee

photos © Sharon Rasmussen for the diocese

Bishop Charles vonRosenberg celebrates Holy Eucharist assisted by the Rev. Scherry Fouke, rector at All Saints, Morristown, right. The Rev. Claire Keene, assistant at St. Stephen, Oak Ridge, left, preached the sermon.

Ted Olsen, right, a member of the faculty at East Tennessee State University, presented a program of Appalachian music and history.

The Rev. Ann Markle, left, rector at St. Raphael, Crossville, and the Rev. Susan Speir, right, rector at St. Francis, Norris, share table conversation during lunch.

Bishop Charles vonRosenberg, far right, installs new officers and reaffirms others continuing in service on the board, from left: Jane Magrath, Cheryl Kellerman, Kathy Ambrose, Betsy Oglesby, Joyce Collom, Cherrie Roberts, Mary Rohe, Betty Quave, Ellen Hartsfield, Kathryn Mitchell, Nancy Bosson, Nancy Tanner, Nancy Gideon and Cathy Varner.

Mollie Hazen Tucker Scholarship winners from left, Fran Thompson of Good Samaritan, Knoxville, (1997); Rite Pierre of St. James, Knoxville (2003); and Libby Justis, All Saints, Morristown (1999); were guests at the meeting, and the Rev. Lou Tucker Parsons, right, of this diocese is the daughter of the woman in whose memory the scholarships are given. Cheryl Jones, second from right, All Saints, Morristown, chairs the scholarship committee.

By Sharon Rasmussen
Communications Director

More than 70 of the diocese’s Episcopal Church Women met Sept. 11 at the Episcopal School of Knoxville to worship, visit and conduct business together under a theme of “Jellybean Prayers and Songs in the Heart.”

The Rt. Rev. Charles vonRosenberg celebrated Holy Eucharist, assisted by the Rev. Scherry Fouke, rector at All Saints, Morristown. The Rev. Claire Keene, assistant at St. Stephen, Oak Ridge, spoke stirringly in her sermon of the music of our lives, beginning with our mother’s heartbeat known in the womb.

Bishop vonRosenberg noted the significance of the day, and he recalled being with the ECW on Sept. 11, 2001, as they supported one another during the numbing, horrible reports of terror attacks on U.S. soil. As he does in each annual ECW meeting, the bishop this year installed new board members and reaffirmed continuing members for the next year.

ECW President Cathy Varner of All Saints, Morristown, voiced words of appreciation in honor of retiring officers Alice Payne, St. Paul, Kingsport (treasurer and finance committee member), Katie Piper, St. Timothy, Sig-nal Mountain (United Thank Offering chairman and member of the committee on parliamentary procedure) and Kathy Ambrose, Ascension, Knoxville (Altar Guild chairman).

Betty Quave of St. Paul, Chattanooga, steps up as treasurer and takes a place on the finance committee; Ellen Hartsfield, St. Francis of Assisi, Ooltewah, takes on the United Thank Offering, and Nancy Tanner of St. John Cathedral, Knoxville, fills Katie Piper’s other role on the committee on parliamentary procedure; and Joyce Collom, St. Raphael, Crossville, takes over as chairman of the Altar Guild.

Other business included reports of officers, budget approval and presentation of an ECW scrapbook to the Rev. Claire Keene, who passed the gift along to the women of our Companion Diocese of South Dakota at the diocese’s annual convention in late September.

Ted Olson, an educator from East Tennessee State University, presented a program of Appalachian history and music, emphasizing the role of women and playing banjo or guitar while telling stories through song.

Cheryl Jones, All Saints, Morristown and scholarship chairman, described the origin of the organization’s Mollie Hazen Tucker scholarships, which were first awarded in 1988. A handout provided updates on the lives of nine previous scholarship recipients, and three were present for the gathering: Rite Pierre of St. James, Knoxville, who received the scholarship last year; Libby Justis, the 1999 recipient and a member of All Saints, Morristown; and Fran Thompson of Good Samaritan, Knoxville, who won the scholarship in 1997. The 2004 recipient is Molly Slabbekorn of Ascension, Knoxville.

Tucker’s daughter, the Rev. Lou Tucker Parsons, who has served at St. James, Knoxville and now is chaplain at Chattanooga Memorial Hospital, spoke of how her mother would have enjoyed this year’s event, from its location – her mother was a product of Episcopal schools – to the discussion of heritage and music, with special attention to her Scots-Irish ancestry. The meeting ended with Parsons offering a closing prayer.

Diocesan ECW President Cathy Varner, 423-581-2506.