Crosstown Blog
Babycycle (Reposted from the July 2020 Crosstown)
A Lifetime at the Keyboard: Our Former Organist Celebrates Her 90th Birthday
If you should happen to be at the Cathedral on a Friday afternoon, you may hear beautiful organ music emanating from the worship space. It’s not a recording. It’s not our music director, Dwight Thomas, getting in some extra practice, and it’s not one of his music students. It’s our former organist and choirmaster, Roberta Poellein, who slips in on this day, when the Cathedral is otherwise closed, to keep herself musically and physically fit. “It’s a great non-weight-bearing exercise,” she says. “It requires stretching every part of your body — arms, legs, every inch — and it’s good for your brain and your body.”
The organ and violin concert on March 12 — featuring Roberta’s violinist daughter, Cecilia Poellein Buss — honors Roberta’s 90th birthday (actually celebrated on January 16) and her 15 years of service at the Cathedral. Said Canon for Music and Precentor Dwight Thomas, “Roberta has been an important contributor to the legacy of fine music here at the Cathedral, and I’m thrilled we all have the opportunity to celebrate with her on this important milestone of her life.” “I loved every minute,” Roberta said. “I worked harder than I ever had in my whole life and had more fun than anybody could ever have had.”
Her affinity for music was apparent early on. When it became clear, at the age of 3, that she could do more at the piano than just bang out noise, she began lessons. But “I was always fascinated with the organ as a child,” Roberta recalls, “and when I was in fifth or sixth grade and was interested in starting organ lessons, I was told I was not big enough, I had to be able to reach the pedals,” so her organ studies waited until she was in the eighth grade.
She continued through high school with piano and organ lessons, and went on to major in music education at Stetson University in DeLand. She taught music in public school, including one year in northern Illinois (that was enough for this St. Petersburg native, who until then had never seen snow), then returned to St. Petersburg to teach choral music at Disston Junior High School.
She had become an Episcopalian while a student at Stetson under the tutelage of Robert Setzer, then the organist/choirmaster at St. Peter’s. Upon her return to St. Petersburg, “I walked in, and I was home,” Roberta recalled of her first affiliation here. She sang in the choir and studied with Setzer. “Every day after school I’d come here and practice the organ for an hour and a half or two hours,” she recalled. “There was no air-conditioning, it could be 100 degrees in the church, there were mosquitoes in the organ and my legs would be covered with bites, but it didn’t matter.”
In 1957, after two years, she went north again to study for a master’s degree in sacred music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. There she met her late husband, John, and they moved to Connecticut, where she worked at a Congregational church as organist for nine years and John was the choir director as well as director of choral activities at the University of Connecticut.
They moved to Illinois, where he finished his doctorate and she completed her master’s. “He said he’d buy me a new sewing machine if I got my master’s at the University of Illinois,” Roberta recalled. “I had three kids, two in elementary school, one in day care, and how in the world I ever did that, I don’t know.” Her sewing skills are apparent in the colorful quilted jackets she often wears. Those “three kids” are her daughters — Cecilia, the violinist, of Seattle; Gretchen Ginnerty of Doylestown, PA, and Marilyn Bonifer, a member of our congregation.
Degrees in hand, the Poelleins returned to Connecticut, where Roberta taught elementary school music for 16 years “but never played the organ.” After her husband suffered a severe stroke (he died in 2001), the Poelleins returned to St. Petersburg. In the summer of 1986 Bob Setzer decided to retire and encouraged Roberta to succeed him. She interviewed with the search committee but was unable to play for them because she’d already packed her organ shoes in preparation for a trip up North the next day. They hired her anyway. For the next 15 years she would play for two services with choir every Sunday.
Among the highlights of her years on the bench at St. Peter’s: the 1990 choir trip to England, when they sang choral evensong at seven cathedrals, rehearsing on the bus along the way … her anonymous angel, who paid for an orchestra each year for a major choir performance … the choir’s presentation of Mendelssohn’s St. Paul Oratorio, “an unbelievable experience, it’s hardly ever done, it’s extremely spiritual,” and a performance of the full Messiah, a two-hour production, for the Cathedral’s 1989 anniversary. She was also the founder of Wonderful Wednesdays, half-hour noonday concerts that included an inexpensive lunch and attracted downtown office workers.
Music has changed at the Cathedral over the years. Painting the interior of the nave in semi-gloss paint, air-conditioning the interior, and removing several rows of pews in the front and adding marble flooring “made such a difference I couldn’t believe it was the same place,” Roberta said. Where once the sound was “so dead it barely made it to the cross aisle,” it is now “an amazing place for music.”
So what are the favorite hymns of someone who has made a life in church music? Hymn 516, “Come down, O love divine,” and Hymn 469, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,” are two of her top favorites. And as for turning 90? Ask Roberta, who just returned from a birthday trip to South Africa, where, among other things, she took a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls: “Being 90 is interesting!”
The Friends of St. Aelred
Harriet Bedell: Deaconess of the Everglades
Honoring Those Who Served: The Cathedral Remembers Its Veterans
Pilgrims and the Church of England
We will celebrate Thanksgiving with a service of Holy Eucharist at 10 a.m. Thursday, November 24. In this of all years we need to count our blessings.
The story of Thanksgiving is “the great myth of American origin” as well as a survival story, historians say. It is based on a ship (the Mayflower), a rock (Plymouth Rock), and a meal (that frst Thanksgiving feast, which surely did not take place as we imagine it). The Pilgrims were fringe English religious exiles who believed in the most literal reading of the Bible and regarded life as a spiritual journey through this world to heaven.
As Episcopalians we note that the Pilgrims wanted nothing to do with our English forebears, members of the Church of England. They rejected the hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons. They had no use for rituals, vestments, candles, stained glass, church weddings, or other “Popish'' trappings of the faith. They believed each person had equal access to God with no need for a bishop or pope as intermediary, and they embraced the simplicity and purity of the Gospel. The Pilgrims believed that the depraved beliefs of mortal men, in a world of sin and iniquity, were moving them away from God.
Hence their desire to find a place where they could practice their religion unhindered: the New World. They embarked in September 1620 — a voyage they believed was ordained by God — with the goal of building the ultimate spiritual community on earth. A good introduction to the Pilgrims and their against all odds survival is the PBS American Experience documentary The Pilgrims (2015) by filmmaker Ric Burns. It’s available on Amazon Prime.
Thanksgiving
Malcolm Guite
Thanksgiving starts with thanks for mere survival,
Just to have made it through another year
With everyone still breathing. But we share
So much beyond the outer roads we travel;
Our interweavings on a deeper level,
The modes of life that embodied souls can share,
The unguessed blessings of our being here,
The warp and weft that no one can unravel.
So I give thanks for our deep coinherence
Inwoven in the web of God’s own grace,
Pulling us through the grave and gate of death.
I thank him for the truth behind appearance,
I thank him for his light in every face,
I thank him for you all, with every breath.
Malcolm Guite is an English poet, singer-songwriter, Anglican priest, and academic. He is a fellow and chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge, England, and associate chaplain of St. Edward King and Martyr in Cambridge.
Babycycle + An Eye-Opening Shopping Trip
How to Put Faith into Action?
We're Exploring Justice Work Through FAST
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
Recent events in our nation have underscored the need for racial justice and have prompted members of our Becoming Beloved Community team to respond to a call for action to achieve that goal.
In our Christian call to reach out to and live in community, we often engage in two types of ministry: mercy ministry and justice ministry. Mercy ministry is the things we do to meet immediate needs and help people in their time of desperation. We feed a hungry child, we seek release of a wrongly convicted felon, we give shelter to a homeless family. These acts of kindness share God’s love through us. Churches are generally excellent at mercy ministries.
Justice ministries are social works of mercy. They ask why: Why is that child hungry?, then organize and act to address the causes of that hunger. Christians are commanded by Christ to care for the vulnerable, voiceless, and outcast by alleviating their suffering and to be the voices asking “Why?”
Justice ministry often calls for congregations and groups to join together to seek to right a wrong in our community. Some members of our Becoming Beloved Community team have been invited to join in this justice work through St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church FAST (Faith and Action for Strength Together) ministry.
FAST comprises 42 member congregations throughout Pinellas County who come together to work for social justice. Among the issues addressed by FAST are affordable housing, mental illness/addiction resources, and juvenile justice. Learn more about FAST at http://fast-pinellas.org
If you would like to discuss justice issues or FAST, please contact
Betsy Adams: betsygadams@icloud.com, or Cynthia Garrels: c-garrels@kellogg.northwestern.edu
We hold in our hearts that when we obey Jesus’ command to love our neighbor as ourselves by practicing acts of compassion and justice, his grace works in us, helping us to love like him and become more and more like him. We pray that when people meet us through acts of compassion and justice, they might get a glimpse of Jesus.
This Song of the South Is a Lonely Refrain In Our March Book Talk Selection
The ninth season of our Cathedral Book Talks comes to a close this month when Erica Dawson leads a discussion of The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz, a New York Times "most anticipated title" for 2019 and a Notable Book of the Year.
And for those who pay attention to late-night television, it was on Jimmy Fallon's summer reading list last year.
The Gone Dead is set in the Mississippi Delta in 2003. The lead character, Billie James, returns after a 30-year absence to investigate the suspicious death of her father, Cliff, a renowned African-American poet. As she probes a resistant past, she must face the rumor that she herself went missing on the day her father died — an event of which she has no memory.
Benz's "attention to the recurring nature of racism in this country, and her gift for weaving these insights into a gripping narrative, establish Benz as an adept critic and storyteller," the New York Times said in a review.
"As Billie mines the present for clues, she is tethered to the past, settling into the house she visited as a child, reuniting with a cousin ... and even beginning a relationship with a white man whose ancestors owned the plantation hers sharecropped," the Times reviewer wrote. "It is also satisfying to witness Benz skillfully connecting a troubled history to its corresponding present."
Our reviewer is Erica Dawson, Ph.D., director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Tampa, where she is an associate professor of English and writing. She is the author of three books of poetry: When Rap Spoke Straight to God (Tin House, 2018), winner of the 2018 Florida Book Awards Gold Medal for Poetry; The Small Blades Hurt (Measure Press, 2014), winner of the 2016 Poets’ Prize; and Big-Eyed Afraid (Waywiser Press, 2007), winner of the 2006 Anthony Hecht Prize.
We exchanged some warmup questions and answers with our speaker:
Q. The Gone Dead combines a mystery story -- who killed Billie's father? -- with observations on the pervasive racism in the Mississippi Delta. How does the author weave these two themes together?
A. The mysterious death of a black man living in Mississippi in 1972 inherently raises questions of whether racism was involved. The two themes are automatically woven together, so to speak.Q. What does this book have to say to readers in this era of renewed white nationalism and #blacklivesmatter? One critic praised the author's ability at skillfully connecting a troubled history to its corresponding present. How is this both an old story and a new story?
A. In many ways, it’s not an old story and a new story, it’s a single story. And the story is timeless. Benz shows us that nothing has changed between the past and present.
Q. What most surprised you about The Gone Dead?
A. The people who were involved in Cliff James’s disappearance.
Q. In 100 words or fewer, persuade someone to read this book!
A. This book is the story of a family, a town, and a country. Benz draws our attention to the strength of the human spirit as it faces brutal truths.
Final Affairs Fair | Helpful Links and Resources
Designation of health-care surrogate: https://tinyurl.com/yyu4tfz8
Statutory form on living wills: https://tinyurl.com/y4mlrh68
Five Wishes instructions and access to forms ($5 for individual form completed online, discounts for multiple printed forms)
https://fivewishes.org/five-wishes/state-detail/florida
Empathy Health (Suncoast Hospice) website on advance directives (these forms are free): https://empathhealth.org/choices-for-care/
Anatomical Board of the State of Florida (information and form for donation of body to science): https://anatbd.acb.med.ufl.edu/
and https://anatbd.acb.med.ufl.edu/donor-packet/general-information/
Statutory designation of health care surrogate: https://tinyurl.com/yy33nzg9
Statutory designation of health care surrogate for a minor: https://tinyurl.com/yxhu2f9x
Further Reading on End-of-Life Issues
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Happens in the End, by Atul Gawande
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and Chicago Tribune, now in paperback with a new reading group guide.
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.
Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients' anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them.
In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures — in his own practices as well as others’ — as life draws to a close. Riveting, honest, and humane, Being Mortal shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life, all the way to the very end.
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
#1 New York Times Bestseller. 2014 National Book Award Finalist, winner of the inaugural 2014 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, winner of the 2014 Books for a Better Life Award, winner of the 2015 Reuben Award from National Cartoonists Society
New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents.
The particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies: an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia … and a mother, a former assistant principal, whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades. The themes, however, are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care.
An amazing portrait of two lives at their end and an only child coping as best she can, Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? shows the full range of Roz Chast's talent as cartoonist and storyteller. This book is available in the Cathedral library.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
#1 New York Times bestseller; Pulitzer Prize finalist; Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir; Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage
At the age of 36, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated.
When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student — “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” — into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’ ” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
This classic book explores the now-famous idea of the five stages of dealing with death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. With sample interviews and conversations, Dr. Kugler-Ross gives the reader a better understanding of how imminent death affects the patient, the professionals who serve the patient, and the patient’s family, brining hope, solace and peace of mind to all involved. This book is available in the Cathedral library.
Knocking On Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler
Award-winning journalist Katy Butler was living thousands of miles from her aging parents when the call came: Her beloved 79-year-old father had suffered a crippling stroke. Katy and her mother joined the more than 28-million Americans who are shepherding loved ones through their final declines.
Doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker, which kept his heart going while doing nothing to prevent a slide into dementia, near-blindness, and misery. When he said, “I’m living too long,” mother and daughter faced wrenching moral questions. Where is the line between saving a life and prolonging a dying? When do you say to a doctor, “Let my loved one go?”
When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker, condemning her father to a lingering death, Butler set out to understand why. Her quest had barely begun when her mother, faced with her own grave illness, rebelled against her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and met death the old-fashioned way: head-on.
Part memoir, part medical history, and part spiritual guide, Knocking on Heaven’s Door is a map through the labyrinth of a broken medical system. Technological medicine, obsessed with maximum longevity, is creating more suffering than it prevents. Butler chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a movement bent on reclaiming the “Good Deaths” our ancestors prized. In families, hospitals, and the public sphere, this visionary memoir is inspiring the difficult conversations we must have to light the path to a better way of death.
Once her nurse, now her mentor
Twenty-three years ago, parishioner Betsy Adams nursed a premature baby named Victoria in the neonatal intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. Now that baby is a nurse resident, working under Betsy’s supervision on a clinical rotation. You can read the full story here.
Sam Tallman’s Retirement Farewell
We are so thankful for everything Sam has done for the Cathedral! We wish him and Mike all the best in their new chapter.
A note from Sam: “My retirement celebration sent us on an emotional roller coaster, and I’m still amazed I held it together. For Mike and me, it took two days before we were ready to read all the cards. All your thoughts and best wishes opened the depth of what these seven years have meant, and I am so thankful there will be ministry in new ways still ahead, along with time for home and newfound interests. Thank you all so much and will see you in the late fall.”
Join us as we explore what it means to become the beloved community
Over the next few months, in a series of Crosstown articles, the Becoming the Beloved Community Team hopes to share with you more of what we have discovered in exploring this exciting, yet challenging, call from God to the church — the call to the journey of Becoming Beloved Community. For more information contact Betsy Adams (betsyadams@earthlink.net). To read the full article, visit spcathedral.org/crosstown-newsletter
Joyful Easter Season Continues Through Ascension Day and Pentecost
The jelly beans are gone and the Easter bonnets are back in their boxes, but the Great 50 Days of Easter continue.
The season of Easter lasts from Easter Sunday -- April 21 -- until Pentecost, on June 9. During this celebratory season you'll see lots of signs and symbols around the church and in our worship that say we are continuing to rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord.
The subdued music of Lent is replaced by joyous song, and the modest greenery has given way to colorful floral arrangements. The altar hangings and the clergy vestments are a festive white, and the crosses have emerged from their veils. Our readings, from the Acts of the Apostles, tell about the post-Easter appearances of Jesus.
We bring back the "Alleluias" in worship, and we omit the Confession during Easter season as we celebrate our new lives in Christ. At the start of the 10:15 a.m. service, right after the Collect for Purity, we sing the Pascha Nostrum ("Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us").
One big sign of Easter season is that the paschal candle stands at the altar, lighted during services to symbolize the risen Christ, the pillar of fire that led the Israelites out of bondage, and the fire of the Holy Spirit.
For the rest of the year, this candle stands beside the baptismal font near the entrance to the sanctuary. We bring the font and the candle forward to the marble area when we celebrate baptism. At a funeral the paschal candle stands beside the casket or remains, a symbol of the presence of Christ at these key moments.
In the days to come we will observe two major feast days.
The first, 40 days after Easter, is Ascension Day, on May 30, when Jesus ascended into heaven to be with his Father. This day is set in scripture: Acts 1:1-5, 10-11.
On Ascension Day we recognize that Jesus is no longer here, bodily, on earth, limited to one place or one time. Now we recognize him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, and accessible everywhere, all the time, to everyone.
Ten days later, on June 9, we observe Pentecost ("50th Day"), regarded as the birthday of the church. We'll have more details next month about Pentecost, but do mark your calendar for that day. Plan to wear red, the festive color, and dress casually, because after the 10:15 a.m. service we'll move into Harvard Hall for our annual picnic. Fried chicken and all the fixin's -- but more about that next month.
This Ascension window, in the far northeast corner of the Cathedral, shows the hands of God welcoming Jesus into heaven. The disciples and Mary the Mother of Jesus (lower right, with pink headscarf) watch as he ascends.
Bishop Smith inserted the five clove-shaped pins representing the nails that wounded Jesus. Grains of incense are embedded in the pins, signifying the wounds in his hands, feet and side. The Greek letters for Alpha and Omega indicate that Christ is the beginning and the end. The fish are symbols for Christ. Decals indicate the year. The candle is 51 percent beeswax, symbolizing the purity of Christ.
A New Year in Stewardship: Think About Legacy Giving
Later this spring we will offer information sessions about planned legacy giving. The Cathedral is one of five parishes in the Diocese of Southwest Florida that are participating in a pilot study by the Episcopal Church Foundation to find effective ways of creating a “culture of stewardship.” You’ll be hearing more from us about this. Our pledge drive lasts for two months in the fall, but stewardship of time, talent and treasure is something we work at every day of the year. Below is a chart that suggests ways you can offer your time, talent, and treasure in 2019. New year’s resolutions, anyone?
Have questions or would like more information? Contact Ray McColgan, Stewardship Chair.
A conversation with the Rev. Paige Hanks
Our transitional deacon, the Rev. Paige Hanks, will be ordained priest at 11 am Saturday, January 5. All are invited to attend this service and welcome her into the next stage of her life and service in the church.
Paige was ordained deacon in June in the Diocese of Dallas and most recently lived in North Carolina. She moved to St. Petersburg in late fall because of her husband David's job with Johnson Controls. To help us get to know each other, we asked Paige to tell us about herself. (A shorter version of this Q&A appears in the January issue of our Crosstown newsletter.)
The path to becoming a priest is shaped not only by a sense of call but by how we recognize the image of God in those around us and reflect it back into the world. The Rev. Paige Hanks shares with us what she has learned and experienced along her journey.
Women Arriving at the Tomb by He Qi
Who is your favorite character in the Bible, and tell us why.
PAIGE: Mary Magdalene is my favorite character, although there are so many completely human folks that God draws in and equips for leadership! Her presence in each of the four Gospels and as a witness to Christ’s death and resurrection serve as a reminder to me that a faithful presence with Christ will be a witness to others. I sometimes imagine that Mary and I could have been friends had we been contemporaries, as I love to be inspired by folks who are willing to be brave and speak out the truth.
Tell us your favorite hymn, and why.
PAIGE: This may be the hardest question to answer, because hymnody is my prayer language. When I don’t have words, or when my feelings are swirling around and I can’t make sense of what’s happening, I default to singing hymns and songs of praise mostly by myself (you’re welcome!). Hymns help me to center myself in a particular moment in time and help me forget about all the extras that are intruding while I am trying to be focused. I particularly love hymns that have sacramental language around the body and blood of Christ, as I am deeply transformed and humbled at God’s altar when I consider receiving the gifts of our Savior. If you forced me to choose, I would have to say “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.” There is something magical about the words and tune for me that transport me to another space where I can almost feel myself surrender to the power and love of Christ.
Tell us about a time when you found yourself talking to someone you didn't know about God (gulp! an evangelism moment!).
PAIGE: First of all, we have to OWN the word evangelism and be not afraid to claim it! Talking about God to others is a sacred opportunity, and I can’t think of one time (outside the church setting) where I have found myself planning to go out and tell someone about God. Yet I have had countless opportunities to do so, some of which I have taken, and some of which I let slip right on by.
One of my favorites was at the dentist's office when I showed up for a routine cleaning. I had planned to go home from work to change out of my collar (to be more comfortable in that dentist’s chair). But the day got really busy at church and I didn’t have a chance. I walked in wearing my clerical shirt and had a great conversation about God with the new receptionist. He had never met a member of the clergy, and although we didn’t talk long -- because it was time for my appointment -- we had such a warm conversation between two people who were just trying to understand one another. I didn’t push the conversation toward God, but was excited to answer the questions being asked by someone who didn’t know much about God. It had been a busy day without much time for reflection, and this conversation gave me lots to consider as I lay in the dentist chair for the next hour. It really made me think about whether he would have asked those same questions if I were wearing my regular clothes. And how I can make the space and time, no matter what I am wearing, to be reflecting the image of God to all people I meet, because that is the best tool for evangelism! Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ!
You had a long first vocation in elementary education as a teacher and principal. What did you learn there that applies to your new vocation as a priest?
“I hope to be able to reach out to each person in a way that recognizes their Imago Dei and reflects back to them that they are loved and valued for exactly who they are as I listen to their story and respond in love.”
PAIGE: One of my personality traits is to be a talker. I am always good for a story or a great conversation. One of my areas of challenge is that while you are talking, you really can’t also be listening. Being a teacher of kids and adults is perhaps surprisingly less about talking and more about listening. Really hearing what people say teaches you what people need: what they need from you as their leader, and what they need for themselves to continue to grow and learn. I hope that working hard to be a better listener helps me provide more effective pastoral care, as well as helps me to recognize the unique worth and individual needs that each person I encounter has at that particular time in their life.
The relationship of our Trinitarian God, Christ, and Holy Spirit models for us all the way that we are to live in community with one another, rather than as solitary individuals. I hope to be able to reach out to each person in a way that recognizes their Imago Dei (image of God) and reflects back to them that they are loved and valued for exactly who they are as I listen to their story and respond in love.
Who were your role models along the way?
Paige and her sisters, Lexi and Mary Beth
PAIGE: So many people have been role models in this crazy life of mine! I am especially drawn to strong women who face adversity with dignity and courage. I would be remiss if I didn’t first mention my own mom, who was my leader in life right up until her death in 2012. She was a rock in our family and never let my sisters and me think there was a thing in the world we couldn’t do if we worked toward it. She taught us to be strong in our faith and to stand for what was right even if everyone else was going in another direction entirely. She was quite young when I was born by today’s standard, and after being a stay-at-home parent she went back to school to be a teacher and eventually a college professor, recognized by her peers and attaining some of the most prestigious accolades in her field of geographic education. But at the end of the day, she was my sounding board, my biggest critic and the president of my fan club. There are hundreds of people who feel the same way about her, and she wasn’t even their mother.
My sisters are also courageous and strong like Mom and I look up to them as role models in different ways as they navigate the challenges of life as successful professionals and women of great faith. When the three of us girls get together, we are quite a force and have tackled many hard challenges together. I am grateful for Mom, Lexi, and Mary Beth, as well as the many other women and men we have been blessed to have as mentors and bonus moms and dads throughout our lives.
How can we encourage young people -- especially girls and women -- to consider whether they feel a call to ordained ministry?
Paige’s parents
PAIGE: This is something for which I have great passion. I did not formally discern a call to ordained ministry until I was well into my 40s. As I reflect on my life in the church, I cannot help but imagine whether that would have been different had I belonged to church in a denomination where women were allowed to serve as priests when I was young. Although I am a lifelong Episcopalian, my first worship experience with a female priest was not until I was a parent in my late 20s. My father was a long-serving acolyte warden in our church, and I was allowed to serve as an acolyte only when we just ran out of all available boys. While Dad came a LONG way in his understanding of women and their roles in church and was super supportive of my discernment process, that kind of thinking perhaps stunted my awareness of God’s calling in my life.
We should be intentional about discussing vocation as Christians, both ordained and as laity active in the world. The last church position I held centered on vocational discernment, and I was very intentional about giving voice to people of all backgrounds. It was completely acceptable for me as a woman to consider becoming an elementary teacher when I was in college, because that is a normative experience we all have in our schooling backgrounds. What if it became normative to have women preaching and teaching throughout God’s church? What a great model for young girls and adult women to see someone doing what they might imagine God calling them to do!