[Oe List ...] Fred's memorial service

Mon Oct 11 18:44:27 CDT 2010

Dear Jaime,

Thank you for such a fine tribute to Fred.  He was an amazing man, his
amazing spirit is still with us.!  One of our dear friends and neighbors
told Fred during his living "funeral" nearly two years ago,  "I have noticed
that as you loose the use of your body, your spirit grows and grows.  It
will need  to be big because of the projects you are envisioning for us to
accomplish after you are gone!".  We will celebrate his life and death on
Saturday with deep sadness and great joy!  "He finished his work!"

Love,

Nancy

2010/10/11 Jaime Vergara <svesjaime at aol.com>

> Nancy,
>
>  This was in the September 27 edition of the Saipan Tribune.
>
>  *In Memoriam*
> *
> *
> Jaime
>
>  Stillness lingers in my soul
> By Jaime R. Vergara
> Special to the Saipan Tribune
>
>  “It was my destiny to join in a great experience,” is the great opening
> line to Hermann Hesse's The Journey to the East. This is not a travel book
> to India and/or China, though the journey itself would be just as equally
> strange, if not unsettling to the West-originating spirit. The story is
> about a League whose members are motivated by a collective vision long lost
> in our narrator and was in the process of trying to retrieve it.
>
> Not surprisingly, a bevy of management books evolved later out of the
> inspiration of the main character Leo, on servant stewardship, though not
> the muchacho variety with which we've crucified Judge Ken Govendo. Leo's
> style is more of the enabling and facilitating kind that we do not see
> exhibited in our gung-ho in-charge macho “I lead, you follow” style of
> leadership.
>
> Our interest in The Journey is the fact that I used to belong to “the
> Order” (not the racist one in Montana), a League-like group that began with
> the Ecumenical Institute of Chicago, developed a social program as the
> Institute of Cultural Affairs (whose Blue Shirts once worked with Amata
> Kabua, Tony Debrum and members of the Marshall Islands' *Nitijela*), and
> constituted ourselves as the Order: Ecumenical, an experiment in intentional
> community within the context of contemporary *saeculum saecula seaculurum.
> * All right, don't quit. I just threw in those pretentious three Latin
> words (I'm a Protestant so they are foreign to me, too) to see if I still
> have your attention. We were about holy secularity! The point is, we took
> glocal (global context, local operation) as our organizational mode and
> pretty much appropriated every time zone, worldwide and history-long, as our
> environment to reformulate comprehensive human services while plumbing the
> depth of human consciousness. Are you still with me?
>
> Anyway, we had enough sense when the organization's center would not hold,
> to dissipate in 1988 to “a thousand lights” (my family disengaged in '84)
> and went about our individual business in diaspora without benefit of
> collective wisdom and support of Centrum, nexus, way
> stations/ashrams/religious houses of a spirit empire. However, thanks to the
> Internet, we managed to be tenuously connected.
>
> More than 20 years later, founders and members are dying off, prompting a
> North Carolina colleague to exclaim: (my paraphrase) “May we stop dying for
> awhile already!” That comes strange from a group known for its passion for
> living and graciousness in dying. But like every one else, time comes when
> the question of legacy is raised. *What hath God wrought?* is the
> traditional language in King James' milieu. Our response is unequivocally in
> the realm of pedagogy. We chose to live in another world in the midst of
> this world, where the quality of the moment rather than its longevity
> defines its eternity. We are, as it were, in this world but not of this
> world! We beckon others to join! It is free. It is the only way to be.
>
> This comes home personally because my mother just turned 90 today (Sunday
> in Honolulu, though already Monday on Saipan) and she is sleeping longer and
> more often now than when she was still sprite five years ago when my Dad,
> nine years her senior, completed his journey at 94. They supported “the
> Order” with three of their five children as members. She has made peace with
> the inevitable and is biding her pace to see when it is time to let go into
> the abyss.
>
> I am not using that language just for poetry. One of our members literally
> did that recently. *Fred Lanphear,* a genius in intentional community,
> established a communal housing outside of Seattle *(http://songaia.com/)*after serving in various capacities around the world with “the Order.” He
> was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known Lou
> Gehrig's disease), and this October, was to raise some research funds in a
> walkathon while in his wheelchair. He didn't make it. This month, when he
> knew terminus was in sight, wrote his last blog, gathered members of kin and
> kindred, did his exercise in bed one last time, still counting to make sure
> the nurses did not skip a beat, and then went to sleep, and literally “gave
> up the ghost,” if I may be allowed that old metaphor. Response among the
> living to the completion of such a life can fall into grief, but
> momentarily; it is mostly a silent but nevertheless profound celebration of
> being, unique and unrepeatable, none of its like was ever nor will ever be
> again.
>
> *Stillness lingers in my soul* in our title was coined by one of our lady
> Presbyter members who has since retired. My Tar Heel colleague's lament is a
> human cry when hearing the clanging of Mephistopheles' spade gets louder. My
> email address has 2031, the year of my life covenant's termination. Dec. 15,
> to be exact, and anything after that is icing on the cake. Termination
> before that is merciful c'est la vie! The stillness issues from the gracious
> acceptance of life and death, first, by that which transcends, is immanent,
> and transparent of, our existence, that resounded with the big YES from the
> original blessing to our acquired enfeebled assent. Then we freely map out
> the details of the stillness in our own individual journeys, from which
> “cometh peace that passeth all understanding." Lost you again? That’s what
> Leo said!
>
> It is Mother's Day at Aala Park in Honolulu today, and in her own way,
> Lucrecia has stillness in her soul!
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nancy Lanphear <nancy at songaia.com>
> To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Sent: Tue, Oct 12, 2010 7:52 am
> Subject: [Oe List ...] Fred's memorial service
>
>  Dear Ones,
>
> I have trying to decide how to get a message out to those of you are
> attending Fred's memorial service on Saturday, since I do not know for sure
> who is coming.  So here comes an email that will let all of you know what is
> happening and those of you who are coming, to know what is expected of you.
>
> Those who are coming, please come to the front right of the tent in the
> reserved area.  It will be marked.  We will be singing "The Vision."  Fred
> asked for Kaz's words to be used and this seems like the most appropriate
> way to do that.
>
> Later in the afternoon, as we process to the burial site, the Order and
> Songaians will stand to the right of the tree.  Michelle will guide us
> there.
>
> I look forward to being with those of you who join us on Saturday,  and
> will feel the presence of those who are not present on the land.
>
> Love,
>
> Nancy
>
>  Place:  Songaia Community, Bothell, WA
> Date: October 16, 2010
> Time:  1:00 to 4:00 pm
> Program:  Reflections from Family, Community and Friends
> Burial of Ashes – a special rock under a family tree in our back nyard
> Walking the Land –stories and places on the land where Fred’s passion is
> evident
> Potluck:  Please bring beverages and cookies to share (juice, soda, etc.)
> Veggies and fruit will be provided
>
> RSVP: Please let us know if you are planning to attend and how many people
> in your group.
> Reservations can be made at Fred's Memorial Website
> http://elderfred.wordpress.com/freds-memorial-service/
>
> Dress: According to weather (umbrella and appropriate shoes if rain is
> forecast)
> Parking:    Carpool if possible, offsite parking
> Please let us know if you have a disability or need assistance
>
> Gifts: In lieu of gifts, donations can be made to:
> Journeys   www.riteofpassagejourneys.org/get-involved/donate
> ALS Association (Fred's Folks)  www.alsa.org/donate
> Kirkland Congregational Church UCC  www.kccucc.org/
> Fellowship of Intentional Communities  www.ic.org/in/donation.php
>
> Questions: Michelle Grandy (michelle at songaia.com or 206-321-4220)
>
>
>
>
>
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