[Oe List ...] For all the saints by John Montgomery

[Herman Greene]

Rest in peace, John

 
<http://monkeyltd.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/300px-all_saints_episcopal_chu
rch_jensen_beach_florida_0121.jpg> 

http://notesfromthebalcony.com/ 

This is the season when our congregations celebrate the "Community of
Saints" who have gone on before us and who stand now as beacons showing the
way for our own journeys of faith and proclamation. Officially, the date is
November 1. As I look around, some churches formally celebrated the
tradition yesterday and others like mine will take care of liturgical
business next week.

There are hymns marking these words and deeds. There are rituals
memorializing congregational members who have died during the previous 12
months. And many of us whose closest loved ones have passed in the last
several years mark the time in solemn reflection on the present shattered
bonds of intimacy that will perhaps in the future be healed - as the old
song anticipates, a time when "the circle will be unbroken." This is always
the case for me as I reflect on the life and death of my spouse, friend,
lover and partner in mission, Judy Sparks Montgomery who passed now some ten
years ago.

Four years ago, our church, broke with tradition and we did not sing the
grand old hymn by William Walsham How, For All the Saints. We did not sing
this hymn because my pastor, David Jones, feeling in his "mind and heart"
that this is the right thing to do in relationship to a request that I had
made that previous week in our worship committee meeting, he directed our
music team to choose other songs.

I had not asked that we would not sing the hymn. I simply indicated my hope
that we did not make this hymn the "summary" of our worship experience.

David felt that a one year pause would not be improper. David's gesture to
me as both a member of the worship committee and as a friend was
particularly humbling.

So what is this all about?

My witness had to do with my deep existential experience of this particular
celebration of worship over the last several years. Ralph Vaughan Williams'
majestic tune and How's poetic words are indeed classic. But as I have
repeatedly sung this hymn, it has been harder and harder for me to see that
this is about Judy and others like her. The military tenor of the language
does not paint a picture of my late wife's sainthood.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not being anti-soldier, many have given the
full measure defending not just my country but my country's values and I am
more than willing to acknowledge their contribution. My difficulty with the
hymn particularly as it shows up in our hymn book is not what is there, but
what is missing.

For example, our current United Methodist hymnbook cuts some very important
verses that speak of our forebears in faith - the preachers of our message,
the writers of our gospels and the martyrs who stood their ground even when
threatened with torture (a lesson, we seem too easily ready to forget these
days).

Listen to these words.

3) For the Apostles' glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o'er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

4) For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

5) For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For All the Saints was written as a processional hymn by the Anglican Bishop
William Walsham How. The hymn was first printed in Hymns for Saint's Days,
and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864. The hymn was sung to the melody
Sarum, by Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the
English Hymnal in 1906. This hymnal used a new setting by Ralph Vaughan
Williams which he called Sine Nomine (literally "without name") in reference
to its use on the Feast of All Saints, November 1. It has been described as
"one of the finest hymn tunes of [the 20th] century." (Thank you Wikpedia)

Why Bishop How also included four full verses using military imagery must
remain a mystery. At this point we cannot recover the historical context
that informed his decisions. Perhaps they partake of "Onward Christian
Soldiers." In this country, we were deeply divided over the question of
slavery, although I have found no documentation that How had this in mind
when he wrote the verses.

We are generally used to singing three of the original four.

2) Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

7) O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

8) And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

9) The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Alleluia, indeed.

Of course, How introduced the hymn with the stirring words that we all know
by heart.

1) For all the saints, who from their labours rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

How concludes his hymn with verses reflecting on the day when in its
fullness, the Kin(g)dom does arrive.

6) O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

10) But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

I've always taught my children that if they see the need, they do the deed. 

In my follow-up conversation with David, I suggested two particular
responses that could be made in the future allowing us to re-appropriate
this glorious hymn. First, we must sing all the verses and we need to find
the time in our worship to make this happen. Secondly, we can create
additional verses that celebrate the sainthood of all. I have now committed
to crafting several of these new verses. I'm including two. Part of the
purpose of this post is to invite your aid. I would welcome any and all
contributions. Here is my first draft - you will quickly see why I am asking
for help.

O great physician, hear now our fervent prayer
Guide our doctors, our nurses in their care
That brings health and wholeness to our deep despair,
Sing alleluia, Sing alleluia

Yes, I know it needs work! Try this one.

Deep well of wisdom, our passions still ignite
Strengthen all teachers, together we seek light
That frees all from ignorance, that discerns the wrong from right
Sing allelulia, Sing alleluia

My next verse would be for relief workers - I'm thinking particularly of
those firefighters related to 911 both during the bombing and the clean-up
afterwards. I'm thinking of those who are still rebuilding after our Coastal
hurricanes. I'm thinking about those saints digging half mile holes in Chile
to rescue trapped minors.

And then, we need  at least one verse about those whose sainthood was worked
out in constant care, year after year, for our communities and our local
churches.

If we really worked at it, we could sing for the whole hour. What a great
service of worship and thanksgiving that might be.

11) From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia

Alleluia, Indeed!

 

 

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Jaime R Vergara
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 9:32 PM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Oe List ...] In Memoriam to the Montgomerys

 

For the OpEd page of the Saipan Tribune, Friday.

 

Up the down staircase

 

The bugle morning call of Reverie is amplified daily at 6:45 am over
Shenyang Aerospace University's student housing at the campus.  Physical
consciousness is built in to the cultural foundations of the Taoist
tradition that shaped China so discipline in physical fitness is a matter of
course. 

 

The school trains air cadets and since the difference in the training
between military and civilian pilots does not exist, the boys and girls in
uniform, as squads, platoons, companies and battalions, also shout their
corporate count-offs like grunts, and loudly display their cadenced jog this
time of the day.  The 20-goalpost basketball yard that fronts the 11th floor
view of my room is the gathering node.  Waking up to their noise is
inescapable.

 

Clockwork is a quality of this campus.  Expectations are scheduled. The
lights are turned off at 11 pm (except the foreign student/faculty
apartments), going off in sequence like they do in movie depictions of
correctional institutions. I gave up wristwatches since the PDA, the laptop
and the cell phone, nor do I have an alarm clock in my room.  With the bugle
sound before 7 am, who needs one?

 

I am giddilly ranting on physicality and scheduled expectations because an
email from my Chicago daughter just landed on my desk this morning
announcing the death of John Montgomery, a friend in Atlanta.  He was a
63-year old prone to heart failure.  He and his wife Judy had big hearts,
quite literally, and bursting physiques to match their convivial and jovial
personalities.  Judy preceded him to a memorial urn a few years back.  As a
couple, they preceded my first family's human development tasks in Majuro in
the early 80s where in one of the lagoon islands, they lost an infant at
childbirth while teaching Marshallese students, subsequently deciding to
adopt and raise two infant Asian boys who grew up to be exemplary men of
brain and brawn.

 

I could hear John and Judy's hearty laughs as I trudged down the eleven
floors worth of staircase in my building, my daily muscle-limbering regimen
to accompany the students in formation at the basketball court. John was two
years my junior and at a time when we now have second thoughts about bending
down to pick up an item inadvertently dropped on the floor, and wait until
three items make it before getting down on all fours to retrieve them, we
keep an eye on our breathing and our pulse, and the girth of the midsection.

 

Going down the staircase that faces a U-shaped driveway before the
basketball court is actually motivating since one looks down through the
huge glass paneled window frame and see where one is headed from the
heights.  There is a destination in sight, and as we all know, having a
vision is essential in any journey.  One's we reach the ground floor and
tackle the 20-some steps on each floor on the return, we could no longer see
where we are headed, instead, we look at each step one at a time, which
every management guru will tell you is the key to accomplishing a mission.
Or, as the old staff sergeant use to bellow, "you die in your boots one
tactic at a time."

 

We do not get mentally tired in the process though one inevitably feels the
depth of one's breathing, and the blood pressure races like it was on a
stockcar in the Daytona 500, but reaching the top of the staircase (there
are twelve floors and when we have the time and the inclination, we tramp up
the extra floor) is at once an experience of exhilarating stale atmospheric
release and fresh air intake exuberance.

 

We dabble in English words this semester, having six classes of Oral English
for College level Chinese students who have spent 10 years already in
academic study but are still reluctant to venture into the spoken word.
Various words were used of me before I left Saipan.  A marketing colleague
said that I turned "corpulent," while a buddy patted me on the back for "a
rotund personality".  My former sixth grade student at Hopwood just
hollered, "Mr. V, you are growing fat!"  Now here in Shenyang, I am "cute"
in the fat belly sense of the Chinese Year of the Rabbit xiao tuzi guai guai
(good little bunny).

 

Which puts me in the same league with my contemporaries John and Judy who
bothered to sprinkle mirth on earth as they chuckled their way in and to
heaven.

 

It is officially Spring in Dong Bei Manchuria since the bunny hopped in
February but the Siberian winds has yet to recognize the temperature
prescribed by the solar calendar, but then, this late in March, it is still
snowing in New York even as disaster relief is hampered by the powdery stuff
in Sendai.  My joints refuse to leave winter, requiring socks, mitts and the
winter vest over the long johns before getting under the covers.  The SAU
admin, of course, turned off central heating at the appointed time, which
only leads us to wonder why we left Saipan's year round 24-30 C degrees in
the first place.  Folly is no monopoly of one age group, as my Tinian
colleague would echo.

 

Oh, SAU's public address system does not play "taps" when it turns off the
lights. We are grateful for life's little favors.  We say that on the same
breath as we remember John and Judy, and we are doubly grateful that we were
able to say so when they were still able take the affirmation and
acknowledgement unto their breaths!  Make sure you do the same with your
loved ones.

 

In our corpulence, we trudge.  L'achaim!



j'aime la vie

 

j'aime la vie

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Janice Ulangca <aulangca at stny.rr.com>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Cc: Colleague Dialogue <Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Mon, Mar 21, 2011 11:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Message from Wayne Ellsworth

Thanks very much, Joan.  Our Tokyo colleagues are doing great work.

Janice Ulangca

----- Original Message ----- 

From: jfknutson at aol.com 

To: oe at wedgeblade.net 

Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 10:44 AM

Subject: [Oe List ...] Fwd: How are you all?

 


Thought you all would want to see this from Wayne.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Ellsworth <wayne at icajapan.org>
To: jfknutson <jfknutson at aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Mar 20, 2011 11:18 pm
Subject: Re: How are you all?

Dear Joan, 

 

Yes, we are OK, but Japan has got years of recovery and transformation work
to do.  Shizuyo, Takako, and Nie left at 3pm Saturday for Sendai and
Fukushima with a full truckload of food and clothes, after a full week of
locating where to purchase goods, since the stores are all sold out, and the
government has secured most the remaining essential goods.  

This makes us involved in two Emergency Aid projects at the same time:
Brazil & Japan.   It seems we are more and more getting involved in disaster
recevery, from Japan, to Brazil, Bihar India, and Peace Building in Nepal.
These materials are a great resource, along with Town Meetings and whatever
else we already have.

For Japanese, they are "rural" people and have experienced many struggles
with nature.  Of course they are shocked, still we/they have a positive
perspective.  Amazing!  Yes, this will provide an opening for creative
rebirth in all facets of Japanese society.

Thanks for your email, and sorry for the delay in responding,

Wayne

 

 

On Mar 13, 2011, at 4:24 AM, jfknutson at aol.com wrote:





 

I have been thinking about you non-stop since we heard about the devasting
earthquake.  Many are asking about you guys so if you are able to send a
message to the OE listserve or if you can't, send it to me and I will
forward it.  I have heard from several of my teaching friends and they are
all OK.  A couple of weeks ago I got in touch with Naomi through Facebook
and learned she is in Tokyo too.  I am thinking good thoughts for you.  Be
in touch.  Joan Knutson

 


  _____  


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