Fall
Reporter 2004
(540k. Click here to access color, illustrated version in PDF file
format)
Old South Church
Boston MA 02116
http://www.oldsouth.org
What's inside?
Last year, I was often asked, “What will you do on your sabbatical?” I responded “Go to England for inspiration.” And inspiration is what I got! During the latter part of May and the month of June I visited Chelmsford Cathedral and Ely Cathedral in East Anglia, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London and Llandaff Cathedral and St. David’s Cathedral in Wales. My project was an exploration of the great Anglican choral tradition and cathedral worship that I have long admired. I wondered, “What makes it work?” “Why is it so appealing?” and “What contributes to its longevity and renown?” I wanted to worship, observe choir rehearsals and visit with cathedral and church musicians. With the help of Peter Southwell-Sander, a Canon in the Church of England and a member at Old South, contacts were made and visits arranged. It all worked out “bloody well!” What follows are some impressions and musings from my journal.
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
The first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, where I attended the communion service known as “Choral Eucharist” on Pentecost, May 30, 2004. In spite of the enormity of the nave, the congregation sat in chairs in a circle under the dome, bedecked with scaffolding for the current restoration. The choir did not sing from the choir stalls but rather from choral risers placed within the circle of the congregation. +shers and vergers, festooned in tailcoats and top hats, were well prepared and did a great job of seating and welcoming people at the distribution of Holy Communion and in directing us to a station. I thoroughly enjoyed the organ music by Felix Mendelssohn and Maurice Duruflé, Francis Poulenc’s Mass in G and a communion motet by Giovanni di Palestrina. The final hymn “Come, Holy Spirit, Come!” was sung to a tune familiar to Old South members, Diademata. Through awe-inspiring architecture, well-ordered worship, beautiful music and the presence of many faithful worshippers, the Holy Spirit came to us anew that morning inspiring and leading!
On St. Alban’s Day, June 22, 2004, I attended Choral Evensong at St.
Paul’s, preceded by the choir rehearsal. St. Alban was the first British
martyr. The choir sang the Introit from the Apse and then processed to
an organ improvisation. The customary canticles Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis
were sung in settings by Rupert Jeffcoat, a contemporary British composer.
His treatment of these ancient songs from the Bible was rhythmic and rather
funky! More traditional was Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata O Jesu Christ,
meins leben’s licht with organ accompaniment. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s hymn
“By Gracious Powers” was
sung by the sizable congregation assembled,
this time, with the choir in the stalls.
St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London
St. Martin-in-the-Fields is church whose name is well-known among classical music lovers because of its orchestra in residence, the widely recorded Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. I attended several evening Candlelight Concerts in this historic edifice on Trafalgar Square opposite the National Gallery of Art. St. Martin’s is, of course, a place of worship. It is also a business “promoting excellence in hospitality and the arts.” Financially underpinning the church’s work is its café, gallery and shops in the Crypt where I enjoyed several light evening meals before or after the concerts. In addition, St. Martin’s is a care organization, with a long history of providing services for homeless people. It is a vibrant, open place and I was impressed with its ministry in the neighborhood and beyond and it got me thinking about Old South’s own neighborhood outreach.
St. David’s Cathedral, Wales
I visited West Wales, specifically Pembrokeshire, at the invitation of a friend and colleague from my days at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. This gave me opportunity to sing some Welsh hymns, walk along the breathtaking coast and practice the organ in the Parish Church of St. Mary in Newport where the organist played a special voluntary in my honor on Trinity Sunday, June 6, 2004, at the morning service, Bach’s monumental Prelude in E-flat Major. He also took me on an “organ crawl” to see historic instruments in the region.
Later in the day on Trinity Sunday, I worshipped at St. David’s Cathedral. The beautiful service of Choral Evensong concluded the St. David’s Festival week of music. The canticles Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were by Edward Bairstow, organist of Yorkminster Cathedral in the early twentieth century. A Renaissance motet Holy, Holy, Holy by Thomas Tomkins served as Introit and the thrilling anthem was I Saw the Lord by Sir John Stainer. Other service music was by Barry Rose, erstwhile organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s, London. The choir of Men and Girls sang with conviction and energy, although the conductor worked very hard to get it out of them! Psalm 145 in Anglican chant was particularly fetching and expertly accompanied by the Assistant Organist who also played Marche Pontificale from the first organ symphony by Charles-Marie Widor as the postlude. I was enlightened by the sermon based on this prayer by St. Richard of Chichester (13th century).
Llandaff Cathedral (Cardiff) Wales
On the Second Sunday after Pentecost, June 13, 2004, Choral Eucharist
at the beautiful Llandaff Cathedral was just as it should be; everything
done very well with nothing calling attention to itself. The choir of Men
and Boys sang Harold Darke’s “Service in E” with great sensitivity and
expression. The Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) was particularly engaging with
its mysteriously quiet beginning and sudden forte at “Heaven and earth
are full of thy glory.” Darke was organist at St. Michael’s, Cornhill,
London. The boys alone sang Duo Seraphim during distribution. The procession
was nicely executed with the choir entering at the end of the improvisation
leading into the opening hymn. The clergy entered, stopping in the Nave
where they remained for the General Confession before moving to the Crossing
during the Kyrie (Lord have mercy). At the Gloria they processed the rest
of the way to the High Altar. Prior to the service the organist played
a short chorale by Bach and then improvised for about three minutes building
up to the first hymn. His playing was excellent. The hymn tempos were good
for singing and he used just enough variation of harmony to keep it interesting
without overwhelming the congregation. He painted the text nicely in Hubert
Parry’s hymn “O Praise Ye the Lord” using the composers own harmonization
for the final stanza. The Postlude was Poco vivace and Maestoso from Hermann
Schroeder’s Kleine Präludia und Intermezzi, very effectively used
for the choir’s recessional with the Tuba stop drawn for the bridge and
a segue to the Maestoso. A very well-wrought and satisfying worship experience!
Chelmsford Cathedral and
Ely Cathedral, England
During the octave of Second Pentecost I attended Choral Evensong at Chelmsford Cathedral on June 17, 2004 and Ely Cathedral on June 18, 2004.
Chelmsford is the smallest cathedral in England and is a space that is light, peaceful and welcoming. Before the rehearsal, I was impressed with a tour being given to a group of school children. The students were divided into three groups and given lots of information in an interactive format complete with an organ demonstration. Choral Evensong was well sung by the choir of Men and Boys using William Harris’ Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A Major. Responses by Radcliff and Harris’ anthem Holy Is the True Light rounded out the fare. The choir stalls were aglow with lit tapers in hurricane glass. Prayers were written out, announced, and read including a lengthy prayer by John Bell of the Iona Community in Scotland. The service was sung “on behalf” of the congregation, which is good since we were only seven in number for this service!
Choral Evensong at the magnificent Ely Cathedral observed the First of the Octave of Etheldreda. The cathedral began as a monastery founded in 673 by St. Etheldreda (pronounced Ethel-dreeduh), whose feast day is June 23 (the day of her death in 679). The whole experience – architecture, worship and music – is grounded in the cathedral’s monastic roots. The monastery, of course, was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539 and there is other evidence of the ravages of the Reformation throughout the structure. Evensong was sung in the Medieval Lady Chapel beginning with a voluntary by William Byrd played on the positive organ. A simple procession followed. The canticles were by Henry Purcell and the anthem, the ravishing Ave Maria by Robert Parsons. The Psalm was Gregorian, chanted by the men of the choir in alternation with the cantor. +sing an ancient tune in unison, the choir alternated verses between the basses and trebles for the hymn. The Lessons and Prayers were spoken and the Apostle’s Creed was recited by all facing East. It was a lovely, spiritual experience reflecting the setting and tradition beautifully.
Westminster Abbey, London
Perhaps the highlight of my trip was the weekend I spent at Westminster Abbey, June 19-20, 2004. My gracious hosts placed me in the middle of the choir – literally – for four services, Choral Evensong on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and Matins and Choral Eucharist on Sunday morning. I also attended the choir rehearsal on Saturday and an organ recital late Sunday afternoon.
Very few choirs really thrill me. The choir of Westminster Abbey did! As I said at the outset, I went for inspiration and that’s what I got. They sing Herbert Howells as though it were child’s play. It is! The end of the Collegium Regale Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Herbert Howells, a longtime professor at the Royal College of Music, was positively thrilling, giving me chills down the spine. So was the conclusion of Johannes Brahms’ Schaffe in mir, Gott (Psalm 51). Phrasing, diction, expression, musicianship from within, it was all there. At Evensong, a soft, atmospheric improvisation in the style of Howells, utilizing lots of organ colors, ended in the key of the Introit, Bairstow’s Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee. Singing the hymn “Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor” to St. Helen in that choir with those singers was nothing short of amazing. The postlude played by the Assistant Organist was the Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. In addition to the aforementioned pieces, the staggering amount of choral music for the weekend included Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Te Deum in G and double choir Mass in G Minor, Benjamin Britten’s Jubilate Deo, a new setting of Ave Verum Corpus by Gerald Mills Hendrie, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Heinrich Schütz, Jubilate Deo by Giovanni Gabrielli and responses by Bernard Clucas and Psalms – 119: 49-64, 55:1-17 and 57 in Anglican chant. Organ repertoire included Camille Saint-Säens’ Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, Charles-Marie Widor’s Finale from Symphony No. 8 and the Chorale in A Minor by César Franck. Whew!
As I reflect upon my wonderfully rich sabbatical experience, what strikes me is the faithful continuation of a time-honored distinctive tradition that does not seek to be anything other than what it is. In some sites worship has been offered for more than a thousand years. It makes tangible the great cloud of witnesses. Through it the worshipper becomes part of a large congregation from all over the British Isles and indeed from all over the world. It is worship that attracts many people both young and old. The very best words and music are celebrated and used with great reverence. It is also a tradition that seeks to look inward, to be more inclusive and to reform.
Paraphrasing from the Canon’s sermon at Choral Eucharist, June 20, 2004 at Westminster Abbey, there is a desire for a more inclusive Anglican church; one where there are no tests, nothing to pass, one that welcomes all regardless of status, sexual orientation or understanding of faith; a church where God is still creating, composing, choreographing the dance and making play. Amen to that! +
Proclamation for Minister of Music
by Music Committee Chairman, Peter Coulombe
as read during Worship, September 19, 2004
For countless generations, men and women have experienced the sublime grace of God through the gift of music. Music inspires the soul. Music empowers the spirit. Through music the broken can be made whole and the downtrodden uplifted. The gift of music simultaneously celebrates our differences and draws us into greater communion with one another and our God.
Preludes, postludes, hymns, anthems, and interludes — these pieces of our service add their unique contributions in bringing us together in worship. Familiar and beloved tunes awaken in us a stronger realization of God’s abiding love. Hymns and favorite songs and carols grow to be friends, celebrating in our joys and comforting in our sorrows. New and unfamiliar melodies bring unexpected blessings as they lead us to new experiences.
In recognition of the importance of music to our community of faith, we give special thanks for those who are music-makers among us.
For over seven years, Gregory Peterson has faithfully served Old South Church as its Director of Music. In this role, he has ensured that the music of the church always enabled our worship to glorify God. +nder his leadership, the music of Old South has brought joy and gladness to so many. Always humble, always reliable, always professional, Greg has performed his duties with grace and skill. As a colleague and as leader, Greg is always a pleasure to work with, easy going and caring, resourceful and strong of vision.
Greg’s gifts go beyond his dedication, beyond his appreciation for music history and context, even beyond his magnificently talented fingers and feet at the organ console. Greg has demonstrated a rare sensitivity to the ministry of music at Old South Church. He understands the way in which music can minister to all those who enter this sanctuary. He also understands the way in which the making of music can minister to those who practice and perform it. Whether in times of pastoral need or personal celebration, Greg has been an empathetic listener and compassionate friend to members of the choir, handbell choir, soloists, and instrumentalists.
In recognition of the high quality of Greg’s work, his dedication to Old South Church, and the depth of his spiritual sensitivity, the Music Committee is pleased to bestow upon Gregory Peterson the title of Minister of Music. +
Editor: Old South’s call of its first female Senior Minister in its 335-year history elicited favorable interest both locally and throughout the US, being the subject of numerous media reports, interviews, and even being picked up as an Associated Press story for use nationwide. Here is the full text of the Old South press release that was sent to media outlets.
BOSTON, Oct. 3—The congregation of the Old South Church in Boston, a towering architectural landmark in Copley Square and one of the nation’s most historic churches, today elected the statewide head of the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Taylor, to be its twentieth senior minister. She is the first woman senior minister in the 335-year history of the church, which was founded in 1669.
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is the largest Protestant denomination in Massachusetts with nearly 100,000 members in 425 churches. The roots of the UCC, which was formed in 1957, go back to the Puritans and Pilgrims who founded the state. Nationally, the UCC includes 6,100 congregations and 1.4 million members. Taylor served nationally as moderator of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ from 1999 - 2001.
Taylor, 48, has served since 2001 as the Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC, based in Framingham. Old South Church, founded in 1669 and located at the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth Streets, has about 500 members from Boston and the Greater Boston area. She will resign from her present role and take office at Old South Church on Monday, January 24, 2005.
The overwhelmingly favorable vote occurred in an afternoon congregational meeting following Taylor’s “candidating sermon” to the congregation about “A Vision of Community.”
“Today, on World Communion Sunday,” she said from the pulpit, “a remarkable thing is happening. Christians around the world – Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant– are gathering to share Christ’s meal in a symbolic expression of our unity, despite our differences, despite our diversity.”
She noted the words, “Behold I have set before thee an open door,” which are carved in stone on the Boylston Street porch of Old South Church. Here, she said, “The table is spread for all, all, all: rich and poor, wise and foolish, lost and found, homeless and housed, gay and straight, member and visitor, saint and sinner.”
She continued, “Here, together, we build faith–not in the in the things of this world, not in the false security of arms and armaments, but in the power of God’s mercy to save us even from ourselves.”
Lawrence Bowers, the chair of the search committee, commented, “She is a superb preacher, a thoughtful pastor, an accomplished leader and a respected public voice on social justice and religious issues, who affirms every person as a child of God.” Taylor will succeed the Rev. James Crawford, who retired in 2002 after 28 years as senior minister, and the interim senior minister, the Rev. Carl F. Schultz, Jr. “She will continue Old South’s long history of distinguished preaching, excellent music, and strong social outreach,” said Bowers.
Taylor commented, “Old South has an extraordinary history and legacy. Its story is entwined with the story of this nation: in the creation of democracy, in the pursuit of religious liberty and freedom of speech and assembly. The church’s past is proud and secure. But it is the congregation’s commitment to the present and future that inspires me.”
“As a non-coercive church, the UCC is a roomy tent of religious and social beliefs,” she said. “For instance, a few weeks after same gender marriage became legal in Massachusetts, I asked a group of 50 UCC clergy whether they would officiate at same-gender marriages. Ten raised their hands that they would, 15 indicated they would not, and 25 didn’t indicate either way. There is no bishop to tell them what to do.”
“We believe God is still speaking to us and did not stop speaking when the Bible was written. We are still listening and learning, changing and growing. We are convinced that the clash of competing ideas in uneasy proximity to each other makes for spiritually alive, intellectually agile and deeply engaged Christians. Indeed, it is the unique genius of the UCC that we are able to move in different directions as long as we agree on this: that Jesus Christ is the sole Head of the Church. This is the United Church of Christ.”
Taylor has served churches in Oxford County, Maine, in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Boise, Idaho. In Idaho, she received the Hewlett-Packard Award for Distinguished Leadership in Human Rights in 1999 for her work in co-founding two organizations, Idaho Voices of Faith for Human Rights and the Idaho Human Rights Education Center.
In Massachusetts, she was instrumental in the creation of a new state law that mandates clergy to report suspected child abuse. She also played a significant role in establishing an ongoing interfaith dialogue between Christian and Jewish leaders following the events of 9/11. +nder her leadership, the Massachusetts Conference was host sponsor for the October 2003 visit to Boston harbor of the Freedom Schooner Amistad, which celebrates a turning point in the movement to abolish slavery—the US Supreme Court’s 1841 decision awarding freedom to 53 Africans who had been kidnapped to be sold as slaves.
Under her supervision, the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC published a revised manual for church renewal and growth and secured a $1.5 million grant from the Lily Endowment for a five-year program, “Developing and Sustaining Pastoral Excellence.”
Taylor, who is from Long Island, New York, graduated in 1974 from Emma Willard School and in 1978 from Macalester College. She holds a master of divinity degree from Yale and a doctor of ministry degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary. She was ordained into the United Church of Christ in Northfield, MA, where she was the chaplain intern at the Northfield Mount Hermon School. She is married to the Rev. Peter Southwell-Sander. They are members of Grace Congregational Church in Framingham and currently live in the Conference parsonage in Framingham.
The history of Old South Church includes the names of Benjamin Franklin, revolutionary patriot Samuel Adams, judge and diarist Samuel Sewall and America’s first black poet Phillis Wheatley. The Old South Meeting House in downtown Boston, its home from 1730 to 1875, was a center of revolutionary activity in the struggle for liberty from the British, including the famous Boston Tea Party. Since the 1970s, the church has been particularly active in Boston housing issues and helped fund the start of the Tent City Corporation which built mixed income housing next to Copley Place. +
Editor’s Note: at the Old South Congregational meeting, in answer to a question, Larry Bowers wryly noted that Nancy Taylor had no qualms about being called into a tradition of Senior Ministers who tend to serve for multi-decades . . . only in being the first one in institutional memory who is less than six feet tall!
Two Voices from Distant Shores
by Anna Nicole Dartley
and Evan H. Shu
Editor: This past spring, Anna Nicole Dartley (then a sixth grader at the Boston Renaissance Charter School), wrote a prize winning essay about courage as part of the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum. This literacy program honors the memory of a Boston sixth-grader who died of leukemia in 1991. Her wonderful and moving essay, was excerpted and published in the Boston Globe on May 24, 2004. It concerns Anna Nicole’s experience as an adopted child from China. We are publishing the essay in full (in bold italics below) but this time intertwined with excerpts (in standard text) from the Summer Reporter '97 article, “Let the Children Come,” that described the adoption from Saideh Dartley’s perspective, Anna Nicole’s adopted mother. Together the two voices on distant shores give a unique two-world perspective on adoption that we hope you will appreciate.
Anna Nicole Dartley:
This is a voice from the distant shores of China. It is a voice
of a lonely 4-year-old searching for a family of warmth, love, and kindness.
She knew she had to find her own happiness and love, for if she didn’t she would lose it all. It took this girl all her courage to obtain her dream. That little girl was me. I didn’t know anything about laughter, joy, or love.
From Let the Children Come, Reporter Summer 1997:
A momentous-joyous occasion that brightened Old South Church recently
was Saideh Dartley’s adoption of her daughter, Anna Nicole, from Ningbo,
China last fall. As all of you who have met Anna Nicole know, she is a
beautiful, charming little girl of four, who is full of life and energy
and who, with her mannerisms, sideways looks and winks, reminds you very
much of . . . well, a young Saideh! “A perfect match” many people have
been heard to exclaim.
“I always wanted to adopt,” Saideh said, “and I didn’t want a baby; I wanted an older child from 3 to 5.” Being single, she related, made it a difficult and lengthy process to be considered for a child of that age from the United States, so she started looking into foreign countries that were open to single parent adoptions. In 1991, China had opened up to foreign adoptions but then they closed again. So it was with some surprise that in the summer of ’95 Saideh heard Arlen Brown tell her that his friend had just completed an adoption of a little girl from China. Hearing that China was “open” again, she said to herself, “I am gonna go for it.”
She was able to meet “eyeball to eyeball” with the director for China placement at the Alliance for Children agency and said to her up front that she was a single person who lived in the city and that her child would attend public school. But Saideh told her that she “could offer the most important thing in life — love” and the child would not want for anything. Saideh found an immediate receptiveness, warmth and empathy for her situation at Alliance for Children and even though she had been counseled to check out other agencies, she knew right away that she had found the right agency.
Anyone contemplating an adoption should know right away that the “paperwork can be overwhelming,” Saideh noted. Her own social worker told Saideh that the initial paperwork requiring such information as bank accounts, birth certificates, police background checks, autobiographical essays, and parenting attitudes would take over 3 weeks to complete. With the same characteristic energy that she took to her previous Senior Deacon duties, Saideh completed this first batch of paperwork in just 3 days!
When I was in China, you had to fight and be the quickest or else someone would get what you wanted first. I remember when I was in the orphanage since the age of 3. I called the people there “The Bad People and the Good People.”
When I was 3 1/2, the orphanage director taught me to dance and sing in Chinese for the people who would give the orphanage money. If I did one little mistake, they would beat me with a rolling pin after the rich people left. It hurt so much that all I could do was cry. The only thing that helped me get through was courage. Courage helped me not to be scared of what I was afraid of.
Once your papers are in, it is difficult to know how long it will take. At least with a natural pregnancy, you know you are in for a nine month wait, but when you are going through both your own government as well as a foreign country, it can be very unpredictable. (Then there was the little matter of the shutdown of the US federal government last December/January.) Originally, Saideh had been told that the adoption might come through as early as March of ’96 but with first one thing, then another, the waiting stretched out for many months longer. “It’s a roller-coaster of emotions” Saideh said, “first you’re up for 6 seconds [with some good news] then you go back down.”
You always had to look on the bright side, even when it was a terrible day. This was another thing I had to believe. I was always afraid to say something because I thought if I said something wrong, I would get beaten.
I would mostly play “Toss the Ring,” dance, sing, and sometimes watch TV, which I never really watched by myself. I didn’t really have a friend.
In a home visit required for adoption approval, Saideh’s assigned social worker asked her if she was prepared to start an interracial family. “I told her that in my class,” said Saideh, a elementary school teacher, “I have all types of children: Korean, Native-American, Chinese, African-American, but I never look at them like that. Chase is Chase; Johnny is Johnny; Suzy is Suzy. When I grew up in the South End, I didn’t even know what prejudice was until I went to college.” The social worker told her, “I knew from the moment I stepped in that you would be a perfect mother.”
Saideh also imagined the type of child she wanted, “I wanted a free thinker who knows her own mind; who would be an individual. I wanted her to love life as much as I do. — Funny thing is I got everything I wanted . . . maybe a little more so! I wanted someone who could sing —she has the most beautiful voice (and I can’t sing at all); she dances. I love to laugh and so does she; we joke around. . . I wanted someone who is determined — Janet Butler says ‘we’re two peas in a pod.’ “
Through this agonizing ordeal, the hardest part for Saideh was imagining that some anonymous Chinese bureaucrat would be picking out her child for her. Yet, she knew somehow that her child was out there waiting for her and she would start every day with “Good morning, my Love.” and end it with “Good night, my Love.” Perhaps some higher hand really was at work here, because in Anna Nicole, they really did come up the perfect match.
Finally on July 3rd, shortly after hearing that she might have to wait another 4-6 months, she got the call that she had been matched and that she needed to be ready to travel at any time. “When I heard it on the phone, I was ecstatic! I have my baby, I have my baby! After years of waiting, is it true, is it true?!” When she got the first picture of her daughter, she handed it to her mother and father and said, ‘I’d like you to meet your new granddaughter, Anna Nicole’ (named after her mother Anna and her father, Nicholas.) Her father sat down and said, “This is the best news I have ever gotten.”
Still more waiting. Then on the day before her birthday, Saideh finally got the call on August 21st to “pack your bags.” Packing your bags in this case is a little more complicated than throwing a few of your things into a suitcase. You need to bring the right size and type of seasonal clothing for your child. (All Saideh was told was that Anna Nicole was 39" tall and weighed 35 lbs.) In addition, the Chinese orphanage and as well as other governmental agencies required substantial cash payments, all to be made in U.S. $100 bills. (Sorry, but they don’t take American Express!) They finally left on August 28th, which was Saideh’s father’s birthday -- she promised to bring back his new grandchild as a present.
Saideh went over with a group of three other single mothers, one couple, and one father. Even once you are there, scheduling is uncertain. The group was “on a bus going to Great Wall, when they gave us a call over the walkie-talkie and we turned around.” The first step was to go to the orphanage and meet the children. Given their sensitivity over recent negative publicity on Chinese orphanages, the Chinese officials told the group that they had to wait in a specified balcony area. “Don’t take pictures and don’t move!”, they were told. One by one the babies came out, but no Anna Nicole. Finally, Saideh demanded, “where is my child . . . I want my child!” At last, they brought her out.
One day I was rushed up a flight of stairs and I saw a short lady who had on funny clothes. Her hair was so curly. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I didn’t even know that the lady was my dream. I just saw her for five minutes, and then was taken away back to the children’s playroom.
Saideh grabbed the translator and told translator, “Tell her I am her new mother. Tell my daughter that I have loved her even before I knew she would be my daughter. Tell her that I will always love her and that she has nothing to be afraid of. — I held her. No reaction except when I bounced a wonderball for her, I saw her eyes move. But she took my hand and wanted me to go down the stairs with her, but I had to tell her ‘Honey, I can’t go with you.’ I had about 7 minutes to make up my mind, do I want this child? Of course, I do. The nurse pulled her out of my hands. The babies are taken back. Everybody’s crying.”
The lady gave me a picture, balls, and some toys. The children in the playroom took everything that was given to me, and also kicked me.
In the life I have experienced, I have learned that courage can get me through anything if I can find it inside myself.
Next, the parents group had to take a 4 1/2 hour train ride to Hangzhou where the official adoption would take place. They had to sign with their thumbprints. They signed more papers, then an official looked over all the papers. In addition, “gift” cartons of cigarettes for various officials had to be purchased. “I was always the last one.” recalls Saideh. “At the final adoption, they give you a stuffed panda bear and the official adoption certificate.” Saideh said she could care less about the panda bear, but she rejoiced over receiving the official adoption paper that stated in writing that Anna Nicole was finally hers. It was September 3rd, the official adoption day. And finally, finally, Anna Nicole, along with the other babies, were brought to their new parents at the hotel. After a nice bubble bath, and a long nap, Saideh took Anna Nicole down to the main dining room for their first meal together. “I was proud of my new daughter and I wanted everybody to see her. I also wanted to get something very nutritional for her. She had beautiful table manners from the word go”.
Saideh was warned that children from orphanages can have delayed mobility development problems, but she found none of that with Anna Nicole. They took long walks together right away. Anna Nicole would put in lots of noodle soup into Saideh’s shopping cart. She got lots more bubble baths, and she got lots of sleep. In the beginning, she presented only a brave but stoic facade. “She started showing some emotion the second day she was with me,” Saideh recalled. “Bit by bit, she let her emotions out. She liked to run down the hotel corridors ringing all the doorbells. She got the biggest kick out of pressing the elevator buttons. She was given a pack of cards and right away matched the 9s to the 9s, 4s to the 4s.”
“From the day we got on the plane, she took everything in stride. She’s been curious from the beginning.” After finally landing at Logan airport, “that’s when I had the feeling that I wanted to cry,” Saideh remembered. “I hugged her and said, ‘Honey, this is where you are going to be happy. Now you will know where love is.’ “After what seemed an interminable, long walk getting to get off the plane, finally way down at the end of the corridor, Saideh saw her mother and other friends, including Janet Butler & Doreen Spence from Old South. She said, “Okay honey, let's run for it — that’s where love is!”
When my mother adopted me, I kind of cried inside because I didn’t really know my birth parents, but I am glad she had the courage to like me. I think people who have never been adopted just don’t know how it feels. It’s like when you have an empty feeling inside your heart. I remember so much more that happened to me in China, and all the courage that led me to my dream.
In her first six months in the US, Anna Nicole has adjusted incredibly well to her new environment (learning English very quickly) as evidenced by her beaming and active presence at Old South. She and Saideh, as well as proud new grandmother Anna Carabitson, are obviously blossoming in their new family life together. The church has been an important part of this new family. “Old South has been fantastic. I took her there on the second day. She was accepted readily. She loves it. She looks forward to it. She loves church school. People have been wonderful and supportive.”
I have no more fears now since I have a family. My courage never disappeared because I believed in my dreams of a family. All my life I followed my courage.
Courage and I are inseparable.
Does Saideh have any advice for other couples considering foreign adoptions? “Just go for it. Don’t even hesitate. Just run and do it.” We know that other Old South members are now in the process of such adoptions, with many more to come hopefully. As Saideh says about Anna Nicole, “She has brought light into our lives. She had brought joy. I feel like I have been her mother for five years. We have always been together.” Yes, as Jesus told us, “Let the children come” . . . and we will all be richer for it.
Postscript by Saideh Dartley (excerpted from her article in the Alliance Family News): Someone said to me when I first adopted Anna Nicole, “Now your life is upside-down.” No,” I replied, “It’s now right side up!” . . . Anna Nicole wanted a sister. I wanted another daughter and a sister for Anna Nicole. I wanted Anna Nicole to feel secure and good about herself. I felt that she had developed emotionally and socially to be ready for a new sister. . . Sara Ann’s picture looked as beautiful to me as Anna Nicole’s picture had three years before . . . When we arrived home, Sara Ann delighted in seeing Anna Nicole’s dollhouse, toys, Barbies and books. She went throughout the house saying, “I like it. I like it!” . . . Was it all smooth and rosy? No! It seemed as if — at times — I was always hearing, “It’s mine, don’t touch it, I want it.” Sara Ann was and is my “half-pint” but she had/has the loudest voice in the world!! If she didn’t want to do it, she would just scream. . . . Anna Nicole is the best big sister in the world. She has helped Sara Ann leap from one and a half year old toddler to a four year old. . . . I cannot imagine my life without my girls. Anna Nicole and Sara Ann are and will forever be part of me. +
Annual Liaison Reports
by Charlotte Simpson
Editor: Old South’s Christian Service and Outreach Committee works with and makes grants to numerous local social service agencies. Here is a summary of liaison reports for several of the most prominent agencies, describing a) what they do: b) what’s new, c) what’s their financial picture; and d) how can Old South help them further beyond our monetary contribution.
YMCA Training, Inc.
18 Tremont Street,
Boston, MA 02108 (617) 542-1800
Training, Inc. (TI) helps low income people learn computer and office skills to gain good jobs and become self-sufficient. Director Anne Myerson enlightened me on the following topics:
What’s new?
1) Thirty new computers and software from a grant awarded by Hewlett
Packard (HP). Along with the latest office software, HP furnished TI with
software called “Prove It,” which is used by employers to test employment
applicants. Thanks to this grant TI graduates are better prepared than
their competition in the job market.
2) Database monitoring of trainee progress, employer needs, graduate statistics and mentor skills.
3) 4 training cycles per year (up from three) to move more applicants through the training program at a faster rate.
Accomplishments and Financial Picture:
a) a break-even budget for 2004. In 2003 TI reduced staff by 1 1/2
persons and was in the hole $125,000;
b) a 20 year anniversary breakfast celebration which netted $41,000;
c) identified two significant corporate contributors;
d) shift in emphasis from training for administrative assistants and
general office support to health care support.
How can Old South help beyond our monetary contribution?
a) English tutors — only one or two lunchtimes a week are needed to
help trainees with conversational English. Old South member Barbara Neale
can answer any questions.
b) Employer Contacts — Would your employer be interested in hiring
TI graduates?
c) Clothing Drive — Old South is the major source of clothing for both
men and women. Trainees who went into the restrooms to try on outfits came
out different people. The professional clothing transformed them by giving
them noticeably more confidence.
d) Volunteer Coordinator — TI is looking for a volunteer who can commit
10 or more hours per week coordinating the services of the mentors. TI
has many business contacts who are interested in helping the trainees learn
skills, write resumes, and practice interviewing. This position involves
working as a liaison with these volunteers to schedule their activities
and maintain communication. This would be an interesting and satisfying
assignment for a professional who is retired or between jobs. It is a great
way to meet new people and develop contacts in the business community.
Please contact Anne Meyerson if you are interested in the position, or
know someone who is. Anne may be reached at extension 25 at the above number
or by e-mail at <ameyerson@traininginc.org>.
Women’s Lunch Place,
67 Newbury Street,
Boston, MA 02116 (617) 267-1722
According to Maribeth McKenzie, Director of Development, Women’s Lunch
Place takes a holistic approach to care for homeless women. In addition
to the lunchtime meal for over 200 women, the following services are provided:
a) legal and advocacy services; b) voter registration;
c) nutrition, HIV and drug addiction education; d) resource room complete
with computers, telephones and mail boxes; e) eye care, with exams and
glasses provided by the New England Eye Institute; f) shower and a nap
room.
What’s new? a) Psychiatric services; and b) art classes. (I saw some beautiful water colors!)
What’s the financial picture? Women’s Lunch Place maintained all services but had to cut their discretionary funds used to pay for emergency services needed by area women.
What’s needed beside Old South Church’s monetary donation? a) In-kind
donations of food or a meal. Our own Miz Grant works preparing meals every
Tuesday.
b) Birthday Presents — do you know an organization that could contribute
perfumes, pins, gift certificates or other items which would make a woman
feel special? c) Yarn, needles and patterns — many of the women are talented
knitters and would like to make hats, scarves and mittens.
d) Travel soaps, shampoos and lotions -- when you travel, could you
pick up these items? e) Sheets, towels, robes and dishes — gently used
items are needed. f) Arts and crafts for children; g) Teachers for art
classes; and coupons – Old South members Liz Olson and Lorrie Herzberg
have agreed to collect and deliver these.
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
474 Centre Street,
Newton, MA 02458,
(617) 244-3650
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries (CMM) has been uniting faiths in
community action since 1966 through dialogues, service, education and
social justice issues. CMM has over 70 member congregations. Important
components of CMM’s work are urban-suburban dinner dialogues and urban-suburban
church partnerships. The emphasis this year is place on at-risk youths,
increasing cross-cultural understanding and housing/homelessness.
What’s new? Organizational partnership programs — in addition to pairing
two disparate faith organizations, CMM has begun pairing a faith community
with an organizational partner. CMM also has three new major initiatives:
a) Amachi — recruiting congregations to cultivate mentors for children
of the incarcerated. Over 70 percent of the children of the incarcerated
end up in the criminal justice system.
b) Mass Literacy Program to screen at-risk populations for Irlen Syndrome,
a light sensitivity condition which hampers or prevents reading. Once diagnosed,
it can be alleviated with the use of color overlays.
c) One Family Campaign — fight to end homelessness. Old South Church
has just requested our third family to assist.
What’s CMM need besides our monetary contribution?
a) Certified teachers to do Irlen Syndrome screening, and
b) participation in dinner dialogues. The Outreach and Christian Service
Committee will arrange transportation.
Rosie’s Place,
889 Harrison Avenue,
Boston, MA 02118
(617)442-9322
Rosie’s Place provide food and shelter for homeless women in the Boston area. In addition, English as a second language (ESL) and crafts are taught.
What’s new? Exciting strategic plans for the next three years include:
a) Expanding adult education to include adult literacy and GE; b) Expand
advocacy services to include adding a substance abuse specialist and employment
specialist to the staff as well as providing legal services;
c) Art Initiative — treat the whole woman by providing art classes
and opportunities to exhibit; d) New building — Administrative offices
will move to a new building;
e) Accomplishment — the Women’s Craft Cooperative is now self-sufficient.
Financial picture? Rosie’s Place is financially sound.
Additional Needed Volunteer Opportunities: a) working in the kitchen — especially in August, December and January; b) ESL Tutors; c) sorting clothes; d) staying overnight in the shelter; e) stocking and distributing food in the food pantry. +
One Final Note: Please consider contacting these agencies directly or
via Old South’s Christian Service and
Outreach Committee to offer your volunteer help for these opportunities.
Fall, a Season of the Spirit:
Unbearable Grief to Bearable Sorrow
by Ken Orth
Our spiritual life reminds us that our ultimate dependence is upon the Higher One, God, revealed to us in ever new ways in the seasons of life and the seasons of the year. Fall brings its own opportunities for grace, for learning again to release into the truth that “God is our only richness.”
Here in New England, October brings brilliant colors, crisp mornings, and warm days. We are reminded that release and change is a way of life that asks us to build our spiritual muscles of trust, faith, and love springing from places that would seem to deny hope itself. On the surface, these experiences point in one direction, but our listening more deeply through prayer and meditation reverses this into life renewed, giving us the ability to choose openness and connection over isolation, truth-telling over silence, and love over fear.
One such reality was brought to mind recently when I recalled a reflection of William Sloan Coffin, former chaplain to Yale University, in which he spoke movingly of the death of his twenty-one year old son in a tragic accident in Boston. Coffin relates that he found no comfort in the people referring to the accident as somehow being the “will of God”—but could understand the possibility of the very heart of God breaking open on the night of his son’s death. In the following months and years, he says, “I came to believe God was somewhere in the movement I experienced from unbearable grief turning somehow into bearable sorrow.”
Our spiritual life gives us the courage to take a step into the world of bearable sorrow that opens even further into deep love taking into account the truths and realities of life in all its vicissitudes, releasing the denials that keep us from living in an integrated way, bringing together our whole life with God: joy and sorrow, consolation and desolation, pleasure and pain. Rainer Maria Rilke’s great poem, Autumn, reminds me of this each year as we come to this season, as I ponder the brilliant colors of the leaves making a final statement as they “let go” into their fall.
Autumn
The leaves are falling, falling as from far,
As though above were withering farthest gardens;
They fall with a denying attitude.
And night by night, down into solitude
The heavy earth falls far from every star.
We are all falling. This hand’s falling too—
All have this falling-sickness none withstands.
And yet there’s One whose gently-holding hands
This universal falling can’t fall through.
—Rainer Maria Rilke +
Old South Reporter
(Back Issues)
OSC Reporter, a voice for the extended community of the Old South
Church, explores the mission of the church and aspects of the Christian
life through news, stories, poetry, essays, and commentaries
Communications
Committee:
Evan H. Shu, chair; Lois Harvey; Steve Silver, Linda Jenkins, Janet
Eldred, Elizabeth England, Eleanor Jensen, David Clark, Elisa Blanchard,
Helen McCrady, & Michael Fiorentino.
Deadline for next issue: December 19, 2004
Old South Church in Boston
Gathered 1669
A congregation of the United Church of Christ
645 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617)536-1970
(617)536-8061 Fax
http://www.oldsouth.org
Carl F. Schultz, Interim Senior Minister
Jennifer Mills-Knutsen, Assistant Minister
Katherine Layzer, Interim Assistant Minister
Gregory M. Peterson, Minister of Music