LOGAN

LOGAN, from cover friend’s table where he sat for decades, in the corner of a friend’s kitchen avoiding everyone else. His absence will be missed. Think about that fact.”

“John meticulously planned this service as his last words to us about who he was, who we are, and what the point of religion is: Jesus, and our friendship with God and one another. Every word picked by him. This is the last of John’s fresh hermeneutical wrapping paper. A new story filled with the same theology. As he said often in his sermons, he hopes you like it as much as you did the first time he preached it.”

Building on Bishop Doyle’s reference to John preaching the same theology repeatedly, there is a copy in the archives of John’s Lenten talk given in both 1993 and 2002. Following are a few of John’s thoughts from that repeated talk:

“A church needs to be open to everyone, and there need to be any number of ways in — different doors for different people.”

“I grew up with a very active social conscience — that we had a duty, a responsibility to care for those less fortunate than ourselves.”

“I have no patience with theological cliches…. I don’t like being told to “love God” without being told how I am expected to do that.”

“The function of religion was to return people to a better life than they had left; that forgiveness was more important than sin; and that our job was to get up and get on with it… renewed, refreshed, reinvigorated by the experience of meeting a loving God in the midst of a service of common worship.” (I wish to inject that John felt the same about sermons!)

“The Book of Common Prayer … introduced me to liturgy and a lot of things suddenly began to make sense…. When I discovered liturgy in the Prayer Book, I discovered my true family, my community.”

“It is baptism which really counts – that it is baptism which brings us into that unique relationship with Christ.”

“We almost never encounter God alone — that usually whenever God and I meet, it is always going to be in the company of others.’

“If you want to pray better, you must pray with more people.”

John first came to the Cathedral on an interim basis in 1979 and returned full-time in January, 1982. In 1996, John was invited by Bishop Payne to become his Canon to the Ordinary. While we are thankful for him as priest, as Acting Dean and Rector 1991–1992, as the author of Dowered With Gifts: the second quarter of the second century of Christ Church Cathedral, and as the initiator of the AIDS Walk, he is uniquely remembered for his individual relationships with each of us and for the many things he did and the stories about John.

John said that the highpoint of his ministry came in the 1980’s as he worked alongside Dean Pittman McGehee who noted that he preached and taught while John ran the church. From that period, there is the famed story Pittman tells about the woman in the red polyester pantsuit with John’s punchline: “Look Busy.”

John was busy and he did get things done! When it became liturgically correct to move the altar out and have the priest face the congregation, there were significant concerns about the repercussions. John said “just pull the altar out and deal with whatever comes from that later.” So, they did and it worked.

We have Treebeards because Pittman heard a man wonder about what the Cathedral was and Pittman said “Why don’t we serve lunch here to bring people in?” John said, “Too much work for us. Find a restaurant to do that.”

There is the story from 1994 when the “wish list” for the renovation of the Cathedral threatened to exceed the money raised to that point and a sprinkler system for the Cathedral was about to be cut. But John injected “Wait a minute. The Cathedral is our ‘crown jewel.’ If we lose it, we’ve lost everything.” The sprinkler system was reinstated at the top of the priority list. Then, a week before the Cathedral reopened, a light switch that had not been grounded sparked and a fire started. The sprinkler came on and put out the fire. John’s insistence on a sprinkler system literally saved the Cathedral.

If you have additional memories, anecdotes, or stories about John, please send them to me so they can be added to the Archives. Or, if you wish to read the whole story of the woman in the red pantsuit or read John’s Lenten Talk, please ask me for a copy.

As Bishop Doyle said: He loved and was loved.

May John rest in peace!! Thanks be to God!!

Dean’s Book Club selections

A different book is discussed each month. Everyone is encouraged to attend and join the discussion, and to order books from the Cathedral Bookstore. Contact Dean Barkley Thompson at bthompson@christchurchcathedral.org to learn how to participate. Wednesday, February 2 The March of Folly, by Barbara Tuchman Drawing on a comprehensive array of examples, from Montezuma’s senseless surrender of his empire in 1520 to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Pulitzer Prize-winner Barbara W. Tuchman defines folly as the pursuit of policies contrary to a nation’s own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives. Throughout The March of Folly, Tuchman’s incomparable talent for animating the people, places, and events of history is on spectacular display. Wednesday, March 2 The Lincoln Highway, a novel by Amor Towles In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car.

Wednesday, April 6 Inner Work of Age, by Connie Zweig

With extended longevity comes the opportunity for extended personal growth and spiritual development. You now have the chance to become an Elder, to leave behind past roles, shift from work in the outer world to inner work with the soul, and become authentically who you are. This book is a guide to help get past the inner obstacles and embrace the hidden spiritual gifts of age.