Spirit Spring 2012

Spirit BISHOP VOGEL REMEMBERED • REGIONAL MINISTRY • JAMES AGEE’S MUSE

Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri

THE KANSAS CITY COMMUNITY KITCHEN

Spring 2012 Volume 3, No. 3

Spirit PUBLISHER: The Rt. Rev. Martin S. Field EDITOR: Hugh Welsh Spirit is published quarterly by the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri 420 W. 14th St. Kansas City, MO 64105

4 Editor’s Letter

Three weeks in the hospital alleviated a lot of our concerns about mom. The neuropathy in her hands and feet had improved, yet her ability to walk or stand was hindered. Mom needed someone besides her family. In John Kiragu, a native Kenyan, she got more than a physical therapist. She got a friend.

By Hugh Welsh

5 Letter to the Editor

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: The Ven. John McCann, Archdeacon Hugh Welsh, Spirit The Rev. John Spicer, St. Andrew’s, Kansas City Angela Crawford, Administrative Assistant to the Archdeacon, Diocese of West Missouri

Popular opinion brands Henry VIII among history’s greatest miscreants. The Editor’s Letter in the last issue was quick to villainize Henry. Randal Loy, Historian to the Dean of the Cathedral, defends the misunderstood monarch.

By Randal Loy

SUBMISSIONS/LETTERS: Spirit welcomes submissions of news articles, photographs and letters to the editor on topics of interest to the diocese. Submissions should include the writer’s name, e-mail, mailing address and phone number and are subject to editing.

The bishop ruminates about Easter and its aftermath. “Not only bad things have an aftermath,” he writes. “Some very positive things do too, and we should be thankful for some of them.”

By the Rt. Rev. Martin S. Field

PHONE: (816) 471-6161, Ext. 15 or (800) 471-6160 FAX: (816) 471-0379 E-MAIL: westmo_spirit@swbell.net WEB SITE: www.episcopalwestmo.org ON THE COVER: Jennifer Bertrand, winner of HGTV’s 2008 Design Star, designed Kansas City Community Kitchen’s dining area, which can seat 96 people. “I wanted to make it the happiest community kitchen ever,” she says. Photo by Hugh Welsh.

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6 Bishop Talk

7 Rip and Read In mid-March, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams announced that he will retire from his role at the end of this year. He will become Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge. Also, an article about Betsy Dyer, a parishioner at St. Peter’s in St. Louis who was the first woman lay deputy to the General Convention.

8 Bishop Arthur A. Vogel The Rt. Rev. Arthur A. Vogel, the diocese’s fifth bishop, passed away in early March at the age of 88. The reverberations from Vogel’s tenure as the diocese’s bishop from 1973 to 1989 are felt today.

Bishop Martin Field and his wife, Donna, were the first to take the dance floor at this year’s Bishop’s Ball.

Photo by Donya Ross.

10 Bishop’s Ball 2012

13 Meet the Clergy: the Rev. Ron Verhaeghe

This year’s Bishop’s Ball wasn’t just about fun, food and dancing (all of which were in abundance) but a recognition of outstanding youth and their leaders.

By Kim Snodgrass

The Rev. Ron Verhaeghe, who was received into the priesthood of this communion in December, has served St. Luke’s South Medical Center as a chaplain since January. A chaplain’s life can be trying: life, death, doubt and miracles are everyday occurrences.

By Hugh Welsh

11 Meet the Clergy: the Rev. Joe Behen Frodo’s example in Lord of the Rings is one that all Christians should follow, according to the Rev. Joe Behen. Behen, installed as rector at Church of the Redeemer in Kansas City in late January, values Frodo as a character always willing to do right, no matter how dire the risk.

By Hugh Welsh

12 Meet the Clergy: the Rev. Kathy Hall The Rev. Kathy Hall, who was ordained to the priesthood in December, doesn’t wear a collar when she’s working as a law librarian. “I don’t let everybody know that I am a priest,” she says. That doesn’t mean she can’t give spiritual counsel. “I don’t forget what I am, either.”

By Hugh Welsh

NOTICE: The diocese’s P.O. Box mailing address has been discontinued.

14 The Kansas City Community Kitchen When it opened in 1981, the Kansas City Community Kitchen operated out of a dank stone backroom at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. The kitchen migrated to Founders’ Hall in 1999 before settling at 8th and Paseo in September 2010, where the need was greatest; last year set a record for meals served at the kitchen, unlike any other in Kansas City.

By Hugh Welsh

22 James Agee and Fr. James Flye James Agee is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prizewinning novel A Death in the Family. The book borrowed from Agee’s childhood, when his father was killed in an automobile accident. A few years after the incident, Agee enrolled at Exeter Academy for Boys in Tennessee, where he met Fr. James Flye, an Episcopal priest. The two would remain friends until Agee’s death.

By Hugh Welsh SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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Editor’s Letter by Hugh Welsh THE FEAR WAS THAT MOM WOULD BE forever subject to a walker, unable to drive (her favorite pastime).

Her health had deteriorated to where she had no feeling in her fingertips, toes, heels or ankles. The numbness had ventured part way up her calves. Three weeks at the hospital and a rehabilitation center resolved our worry that her symptoms implied a terminal disorder. After months of tests, doctor consultations, tests and more doctor consultations, we’d learned she was deficient in B-12 and copper (still no determination as to why).

We welcomed mom home. Her time away was not only challenging for me, my dad and my sister (whose worry was further compounded by her living 1,800 miles away) but, to make matters worse, the family dog died.

We knew a lot of work was ahead. Mom had made progress, but her stability remained suspect. Her every move was saddled by the walker. I could be her chauffeur and my dad could be the staff sergeant – regulating her diet, sleep habits, smoke breaks and exercise. All he needed was a drill instructor.

In John Kiragu, a physical therapist with Gentiva Home Healthcare, he got much more: an inspiration, a confidant, a miracle worker. John, a native of Kenya, visited mom three days a week for a couple months.

There were many medical personnel who visited my parents’ home; John’s gleaming smile was the one we trusted most.

The handshake is a Western custom John has adopted with fervor: it was part of every arrival, departure and progression. All encouragement about work ethic, however, was couched with words of caution: “don’t fall.” In fact, these were his final words to mom.

Mom isn’t fully healed yet but, thanks to the exercises John taught her and my dad’s stewardship, she’s graduating from a walker to a cane. She’s steering towards the highway of recovery.

Thank you, John.

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News Worthy Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry

THE LIKELIHOOD OF SMALL RURAL churches surviving into the next decade and beyond on their own is slim. As faces in the pews dwindle, so does the weight of the collection plate. Sometimes, a church’s best chance is safety in numbers.

“In the long run, I expect the diocese will have several regional ministries,” says the Very Rev. Dr. William Fasel, canon missioner of the Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry, a collection of five churches that shares leadership, ministry and resources. Recently, the ministry added St. Paul’s in Clinton. “You’ll have more churches in regional ministry because of the way money works.”

Fasel says St. Paul’s was overwhelmingly in favor of the merger (two congregants out of 30 were opposed).

“They realized they would not have another (the Rev.) Rolf Leed move into town,” Fasel says. Leed served St. Paul’s as priest-in-charge and vicar until December 2010. While St. Paul’s elected to join NERM, the Sacred Hills Regional Ministry (including St. Paul’s in Maryville, St. Mary’s in Savannah and St. Oswald’sin-the-Fields near Skidmore) did not. It will remain its own regional ministry.

Fasel’s approach to assimilation isn’t rapid-fire. “We won’t do anything (at St. Paul’s) that’s programmable for a few months,” Fasel says. “First, I need to get to know them, and they need to get to know me.”

Fasel is not the congregations’ rector or vicar. He is the priest-in-charge, administrating the long-range strategy and implementing a leadership team to fulfill the vision. Leadership teams are in place at St. Mary’s in Fayette and Christ Church in Lexington. The time frame between bringing a church in and assembling a leadership team can take two or three years. “There are no votes,” Fasel says. “Everyone must work collaboratively toward the same goal.”

The team must personify a full-time rector, a position that’s less and less practical for small churches.

“I don’t know if this is the definitive way to do small churches,” Fasel says. “I do know that the traditional structure isn’t possible anymore.”

— HUGH WELSH

Letter to the Editor I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF TRINITY CHOIR at the Cathedral since 1984, and became an Episcopalian in 1995 and joined the congregation of the Cathedral that year. In 2006, Dean Terry White made me the Historian to the Dean of the Cathedral.

I must tell you that I was very troubled by your description of that great English monarch Henry VIII in your article. In fact, I would go so far as to label it a “mischaracterization.”

First, I am afraid that you are guilty of a common error: Judging an historical figure by current-day sentiments.

Henry was the King of England.

He needed to have a male heir to ensure that his line continued as rulers of England. Before his daughter, Mary I, there had never been a woman on the throne of England. Henry had no way of knowing that his daughter, Elizabeth I, would reign or that she would be considered one of England’s strongest monarchs.

You must understand this very King Henry VIII. important point: Henry would have been granted a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who was the daughter of King Ferdinand II and Isabella of Christopher Columbus fame, without any difficulty if it had not been for one small coincidence. Pope Clement VII was, at that time, a prisoner of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who just happened to be Catherine’s nephew. Charles would not allow Clement to grant Henry a divorce from his aunt.

(You should remember that kings were frequently granted divorces for the important matter of an heir: Eleanor of Aquitaine was first married to King Louis VI of France, and when she only bore him daughters, he was granted a divorce. She then married Henry II of England, and bore him four sons, including Richard the Lion Heart.)

Henry had been told from a very early age that he was chosen by God to rule England. (Granted, he was not the first-born son, but his brother, Arthur, died when Henry was only 10 years old.) Henry was very intelligent and was a true Renaissance man: he was gifted as a writer, musician, composer, hunter and warrior. Your characterization of him as a “despot” is unfair.

Henry suffered a leg injury when he was thrown from his horse during a hunt. In 1536, he suffered a leg wound during a joust which aggravated the old injury, and so was never able to properly exercise after that.

Having always eaten heartily due to his active life, he never learned to curb his appetite — nor was he encouraged to do so by anyone. (His waist was 54 inches around at his death.) It is thought that he was a diabetic later in life, as he had wounds which were slow to heal and the 1536 wound specifically never healed. Recent medical research indicates that not only did Henry sustain the leg injury in the joust in 1536, but that he may also have sustained a serious head injury. It is believed that the head injury may have caused a neuroendocrine-related obesity.

The same report has identified a specific growth hormone deficiency, which could very well have been the cause of his significant personality changes after 1536 — great desires for war and new wives. He was covered by pus-filled boils at the time of his death, and was nearly out of his mind.

So, I believe it is safe to say that Henry’s medical condition was much more of a factor in his actions and behavior than certainly was understood during his lifetime and for many centuries thereafter.

I think it is a shame that you felt it necessary to write such things about Henry, for he was a deeply religious man who agonized over the correct course of action when he could not obtain a divorce from Catherine.

I hope that you will rethink some of the statements you included in your article.

— RANDAL J. LOY SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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Bishop Talk EASTER’S AFTERMATH

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By the Rt. Rev. Martin S. Field

t is the Tuesday of Easter week. I bask still in the warm thrill of the splendid celebrations of the Great Vigil of Easter and Sunday morning’s Feast of the Resurrection which I experienced among the people of Grace Church in Carthage. And yet, as I harken back, the warm glow actually begins on Palm Sunday with the people of St. Peter’s in the Red Bridge neighborhood of Kansas City, continues through Maundy Thursday’s inspiring Agape Service (footwashing, meal, & communion) at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, and then finally arrives to be made further aglow in Carthage.

So, in the somewhat exalted mood left over from Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, I take keyboard in hand to offer a few thoughts about aftermath and Easter.

The word “aftermath” is a noun originating in English use in the 1520s that initially indicated a second crop of grass grown after the first had been harvested. It had a figurative sense by the 1650s. It is now defined as “a consequence or result of something or an event that preceded it.”

When an earthquake hits; when a tornado, hurricane, or other wind storm strikes; or when drought, famine, pestilence occur, we speak – on the back end of those occurrences – about the “aftermath.” The horrendous tornado in the Joplin area in May 2011 left an aftermath from which they are still recovering. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has gripped New Orleans since 2005.

Not only bad things, however, have an aftermath. Some very positive things do too, and we should be thankful for some of them. Specifically during these Great 50 Days of Easter, which started Easter Sunday and extends all the way to the Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate and are thankful for what God accomplished at the Empty Tomb.

You talk about aftermaths!

The aftermath of Easter is the most profound, most lasting, most joyous, most important, most sweeping aftermath that has ever been. No other event but the Easter Event has led to the demise of death, the conquest of the grave, the life eternal for all who claim it by faith in 6

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the resurrected Jesus.

We may rebuild structures and restore property lost to storms, but only Easter can bring those killed by the storms of this life into Eternal Life. We may count the cost of earthquake damage in the billions of dollars, but only Easter can offer life beyond this earthly life to the trillions of God’s children past, present, and future. We may ogle at the photographic and videographic scenes of destruction after fire, wind, and rain, but there is still more power and infinitely more beauty in the face a single person giving thanks for the salvation of God. Charles W. Colson, tells the following story in his book, The Body: “It was May Day, 1990. The place, Moscow’s Red Square. ‘Is it straight, Father?’ one Orthodox priest asked another, shifting the heavy, eight-foot crucifix on his shoulder. ‘Yes,’ said the other. ‘It’s straight.’ Together the two priests, along with a group of parishioners holding ropes that steadied the beams of the huge cross, walked the parade route. In front of them paraded the official might of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: the usual May Day procession of tanks, missiles, troops, and salutes to the Communist Party elite. Behind the tanks surged a giant crowd of protesters, shouting to Mikhail Gorbachev: ‘Bread! . . . Freedom! . . . Truth!’ As the throng of protestors passed directly in front of where the Soviet leader stood in his place of honor, the priests hoisted their heavy burden toward the sky. The cross emerged from the crowd. As it did, the figure of Jesus Christ obscured the giant poster faces of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin that provided the backdrop for Gorbachev’s reviewing stand. ‘Mikhail Sergeyevich!’ one of the priests shouted, his deep voice cleaving the clamor of the protesters and piercing straight toward the angry Soviet leader. ‘Mikhail Sergeyevich! Christ is risen!’”

Another aftermath of Easter is the courage it gives the followers of Christ Jesus. The shy and timid become the courageous and bold. The downtrodden rise up to confront oppression. The faithful poor gain dignity. The materially comfortable lose their thralldom to their “stuff” and exhibit generosity.

It isn’t only in the life to come that we see the aftermath of Easter. It is all around us and in us and moving through us and motivating the faithful of God to become the hands and feet, the eyes and ears and voice of Jesus in the world he made and loves.

May the aftermath of Easter change your life, make you audacious in the works of faith, and give you a foretaste of heaven’s banquet in the here and now.

Happy Easter! God bless!

RIP & READ

Betsy Dyer cracked stained-glass ceiling as 1946 GC deputy

SHE WAS A RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY. Reticent and shy, Elizabeth Huntington Dyer of Saint Peter’s Church in St. Louis, Missouri, had to be persuaded to become Articles from the Episcopal News Service the first woman lay deputy to General Convention in 1946.

Known as Betsy to her family and friends, Dyer was born in 1906 in Providence, Rhode Island. A cradle Episcopalian whose brother was a priest and whose uncle was a bishop, she had deep New England roots. But in 1927, she married a man with almost equally deep roots in St. Louis: Randolph Harrison Dyer, a descendent of the city’s co-founder, Auguste Chouteau.

The Dyers, who lived in the city’s Central West End, were active members of St. Peter’s, and had three children: Elizabeth, Clarissa, and John. He was a businessman; she was a stay-at-home mother. “She and Daddy had always been very, very interested and involved in the Church,” said her daughter, Archbishop of Canterbury to step down at Clarissa D. Gordon. “They always had a lot of clergy friends.” year’s end In 1946, some of those clergy friends decided that Betsy ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ROWAN Dyer should represent the Diocese of Missouri as a lay deputy Williams on March 16 revealed that he is to step down from at that year’s triennial General Convention in Philadelphia. his role at the end of the year. His decision comes after 10 “It was a well-planned move on the part of many,” wrote years in the post and after accepting the position of Master the Ven. Charles F. Rehkopf, archdeacon of the Diocese of of Magdalene College, Cambridge. The college said that Missouri, in an 1989 letter. “It was Bishop (William) Scarlett Williams “has the capacity and vision to guide the College in who persuaded Mother to do this,” said Gordon. “She was a time of unprecedented change in higher education.” exceedingly apprehensive. She was reticent and shy, and she In a statement issued from Lambeth Palace, the Primate thought, ‘I’m not qualified to do that.’ But Bishop Scarlett of All England said: “It has been an immense privilege to made push after push after push,” and she finally acquiesced. serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, Betsy Dyer’s ecclesiastical relatives were a part of the clerical and moving on has not been an easy decision. During the calculations. Her uncle was a member of the Anglo-Catholic time remaining there is much to do, and I ask your prayers wing, which as a group was a tad slow to accept the full and support in this period and beyond. I am abidingly participation of women in the Church. “Some of us,” wrote grateful to all those friends and colleagues who have so Rehkopf, “felt the Anglo-Catholics would block the seating of a generously supported Jane and myself in these years, and all woman and that a relative of someone as well known as Father the many diverse parishes and communities in the Church Huntington would be difficult” to turn away. of England and the wider Anglican Communion that have Dyer was nominated by the then-rector of St. Peter’s, the brought vision, hope and excitement to my own ministry.

Rev. Dr. Clifford L. Stanley, later a professor of theology at I look forward, with that same support and inspiration, to Virginia Theological Seminary. Stanley, recalled Archdeacon continuing to serve the Church’s mission and witness as best Rehkopf, felt that “it was time for women to have a voice in the I can in the years ahead.” convention. She was elected on the first ballot.”

Williams’ term has been marked by increased tension over Ultimately, she was elected to head Missouri’s lay delegation the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered to that Convention due in part to the legal opinion of Judge people in the life of the church, the ordination of women and Augustus N. Hand, who, according to an article in the St. overarching questions of biblical authority and orthodoxy.

Louis Post Dispatch, “told the assembled delegates that it During an interview with the Press Association after his would be ‘preposterous’ to limit the word laymen to the male announcement, Williams said that “the worst aspects of the sex.” job, I think, have been the sense that there are some conflicts

— SARAH BRYAN MILLER that won’t go away, however long you struggle with them.”

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IN MEMORIAM: BISHOP ARTHUR VOGEL The Rt. Rev. Arthur A. Vogel died Tuesday, March 6, at age 88. In addition to being the diocese’s fifth bishop, serving from 1973 to 1989, Vogel was an educator, theologian, author and ecumenist.

THE RT. REV. ARTHUR A. VOGEL WAS I Know God Better than I Know Myself (1989), born February 24, 1924, to Arthur Louis and Christ in His Time and Ours (1992), and Radical Gladys Eirene Vogel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Christianity and the Flesh of Jesus (1995). Vogel was a He grew up in the Milwaukee area, attending frequent contributor to other books, journals and Shorewood High School, where he met his future magazines. wife, Katie. He and Katie were married in 1947 in He was also an active participant in a variety Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They of ecumenical endeavors, have three children and five including the Consultation grandchildren, John Vogel on Church Union (1962 (Beth), their children David to 1966), the First and and Leah; Tony Vogel (Joan), Second International their daughter Sarah; and Anglican-Roman Catholic Kit Smith (Gaylord), their Commissions (1969 to 1990), children Katie and Andrew. the National Anglican-Roman He is also survived by his Catholic Commission (1964 brother, John Vogel (Martha); to 1984) and the fourth as well as nieces and nephews, Assembly of the World John Vogel (Carolyn), Jenny Council of Churches (1968).

Gettel (Jim), Libby Vogel, and Vogel and Bishop Charles Jim Vogel (Ann).

H. Helmsing of the Roman In 1946, Vogel received a Catholic Diocese of Kansas Bachelor’s of Divinity degree City-St. Joseph established from Nashotah House, a a covenant between their seminary of the Episcopal cathedrals in 1974. The Church near Milwaukee, covenant celebrated the Wisconsin. He went on to cordial relations between the receive a Master’s degree cathedrals, which are a block in philosophy from the apart in downtown Kansas The Rt. Rev. Arthur Vogel, the diocese’s fifth bishop.

University of Chicago in 1948 Submitted photo.

City, and committed them to and a Ph.D. from Harvard in shared works of mercy. The 1952. bishop was buried at Nashotah House.

Vogel was rector of the Church of St. John In 1966, Anglican and Roman Catholic leaders Chrysostom in Delafield, Wisconsin, from 1953 discussed a theological basis for shared Eucharist to 1957. Vogel was Williams Adams Professor between their churches. of Philosophical and Systematic Theology at “If the nature of the Eucharist, the fact of Nashotah House from 1952 to 1971, when he was Christ’s presence in it, and the means of its consecrated as bishop coadjutor in the Diocese of production can be essentially agreed upon,” Vogel West Missouri. He was the diocese’s bishop from wrote in a position paper, might common reception 1973 to 1989. “be the primary means by which God wills to bring The bishop wrote 14 books, including Body about ever increasing unity among His people?”

Theology: God’s Presence in Man’s World (1973), 8

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RADICAL CHRISTIANITY Among Bishop Arthur Vogel’s most popular works was Radical Christianity and the Flesh of Jesus: The Roots of Eucharistic Living. An excerpt: “God’s unfailing love for us is shown in Jesus; that is why Jesus accepts us with an acceptance deeper than our being. Jesus accepts us in the deepest roots of our being, the roots lying beneath our consciousness, from which our conscious lives arise.

Thus our acceptance by Jesus is even more than our consciousness of him; that is why we can trust our whole selves — conscious and unconscious, known and unknown — to him.”

T

he orientation of this challenging yet highly readable text is foreshadowed in the title and clearly identified in the preface: Christianity is much less about doctrinal discussion and debate than it is about daily living (living “in the flesh,” as Vogel would say). This orientation shapes the tone (the entire text is written in the first person plural), content, and order of chapters so as to distinguish this work of sacramental theology from many others.

For instance, the author begins not by outlining the church’s historical understanding of eucharistic theology, as many a sacramental work has done, but instead with an appraisal of the value of intimate experience in lives — whether the lives of the first disciples or our own.

This relational necessity was foundational to the incarnation just as it is foundational to full life in a world that can be defined as “an all-inclusive interrelation of activities and events.”

From here the author runs (not walks) his reader through many doctrines of the Christian faith.

From justification to grace and from sacrifice to mercy, Vogel writes in an encapsulating, almost devotional style that led this reviewer to read the entire text in one day. Eventually the focus of the text becomes the impact of the eucharist as a lived reality rather than an attended event, instituted by Jesus in order to reveal the perfect love of God and to bring humanity to meet and be with Jesus time and again.

— NATHAN D. WILSON

Virginia Theological Seminary

Bishop Arthur Vogel discussing a report of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission in 1982.

Submitted photo.

“We don’t gather around the Communion Table to escape the world’s problems, but to escape the world’s answers.”

A LEGACY REMEMBERED When my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was grief stricken. His days on this earth were few. Doubt was in his mind and on his tongue.

I’ll never forget when Bishop Vogel came to our door.

My father didn’t want to be bothered. Bishop Vogel said all he wanted to do was listen and be present. He remained with my father until the very end, when the cancer ultimately claimed his life. Because of Bishop Vogel, my father saw the light and never lost track of it. Thank you and God bless you.

— Richard Guier Bishop Vogel was the one to whom I tendered my resignation as librarian at Nashotah House, when he was provost there. It was a trying time there, but he was always one of the most gracious human beings I have ever met.

— Lynn Feider Art was a good friend and mentor as I became a new bishop. He will indeed be missed, he has been so for years in the House of Bishops with his calming presence and theological soundness. May Christ’s abiding presence be with all of you at this time. May Art go from glory to glory. Blessings galore!

— The Rt. Rev. Roger White Former Bishop of Milwaukee

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Submitted photo.

BISHOP’S BALL 2012 I’ve never been anything but an Episcopalian – it is very much who I am, it has shaped the way I think and respond since I was born. I believe we’re all on a journey and this is the vehicle I choose to ride in along the way. I choose this church because it challenges me to be a Christian: in thought, word and deed. I choose this Church because all relationships matter – these relationships and this one. I choose this Church because my motives matter – and being here helps me discover them. I choose this Church because it challenges me to step outside my comfort zones again and again. The Christian faith as taught through the Episcopal Church is much more than just a religion – it is very much a way of life in my life: so true of every youth honored at this year’s Bishop’s Ball. By Kim Snodgrass, diocesan youth coordinator

Outstanding Youth Gabby Benson (St. Mary Magdalene in Kansas City) Two youth from St. Mary Magdalene nominated Gabby because of how she’s been an encouragement to them personally.

Step Up to the Plate Emma Fuller (St. Michael’s in Independence) She is a member of the Youth Action Council. Last year she made the commitment to start a youth group in her own parish. Previously, St. Michael’s had several youth who would participate in diocesan events, but no organized youth group of its own that met on a regular basis. Emma wanted to change that – for herself and others. She was instrumental in organizing the Episcopal Teens United on the EJ – a new regional youth group that includes youth from churches in Eastern Jackson County.

Youth Action Council Outstanding Member Chris Palma (Grace Church in Carthage) People are drawn to Chris because they know he’s genuine. He’s people smart – the one you’d turn to for non-judgmental advice. He’s the good listener we sometimes take for granted.

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Outstanding Volunteer Liz Trader (St. James’ in Springfield) She’s volunteered with the St. James’ youth group and the Youth Action Council. She is encouraging, supportive and has developed lasting friendships with many of the youth in our diocese.

Outstanding Youth Landon Wolford (Christ Church in Springfield) He was nominated by several members of his youth group at Christ Church and is a wonderful, wonderful young man.

Youth Action Council Outstanding Member Kelly Phelan (St. Paul’s in Kansas City) Kelly’s passion is hardly limited to youth ministries – no, it’s gone way beyond that! This is a hook, line and sinker kind of person – it’s all the way or none at all.

Outstanding Youth Collin Larimore (St. James’ in Springfield) Collin was instrumental to the construction of a new playground at St. James’ as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Outstanding Youth Leader Meredith Seaton (St. Paul’s in Kansas City) She’s been to more than 75 events in the last seven years. She’s always recruiting and always encouraging youth to participate.

THE LORD AND THE RING

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Meet the Clergy

In January, the Rev. Joe Behen was installed as rector at Church of the Redeemer in Kansas City. Behen, formerly an associate at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, draws inspiration from an unlikely source. By Hugh Welsh

n The Return of the Ring, the final installment of J.R.R. Behen left for the Seminary of the Southwest in 2004. “Before I Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo peers into the lava knew it, I was wearing a collar,” Behen says. flow within Mount Doom, the Ring firmly in hand. Shall he After graduating from Seminary in 2007, Behen’s first destroy the Ring, the provenance of limitless power, or claim it as assignment was to Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, where his own? Ultimately, Frodo cannot deny himself the Ring, sliding he served four and a half years as an associate. Shortly after his it onto his finger, only to have the Ring torn away by Gollum arrival, then-Dean, the Very Rev. Terry White, informed Behen who, losing his footing, plunges into the lava and perishes he would minister to the Cathedral’s youth and that he would along with the Ring. The Ring, a power too great for humans have sole discretion as to its organization. Behen studied several to possess, could signify many things: humanity’s worship of curricula aimed at youth, none of which pleased him. “The material objects, weapons of mass destruction, the Cross on companies that designed the curricula talked down to youth,” he which Jesus was crucified, a sacrifice so terrible that Jesus pleads to says. “It was as if I, the priest, had all the answers, and it’s up to God, “why have you forsaken me?” you to plod around until you find them.” In Behen’s For the Rev. Joe Behen, installed as rector of opinion, theology should stem from conversation. “I Church of the Redeemer (Kansas City) in late think as a priest that, rather than understanding the January, Tolkien mythology has long been a creeds as the end to answers, we should understand touchstone for him, a reshaping of what it means them as a starting point to questions.” to be Christian. Frodo’s predicament was similar Imperative to Behen’s outlook toward youth to his own decision to leave a lucrative career for ministry is an exploration of other denominations another, humbler pursuit in 2004. He had spent and religions. “It’s hard to know what’s important 15 years at Tension Envelope, a Kansas City-based about your own faith without looking at others,” he manufacturer and marketer of custom envelope says. He likes to quote comedian Robin Williams’ Submitted photo. products. Behen was successful; promotions were famous saying about being Episcopalian: “you commonplace. Something, however, was amiss. “I had a growing don’t have to check your brains at the door.” Behen’s approach sense that all my energy toward work was, in the end, lining is realistic: so often, youth aren’t exposed to alternative faiths someone’s pockets,” Behen says. “If you’re going to give yourself until after high school. “When confronted, faith so often loses,” to something, it should be for the greater good.”

Behen says.

Behen knew there was a reason why he was involving himself Under Behen’s guidance, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral’s more and more at Church of the Good Shepherd (Kansas City), youth ministry flourished. He hopes to replicate the success at where he served on the vestry and chaired youth outreach and Church of the Redeemer, where the youth numbers are equal the men’s Bible study group. Behen and his wife had joined to the Cathedral. Among his most popular programs at the the church in 1992, shortly after their marriage. He was Roman Cathedral was a four-week study of The Lord of the Rings. With Catholic, and she was Methodist. The Episcopal Church was the The Hobbit, a prequel to The Lord of the Rings due to hit theaters ideal compromise: he liked the liturgy, she liked that all baptized in December, Behen may resurrect the study. “The Lord of the Christians could receive communion. The Church of the Good Rings has an application for all ages,” says Behen, who originally Shepherd happened to be the closest Episcopal church to their read the books in middle school. house. Behen’s activity wasn’t ignored by the parish’s rector, As an administrator, Behen believes dissenting opinions should the Rev. Tom Punzo, who cultivated Behen’s entrance into the always be heard. “You never know, one of the dissenters might priesthood. As soon as he discovered the Episcopal Church, raise a good point,” he says. “Like when Aragorn, Gimli and Behen said there was a seed. “It just needed to be germinated.”

Legolas cannot decide whether to track Merry and Pippin to As key a role as Punzo and other parishioners of the Church of Sarumen. Gimli, the pragmatist, declares that they’re ill-prepared, the Good Shepherd played, Behen knew he needed the blessing ill-equipped and only three and will certainly die in their quest. of a certain family member. His uncle is a Roman Catholic priest Aragorn argues that they have to do what they have to do. It’s not and was present when Behen announced his decision to his about the measured effect; it’s about doing the right thing.” parents. “Everybody was clearly looking to Uncle Jack,” Behen SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012 11 says. His uncle responded with a hug and message of support.

A LIBRARIAN WHO ISN’T BY THE BOOK

The Rev. Kathy Hall, ordained to the priesthood in December, doesn’t wear a collar when Meet the Clergy she’s working as a law librarian at UMKC. She doesn’t need to. By Hugh Welsh

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he Rev. Kathy Hall has a saying. gift George Herbert gave me.”

“The Gospel says we can’t serve two masters, which Through Brown’s instruction, Hall learned the meaning is why I serve three,” says Hall, who was ordained to of Anglican spirituality, developing a fuller understanding the priesthood in December. She is a priest-in-residence at of the Book of Common Prayer. While completing the St. Peter’s in Kansas City, where she splits sermons with its three-year program, Hall thirsted for more. She didn’t want rector, the Rev. Russ Johnson, and leads adult education on to uproot her family from Kansas City, so she enrolled at St. Sundays.

Paul, a seminary of the United Methodist Church, where she Aside from her responsibility at St. Peter’s, Hall is pursuing is taking three classes this semester. She’ll graduate in May a Master’s of Divinity from the St. Paul School of Theology 2013. and logs 30 hours every week as a law librarian at the Hall’s life course – pairing the priesthood with law librarian University of Missouri – Kansas City.

– was determined many years ago, when a vocational A collar may not adorn her neck while at UMKC, but counselor foresaw three career possibilities: psychiatry, law Hall cannot ignore her priestly duty. “I don’t let everybody and the priesthood. As she was a Roman Catholic then, know that I am a priest,” Hall says. “I don’t forget what I am, the priesthood was not an option. A degree in psychiatry either.” would occupy 10 years, law a mere three. “Law Hall was born, baptized and raised a Roman was the pragmatic decision,” says Hall, who Catholic. She waited for the Church to practiced law for several years before returning recognize women as equal to men, eligible to to school for a master’s degree in library enter the priesthood. In 1976, the Episcopal sciences. She wanted to apply her knowledge Church’s General Convention authorized of law outside the courtroom, where those the ordination of women to the priesthood. who cannot afford legal representation seek She figured the Catholic Church would answers: a law library accessible to the public. follow. It didn’t. She joined the Episcopal Hall is aware of the burden the legal system – Church in the late 1970s. Thirty years later, with its multi-syllable jargon and convoluted the Holy See, the episcopal jurisdiction of the Submitted photo. structure – can impose on everyday people. As Catholic Church in Rome, issued this decree: any attempted a law librarian at UMKC, the only such library open to the ordination of women would result in excommunication for public in Jackson County, Hall cannot give legal advice. She the women and priests trying to ordain them. can, however, act as a navigator. “Before, I never thought of a The transition from Roman Catholic to Episcopalian was law library as a ministry setting,” she says. easy for Hall. “Everybody else was saying Awmen, and I was Recently, she was approached by a woman seeking custody saying Aymen.” rights to her grandchildren, the victims of neglect. The Shortly after moving to the area from Michigan in the early mother, who was the woman’s daughter, was addicted to 2000s, Hall attended a retreat at the Rivendell Community cocaine and refused rehab. With no legal guardianship surveying the history of women’s ordination in the Episcopal rights, the woman’s role in her grandchildren’s lives was Church. There she met the Rev. Virginia Brown, Rivendell’s limited; she couldn’t lawfully transport her grandchildren to founder. Brown encouraged Hall to discern a call to school or the doctor. Hall provided her with the necessary ordained ministry, which led to her enrolling at the George forms to win custody. And she provided another need: a set Herbert Institute of Pastoral Studies, a diocesan program in of ears and a box of tissues. which students meet bi-monthly in preparation for ordained “She wanted to do the best by her grandchildren without ministry as an alternative to the traditional three-year being angry at her daughter,” Hall says. Hall says experiences seminary model. Brown is the institute’s director. such as this remind her of the message about good will Jesus “Mother Virginia is a saint,” Hall says. “She is the greatest expressed to his disciples, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

12 SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012 “There is Christ in everyone,” she says.

HEALING OF A DIFFERENT KIND Meet the Clergy

The Rev. Ron Verhaeghe, received into the priesthood of this communion in December, knows how an illness can impact a family. It’s why he prefers being a hospital chaplain to parish priest. By Hugh Welsh

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he Rev. Ron Verhaeghe’s brother never took diabetes Episcopal values,” Verhaeghe says. “I’m to be representative seriously. His health yo-yoed for years until, at age 32, of Christ’s love to all who come and be respectful of all it dipped and never rose again. A few years later, Ron peoples, including those who are not Christian.”

Verhaeghe was diagnosed a type one diabetic. Verhaeghe Nothing in particular led Verhaeghe away from the didn’t want his brother’s outcome: diet, exercise and insulin Roman Catholic Church. Simply put, the Episcopal are regimented daily. “Diabetes will kill you if you don’t do Church was more fully representative of how he perceived anything about it,” Verhaeghe says. “My brother’s death and himself as a priest. “I was no longer in a place where I was my own illness have made me sensitive to the challenge of comfortable,” Verhaeghe says. “The best fit for me in terms diabetes or any disease that can take your life.” of leadership, direction and ideology was the Episcopal Verhaeghe is no foreigner to mortality: another brother Church.” was stillborn. His sister, on the other hand, is the mother of Last summer, Verhaeghe attended an inter-religious seven children, something he likes to share. “I’m proud of training session where he associated with chaplains who her,” he says. were Jewish and Muslim as well as Baptist and Methodist.

Verhaeghe has served St. Luke’s South Medical He met Ra’uafa Sherry Tuell, the hospital’s Center as a chaplain since January 2011; he was first Muslim chaplain resident. She led several received into the priesthood of this communion workshops for hospital staff on caring for Muslim in December. Most recently, as a priest in the patients. “We’re better at religious diversity than Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. we were 10 or 15 years ago,” Verhaeghe says. An Joseph, Verhaeghe was a pastor at St. Mary’s in example is St. Luke’s acknowledgment of the Independence and Holy Spirit Church in Lee’s fasting required during Ramadan from sunup to Summit. Verhaeghe was ordained in June 1992, sundown. Food is available after cafeteria hours. a graduate of the University of Saint Mary of the A chaplain’s life is like a pendulum, swaying Lake outside Chicago. His first assignment was between the miraculous – the gravely ill healed in the areas of chaplaincy, medical ethics and – and death. “It can be sad and overwhelming,” hospice care for the Carondelet Health Care says Verhaeghe, who occasionally seeks counsel Photo by Gary Zumwalt.

System, which staffs St. Joseph and St. Mary’s from crisis ministers who pose such questions as Medical Center in Blue Springs. The assignment was an how and why something happened and how he responded. affirmation. As invaluable as the bond Verhaeghe shared “There are things we cannot understand. God is greater and with parishioners (“families who will always be with me”), it will help us through.” did not rival what he could accomplish in hospitals.

An Eagle Scout, Verhaeghe likes to turn off the lights and Verhaeghe knew a lot of medical personnel growing up television when a thunderstorm passes overhead. The fury, and is a great admirer of their role in physical healing. uninhibited by distraction, can be awing. He’s humbled by But what about the spirit? Hospitals can be labyrinths for the unmitigated power of Midwestern weather, which can the soul in which patients and their families are prisoners claim life as easily as restore it. The violent storm that struck to sterile rooms where everything transpires according to the evening of February 28 – ultimately producing deadly a script and answers are vague, impassive. Not long ago, tornados farther east – was such an occasion, when winds Verhaeghe was approached by a woman who didn’t know averaging 50 to 70 miles per hour left hundreds without how to cope with her mother’s terminal illness. In addition power in the Kansas City area. As the storm tantrumed to informing the woman how to care for her mother, outside, Verhaeghe sat in silence. “A reminder,” he says, “of Verhaeghe reminded the woman that her mother is old and God’s power and grace.” that life is finite. He didn’t impress the promise of heaven or cite scripture; that’s not his responsibility. “I’m a keeper of SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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“Feed My Sheep” Hunger relief has no ebb and flow.

“The gap between resources available and hunger is increasing,” says John Hornbeck, president and CEO of Episcopal Community Services, which includes the Kansas City Community Kitchen.

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Erika Rucker, left, Kansas City Community Kitchen’s manager and head chef, prepares a trial plate for volunteers at the serving line.

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STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY HUGH WELSH

011 WAS A RECORD YEAR FOR THE KANSAS CITY COMMUNITY Kitchen, with 159,162 meals served, a 17 percent increase from the previous year – 620 meals every day. The Episcopal Hunger Relief Network – a cooperative including the Kitchen, Meals on Wheels, BackSnack and food pantries at parishes in the Diocese of West Missouri and the Diocese of Kansas – accounted for 1.2 million meals.

“The kitchen has gone from something humble to something exceptional,” Hornbeck says.

THE KANSAS CITY Community Kitchen the Cathedral with limited space and equipment. originated the same year – 1981 – as Grace and “We started with not much more than a pot of Holy Trinity Cathedral’s Gabriel Kney Organ, soup on a hot plate,” Hornbeck says, “but with an immaculate assembly of pipes imported from volunteers with big hearts who were feeding London, Ontario. Kney organs are seldom seen hungry people.” In 1999, the kitchen moved into outside the Great Lakes area and number only a spacious kitchen and dining room in newly 110 worldwide. Whereas the pipe organ was a completed Founders’ Hall. Need ultimately centerpiece at the Cathedral, the newly founded outstripped the capacity of that facility. kitchen was lodged in The kitchen’s a confined stone room relocation to 8th and on the Cathedral’s Paseo in September northeast corner. The 2010 allowed for kitchen’s entry was Founders’ Hall to through the courtyard, be designated as the where the hungry were headquarters of the greeted by a fountain Culinary Cornerstones featuring cherubs, program, a ministry spiritual beings privy to that trains people God’s commands, eager for the food-service to satiate humankind industry. Many of the with a bounty of grapes. program’s students The kitchen was have barriers to partly founded in employment, including response to the Coates substance abuse, House Hotel fire of The kitchen’s walls are chock-full of such inspirational words as “dignity.” criminal records or 1978, which killed 20 learning disabilities. It people and left 100 more homeless. With so many is also the springboard for Cornerstones catering, suddenly homeless, the downtown area needed a a transitional employment program capable of a hot-food program. Led by the vision of Dean Earl boxed lunch for six or a wedding for 600, and a Cavanaugh, three other churches, including St. food donation warehouse.

Mary’s in Kansas City, joined the Cathedral to The expectation was that the number of meals begin a new program. The announcements for the served would lag at the kitchen for a few months Cathedral on Sunday, October 11, 1981 solicited until its new location, a $1.3 million joint effort volunteers for a “new ecumenical program in between Episcopal Community Services and the ministry to needy...serving a midday hot meal.”

Downtown Council, was recognized. It didn’t. By The ministry evolved into the Kansas City November 2010, the kitchen witnessed a 2,000-meal Community Kitchen, located in the undercroft of increase over the same month the previous year, a SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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20 percent leap. The kitchen’s placement couldn’t have been more ideal: within a one-mile radius lie government-subsidized housing and 10 shelters.

“There were a lot of people upset about moving the kitchen away from the church,” Hornbeck says.

“We needed to move it to a location where the need was the greatest.”

Hornbeck estimates that 80 percent of the kitchen’s guests are homeless. The remainder is the working poor, a demographic on the rise since the Great Recession started in December 2007.

Those who seek a meal at the kitchen aren’t referred to as visitors. “They are our guests,” Hornbeck says.

APPEARANCES SIGNAL A father and a son.

“I want a damn cigarette,” says the elder, Joe. “You ain’t buying no more, remember,” responds the youth, Kris.

Joe and Kris share no bloodlines, no marriage ties. But “friends” isn’t poignant enough.

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“The boy’s my guardian angel,” Joe says.

Kris is 17 and on his own. He dropped out of school so he could earn money patching tires, withstanding the high heat of friers or, lately, mopping spills and stocking produce. A month ago, he moved into an apartment he shares with a roommate. Kris was living in a shelter. That’s where he met Joe, who still lives there. The two try to meet for lunch at Kansas City Community Kitchen a couple days a week.

“As much as I want to think I’m doing it to meet up, it’s a meal I don’t have to pay for,” Kris says. “It ain’t easy living paycheck to paycheck.”

Kris and Joe used to hike together to Kansas City Community Kitchen when it was off Broadway.

They endured 25 city blocks of weather featuring every extreme: temperatures so hot they mangled flesh, snow so deep it turns the feet, calves and knees numb. All for one savory meal per day.

Since the kitchen’s relocation to 8th and Paseo in September 2010, that two-mile roundtrip is now a few blocks.

(Opposite): The number of working poor who visit the Kansas City Community Kitchen is increasing. (Above, right): Adorning the walls of Kansas City Community Kitchen are paintings by students at nearby Woodland Elementary School.

In the span of a year, Joe’s longtime girlfriend – “my spirit,” he calls her – passed away from a heart defect, his job as an auto mechanic was terminated and his home was foreclosed. Suddenly, he was on the street, injecting and inhaling whatever he could to deaden the agony. “My heart was torn from my chest, man. Forgot I had a soul.”

Then he found Kris, whom he encountered one day en route to Kansas City Community Kitchen.

Kris convinced him to rehabilitate and seek shelter that’s not an underpass.

Joe is looking for employment – “I can take any car apart and put it together better than you’d get from the factory” – and admits to panhandling, a portion of which he is saving to buy a suit and necktie. “I want a bossman to look at me when I sit down for an interview and say: ‘damn.’”

Joe hasn’t had a cigarette in three months.

Denying the habit isn’t easy, especially with the pain increasing daily in his lower back. He refuses to consult a doctor. “I don’t want to be a burden to the people,” he says. “They shouldn’t have to foot

the bill of my problems.”

Kris won’t allow Joe a cigarette. Nor will he stop pleading that Joe visit a hospital.

“People care about you, man,” Kris says, placing a hand on Joe’s shoulder. “They want you well.”

OPPORTUNITY BROUGHT MARIE to Kansas City in June of last year from Panama City, Florida. Her sister had secured a job for her as a receptionist at a not-for-profit. The position was to be full-time at $10 per hour.

The only work Marie could find in Panama City was as a maid. Spring break was great for job security but showings of gratitude by way of tips were slim. Minimum wage to “turn Sodom into the Garden of Eden,” says Marie, a devout Christian.

Marie moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Independence her first week on the job. The single mother of two children (the father is serving jail time for armed robbery), Marie didn’t want to burden her sister any longer.

“I thought the Lord had blessed me with a life of SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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(Below): Kansas City Community Kitchen’s color scheme features Gucci-inspired shades of burnt orange and avocado green. (Opposite): Aligning the entryway to the kitchen is a famous phrase by the German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Nothing is worth more than this day.”

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plenty,” she says.

Marie’s minivan is an indicator of her experience in Kansas City. All four hubcaps are missing; the windshield is riddled with cracks; a blown-out rear passenger window is enclosed with duct tape. “The car didn’t look this way when I left Panama City,” she says.

A month into her new job, Marie heard there were to be cutbacks: some would get laid off, others would get reductions in pay or hours. Marie was fortunate enough to fall into the latter category.

Her position was now part-time and her pay 50 cents less per hour. She could still make rent and attend to the needs of her children, who are 2 and 4. She couldn’t afford to put three meals on the table every day.

Marie was wary of the stigma associated with “soup kitchens.” She thought Kansas City Community Kitchen would be a gloomy place where freeze dried takes precedence over nutrition.

She feared for her children, who might be subjected to the horrors of street life: men and women attuned to violence and addiction. Kansas City

Community Kitchen defied expectation.

“There’s a warmth to the place, the people who volunteer there, the people who eat there,” Marie says. “Lots of optimism.”

And the food.

“Mommy, when do we get to eat?” yelps her 4-year-old daughter, Penelope, tugging on her sleeve.

Typically, convincing children to eat their vegetables requires Houdini hijinks or a master of disguise. To mention the word is to conjure rebellion.

No such worry at Kansas City Community Kitchen, where every day fresh veggies are a steamed, seasoned side or incorporated into the main dish.

“Do you like your vegetables, Penelope?” Marie says.

“I do, I do!” she says, twirling like a ballerina.

“I like knowing that my babies can come here, feel comfortable and eat a meal that tastes good and is good for them,” Marie says. “It’s everything SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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Dominick McGinnis, foreground, regularly volunteers at Kansas City Community Kitchen with YouthBuild, a family development and learning center with the Housing Authority of Kansas City.

to me.”

IT’S FITTING THAT Willie lives in a shelter near the street named for Mary Lou Williams, a Kansas City jazz composer, arranger and pianist. “Mmmm, that old gal had rhythm,” he says, shutting his eyes and swaying his head from side to side. “Mary Lou could make a flat foot sharp.” Willie’s voice is raspy, like he’s been gargling shards of glass. Willie was once a well-regarded jazz trumpeter, until a stroke rendered him unable to perform. He says he made good money but the earnings slowed before the stroke. “Nobody has an ear for jazz anymore,” he says. He pawned the trumpet for a couple cartons of cigarettes. “I puffed through those cigs in one night trying to forget what I done.” For Willie, losing his trumpet was like losing an arm or leg. “I’m a cripple without it.”

Willie has one tooth left, an incisor that drapes over his lower lip. The tooth is not among his worries. “When the world ends, this tooth will survive,” he says, seizing the tooth between his 20

SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

fingertips and yanking on it. The tooth holds firm.

“I don’t mind eating nothing but mush. At least I’m living and can eat something somewhere.”

Willie is a regular at Kansas City Community Kitchen since its relocation to 8th and Paseo. He likes that the mood of the kitchen is cordial – a product of the springtime designs and colors and inspirational words – such as “dignity” and “love” – that decorate the walls as well as the abundant lighting and a cardinal rule: those who dine there are guests. Willie says he has no family he can claim. “They don’t know nothing about me. Ain’t their fault.” He has a son who recently celebrated his 33rd birthday. “I ain’t proud of the fact I haven’t seen the boy or his momma since he was in elementary school. I went with music over family.”

Homelessness and alienation often go hand in hand. Willie says that not long ago, when he was adrift the streets, he perceived himself as more an alley cat or stray dog than a human being.

Willie gestures at one of Kansas City Community Kitchen’s cooks. “The folks in the white caps, they don’t think of me that way. They look me in the eye. And smile.”

TESSA SAMSON OPENS the door leading to the Kansas City Community Kitchen, ushering guests inside. “How you been, darling?” a man asks. He is hunched forward, a 90-degree angle fusing his lower back with his hip. “I’m just fine. Yourself?”

Samson says. He casts his eyes upward, fixing them on hers. “I’ve been better.” She’ll pray for him, as she prays for all the homeless, the destitute, the forgotten. “They do have nowhere to go, and they do sleep outside.”

Samson knows. She was homeless for about a year. Samson had nowhere to go, no one to call. One afternoon, Samson ate at Kansas City Community Kitchen, where she met someone special, someone who proposed more than a warm meal and a smile. She helped Samson apply for jobs. She’s the reason why Samson works in the bakery department at Wal-Mart. “It’s by the grace of God I met Erika,” Samson says.

Erika Rucker is the head chef and manager of the Kansas City Community Kitchen. She started in October 2010, though she volunteered that September, the month the kitchen opened.

Rucker is seldom in her office during the kitchen’s

operating hours, which are noon to 2:30 p.m.; she’s either amid the hustle and bustle behind the scenes or a friendly face at the serving line or in the dining area. “I’ve been called everything but a child of God,” Rucker says. Even the guests who arrive drunk or high won’t be denied a meal. “We serve everybody with grace and compassion,” Rucker says.

“The customer is always right.”

Rucker is native to Chicago, where she was a banker and bookkeeper for many years until, one day, she was without a job. Late that evening, she was restless, unsure of what career lie ahead. As she dwelled on her future, Rucker noticed something: she was chopping carrots in preparation for a stew.

Anxiety always led to cooking, a much-loved hobby.

She enrolled at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, where she attained her culinary arts degree. As a caterer, Rucker had the opportunity to serve 5,000 people at Soldier Field: it prepared her for a career in which she is in charge of feeding 400 to 500 daily. “As a not for profit, you don’t do it for the pay,” Rucker says. “I love having company over to my house for dinner; I don’t see how this is any different.”

The kitchen’s paid staff is small: four cooks and one dish washer. Each day, the kitchen can anticipate 10 to 25 volunteers. “Volunteerism at Kansas City Community Kitchen is a real opportunity to live out the Baptismal Covenant,” Hornbeck says. “You are feeding My sheep. You are feeding My lambs.” Dominick McGinnis volunteers at the kitchen as part of YouthBuild, a family development and learning center with the Housing Authority of Kansas City. “I feel good and upbeat about coming here, like I’m family,” says McGinnis, who recently earned his GED. The experience is more than a good deed: it’s a resume builder.

The menu is set by Rucker and isn’t limited to a protein, starch and vegetable. Accompanying every entrée is fresh fruit, a salad and bread. The menu is characterized by donations. “You have to be flexible,” Rucker says. A surplus of vegetables and fruits during harvest season = a “a fruit and veggie medley.” Thirteen five-gallon barrels of pork ribs = an entrée staple for awhile. Nothing is wasted.

If a fruit or vegetable can’t be consumed before its expiration, it’s canned or converted to compost for the same community gardens that yield them (eight churches in our diocese regularly contribute

Tessa Samson, once homeless herself, greets everyone who enters and exits Kansas City Community Kitchen. She volunteers at the kitchen whenever she has a day off work.

produce from their gardens). “We like to give back to God’s good earth,” says Kenneth Cabean, who was volunteering at Kansas City Community Kitchen when it was “two pots and a skillet in a basement” before its move to Founders’ Hall in 1999.

Near the exit are three sets of used shoes for anybody who might need them. And a basket full of children’s books. Typically, clothing is available as well. “We like to recycle, pass things right along.” A woman grabs hold of a few books and walks toward the exit, where she passes Samson.

Samson bids her the same farewell as everybody else. “Have a good day,” says Samson, who volunteers at the kitchen whenever she has a day off or vacation – “paying it forward,” she calls it.

“Be safe out there.”

If you are interested in volunteering or donating, please contact Episcopal Community Services at 816-561-8920. For more information about additional ministries, visit www.episcopalcommunity.org.

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ARTS M

y introduction to James Agee – the writer of Agee and Flye’s friendship lasted 35 years, forged such heat-seeking journalism as Let Us Now when Agee arrived in autumn 1919 at St. Andrew’s, Praise Famous Men and film criticism that always an Episcopal boarding school for boys in Sewanee, found a redeemable moment, no matter how bad the Tennessee. Agee was 10 years old. His father had movie – dates to the film The Night of the Hunter, of which been struck dead three years earlier in an automobile Agee wrote the screenplay. My dad had me watch it years accident, a matter recounted in full years later in Agee’s ago, an ode to German Expressionism with its dreamy autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family. The letters set design, nursery rhyme score began in 1925 from Phillips Exeter and skewed camera angles. The Academy, a college preparatory film perturbed me, more than any school in New Hampshire, a few shockfest could muster. months after Agee traveled to In it, Robert Mitchum plays England and France with Flye.

Reverend Harry Powell, a selfThey ended days before Agee’s appointed preacher who abides death of a heart attack in May by the words LOVE and HATE 1955. The final letter was never tattooed on the knuckles of his right mailed, the addressed and sealed and left hands. Powell marries and envelope discovered atop his slays widows for their money. By home’s mantelpiece. doing so, he believes he is fulfilling Many of the letters from the will of God, who frowns upon Agee’s teenage years center on once-married women guilty of the expected: girls, his part in a igniting another man’s carnal flame. play (as Baptista, “the wheezy old Agee’s life drew some parallels to man,” in Taming of the Shrew), the the contradictory words etched into difficulty of fitting in. They also Powell’s knuckles. Day to day, his reveal his interest in witchcraft passions danced from love to hate James Agee. Photo by Frances Homolka. and demonology, the honing of but so often he was in purgatory, ever his writing at the expense of good mindful of the world’s ills yet hopeless to absolve them. grades, the suicide of a friend. Before this experience, His palls were alcoholism and a propensity for reporting trauma in literature had little bearing. Fiction, no matter on the nation’s underclasses, be it cockfighting or the how realistic, was fantasy. After the suicide, Agee can no impact the Tennessee Valley Authority would have on the longer “read and write of the most sordid and sad things mountains and its people. with rather impersonal interest.”

Nowhere is this expressed better than in his letters to Years later, while living in New York City, Agee informs Fr. James Harold Flye, an Episcopal priest. The collection Flye of his own suicidal thoughts, “I hate and fear suicide, of letters, 70 in all, was recently reissued 50 years after its but I don’t have a thought that isn’t pain and despair of publication. The letters are equal part confessionals as one sort or another…I simply am not capable of being the declarations. No one knew Agee like Flye did. kind of person, doing the kinds of things, which I want to be.” Flye’s reply – as much about the futility of self-hatred 22

SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

Fr. James Harold Flye. Photos by Walker Percy.

as the spiritual tone of the times – likely saved Agee’s terms such as Jap, Nip, Reds; that blacks were genetically life and propelled him to employ his writing talents to inferior; that all Jews were “clannish, interdependent and counteract “the epidemic of despair and weariness” predatory.” that had overtaken the globe in 1932. The country was The world’s horrors, however, always burdened Agee: ensnared in the talons of the Great Depression and Hitler he was circumspect of the atomic bomb and artificial was close to manhandling power over insemination. He proposed to Flye DEBRIEFED Germany. Agee found the perfect writing a “long, anguished love WHAT IS IT? expression of the world’s troubles in letter” in which the writer is God Letters of James Agee to Father Flye the orchid, whose corporatization and the letter is to the human race.

IN A NUTSHELL he chronicled in Fortune magazine: In one letter, Agee juxtaposes the Letters of James Agee to Father Flye is “liking a thing because it is the accident that befell his birth father a collection of 70 letters written by Largest, the Loudest, the Most – A Death in the Family, his final Agee to his instructor at St. Andrew’s Expensive, the most supercharged work, was published posthumously School and trusted friend throughout with Eroticism, Glamor, Prestige.”

– with the lengthy death sentence his life. The letters show Agee most often in a reflective, self-condemning Later, in what I consider his assigned to his stepfather, who was mood. The final letters, written from seminal achievement, Agee – diagnosed with terminal cancer. the hospital where he was battling collaborating with Walker Percy’s Agee doesn’t blame God. “I don’t daily heart attacks, are touching, as camera lens – captured the plight of think He so directs traffic that one are his sad reflections on the work he three white sharecropping families truck miraculously stops short on a yet wanted to do. Agee died in New York of a heart attack on May 16, during the Dust Bowl in Let Us Now precipice and another demolishes 1955. He was posthumously awarded Praise Famous Men. These farmers – a child.” As much as Agee felt God a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for A Death gaunt, ragged, uneducated – weren’t wasn’t “directing traffic” at the in the Family, an autobiographical sieves on American progress but to intersection of good and evil, of novel about a family coping with be revered. The farm, Agee wrote, is happiness and suffering, among his the sudden death of a father. “as a water spider whose feet print last letters, when he was beset by but do not break the gliding water membrane…it sustains recurring heart attacks, was a resounding statement about its entity upon the blind breadth and steady heave of his own faith. “But at all times I feel sure that my own nature.” shapeless personal religious sense, whatever that may be, The assignment made Agee more conscious of is deepening and increasing. Everything that is, is holy.” stereotypes: letters to Flye denounced derogatory war SPIRIT, SPRING, 2012

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