God of grace and God of glory, on thy people pour thy power;
crown thine ancient church’s story; bring its bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of the hour.
Dear Caldwell,
We sang the lines above this afternoon at the memorial service at Davidson College Presbyterian for Wool Howell, a devoted Presbyterian pastor and father to our Syd Howell, father-in-law to his wife, Dee.
Wool loved the Caldwell story. He believed in what’s important to us; we even recited the words of Micah 6 as our Affirmation of Faith in today’s service. (“Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God …”).
Wool knew all about Caldwell because one of our beloved “senior saints,” Jimmy Todd ()above), was his good friend. Wool and his wife, Bobbie, worshipped with us and reveled in what God had done here.
Wool, Jimmy and so many others who have gone on to the “church triumphant” will revel with us again come Sunday, as we look back on what some have called “the Miracle on 5th Street.”
It was this Sunday 10 years ago when the members of the Agape Class, a “Sunday school” without a church, and a few others were invited to consider helping Caldwell keeps its doors open. The existing tiny congregation welcomed them unconditionally and, since then, in the words of the hymn above, God has brought this “bud to a glorious flower” in ways
that still surprise us.
So we have much to celebrate Sunday. We’ll hear the story retold from various perspectives and listen to other stories from scripture about God’s love of doing “a new thing” in unexpected ways.
Certainly those who joined God in the rebirth of Caldwell demonstrated the courage and wisdom the old hymn sings of. (Did you know that hymn, God of Grace and God of Glory, was penned for the opening of the glorious Riverside Church in New York in 1930, one of the great progressive churches of our time?)
Meantime, please keep Syd and Dee (and Syd’s mother and family) in prayer as they grieve. We are also lifting up:
Laura Simmons, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and started chemotherapy today:
Cyndi Haden, on the loss of her father;
Myrtle Anderton and Donna Willis, as they grieve the loss of a pet and as Donna recovers from an illness:
Wilma Petty;
Kathy Neal, dealing with bronchitis;
Zoraida Stewart;
and Caldwell friend, Kris Vogel, whose father’s memorial service will be held at Caldwell Saturday at 11 a.m.
The Congregational Care Committee meets Thursday night at 6 p.m. if you feel that may be your calling to ministry (it needs 2 people to usher at Satruday’s service if you can help). If you want to work out and get dirty, the Caldwell Gardeners are having a garden workday Saturday 9-noon.
Watch for Caldwell This Week later.
In Christ,
John