God Is Where Love Is

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est

Twenty-eight years ago, when Tass, Linda and I accepted a call to Trinity Episcopal Church, Apalachicola, Florida, someone said settling there would be a culture shock after our Navy years and years in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Indeed it truly was that! But I had loved Trinity Church and Apalachicola since the 1940s, being there often with my father in his seafood business, and also stopping to wander round Chestnut Street cemetery and to visit the always-open historic old church many times enroute to and from Camp Weed during the middle to late 1940s and early 1950s. My joy at receiving and accepting the call was very great; and we found the Lord truly present in that place.

The summer of 1984 we arrived to stay, and one special family in my new parish had three adorable little children, ages four, six and eight. First generation Greek, the children’s grandfather was a beloved friend and great encourager to me all our years together until I officiated his funeral. The children’s mother used to bake special Communion bread for the parish at Easter and Christmas, magnificent, enormous loaves with Greek symbols and studded with cherries. Holding the bread up under the sanctuary lights for the Fraction in the Eucharist was always an elegant affair, and as parish children would come to the Altar rail they would ask eagerly, “Father Tom, may I have a cherry?” Powerful, happy, loving memories.

As those three special children grew up they were always present at worship and parish events, and served faithfully as acolytes, and I loved them dearly. By the time we retired and left Apalachicola in 1998, they were fairly well grown.

Last year an email arrived from Jacob, the middle child, “Greetings from one of your former acolytes,” asking me to officiate his wedding, in Hot Springs, Arkansas in April 2012. Linda and I accepted with joy, and were there for the festivities this past weekend, driving out and back, our first time in Arkansas. Now 34, Jacob is a scientist with NASA, Houston, marrying Elizabeth from Hot Springs who is with NASA too. It was a wonderful reunion and the festivities were marvelous, including a Greek circle dance at the reception. 

The service was at First United Methodist Church, Hot Springs, because when they visited the Episcopal church to ask about being married there, the rector said, “Absolutely not. I will not have my church turned into a wedding chapel.” They were stunned and terribly hurt. My sadness was great at hearing of this unkindness, but it was months ago now, and the Methodists were overwhelmingly welcoming and gracious, and we had a lovely wedding. 

During the Easter season we are hearing from First John, in which John the writer tells us “God is love.” God is where love is, and God is precisely not where love is not. A Communion song from Taize that we have sung recently is "Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est,"Where charity and love are, God is there." It’s now but a passing sadness to me, and without condemnation, to have seen that God was not at the Episcopal parish in Hot Springs -- the rector's retort and phrase "my church" telling far, far more than he likely realized -- but my sadness passing because of the great joy this past weekend of finding God abiding so evident at First United Methodist, Hot Springs: surely the presence of the Lord is in this place, a church of agape'  and chesed, where I have personally known the presence of God. 

TW+