Yorktown

June 13, 2007

The address is Old Wormley Creek Road, so I refer to the May family homestead as Old Wormley Hall. I had to laugh out of amazement and joy for my friends when I first caught sight of their home. It was a huge white house in the midst of a great field of grass and surrounded by pine trees. I thought it was a farm house that had been there for generations, but learned later that the house had been built just several decades ago and that they had added an addition to accommodate Gary’s in-laws.

I have known Gary May a little longer than Chris Christensen, serving in Germany with both of them. Gary along with two other lieutenants at the time, Tim “JT” Byrd and Pat Dolan, lived ‘on the economy’ in a rural German community. Half the fun of visiting them was getting there, driving through a landscape that Tolkien could’ve dreamed up – in fact, they called their apartment, “Rivendel” after the elf-fortress in “Lord of the Rings”. Those friendships helped shape me and I have resolved to keep in touch with such “beloved friends”.

Gary talked about going into the ministry to become an Army chaplain. At the time, that was disappointing news to me because I had hoped that we might do some collaborative work as “Christian artists”. Gary not only was a superb portrait artist, but he was the interior designer at Rivendel with posters and artifacts of sailing ships as the theme for the living room. He decorated his room with pictures of tigers. One of the guys had a bath tub under one of the eaves and Gary engineered putting a mirror over the tub! For those hard to get at places I suppose, right?

But Gary stayed in the Army and I got out to go to seminary, thanks in part to his example planting the seed of that possibility in my heart. He retired as a lieutenant colonel (0-5) and with together with Theresa his wife they have six kids – Brittany, Brian, Karina, Bethany, twins Christian and Nathan!

In their front yard surrounded by tiki lamps and a campfire, I told the stories of Jesus’ beginnings and what it was like to follow him around for the day. A couple boys from the neighborhood were also on hand. Afterwards, we all gravitated to the kitchen and hung out until late. The next day, I had a leisurely morning before setting off again, heading north to Delaware.

Tallhassee

After that brief morning visit, I headed on for Tallahassee UCC where I would present my first scheduled performance of my Biblical stories. I would be staying with my longtime friend and Army buddy, Dee “Chris” Christensen.
Chris and I were stationed Germany as army lieutenants in the 1/39th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (“Anything, Anytime, Anywhere Bar None”). We even traveled to Israel on leave during a more peaceful era, shortly after Sadat of Egypt and Begin of Israel established a treaty of peace – which has continued to this day.
Tallahassee UCC welcomed me with a spaghetti dinner. About 30 people from the church were there. It was the first time this congregation had ever had a church supper – and it was good! The Rev Sandy Hulse is their pastor, recently called to this church. She had served churches in NJ and CA and we had communicated by e-mail prior to her arrival. She was very excited about my project and my presentation was warmly received.

I prepared three sets of stories: “The Prologue” includes selections from each of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) which describe the origins of Jesus’ ministry as wonderworker, healer, and teacher. “The Sabbath” comes from Mark 2-5 and is a day in the life of Jesus that is filled with spiritual adventures. “The Love-song” is about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene, and Samaritans – good and bad. For Tallahassee and most of my stops, I planned to tell only The Prologue and The Sabbath. This made for a 45 minute presentation with time enough for people to talk about what they heard afterwards. I am finding that my audiences are enjoying the contemporary expressions I worked into my ‘translation/paraphrases’ of these old stories,
allowing people to hear them in new ways.

Back at Chris Christensen’s, we watched the video, “Kingdom of Heaven”
in which one of the main characters describes 12th Century multi-ethnic/ religious crusader society as “a kingdom of consciousness. Would you have believed that that would lie at the end of crusade?” A kingdom of consciousness, justice, and peace – a beloved community is what I hope for at the end of my crusade, my pilgrimage.

June 12, 2007

Tuesday was a travel day and I had to beat tropical storms sweeping down through Georgia. I was caught in torrential downpours until I arrived at Florence, SC – which had been a planned stop my dad would make for us on our trips to Florida. I stayed at a KOA and opted for a cabin instead of tent camping. Within 20 min of my arrival, thunder and lightning and more rain followed. Good call! Just the same it was a pleasant stay and I was well rested before pushing off the next day for VA and The Mays!

Guiding Light Guidance

June 11, 2007

Back on the road with a detour to Ocala – and a visit with Eugene R. Seaman & family. Gene was a vo-tech counselor at Plainfield High School and, though he was not assigned to me, we became good friends. But it was during my first years at college where he really helped me. I was failing Chemistry and he challenged me to confront the truth of my situation. He helped me to affirm myself that I was working as hard as I could, but there was more I could do by asking the professors for extra help. I passed Chemistry as a result of ‘crossing the Rubicon’ as he put it – making a commitment to succeed with no turning back. He was an important influence for me in my decision to go to the US Military Academy at West Point.

BTW he had still had a file on me! In it, were letters that I had written and he even had a photo of me in Dress Gray, striking up a boxing pose!
Gene had just completed radiation treatment for cancer and I offered to do an anointing with oil and healing prayer with his wife Brenda, three granddaughters and a family friend to help in laying on of hands. It was so good to see this beautiful, strong hero from my youth. I am looking forward to spending more time with them upon my return. One of the lessons of this trip is like the song lyric,

“Meet new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other gold.”

Outward bound

Family & Friends,
Ernest Hemingway said that you have to get some distance from places or events in order to write about them. He wrote this describing a time when he was sitting in a café with a glass of wine, a tablet, and pen on a rainy day in Paris while writing about Michigan. Well, I’m sitting in the café area of a Borders Books & Music in Bridgewater, NJ with a cup of cappuccino and my laptop (which is about as far as the comparison with Hemingway goes) starting my recollections of my Gospel Pilgrimage of Storytelling so far…

June 10, 2007

After the service of worship at Holiday United Church of Christ, I invited the congregation to meet me in the parking lot to do a “tobacco blessing”. This involved walking around my car and throwing pipe tobacco around it, on it, and up into the wheel wells. It is a way to say “Thanks” mainly as well as ask for safe journey on the road and something I learned from “Koda” (“Beloved Friend”) Garrett Wilson who is a full-blooded “Dakota” Sioux and an active member of the UCC’s Council of American Ministries. “Thanksgiving” is certainly an important part of my pilgrimage – not only to share the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The United Church of Christ at the 26th General Synod, but to celebrate and thank the angels in my life that God has sent into my life. Hopefully, I will be setting a good example for you, dear reader, to consider your own such pilgrimage.

Following this, my wife Daphni & I had lunch together, then I set off on this Gospel Pilgrimage of Storytelling. My first stop was to visit my Uncle Glen, his son John, his daughter Glenda & her husband Norman (whom I joined in marriage a few years ago). Uncle Glen & my Aunt Mary, who has since passed on, lived in Iowa where they ran a youth horse camp with John, Glenda, and younger son Bill (who’s still in IA).



I stayed with Glenda & Norm in their home near Inverness. Glenda is an artist and a retired teacher (when I confused Okeefenokee with Okechobee, she gave me a tour book of Florida and told me in no uncertain terms that I better learn about my home state!). Norm was a transplant to Montana from New Jersey and I found out that Montana is still a wild place with places some white folk shouldn’t go without expecting a fight and New Jersey had characters just as wild (it so happened “The Sopranos” finale was on that night, which we watched and what a disappointment – “We was robbed”). The next morning over a cup of coffee, Norm had more stories to tell about the career he had working in an aluminum plant in Montana. 20 years working there allowed him to learn all aspects of the process of making aluminum and he told all kinds of stories about the work and the people. Glenda pointed out Norm was telling more stories than ‘the storyteller’ (me)! This was a wonderful opportunity to get to know them better.

"GPS" - Gospel Pilgrimage Storytelling

The following is a description of a project that is already in progress...

A Gospel Story Pilgrimage – The Summer of 2007

A ‘road trip’ is an American ideal. It’s part wagon train ‘Westward Ho!’ and part Jack Kerouac. It’s also a Christian tradition such as ‘pilgrimages’ of the faithful or the apostolic adventures that first brought the Good News to the world.

Next summer, I will be making a road trip from my parish in Florida to go to the General Synod of the United Church of Christ in Hartford Connecticut (where I will also perform during the “Synod in the City” events) and back. It is my belief that “God is still speaking” through the stories of the Bible and I am called to share them on a pilgrimage of art & the Spirit. It is with the blessing of my church, my conference, and the national setting of my denomination that I am sent – including an endorsement by John H. Thomas, the General Minister & President of the UCC:
"I hope many of our congregations will welcome Drew as an ambassador of the United Church of Christ, as a compelling narrator of the Biblical stories, and … be connected to the church family as we celebrate our 50th anniversary."

I have been asked what my purpose is for doing this? It is my intention to do God's work by literally sharing the Good News of God’s Beloved Community through art & story. Along the way, I hope to promote the United Church of Christ, stressing the ideals that hold us together by telling the stories of Jesus Christ – which transcend political debate and provide a common ground for all of us who are passionate about making this a better world.
And this effort includes presentations at churches and organizations not directly affiliated with the UCC – in keeping with its tradition of ecumenical outreach and cooperation. I am encouraging the places I visit to use this as an opportunity to do fundraising as well as
enjoy an entertaining way for having fellowship.
This will also be an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of art and storytelling programs not only for children, but for adults as well. In the process, I hope to encourage churches to have patience for developing new ideas and creative programs by modeling one.
I also plan to make an illustrated log of my journey including portraits of the pastors, church members, seminarians, and other folks I meet. And I will be doing some listening, too, taking their responses back to the national setting of the UCC.



The trip will take three and a half weeks as I drive from Florida to Connecticut for the UCC General Synod and then on to Massachusetts. I will return by way of upstate New York and Pennsylvania to Washington, DC where I will catch the Autotrain back to Florida. There will be 17 places that I visit to do a story concert in addition to General Synod – where I will tie in with my friend Rev Chris “Doc” Anderson at the “God Is Still Creating” booth. My presentation includes three sets of stories that can be told together as an epic telling or with breaks to allow for music or other presentations. When I visit friends from NOBS (the Network of Biblical Storytellers) in Delaware, I will be just one storyteller among others, tailoring my presentation accordingly.
I will be telling stories that I have translated from the Greek and paraphrased with the Revised Standard Version of the Bible as another principal reference. The Synoptic Gospels edited by Kurt Aland and Bauers Greek-English Lexicon were indispensable tools in this process. The use of ‘inclusive language’ is intended and does not stop with gender, but allows for cultural considerations (ie, “Judeans” as the politicized “Jews” of the First Century CE). Another example is the unpacking of labels to get past the crust of tradition and touch on deeper meaning, like “True Heir of Humanity” for “Son of Man”. I have also taken some other liberties for the sake of dramatic license (such as portraying Mary Magdalene as the “beloved disciple”.
The woman with the hemorrhage as Jairus’ daughter’s “mother” is another flagrant example). So this is a work of art that is inspired by the sacred texts as well as the “Drew Willard Version” or DWV, if you will.
The first set of stories is called The Prologue – a sample from each of the Gospels that describe the beginnings of Jesus Christ’s ministry from his baptism up to his transformation as a great teacher and wonder-worker. This will be about 15 minutes in length. The second set is about 30 minutes and is titled The Sabbath. It is a day in the life of Jesus –
a day filled with wonders that happens to be a Sabbath day. The third set, A Lovesong to God, is also a half hour and describes Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem – and a love story featuring enemies (the Samaritans) and friends (Mary Magdalene). I am asking for gas and pizza money and figured $50 (a nice round number, considering it’s the UCC’s 50th Anniversary) per stop was reasonable, along with a safe place to spend the night. I suppose there could be a book come out of this – or how about a movie? I’ll encourage folks to take videos of my presentations so long as I get a copy – after all, fair’s fair.

But I’m doing this for the adventure of sharing the Faith through Art. I’m doing this for a world that has become disenchanted by spiritual poverty and violent retribution. The places that I am visiting are associated with people who have been part of my story and it is as much a pilgrimage to celebrate these angels, these messengers of God who continue to influence my life and guide me to the One Who Is , our true and beloved friend, Jesus. And I’m doing this for others whom I hope will do something even better for the generations yet to come. It is my hope that other people will say, “I can do that!” and go off on their own Spirit journeys to share their art, or music, or dance, or drama, and even humor with others – just like Jesus did.


Gospel Pilgrimage Storytelling itinerary:
An evening of Biblical storytelling (7:00 pm) with Drew Willard

6/11 Tallahassee United UCC, Tallahassee, FL
6/15 Westminster Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, DE
6/16 East Goshen UCC, West Chester, PA
6/18 Plainfield Congregational UCC, Plainfield, NJ
6/19 1st Congregational Church UCC, Montclair, NJ
6/20 1st Church of Christ UCC, Groton, CT
6/21 1st Congregational Church UCC, Griswold, CT
6/22-26 The UCC General Synod,
“Synod in the City”, 3:45 pm at The Atrium on June 23rd
Hartford, CT
6/27 Canton UCC, Canton, MA
6/28 1st Congregational UCC, Auburn, MA
6/29 Blooming Grove UCC, Blooming Grove, NY
6/30 Touch the World Youth Ministries, "The Barn" Kunkletown, PA
7/1 Phoebe Berks Health Care Center, Wernersville, PA
7/2 Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, PA
7/3 The Potter’s House Coffeehouse, Washington, DC
7/5 Holiday UCC, Holiday, FL

IN THE BEGINNING...

Shalom!

And welcome to my blog!

My name is Drew Willard

and I - like you, have many labels I could go by for what I am and what I do. That of course is the ego-part of us that we must present to the world as a mask or metaphor. Frederick Franck, though he eschewed labels, himself, was someone who could be called an artist (the only one to attend Vatican II), a dentist (who worked with Albert Schweitzer in Africa), and a mystic (who was equally at home in Buddhist & Christian spirituality). In his books, which he hand-wrote and 'illuminated' with his 'seeing/drawing' emphasized the importance of not just looking at things and people (or people as things), but to see. And this is in keeping with the challenge made by Jesus Christ to his disciples and us all - to not just listen, but to hear; not just look, but to see. And isn't that the beginning of what it takes to love in this world? Isn't it to find empathy with others as being like "the you" that you are inside, too. And for that matter, reflecting the image of God - The "I Am That I Am" that we are, too.

The Great Commandment includes the "Shema" of the Jewish people - which I have adapted as follows:

"Hear, O Israel! Listen, O People of God!

The LORD our God is One Lord;

And you shall love the LORD your God

with all your heart and soul,

with all your might and mind;

And you shall love your neighbor

as yourself,love your neighbor

as being like 'yourself'-

as being kin..."

The sentiment at the top of the page was something I read in a Reader's Digest in the early 1970s and attributed as an "Indian proverb". At the time, I took it to mean what is meant now as "Native American" (there we go with labels again), but I suppose it could also mean "Hindu". Truth, no matter what package it comes in (and whether we like it or not), is still true. "Listen, or thy tongue will keep thee deaf" is a truth from my early life that I have only recently recalled. It came as an insight in the midst of intense distress, challenging me not to be distracted by the noise around - and within me, the voice of fear and self-doubt. It was like God had said this to me.

It so happened that "God is still speaking"became the current mission statement for the identity campaign of The United Church of Christ (in which I have been ordained as a minister and pastor since 1996). The idea was to have a recognizable logo (or 'label') to help distinguish the United Church of Christ from similarly named denominations. This was based on a quote by Gracie Allen discovered by her husband George Burns (who played the title in the "O God" films) after her death: "Don't put a period where God has placed a comma."

That clever moniker has helped me remember that I have heard God speaking in my life and that I know the difference - whether I like it or not. My hope is that in these pages as I share my words & images you will also realize your own dialogue with "The One Who Is" - in whose image ("I Am"age) that we are all created.

Shalom,

Drew