[Magdalen] Please pray for Ascension, Chicago

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Raewynne Whiteley

>it was made very clear to me that to let either of them go would result in
>a split in the parish.  In other words, they were permanent and I was
>temporary.

Don’t think they're treating you differently than some who've gone before you.

Then there was the former Rector who had recently done two tours as a Marine 
Chaplain in Viet Nam (One of those old wardens-meet-with-the-bishop-over-Sherry 
calls where the wardens made clear they didn’t want any peacenik hippie priests 
<g>).  He had been there about two weeks, as he tells it, and walked into the 
Secretary's office (a parishioner named Dorothy) and found several ladies of the 
Altar Guild sitting there with Dorothy (who was also head of the Altar Guild) .

He said, "Good -- I'm glad you're all here -- starting Sunday, I'd like to make 
a few changes as to the altar set-up " He went on to tell them what he wanted, 
when Dorothy interrupted and said sternly, "And what if we don’t WANT to make 
those changes."

To which the new Rector  answered in true Marine fashion, :I kick ass and take 
names."

He told me years later he knew the moment he uttered those words, his tenure 
would be short.

[Let me add that the previous Rector, who'd been there for 30 years simply moved 
up the road to the next town and was "always available"which didn’t help the 
situation. OTOH, the Rector's Dad had been a Bishop -- so you' think between 
that and the Marines he'd have been tougher <g>.

And to his credit, the previous Rector upon arrival in the 1930s, cleaned out 
the parish Ku Lux Klan group (a  picture of which in front of the church 
appeared in an Arcadia book in 1996 which the then-Rector did not find helpful 
<g>).

Indeed, they soon drove him out -- to the point where the 8 o'clockers found his 
resignation taped to the door one Sunday morning.

Then there was the Rector caught en flagrante in bed with a parishioner by his 
wife; then there was the administrator caught stealing cash from the collection 
plate and several other interesting transgressions. And the wife stayed a member 
after his banishment. Then there was the curate whose confirmation classes 
seemed to lose girls along the way. He moved to another parish (St Mary's 
Amityville) then to West Virginia where the police caught him molesting a 
pre-teen girl.

And then there was the Rector immediately before you, Raewynne -- another driven 
out.

IOW, you go gril! And never think anything there is your fault. It's just the 
karma of the parish.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie