The Idlewild Chimes

A newsletter for the congregation and friends of Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Midtown Memphis

We Learn to Keep Perspective in our Losses from the Beginning of Life to the End

A letter from Pastor Steve Montgomery

By the time you read this, most of you will have had your fill of analyzing, dissecting, and (for many) grieving the Memphis Tigers’ loss in the championship game several weeks ago. Allow me just a few final thoughts:

I was surprised, not being a native Memphian, at how deeply I grieved following the loss, partly because of the way we lost, but also because of what this had done to the city. Let’s not bemoan the fact that it was a basketball team that brought us together. The fact is, we were brought together.

Let’s also not forget to laud the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, who the very next night won the Women’s basketball championship. Kansas has nothing on Pat Summit. Eight national championships!

Theologically, (you knew I’d get to this, didn’t you?), central to understanding our lives is understanding loss. Judith Viorst made that claim several years ago in a book entitled Necessary Losses. She claims that the people we are and the lives we lead are determined, for better or for worse, by our loss experience. “We begin with loss,” she writes. “We are cast from the womb without an apartment, a charge plate, a job, or a car.” And life from that moment on, is one sequel after another in which we are confronted with necessary losses, because, she observes, that is the way we grow—by losing, and leaving, and letting go.

Pat Conroy, the noted author, highlighted the same theme in a masterful book My Losing Season, in which he recounted the year he played the starting guard on a Citadel team that ended up with a losing record. “Winning is wonderful in every aspect, but the darker music of loss resonates on deeper, richer planes … Loss is a fiercer, more uncompromising teacher, coldhearted but clear-eyed in its understanding that life is more dilemma than game, and more trial than free pass.

He then adds: “My acquaintance with loss has sustained me during the stormy passages of my life when the pink slips came through the door; when the checks bounced at the bank, when I told my small children I was leaving their mother, when the despair caught up with me. It sustained me when my mother lay dying of leukemia, when my sister heard the ruthless voices inside her, and when my brother [committed suicide], binding all of his family into his nightmare forever. Though I learned some things from the games we won that year, I learned much, much more from loss.”

I don’t think I’ll be writing the Kansas team a thank you note any time soon, but let’s all keep it in perspective. After all, there’s always next year!

-- Pastor Steve

Virginia Dunaway Hangs Up her Church Keys

Virginia Dunaway retired the end of April, and a reception in her honor was held on Sunday, April 27. We will miss her ever-patient presence as Church Life Administrator; fortunately, she will continue serving and enjoying the church as a “regular” member.

Dear congregation,

Little did I know when Jim Lowry called in September 1998 to ask if I would serve as the interim business manager what a great adventure was about to begin! Serving in the new position of Church Life Administrator has been a wonderful culmination for my career. Thanks to those of you who have made this possible.

It has been a privilege and joy to work with many of you on committees, the Session and the Diaconate, and to see how you use your talents to serve the church. I am grateful for the opportunity to get acquainted with others of you who serve in different ways and whom I might not otherwise have known. I value your friendships and am grateful for your faithful service.

I will miss being a part of the Idlewild staff. They are the best I have ever worked with — and I have been a part of several great staffs. Where else could you daily view the beauty of the garth through stained glass windows and be serenaded by the carillon?

I look forward to once again attending Sunday school, Bible studies and Presbyterian Women. I am anxious to return to some family projects I dropped when I came to work.

I feel blessed to have served on your staff. Thanks for everything so many of you have done to facilitate my work and to help me grow in many ways.

It has been great!

Virginia Dunaway

Bring Your Food Donations to Church on May 25

The spring food drive is now upon us. Twice each year, our donations benefit the Evergreen Food Pantry, which helps many in need. Please fill a bag with non-perishable items and bring it to church on May 25.

Collection bags will be distributed on May 11 and 18. A list of needed items will be attached to the collection bags, but all non-perishable items are welcome.

Cash and checks are very welcome. Make checks payable to Idlewild Presbyterian Church with “food pantry” noted. Thank you for supporting this much-needed service in our community. —Crystal Gilreath, Community Support Committee

Congressman Steven Cohen Speaks to Peacemakers

On Sunday, May 4, Peacemakers Class will welcome guest speaker Congressman Steve Cohen, who will address questions submitted in advance by the class. On that Sunday the class will meet at 9:40 a.m. in the Chapel. All are invited!

Organ Recital: “Three Visions of Pentecost”

Music Director and Organist Ted Gibboney will present an organ recital at Idlewild at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 11. The program will feature music on the theme of Pentecost by 20th century French composers Charles Tournemire, Olivier Messiaen, and Maurice Duruflé. Their music, written for organs and cathedral spaces in the style found in our church, provides three unique and colorful glimpses into the story of the pouring out of God’s Spirit on Pentecost. Dr. Gibboney will be repeating the program the following week at St. Gertrud’s Church in Hamburg, Germany.

New Hospitality Team Offers Sunday Morning Support

Idlewild Presbyterian Church seeks to be God’s church for all God’s people. Often visitors come to the church on Sunday mornings seeking assistance with various situations ranging from homelessness to hunger, loneliness to illness. In an effort to be the church for these visitors, a Hospitality Team of church members has formed. The team’s goal is to care for, support, and be with our guests. Instead of providing social services at any level, they will be listening to, guiding, praying with and providing local resources.

If you encounter visitors asking for assistance, please direct them to the main office, where a member of the hospitality team can meet them. Team members are Jim Apple, Mac Coffield, Susan Elliott, Cherry Falls, Minna and Alan Glenn, Jeff Harris, Mike and Laurie Harrison, and Margaret Burnett.

Let Our Teachers and Helpers Know We Appreciate Them

Teachers and helpers who work with the Children’s Ministry — more than 180 people have had a joyful and busy year with our children — will be honored on Sunday, May 18 during the 11:00 worship service.

Fun End of Year Swim Party

There will be a Cookout and Swim Party for 5th and 6th graders on Sunday afternoon, May 18, at the home of Glenn and Zee Cox. More information will be sent to parents, or you may contact Elizabeth Houston at 726-4681 ext. 33.

Make Yourself a Note...

OWLS (Older, Wiser, Livelier Seniors) will visit the Paddlewheel Museum at Arkansas’s Jackson Park State Park on Tuesday, May 13, with a picnic lunch. The group leaves the church at 9:00. To sign up call Regina Benson, 458–2970, or Sarah Burchfield, 324–6780.

CHANGE OF PLANS: OWLS will visit MEMORIAL PARK on Tuesday, MAY 13, The group leaves the church at 10:00 a.m. Lunch will be at Embassy Suites. (5/1/08)

At their annual celebration on Tuesday, May 20, Idlewild’s Presbyterian Women will honor TWO women as lifelong members. Traditionally, honorees are not named until that day. The ceremony, including the installation of officers for the coming year, will be at 10:30 in the Chapel, followed by a luncheon in the T.K. Young Room.

McMerton Garden, an organic neighborhood garden in Binghamton, was started by church members last summer and quickly expanded to several plots. Share the work and fun this summer! Contact Carl Awsumb at 278-2552 or cawsumb@bellsouth.net.

Exciting Adopt-A-School Enrichment Program

If you are interested in tutoring K–5th grade once a week, reading to Pre-K once, or offering expertise in an enrichment program once a week, please contact Toni Baer or Margaret Burnett. (For the next school year, Julia Allen will be recruiting volunteers this summer.)

As the school year winds down we are working with Idlewild Elementary School to develop an enrichment program for all children in the 4th grade. Our goal is to provide students with extra-curricular activities that may lead to life time skills. Each group will consist of one or two adult leaders and no more than six children, meeting one hour per week for four weeks.

There is a wide range of areas of interest and the adults who provide training — Drama: Ms. Ellis (4th grade teacher); gardening: Ms. Reed (4th grade teacher); leadership: Catherine Berger and Jill Iglehart; Math Club/ Krypto: Toni Baer; Book Club: Janie McCrary; quilting: Ann Fain and Sheila Smith (of the Memphis Cotton Patchers Quilt Guild); board games: Julie Saxon; and clay sculpting: Casey Thompson.

If this program is successful, we hope to expand it next year when these same children are in 5th grade, as well as introduce it to the new 4th graders after their TCAP exams. —Toni Baer

DISCIPLE: Seeking a Life-Changing Experience

Wish you knew more about the Bible? DISCIPLE may be just the thing for you. Disciple courses lead you through the Bible in a structured, focused way, along with other dedicated students and facilitators. Weekly discussion groups explore questions and supplement daily Bible reading and journaling.

Beginning in September, two courses will be open to anyone willing to make the commitment to read and prepare, and to regularly attend weekly class. (Time is taken off for holidays; nursery care will be provided, if needed.)

The two Sunday morning Disciple classes will be Psalms in the fall (ten-week commitment), and Gospel of John in the spring (eleven weeks). Meetings will be from 8:30 to 10:00. For more information about these two classes contact Robyn Gibboney, 458-7019 or gibboneyr@rhodes.edu.

On Wednesdays, there will be Old Testament & New Testament Survey (an intensive study in which participants read approximately 70% of the Bible) on Wednesday evenings; and Jesus in the Gospels on Wednesday mornings.

You are invited to prayerfully consider participation in one of these transformative Bible studies. For details and proposed schedules please pick up a brochure at the church. In order for the facilitators to prepare adequately, please register by June 15 with Gayle Walker, 726-4681 or gwalker@idlewildchurch.org.

VBS Beach Party — Surfin’ Through the Scriptures

Registration ends May 18 for this summer’s vacation Bible school. Register at church Sunday mornings after 11:00 worship. Registration forms (PDF) to print and mail are available on the Children’s Ministry Web page, too.

VBS Beach Party will be Monday-Thursday, June 2‑5 for rising preschool to rising 6th graders, who will take an exciting journey to the beach and learn the basics of surfing, ride the wave of God’s love, and go home with the fundamentals of the “Beach Be-Attitude”: Be obedient, be kind, be forgiving, be bold and believe. For older children part of VBS is Make a Difference (MAD) Outreach Camp.

Rising 7th graders, teens and adults: Join the fun and help with VBS this summer! Call Gwen Bruno, 683-9106, or Elise McKinnon, 272-3691.

Children’s Summer Classes and Special Dates

Summer church school for preschool and elementary children begins June 1 with two combined classes: Preschool meets in 203W, and Elementary meet in 310E. Children remain in their same classes in the summer, then are promoted to the next grade when fall classes begin on September 7.

Other important summer dates: August 17, Back to School Breakfast; August 24, Teacher Training; August 24, recreation in the gym for ages 3 to 6th grade, during church school.

Help Prepare next Fall’s “Portals of Peace” Hangings for the Sanctuary

Rich symbolism, stained glass artistry, masterful wood carvings, inspirational images in stone … all these are the splendid visual legacy of George Awsumb’s architectural genius to Idlewild’s generations. Our inspirational banners, designed and commissioned by Idlewild members for the liturgical seasons, beautifully augment the spoken word and songs of worship and praise for those meaningful times. Now for the next step in visual enrichment of worship for Idlewild.

Our Liturgical Arts subcommittee, under the supervision of the Worship and Music Committee, has worked with a marvelously-talented artist/theologian, the Reverend Woong Sik Timothy Chon of Michigan, who has assisted churches in the production and reverent use of theologically and artistically sound visual effects, to heighten worshipful experience.

The core concept, being developed by members of the liturgical arts team, is to utilize art produced by Idlewilders, definitely including children, to produce hangings in the arches lining the nave of the sanctuary on special liturgical Sundays, such as Pentecost and World Communion Sunday. The fabrics are wonderfully fine, creating a gossamer effect for the appropriate artistic design and transforming the sanctuary archways into the gentle, airy, colorful series … Portals of Peace.

To realize these worshipful effects will require the work of Idlewilders of all ages for drawing, lettering, sewing, ironing of artistic images onto the light fabric, application of various crafts skills. It is exhilarating to observe the group of volunteers, who are already beginning to produce the first works for the portals, using amazing designs elicited by Woong Sik from our excited and talented children.

Bring your gifts and skills to this beautiful task! Contact Brenda Harris at 726-4681 and learn how you can be involved in this joyous project. What a gratifying way to pursue our chief end as Christians: to glorify and enjoy God forever, while joyously and creatively bringing forth the Portals of Peace — that lovely state of which our Lord is Prince. —Jim Eikner

Know the Importance of Ascension Day

Forty days after each Easter (May 1 this year), many Christians around the world celebrate the Ascension. It’s the day when the resurrected Jesus was raised up from the earth into heaven. The Ascension is the prelude to Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon a gathering of people, including the apostles, in Jerusalem.

The Ascension is more important than many Christians realize. In his human body, Christ could be in only one place at a time. The risen Christ, however, can be spiritually present in any place at any time.

Attending Clean Water U Changes One’s Perspective

The last activity for the participants at Clean Water U is drinking lake water that has been treated by the system they have assembled during their five days of classes. We learn about leadership and how to establish a covenant with an overseas community where the system will be built (101), Health and Hygiene (102) helping people who have had little access to clean water in the past understand how to use it, and (103) construction, installation and maintenance of the treatment system. We attend one of the three classes, but there is plenty of sharing time to gain much knowledge of all three classes.

Twelve Idlewild members have taken the classes at Clean Water U, and 11 members have been on mission trips. Graduates have installed over 180 water treatment systems in 19 countries. Idlewild has installed three of these, two in Mexico and one in Ghana. Plans are being made for two more installations in Mexico and two more in Ghana for late 2008.

As Americans, we take our clean water for granted. After attending Clean Water U and making one of these mission trips, I will never think about water the same way. The system uses filtration, micro filtration and ozone injection to treat contaminated water. A basic system costs approximately $2,800 and provides 300 gallons of clean water per hour.

The theme behind Living Waters for the World is sustainability. We supervise the installation of the equipment and how to use it and maintain it. Classes are held on health and hygiene to instruct our operating partners on the proper use of the clean water, and they are taught to teach others. Follow-up trips are planned to ensure the systems are maintained and working properly. Learn more at www.livingwatersfortheworld.org. —Buddy Nix

Teach for America Volunteers Head Home

This month, Idlewild Church and the City of Memphis say goodbye to three good and faithful servants: Tim Flowers, Ira Leeds and Erie Roberts. This trio, along with 47 other young professionals, are finishing their two year commitment to Teach for America, an amazing program revolutionizing inner city education in this country, one classroom at a time.

Tim, who was baptized at Idlewild last year, is from Cicero, Indiana, and went to Wabash College. He has been teaching 7th grade math at Soulsville Charter School. Tim is now deciding between law school at Indiana University and accepting a Fulbright to Belgium, where he would teach English at a university.

Erie, from Wisconsin, has been teaching history at Kingsbury Middle School. Having been “bit” by the teaching bug, Erie plans to return to Kingsbury. Ira, a Princeton graduate, has been teaching at Kingsbury, too. He will return to his native Atlanta and enroll at Emory’s School of Medicine.

As is true of all who love teaching, they value the “magic moments” both in and out of the classroom: a class of eager ESL students; the look on the face of a 13-year-old, given a book her teacher loved at that age; a student earning a passing grade after months of failure; and hearing strong messages of hope at the Freedom Awards banquet.

And of course, they have loved their time at Idlewild, their Memphis church. Godspeed, Ira, Erie, and Tim; On behalf of our city and our church, thank you for your energy, time and enthusiasm. —Anne Fisher

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Special Dates

Need more info? Call the church office at 726-4681 or visit www.idlewildchurch.org.

	May 1	Ascension of the Lord
	May 1	National Day of Prayer
	May 2-4	Confirmation Retreat
	May 4	Guest speaker Steve Cohen
	May 4	First Sunday Lunch
	May 4	Wills Emphasis Sunday
	May 6	PW Circles
	May 10	Eagle Scout Court of Honor
	May 11	Day of Pentecost
	May 11	Mother’s Day
	May 11	Pentecost Organ Recital
	May 13	OWLS daytrip
	May 14	Children’s Choir Party
	May 18	Trinity Sunday
	May 18	Teacher Appreciation
	May 19	Hutchison Graduation
	May 20	PW Installation of Officers and Luncheon
	May 22	Idlewild Elementary School Fifth Grade Graduation
	May 22	Idlewild Book Club (2:00 pm)
	May 23	Kindergarten Family Picnic
	May 26	Memorial Day (church offices closed)
	May 27	OWLS Book Club

When Does What End?

	May 7	Adult Choir rehearsals
	May 12	Natural Spirituality
	May 14	WELL Dinners and Programs
	May 14	Children’s choir rehearsals
	May 15	Brooks Ramsey’s Bible Study
	May 23	Men’s Friday Bible Breakfast
	May 29	Amazing Grace Women’s Study

Committee Meetings

These meetings were on the calendar as of April 18. Please check with your committee chair or the church office if you have questions.

May 4	12:30 pm	Children’s Ministry
May 4	12:30 pm	Diaconate
May 5	11:00 am	Congregational Care
May 5	5:30 pm	Clean Water
May 5	5:45 pm	Youth Ministry
May 7	5:30 pm	Stewardship
May 8	4:00 pm	CUIC
May 12	5:30 pm	Adult Ministry
May 12	5:30 pm	Worship & Music
May 14	5:15 pm	Budget & Finance
May 15	8:00 am	Personnel
May 18	12:30 pm	Recreation
May 19	5:30 pm	Long Range Planning
May 20	9:30 am	PW Coordinating Team
May 21	7:30 pm	Session
May 27	5:30 pm	Evangelism
May 27	5:30 pm	Global Missions
May 28	5:00 pm	House & Properties

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Recent Transitions in Our Church Membership

Deceased

NETTIE WALTON SCHILLING (Mrs. Neal Schilling) died April 9, 2008. Mrs. Schilling had been a member of Idlewild Presbyterian Church since 1945. She was very much involved with More Than A Meal, and was a generous supporter of the church’s organ music programs. She had been active in the Ruth and Lydia Circles and the John Knox Class. The Idlewild Church family offers deepest condolences to all her friends and loved ones.

Baptized in the Faith

WILLIAM BALLARD, son of Tim and Mary Ballard

MILES FLEMING, son of Bryce and Candice Fleming

JOHN CARTER WYATT, son of Joe Lee and Molly Wyatt

New Members

We welcome to our community of faith …

TREY SMITH by letter of transfer

TEALE TAGGART by letter of transfer

BRICE TIMMONS by baptism and profession of faith

Dismissed from the Roll

DOUG & JULIE BACON THOMAS & BECKY HOBSON

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The Back Fence - News of the Congregation

Submit Back Fence news to Jo Ann Acuff at jaacuff@idlewildchurch.org or call her at 726-4681 ext. 11.

JUDY AND KIM JOHNSON have a new grandson, Nathan Kimbrough Johnson, born March 20 to Thomas and Gina Johnson.

Grandson of CAROLYN SPEROS and great-grandson of LOUISE IJAMS, Lee Andrew Hyde V was born March 21 to Drew and Kristina Hyde.

BARBARA THORNTON’S new great-grandson, Samuel Robert Thornton, born March 24 to Kirby and Japsie Thornton.

JUDY AND JACK POWELL’S granddaughter Gladys (Gigi) Garrott Powell was born March 25 to Biggs and Neely Powell.

We offer sympathy in these recent deaths in the extended church family:

BETH DIXON’S mother, Josephine Moore Cartwright, died April 5.

ED HETTINGER’S mother, Mary Hettinger, died March 26.

ERNEST KELLY’S mother, Miriam Kelly, died April 16.

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