March 7, 1938—April 2, 2022
April 9, 2022 Rev. Kent Gilbert, Pastor
Union Church
Tom asked that we gather in the manner of Friends with both silence and speech to “be the church in community,” and then to be the church in fellowship. Any who wish to speak may offer their thoughts and prayers, joys and sorrows. The camera in the center of the room allows distant family and friends to see each speaker and the larger gathering. If you prefer not to be videoed, please see the pastor who will show you a “video-free” zone.
Gathering Music
Welcome Rev. Kent Gilbert
Silence
Ringing the Peace Bell
Song Imagine John Lennon
Silence
Reading 1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Reflections and Remembrances
Silence
Reading Appalachian Morning Tom Frazier
Ringing the Peace Bell
Music
Prayers of Rest and Release
Benediction
Food and Fellowship
Poems from Tom’s book, “Come Sit a Spell”
Appalachian Morning
Gladsome hearts listen to the silence as
tortoise moves slowly on paved drive,
unconscious of any danger
yet secure within its shell,
while birds frolic in early morn chatter
all for the better in this Appalachian valley
awaiting a new day, lying
mysteriously in foggy hollows.
Gladsome hearts listen to the silence as
morning awakens slowly this November day
with a slight damp chill as
souls anticipate the warm sun.
Chickadee sings, Sweet-sweet
while doves pair and coo in silence,
a non-anxious presence for an embracing couple
joyfully watching creation in the making.
Gladsome hearts listen to the silence
far from commuter trains and airplanes
replaces with donkey’s braying
while horses nibble on green pasture
far from Chicago’s rush,
more like a brush of an angel’s wing
in the whisper of this morning
the making of a new day.
Acceptance
Earth is warmed gentle and quietly,
as sun slowly breaks through the fog.
From the night, rest is broken,
not with a shout but as a whisper,
moving the soul into a new day.
Hold the moment,
that it might speak in silence,
as lovers gazing into the eyes of each other,
who need not speak,
knowing it would make for thunder.
Sit quietly and move slowly,
as friends around a warm stove .
Expecting nothing, anticipating everything,
reaping from the experience
of the creative forces moving among us.
Earth is cooling with smooth color
as sun quietly spreads across horizon.
To end the day another way,
only that we might have our say,
is to miss the message of the day.
Home
Where families embrace
love abides and thrives
innocence and solitude shows itself sadly
community gathers
and warmly scatters,
leaving the homeless, homeless
single tears in a lake of gladness.
Home, yet not at home,
a part of, yet set apart.
Sweetness destroys the soul
leaving the tartness of life
that makes us sore.
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