Page 54 - MLD Book

clean anything and everything at Calvary, and once waxed the organ bench so well that I slid off the other end onto the marble floor one Sunday!
This was also the year that we decided to celebrate Calvary’s feast day, Holy Cross Day, on the nearest Sunday to September 14. Jonathan Smith and I wrote a special hymn specifically for that occasion and it was to be sung every year as part of the worship service. We still celebrate that feast day, but after 2012, the musicians in charge did not wish to continue singing of that hymn. Silly – it’s a good hymn! Maybe someday!
2008
Clothing dispute rages on, led by Ginger and counteracted by me. Although the vestry adopted guidelines in May of 2007, including the mandate that the Outreach Director (me) would have final say, Ginger still was crusading for a living room approach to the north entry. I finally (in August) had to submit an official proposal to the vestry that covered what we already were doing. During the week, we were allowed to minister to the people in whatever way worked. In return, I would be responsible every Saturday for getting rid of it ALL, hiding it in various nooks and crannies throughout Calvary. The vestry made it official by a vote, so in addition to my preparing all the music for Sunday, each Saturday for the foreseeable future was programmed to dragging clothing racks!! This stupid, time- consuming act was deemed quite successful, except for me, who had to execute it. Don’t think for a minute that Ginger would help either eradicating or replacing on Sunday after the living room could be vacated! But the bottom line was that we were allowed to continue clothing our clients, so it was worth it. My description of Ginger often invoked the B word,
for sure!
This was also the year that Calvary took over all of the food distribution. The Help Office is now called Help Ministries of Central Louisville (HMCL and it was the place the clients went for referrals and then we would receive a call as to who was coming and how many. HELP kept all the files. When they moved to the Cathedral for that short time, most of our clients were too far away, so it was not working. Thus we decided to keep it all in house, records and all. So 2008 saw scads of clothes and food bags all in the north entry. I had to remind new people often that we had built that room to serve the poor, and by golly, we were going to do it. AND DID!
Also in the realm of food ministry, I must mention a remarkable lady named Charlene White. I think it was Beverly Haverstock who told me one day that Charlene raised myriads of chickens and gave away their eggs to everyone she could find. Of course, I decided we needed some for our food bags, so for a couple of years, Charlene provided us with fresh eggs. She would usually deliver them to my house in a very old, smelly van littered with straw and egg cartons and chicken mess. As far as I know, the eggs never made any of our clients sick, and they were very tasty. But we could have gotten in unsanitary trouble, I guess! Anyway, she was a very interesting lady and I enjoyed her eccentricities. Melvin was especially filled with wonder at her antics, for he often received them at out home while I was at Calvary.