We are planning the memorial service for December 30th at Community Church of New York at 2 pm. It took a little bit of coordinating to find a common date.
"Ministry is what we do together - clergy and the laity. It flows from a religious
conviction that invites people to become more of themselves, more whole, as we give
witness to a vision of a world transformed by our care."
Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley - January 2005
from an eulogy delivered at her father's funeral
This is a photo of the Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley and Janice Marie Johnson sharing in the ministry of JUUST change. (An UUA effort to help congregations in the transformative work of overcoming racism and embracing multiculturalism.) It was taken by JUUST change consultant Annette Marquis
One of the greatest lessons I took from Marjorie is that truly effective ministry is shared ministry. If we sit back and wait for the minister to provide what we need from our church, we will be sorely disappointed. It was the enthusiasm for shared ministry that Marjorie helped create in me that in part inspired me to start Mommy Meals at First UU in Austin. Marjorie will be missed, and my vision of what ministry can be is forever changed.
Chris Heidel
We honored Marjorie today at our staff chapel service at the UUA and shared some of her inspiring words. Please know that we are all holding you and your family in our hearts during this difficult time.
Marjorie touched so many lives, and her work will bear fruit for years to come. It's going to be a long grieving process for so many, but already we are beginning to see her legacy taking shape.
Much love to you and your family from Marjorie's sisters and brothers at the UUA.
Dear Clyde, Marjorie's name was lifted up at our weekly chapel service today at Starr King School for the Ministry. Soul Work is a required text for our Educating to Counter Oppressions and to Create Just and Sustainable Communities class and the work of hers (and others) represented in that book has been vital to the life of so many at the school. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the whole family.
In faith and with peace,
Wendy Bartel
2nd year M.Div student
I have been grieving so deeply in these past couple of days and this is my first attempt to write a little bit of what I felt for Marjorie. I met she and Clyde when I joined First Unitarian Universalist of Austin, TX and they were my (interim) co-minitsers. I was nineteen then. I am twenty-seven now and about to graduate Union Theological Seminary in May. When anyone asks me what brought me to seminary, Marjorie's name is always mentioned. I admired everything about Marjorie, her presence, her sense of humor, her sermons, her rituals, and her amazingly caring personality. I decided that "I want to be like her when I grow up"! When I finally got up the courage to call her a few years later in Tampa and tell her my plans, she was so encouraging- even placing my plane ticket to GA that year on her credit card so that I could make sure and attend the first Sankofa meeting (the UUA tends to mail GA 'scholarship' checks right before you should arrive for GA- so I reimbursed her when I saw her)! What happened at that GA has stayed with me these past 4 years in seminary & when times get tough and I wonder what I'm doing, I think of Marjorie's words of encouragement and that Sankofa, and I look up at the picture of me & Marjorie in my room, and I find my strength again. There isn't a single person I admire more than she (which is saying a LOT with all of the amazing people I have been privileged to meet -many of them introduced to me by Marjorie, herself!). I feel as if I have lost a family member. I already miss her so much.
I am so saddened by Marjorie's death. I've considered her one of my ministers since we met in 1992, and my mentor in anti-oppression work, first in metro-ny, and then in Austin when she was here. Clyde, I was so happy for you two when you found each other, and the beginning of your co-ministry - my thoughts are with you.
Carrie Stewart
Austin, Texas
i have been struggling for words to put here also...i still cry uncontrollably..i met marjorie when i first walked into all souls church, unitarian, dc where she was the intern...marjorie modelled hospitality and has been there ever since, whenever i've needed her...my heart aches that she is gone but i will love harder in her memory..
peace,
archene
A poem that Marjorie loved, for you:
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile,
We breathe briefly.
our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us,
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
from "Celebrations" by Maya Angelou
At about the same time as her passing, my church in Mahtomedi was praying for her. I was saddened that I did not know her as well as I wanted to, hoping I would become a minister and colleague with her over time. She had been an inspiration to me through her writing and her life and the way she had of being with Sankofa. We always think that there is time. I am grieve with my many friends who are feeling so lonely for her presence and with faith, finding more reason to be with her spirit in the work we do. I long for the time she described so eloquently.