Feb. 4, 2003
Shuttle disaster personal loss for Seabrook church members
By Eleanor Colvin*
SEABROOK, Texas (UMNS) – All the signs along NASA Road 1 show that the small cities of Seabrook, El Lago and Clear Lake – which the vast majority of NASA employees call home – have once again been emotionally rocked by a space shuttle disaster. And once again, they are standing together in love.
The marquees outside all entities, from elementary schools to eateries, hotels to flower shops, offer inspirational messages to those who lost family members in the Columbia space shuttle explosion Feb. 1 and to the entire Johnson Space Center family.
The streets are lined with messages that read: "Our hearts are with you." "Our prayers go out to you." "Stay strong NASA, we love you."
To express that love, Seabrook United Methodist Church hosted a Feb. 3 memorial service in honor of the seven fallen astronauts. Although none of the Columbia crew attended Seabrook, the 1,000-member church is teeming with scientists, astronauts and NASA employees, who cherish their memories of time spent with the Columbia crew.
"The whole history of this church is tied up with the space program and NASA," said the Rev. Ed Barlow, who has been pastor of Seabrook church for three months. "So, the people here are not experiencing an objective, ‘I’m sorry it happened’ kind of loss. This is a very personal loss for a lot of us."
The tragedy is extremely personal for Gil Bonse, who works for NASA’s astronaut safety branch and knew all of the astronauts aboard Columbia. Having previously worked directly with Columbia’s commander, Rick Husband, for about a year, Bonse said he felt numb and shocked when church members broke the tragic news of the shuttle’s disintegration during choir rehearsal that Saturday morning. The numbness seems to have subsided, as the soft-spoken Bonse expresses both joy and sadness when describing his final moments with his colleagues.
"I was fortunate to watch the launch and see them before they went into quarantine and wish them well," he said of his time with the astronauts before the Jan. 16 lift off at Kennedy Space Center in Coco Beach, Fla. "They were ecstatic – delighted to go fly – and the launch was flawless. Beautiful."
Those are the memories that Bonse, a 23-year veteran of the space industry, will cherish and hold onto, as opposed to fixating on the loss. He also finds comfort in a promise he once heard: Christians never see each other for the last time.
"Rick was a committed Christian, and that was apparent in his day-to-day activities," Bonse said of his former boss, who also shared his love of singing in the choir.
Faith is what Bonse, a member of Seabrook for nearly 15 years, said gives him the strength to move forward. Psalm 121, which was read at the memorial service, and Psalm 127 are two scriptures that are especially comforting to him now, he said. Another comfort was the compassion NASA leaders expressed Feb. 3, he said, when officials made it clear the astronauts were loved, would be missed and that healing the chasm created by their loss would be a priority. Those declarations made an unusually somber workday easier.
Barlow hoped the memorial service would be another source of comfort and assurance for Bonse and others who are grief stricken. The main objective was to keep people’s eyes focused on God instead of the grief and to provide a map to help people move from despair to hope.
"The main points of the eulogy are there is nowhere where God is not; we are all held in the lap of God; and God absorbs us into his loving presence," Barlow said.
"There will be a lot of services to discuss their duty and honor and courage and the challenge to live up to their standard. It’s important as Christians to approach this memorial service in the context of God’s presence even in the midst of tragedy. Tragedy is a part of the human condition. God’s a God of tragedy as well as success – a God of loss as well as joys."
The lingering pain of a shuttle disaster is not new to most Seabrook members and the NASA community. Living through the Challenger explosion 17 years ago makes accepting the Columbia tragedy easier and more difficult at the same time. While the pain is familiar, it’s still pain – and most people can’t believe that it actually happened again.
Coping with the disaster is especially hard for young people like Joe Potts, 14, and Jeff Nickeson, 17, who either weren’t born in 1986 or weren’t old enough to remember the Challenger tragedy.
"I wasn’t quite a year old when Challenger happened," Nickeson said. "But my mom kept all the papers.
"Space has always been a part of my life. As a 5 year old, I could spout out what NASA stands for. I probably knew more about NASA than an adult from another state."
Although none of Nickeson’s family works for NASA, he still feels closely bound to the industry. His family, particularly his mother, knew several of the astronauts aboard Columbia and Challenger.
"Everyone in the neighborhood is affected. The original astronauts of Mercury 7 lived in Timber Cove – my neighborhood. These neighborhoods were built for the astronauts," said Nickeson. Emphasizing the sense of community, he added that one of his astronaut neighbors recently wrote a letter of recommendation for his applications to West Point Military Academy and Texas A&M University.
Nickeson and Potts, both members of Seabrook and students at Clear Lake High School, said the first day of school after the explosion was no average day. They described it as different and quiet, despite the fact that police were swarming the campus to ensure that the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and other astronauts’ children who attend the school were not bothered by media or other curious onlookers.
"(Ramon’s son) didn’t seem happy or sad. You could tell in his eyes he was very upset," Potts said. "Normally, he has a smile. But he was very quiet, while people were talking and crying all around him.
"This is a very new thing for us that we don’t know how to handle. We could be sad. We could ignore it. Even though we don’t know what to do, we recognize it’s a very bad thing."
Both boys consider it a privilege to come of age in a community rooted in the tradition of space exploration. The courageous spirit of the astronauts leaves them in awe and inspired.
"They knew the risks but still took the challenge. That’s a very honorable thing to do." said Potts, who aspires to attend Texas A&M University and serve as an officer in the Army or Marines.
A future political analyst, Nickeson echoed Potts’ reverence for the astronauts’ selfless service.
"Space travel just can’t be described – it’s one of those wow moments," Nickeson said. "These astronauts are not just working to push America forward, but they are working for the entire world. They don’t care about race, they don’t care about terrorism. They are just doing their jobs – forwarding mankind, serving on the frontlines."
The youth are not the only ones inspired by the heroism of the Columbia astronauts. Mary Hoepfner, a 15-year member of Seabrook, said she attended the memorial service to simply show her respect for the fallen. Hoepfner, who worked at NASA as a teen, said although she didn’t know any of the Columbia crew, she still feels the pain along with the entire community.
"We’re all one family. We’re all neighbors," Hoepfner said. "One of my friends is a NASA nurse, and she lost three of her friends on Columbia. We are all affected."
Seabrook Church has always reserved a special place in its heart for space pioneers. The church houses a Space Memorial Room, which is listed on a national registry of museums, and preserves artifacts and pictures commemorating 50 years of space travel. Many of the items are the property of NASA.
But Seabrook’s connection to the space industry is deeper than that. The museum is located in the church’s Ed White Memorial Youth Center. A member of Seabrook, White was the first U.S. astronaut to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission. He died in 1967 with two other astronauts in a fire during a ground test aboard Apollo 1.
Kandy Lawson, treasurer of the youth center and Seabrook drama director, said White spurred the birth of the center when he donated his $500 prize from the Freedom Walk Award, honoring his walk in space, to the church youth.
That’s the way things have always been at Seabrook and the way members expect they will always be: Seabrook’s fate is inherently intertwined with NASA.
This also is a reason the church posts prayers and poems that astronauts have taken into space with them. A prayer in the entryway expresses an astronaut’s excitement, and it helps some members accept the tragic fate that often befalls these visionaries.
"Father, thank you, especially for letting me fly this flight. Thank you for the privilege of being able to be in this position; to be up in this wondrous place, seeing all the many startling, wonderful things that you have created," the prayer reads. "Be with all our families. Give them guidance and encouragement and let them know that everything will be OK."
It may take months or years or a lifetime for members of Seabrook to feel OK, but they are certain that as NASA heals, they will heal, and as NASA moves forward, they will move forward.
*Colvin is a free-lance writer in Houston.
top
Feb. 3, 2003
Commentary: Where was God when Columbia exploded?
A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Dan Dick*
A woman pulled me aside and said, "You work with the Science and Theology Task Force. I have a question for you: where was God when the space shuttle blew up? Tell me that!"
Many different issues are contained within this question. First, there is sadness – the emotions elicited by stark tragedy. Second, there is fear – fear that the God of love and compassion might be absent in time of greatest need. Third, there is a challenge – a challenge to the false gods of science and technology that seem no more dependable than any other substitute for God.
Ultimately, there is just one issue: How do we make sense of a tragedy like the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia?
The most normal human response to any tragedy is to seek answers, and the easiest way to find an answer is to fix blame. Where can we ascribe fault? Who is responsible? For a people of Christian faith, we cannot accept that this is God’s will.
One radio evangelist immediately responded to say that the explosion of the space shuttle was "a warning shot from God, telling us to remember our place." However, the only way that this explanation makes sense is to believe that God fears us, and that God-given knowledge that yields such incredible advances in science and technology is somehow a threat to the Almighty. Only a little, petty God would sacrifice the lives of those gifted women and men to "put us in our place."
God did not do this to us, nor is science to blame. God makes no promise to protect us from all mishap, especially from the very law of nature God established to govern all of creation. Neither can science provide an escape from natural law. To live is to be at risk. Faith in God, or faith in science for that matter, is no guarantee that hardship will no longer befall us. Life is what it is, and our faith offers us less than total protection from harm. What is offered, however, is much more valuable.
God will not remove tragedy from our lives, but God will move with us through tragedy. In the wake of a disaster like the Columbia explosion, faith in God grants us something that science never will: spiritual companionship through the devastation. As a parent cannot remove the sting from injury to their children, God cannot make our pain go away. But just like an earthly parent, God can hold us in our distress and comfort us with that gentle presence that gives us space to heal.
Science and technology make no such offer. The best our science can do is promise to find ways to reduce the probability of disaster in the future. That is worth something, but it is little comfort in the moment.
God never promises to make our problems go away. What God promises is to be there with us through the problems. Where was God when the space shuttle disintegrated? God was with each and every astronaut, their families and friends, as they experienced tragedy. God was in the anguish and tears, the terror and confusion. God was in the questions and in the disbelief. God was not the cause of this catastrophe, nor was science.
As science seeks technological answers to the accident that occurred, God seeks to heal the hearts of those most deeply scarred by this event. May God work through all of us to spread that healing and share the spirit of compassion that leads to faith.
*Dick is director of congregational planning and leader development at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn., and a member of the Interagency Task Force on Science and Theology.
Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.
top
Jan. 29, 2003
TV spot features bishop questioning war on Iraq
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, appearing in a 30-second commercial for cable television, asserts that an attack on Iraq "violates God’s law."
As the ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops, Talbert’s remarks questioning Iraq’s war policies are aimed at U.S. policymakers. The commercial is expected to air later this week on CNN and Fox cable news in New York and Washington and during CNN’s "Larry King Live" program. Talbert appears with actress and political activist Janeane Garafalo.
The bishop says there is no need for an attack on Iraq and that the United States has no authority to remove dictator Saddam Hussein from power. "No nation under God has that right," Talbert says. "It violates international law. It violates God’s law and the teachings of Jesus Christ."
Sponsored by the National Council of Churches, the commercial is one in a series developed by a group of religious and civic groups questioning the need for war.
"Iraq hasn’t wronged us. War will only create more terrorists," Talbert says. The bishop has a long history of advocacy for peace and the innocent victims of war. He visited Iraq in 1991, before the Persian Gulf War, and more recently participated in an ecumenical peace mission there. On that Dec. 29-Jan. 3 trip, he witnessed the impact that years of sanctions have had on Iraq’s citizens.
"I don’t see that small nation as being the kind of threat to our nation that the media portrays," he says. "War will result in the suffering of masses of children, among others. And what will happen to the rest of the Arab world? Waging war will remove the influence of the more moderate element and put the future in the hands of the more radical elements."
Further, he says, the Arab world will associate U.S. military action with Christianity in general, undermining ecumenical efforts like the peace mission, coordinated by the National Council of Churches and hosted by the Middle East Council of Churches.
top
Feb. 7, 2003
Judicial Council to consider question from bishops
By United Methodist News Service
When it meets this spring, the United Methodist Church’s supreme court will consider a proposal that would increase the term of the Council of Bishops’ president while relieving that person of the duties of supervising a geographical area.
Currently, a president of the council serves for one year as president-elect and one year as president, and at the same time is the spiritual and administrative leader of an area that may include several states or countries. Bishops’ duties also include presiding at annual (regional) conferences, and many of them serve on the boards of denominational agencies and other church-related institutions.
The Council of Bishops has asked the United Methodist Judicial Council to rule on the legality of a proposal that would give the president a four-year term and no "residential" duties.
That matter is among a small number of cases that the nine-member court will consider when it meets April 26-27 in Fort Worth, Texas. The court meets twice a year, in spring and fall.
The Coordinating Council of the Philippines Central Conference has asked for a decision on whether a member of the Judicial Council is eligible to serve as a trustee of Wesleyan University-Philippines.
The court has also been asked to review a bishop’s decision on the legality of a special clergy session held at a different time and place from the West Ohio Annual Conference’s regular session.
The Judicial Council routinely reviews all decisions made by bishops at the business sessions of the church’s annual or regional conferences.
Deferred from the council’s meeting last October is the review of Bishop Edward Paup’s decisions of law regarding the discontinuance of St. Paul United Methodist Church in the Alaska Missionary Conference.
In another matter deferred from fall, the court will review Bishop S. Clifton Ives’ ruling on the West Virginia Conference Board of Pensions’ use of funds invested with the churchwide Board of Pension and Health Benefits.
And the court will review Bishop Joe Pennel’s ruling related to retiree health plan eligibility in the Virginia Annual Conference. This item was deferred from October to provide more time for obtaining information from the conference.
The church’s General Council on Finance and Administration has withdrawn its request for a declaratory decision related to the number of bishops assigned to each jurisdiction. That matter had originally been deferred from the Judicial Council’s October session.
top
Feb. 3, 2003
Mission agency postpones Global Gathering
By United Methodist News Service
The fourth United Methodist "Global Gathering," scheduled for April 10-13 in Birmingham, Ala., has been postponed by its sponsor, the denomination’s Board of Global Ministries.
In a Jan. 31 statement, Bishop Joel Martinez of San Antonio, the board president, said factors affecting that decision include the difficulties that international participants have had in obtaining visas for entry into the United States.
Domestic and world economic issues also impacted registration, which was much lower than originally expected. The Board of Global Ministries itself has suffered financial reversals during the past few years, resulting in cuts of both staff and programs.
In the statement, Martinez acknowledged the hard work of members of the United Methodist North Alabama Annual (regional) Conference and others in preparing for the event. The agency will reimburse participants who have paid the registration fee.
top
Feb. 3, 2003
Photo exhibit reflects humanity of Iraqi people
By Joretta Purdue*
WASHINGTON (UMNS) – Haunting faces – some happy, some profoundly sad – make up a new photo exhibit in the lobby of the United Methodist Building.
Two people who provided photos from a recent National Council of Churches-sponsored visit to Iraq participated in the exhibit’s Jan. 30 opening. They and other participants in recent trips to Iraq shared their experiences and impressions at a reception hosted by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
The traveling exhibit, "The Faces of Iraq," will be on display temporarily before moving on to other East Coast locations. The exhibit is the work of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, an organization dedicated to improving humanitarian conditions in Iraq.
Photographs from the NCC-led trip Dec. 29-Jan. 3 were provided by the Rev. Ray Buchanan, United Methodist clergy and founder and director of Stop Hunger Now, and Robin Hoecker, legislative assistant with the Washington Office for Advocacy of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Their pictures will be displayed through the end of March.
Buchanan said the trip to Iraq was one of the most profound experiences of his life.
"People there are no different than anywhere else in the world," he said. His pictures show "we are all one family." Stopping the war is the most important task now, he said, because "we don’t need to be killing members of our family."
Hoecker, at 22, was the youngest of the 13 people on that trip. When the visit was in the planning stages, she had argued that young people should be involved in such a trip.
"People my age will be fighting the war," she observed. Some of her friends in the military have already been deployed to the Middle East. Her generation will have to deal with the animosity that she expects such a war to engender. Ten or 20 years in the future, her contemporaries will be in Congress and other positions where they are dealing with the financial and other consequences of the war, she added.
One of the photos on display shows a young child in a hospital bed, with the NCC’s Rev. Robert Edgar, a United Methodist clergyman who led the recent delegation, nearby.
"Children are dying there" because of contamination and destruction caused during the Gulf War, Hoecker said. "It’s a slow process. They wither away in front of their families."
Intermixed with photos in the exhibit are quotes from the participants who went on the trips. One quote is from Hoecker, who says, "I suddenly feel as if I have purchased a ticket to go meet an innocent man before he is to be hung, or to watch the slow drowning of a small child."
Jim Winkler, staff head of the Board of Church and Society, was also on the Dec. 29-Jan. 3 trip to Iraq. The trip’s purpose, he said, was "to see and to meet with and be with the people of Iraq" and "to come back and tell about it as these photos do."
"The people of Iraq are not our enemy," he stressed. "The exhibition shows pictures of the beautiful people of Iraq, and they are people like you and me."
Speakers from other denominations at the reception included Jean Stokan from Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement, who declared, "Policy in this city (Washington) is about fear, fear, fear, and building on that fear."
Her husband, Scott Wright, had returned the day before from an Iraq trip sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness. He had taken several of their 4-year-old’s dolls to children there. When he saw a hospitalized child clutching a doll from his daughter, he was struck by how much she and her mother resembled his daughter and his wife.
Many of the children in the pediatric hospital he visited are children from Basra, who have a high incidence of leukemia that can be traced to the weapons the United States used in the area in 1991, he said. He is not looking back at what happened but trying to do something as an American citizen to prevent another war before it happens, he explained.
At the end of the reception, Winkler lit a small candle as "a light of hope" and pledged to keep it lit until the Iraqi situation is peacefully resolved.
*Purdue is United Methodist News Service’s Washington news director.
top
Feb. 5, 2003
At the Roots of Methodism: U.K. celebrates Wesley’s 300th
A UMNS Feature
By John Singleton*
The birthplace and boyhood home of John Wesley at Epworth, England, is playing a prominent role in celebrations throughout this year to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth.
Now known as the Old Rectory, the original building was destroyed by fire in 1709, a conflagration from which the 6-year-old John was dramatically rescued. This event convinced his mother, Susannah, that John was a "brand plucked from the burning" who had been saved for a special purpose.
Starting March 1 and continuing over an eight-month period, the local celebrations at Epworth (in the Humberside region of England) will focus on the Anglican church of St. Andrew’s, where Wesley’s father, Samuel, was rector; the Wesley Memorial Church; and the Old Rectory itself.
Alongside Methodist "pilgrims" from all over the world, Epworth townspeople and traders are supporting the celebrations, which will include a Wesley Pageant with parades, market stalls, entertainment, music and dance. A "look-alike John Wesley" will even preach from the original market cross in the town center, and an evening Songs of Praise Service is to be held around Samuel Wesley’s tomb, where John preached in 1742 after being excluded from his father’s former church.
The Old Rectory will host a number of important displays of Wesley memorabilia this year. An exhibition of Wesley’s life and writings is being held throughout March, and a local artist will exhibit a collection of watercolors and drawings called "John Wesley – A Pictorial Journey" April 13-May 21. A selection of letters written by John Wesley to Ann Tindall of Scarborough will be exhibited on loan from the British Museum May 1-July 31.
An international conference on "John Wesley: Life, Legend and Legacy" is scheduled at the University of Manchester for June 15-18 to mark the birth of the founder of the Methodist movement in 1703. The conference will aim to bring together historians, theologians, art historians, literature specialists and all others interested in any aspect of Wesley’s life and legacy. Papers are expected to address the following general themes: "Wesley the Man," "Wesley in Context," "Wesley and Theology" and "The Wesleyan Legacy." This major conference will be accompanied by an exhibit of visual, archival and printed artefacts from the historic collection of Wesley material housed at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.
On a wider European front, a major all-age Methodist Festival is expected to attract hundreds of Methodists from many east and west European countries to the Hermannswerder Peninsular in Potsdam, Germany, July 30-Aug. 3. Organized by the European Methodist Council, the event is seen as an opportunity both to share a common faith and heritage and to look to the future. The program – called "Get in touch" – will include Bible studies, small Wesley groups for sharing and growing together, creative art and other workshops, celebrations and "serious looks at our past, our present state and future prospects for mission."
The many tercentenary events throughout Britain will include a national service of celebration to be televised by the BBC from London’s Royal Albert Hall (March 30); a Festival Week at Wesley’s historic New Room, Bristol (May 19-25); an Aldersgate Memorial Service in London on Wesley Day (May 24); and the opening of a major Social History Exhibition at London’s historic Wesley’s Chapel (June 7).
Also, a national Service of Ecumenical Celebration at Lincoln Cathedral (June 17); a Walk of Witness from Lincoln to Llandudno, Wales, for the opening of the British Methodist Annual Conference (June 17-28); the unveiling of a new Wesley monument at Lincoln College, Oxford (June 21); an event at Hanham Mount, Bristol, the famous scene of Wesley’s open-air preaching (June 22); a lecture by the Rev. Richard Heitzenrater for the Wesley Historical Society at the British Methodist Annual Conference in Llandudno (June 30).
More information on Wesley tercentenary events is available at www.wesley2003.org.uk/events2.htm .
U.S. events being planned will include the Fifth Historical Convocation, "John Wesley: His Life and Legacy," Aug. 14-17 in Madison, N.J. (See UMNS story #039.)
An adventurous British theater group is marking Wesley’s 300th birthday by bringing the story of the Wesley brothers across the Atlantic to tour a number of United Methodist churches May 11-June 14. The author, the Rev. David Hill of East London, is traveling with a professional cast to present "Never Stand Still," a musical play based on the correspondence between John and Charles Wesley. The performance tells the story of the beginnings of Methodism without glossing over the sometimes tempestuous relationship between the two brothers. Three actors perform the play, backed by a choir from the host church or churches. So far, the tour is scheduled to visit churches in New York, Detroit, Delaware and Virginia. Further dates are invited.
*Singleton, a writer with the weekly Methodist Recorder in London, is administrator for the Methodist churches and social projects in the Tower Hamlets area of East London. He can be contacted by e-mail at: john@towerhamlets.org.
Back to the Top
