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Parish Staff
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From the Rector Dear Friends, Last month we focused in Cross Roads on the important
contributions of lay volunteers. In this issue, we spotlight and
appreciate our lay staff. I feel quite blessed to have such a
strong lay staff at the Chapel of the Cross. Both in quantity and
quality, it is safe to say that the people highlighted in these
pages are the most fruitful resource as a lay staff we have ever
had in the parish's 162 year history! I hope you will read
about each one. They each bring significant skills, experience, and
dedication to bear on the ministry of the Chapel of the Cross. I am
extremely grateful that the commitment and financial stewardship of
the parish makes their leadership and contribution possible,
allowing so many parishioners opportunities to participate in our
multi-faceted ministries. It has not been easy for us to get to this healthy and fruitful
position. For years, many on the vestry and on various program
committees have hoped for and worked for a full time Christian
education director, for example, a full time organist/choirmaster,
a facilities manager instead of a sexton, a parish administrator
instead of an office manager. All of these important steps have
been made possible by the growing financial stewardship of you the
parishioners. In 1994, for example, the budget of $633,086 was
based on pledges of $524,400. This year's budget of $1,216,352
relies on pledges of $926,250. That is a decade's growth of 92%
in budget and 77% in annual giving (the budget difference being
made up by growing proceeds from modest endowments and some special
gifts). The vitality of that growth is something for which we can
all be grateful to God. But we cannot be complacent that we have now arrived where we
ought to be. God is not finished with us yet! Despite our very
positive growth, as evidenced by the numbers, our annual giving
increases have not kept pace with our budget requirements. As the
world and our parish and community needs grow more complex, so must
the resources with which we can respond. That will certainly be
true for 2005. In addition to supporting our parish programs,
maintaining our facilities, and increasing our outreach, the vestry
and I have set next year's goal, also envisioned for years, of
supporting a fourth full time clergy position. David Frazelle will
join us in December. A graduate from the University of the South in
1997 and a recent graduate of Virginia Seminary, David will have
special responsibilities for youth and young adults, besides his
full participation and leadership in the liturgical, educational,
and pastoral ministry of the parish. That will have minimal impact
on this year's budget, but it will be a major increase for
2005. While we are not yet to the time for the fall annual giving
campaign, I want us all to be fully aware of the challenge and
opportunity that lies ahead. While the staff members do not comprise the ministry of this
parish, they do lead us all in claiming the work God has given us
to do. I hope these pages will more fully inform you of how that is
being done and stir your imagination of what could yet be
done! - Stephen Vestry Actions - April 22, 2004 At its April meeting, the vestry:
Inter-Faith Council Shelter Volunteers Needed Jeffrey Cline, Social Ministry Committee Member St. Teresa's Prayer Christ has no body now on earth but
yours No hands, no feet on earth but yours. You are the eyes through which he
looks You are the feet with which he walks to do
good. You are the hands with which He blesses the
world. You are His eyes, His body. Christ has no body now on earth but
yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. You are the eyes through which he looks with Christ has no body now on earth but
yours. Those of us at the Chapel of the Cross have a unique opportunity
to be the hands, the feet, and the eyes of Christ. As you may know
by now, the Inter-Faith Council (IFC) will be closed for
renovations this summer. While they are closed, several area
churches, including our own, will have the unique opportunity to
assist up to 24 homeless men by providing meals and overnight
accommodations. The Chapel of the Cross will be hosting during July
18-31, from 8:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m. Members of the parish are needed to
serve as volunteers in a variety of areas. If you are at least 21
years of age, you have the option to volunteer in a variety of
ways: 1) night volunteer (8:00-11:00 p.m.), 2) overnight volunteer
(male only) to assist the IFC staff manager, 3) evening snack
volunteer, or 4 ) breakfast volunteer. If you are interested in being a volunteer, you must attend a
training session on June 8 or July 10. For more information, please
contact Sandra McClaskey, Social Ministry chair, at
919-967-3761. Please consider helping this important ministry of the parish.
Remember the prayer of Saint Teresa in which she says, "Christ
has no body now on earth but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but
yours. You are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on
the world." Administrative Staff Gladys Dalby Gladys Dalby interviewed Barbara Hastings, parish administrator;
Debby Kulik, parish accountant; Chandra Cook, administrative
assistant; Anne Altaffer, publications assistant; and Tom Mander,
facilities manager, for the June issue of Cross
Roads. Barbara Hastings - Parish Administrator Barbara Hastings is one of those people born to teach, plan, and
manage, and she has equipped herself to do all three very well.
After growing up in Ashville she went to Western Carolina
University for a BS in education. With characteristic efficiency
(on her part and on God's) she met Jim Hastings the first day
she was on campus. Their marriage brought her to Durham, where they
have enjoyed a long career in the Durham school system. Barbara was
a high school math teacher for 18 years. Then she served in various
planning, administrative, and supervisory positions, including
staff development, middle school administration, and gifted
programs administration. She wrote the plan for gifted education
for the Durham school system and conducted leadership training and
team-building classes for teachers. Along the way she acquired an
MA in teaching at UNC and a specialty in school administration. In
the meantime her husband taught behaviorally and emotionally
disabled students and is now a positive behavior coach for
teachers. As time for retiring from the school system drew near,
Barbara says she felt sure she had been placed by God in these
positions to gain such a wide repertoire of skills for a purpose.
This purpose did not involve retiring, resting, loafing, or
becoming a world traveler or golfer. When the Chapel of the Cross
was seeking a parish administrator, Barbara was ready to make her
transition. In her position she is liaison between the rector and
the administrative staff whom she oversees. Among her myriad
responsibilities, she reviews every check written and passes to the
accountant the vestry's instructions so that every bill is paid
from the correct account, coordinates the work of the
administrative volunteers, and makes sure the processes are working
for the facilities manager and the publications specialist. Along
with the facilities manager, she supervises the work of the student
residents, works with the personnel committee concerning hiring and
personnel policies, and manages information technology by
overseeing the computer network. To assure all administrative
efforts are supporting the mission of the Chapel of the Cross,
Barbara meets daily with the rector. She is adept at handling
multiple responsibilities, and her steady and calm presence
encourages her staff to do their best work. At her own Baptist
church in Durham, she is director of adult education, does a lot of
adult teaching and, with her husband and pastor, is leading a
mission to Ukraine in June. They will be accompanied by their
puppets, Buddy, Alice Ann, and Priscilla, who will also attend
vacation church school at the Chapel of the Cross. Debby Kulik - Parish Accountant What would cause an accountant, accustomed to jetting to La
Jolla, California, for two weeks at a time to oversee the
conversion of a company's accounting system for Y2K, to leave
the corporate world and become an accountant for the Chapel of the
Cross? The pending arrival of grandchildren was far more important
to Debby Kulik than the attractions of corporate life. How
fortunate for the Chapel of the Cross that Debby was ready for a
change of pace and lifestyle when we needed an experienced,
knowledgeable, and steady person at the helm of the church's
finances. Debby has a BS in accounting from Greensboro College and
has worked in many settings including a bank, Duke University
Payroll Department, corporate consulting, and running her own
accounting services business. She had even done accounting for a
church in a volunteer capacity. She pays all bills for the church
and applies parishioners' contributions to their accounts,
interacts with the Finance Committee, Building and Grounds
Committee, the facilities manager, the music director, and the
altar guild. She also keeps accounts for the Episcopal Church of
the Advocate. The parish administrator provides approval for the
payment of all bills.Debby emphasizes that her job involves time
management as well as money management. It is important to Debby
that the work is done right and that it is done in a timely
way. Debby met Bill, her husband of 29 years, at a part-time job
while attending high school in Durham. They recently moved to a new
home in Saxapahaw where they enjoy keeping up with their children
(also named Bill and Debbie) and their three grandchildren, ages
four years, nine months, and five months. Chandra Cook - Parish Administrative Assistant Born in Texas, Chandra Cook had lived in several states before
her family settled in N.C. during her high school years. While
taking some time off from college she was a preschool teacher and
found that she really enjoyed working with children. In 2000
Chandra graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill after studying media
production in the department of communication studies. Chandra says
she feels lucky to have found her job as parish administrative
assistant while looking for work in the nonprofit sector. She has
found the position to be livelier than she had expected and likes
the fact that it is different every day. Most days bring the
unexpected. Although volunteers often answer the telephone, they
frequently turn to Chandra for answers to questions from
parishioners, staff, and anyone who may call. In her position she
prepares the liturgical calendar, prepares the Cross Roads
for mailing, prepares baptismal certificates, and records baptisms
in the parish register. She also maintains the parish data base of
members and mailing lists and performs support work for committees
and groups. All this is done while being that unruffled person who
handles all those questions and greets people who come into the
office. Chandra says her job is truly a balancing act, but she has
enjoyed it. While working at the Chapel of the Cross Chandra has been
discerning her long range career goals. She has recently decided to
pursue a degree at UNC-Greensboro this next academic year. Having
realized how much she misses working with children and serving as a
positive influence in their lives, she has chosen to study for a
Master's degree in library and information studies with a focus
on school media. We wish her success and joy in this new
undertaking. Anne Altaffer - Publications Assistant Our publications assistant, Anne Altaffer, was born in
Charlottesville, VA, while her father was in medical school at the
University of Virginia. After finishing school, her father joined
the Navy, which stationed the family in Portsmouth, VA and later
Camp Lejeune, NC. After he left the Navy, the family settled in New
Bern, NC, where Anne and her family attended the Episcopal parish,
Christ Church. Three years later, Anne's family moved to Fredericksburg,
VA. It was there, at St. George's Episcopal Church, that Anne
first met and was confirmed by Bishop Peter Lee, former rector of
the Chapel of the Cross.Anne then attended high school at St.
Margaret's School (an Episcopal boarding school for girls) in
Tappahannock, VA. Here she served on her student government as both
junior warden and senior warden, tending to the spiritual aspects
of school life, and was a member of the yearbook photography
staff. While away at Shrinemont Episcopal Retreat Summer Camp, Anne met
Bishop Lee's son, James. James began attending Christ Church
School for boys the following fall and the two became fast friends,
staying in touch while she was away working on her Bachelor's
degree in fine art, with an emphasis on photography at The
University of Montana. When she returned to the East Coast, Anne
taught photography and drama for one year at her alma mater, St.
Margaret's, before moving to Durham, NC, where she and James
Lee were reunited. James introduced Anne to several new friends,
including her fiancé, Brian Asplin, and helped her acquire an
apprenticeship with a graphic and Web designer. After two years of searching for steady work, Anne sought work
through an employment agency, who assigned her an interview with
the Chapel of the Cross for the position of publications assistant.
When she discovered that, not only is Chapel of the Cross an
Episcopal church, but that it is also the former parish of Bishop
Lee, she sensed that there were circles in her life coming to
completion. As publications assistant, Anne's busiest times of the year
are the weeks before Christmas and before Easter, but she is always
busy since her job involves the publication of the Sunday bulletin;
funeral, special service, and wedding bulletins; Crossings;
sermons; brochures for various ministries; the Directory of
Parish Ministries; Cross Roads; and the Annual
Report. She also has a hand in countless posters, cards, office
use forms, and flyers. She orders all the supplies for the print
center and keeps the copier, high capacity printer, collator,
booklet maker, and folding machine all in working order. Anne has
also been the administrative assistant for campus ministry since
Stephen Stanley's departure. Outside of her work at Chapel of the Cross, Anne runs her own
freelance graphic and Web design company called, Plus 1 Designs.
She is also the Webmaster for the Church of the Advocate of which
she is a member. The Advocate's vicar, Lisa Fischbeck, will
officiate at Brian and Anne's wedding at Anne's
grandmother's home in Warsaw, VA, across the river from St.
Margaret's School. Tom Mander - Facilities Manager Tom Mander began life on a farm in upstate New York, where his
mechanical talent was expressed as a child always trying to create
devices "to make work easier and faster," as he explained
to his sometimes perplexed father. He even turned their row boat
into a motor boat using a lawnmower motor and the blades of an old
fan. Tom benefited from an excellent school that the farm families
subsidized to bring in high school faculty from active or retired
college professor ranks. When he joined the army after high school,
he took a mandatory test that led to a week of testing. This
resulted in his taking courses on base and on campus at the nearby
Kansas State University. He completed a degree in mechanical
engineering but turned down the offer of Officer Candidate School
and returned to New York. Having married a girl from his home community, he settled in
that area and worked in various positions in engineering until the
bitter winters proved dangerous for his daughter's health, and
her doctor advised moving to a warmer climate. Just as he had at an
earlier date refused to take part in accepting a bribe to give a
contract to a particular company (and was fired for his honesty by
an angry and corrupt supervisor), when he had become assistant
chief engineering officer at another company here in North Carolina
he decided to resign when he found the attitude and personnel
policies toward employees to be unfair and heartless and did not
want to participate in that kind of business
climate. Tom's principles and actions are as one and are not for sale
or hire. Recently he found that his own tool and die business was
wrecked by the relocation of his customers to Mexico and the
decline in orders from others faltering in the changed business
environment since 9/11. Thus, the Chapel of the Cross is fortunate
to have a full-fledged mechanical engineer to take care of the
buildings and grounds. He says his job covers everything inside and outside the
building. He makes a point of observing the functioning of all
systems so that preventive measures can be taken if needed. The
service contractors must find it both helpful and disconcerting
that they must deal with someone who knows what needs to be done
and how it should be done. Barbara Hastings says she simply has no
worries about the building with Tom in charge. His expertise is a
boon for the Building and Grounds Committee. Tom maintains lists of jobs that need to be done, categorized by
skill level, and he welcomes parishioners' assistance on parish
work days or any day. Another responsibility is supervision of the
work of the student residents which he shares with Barbara
Hastings. We hope the volume of orders returns to normal for Tom's
business, but we also hope he will like it so much at the Chapel of
the Cross that he can continue to manage both jobs.
Program Staff Martha Schütz Martha Schütz interviewed both Gretchen Jordan, Christian
education director and Van Quinn, organist and choirmaster, for the
June issue of Cross Roads. Gretchen Jordan - Christian Education Director If you have had the good fortune to attend her adult education
sessions or take your children to an orientation at Binkley Baptist
Church led by Gretchen Jordan, you will know something of the
history and symbolism of the labyrinth. Its message appeals equally to young and old, animating the
lifelong nature of the search for God as an activity that, as
Gretchen points out, has no wrong turns. The labyrinth provides a
means to deeper understanding because, unlike a maze with
"tricks or dead ends," its path is coherent,
forward-flowing, unending. (Her own fascination in the form has led
her through labyrinths at the Trinity Center in Salter Path at dusk
and on the Omega Institute hilltop in New York.) The labyrinth serves, as such, as the perfect tool for the
guide/educator called to engage and instruct all ages. And it
serves as a near perfect map of Gretchen's spiritual and
professional path - which, on perfunctory inspection, has taken
many twists and turns, but whose harmonious pattern, on stepping
back, emerges. Born in Pennsylvania, Gretchen's father was the Rev. Marlin
T. Schaeffer, a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister serving
parishes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. She was reared
mostly in Lexington, N.C., and attended UNC-CH, from which she
earned a Bachelor's degree in psychology in
1972. She then spent 13 years engaged in hospital social work, first
in McCain and then in Pinehurst, N.C., serving as a liaison between
physicians, families, and community agencies on a team of care
professionals. In 1986, shebecame director of education at her
Presbyterian church in Southern Pines, and in 1990 she was
appointed minister of education at Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist
Church in Chapel Hill. Along the way, she has taken coursework at Duke Divinity School
and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond,
attended numerous conferences, and spent a month studying at Tantur
Ecumenical Center in Jerusalem in June 2000. Not long after a chance meeting of Gretchen and Stephen
Elkins-Williams - at a Durham Jiffy Lube - in spring 2002, it
became clear that her interests combined so completely with our
parish's needs for a director of Christian education and the
strong endorsements of her colleagues that the search process
accelerated to hire her. She now ministers to an Episcopal
parish. After a lifetime of worshipping in Presbyterian, UCC, and
American Baptist congregations, Gretchen has become a student of
the Episcopal catechism. Her familiarity with the Anglican church
began with her brother's attendance at a New York City choir
school and service as organist in several Episcopal churches. (Dr.
Stephen Schaeffer, Director of Music at the Cathedral of the Advent
in Birmingham, Alabama, since 1987, is a respected colleague of our
organist-choirmaster, Van Quinn.) Since arriving at the Chapel of the Cross, Gretchen has
exhibited the labyrinthine skills required to bridge the gaps
between juvenile and adult education and between the needs of
worshipers on Sunday morning and all of the rest of the week. By
inaugurating an intergenerational education series, she has drawn
on all quarters of the church and several committees, principally
social and environmental ministries. As a result, the work of 5:15 worshipers, such as Fran Finney,
is shared with Sunday morning regulars, who contribute to prison
ministry at each annual social ministry event. And all ages and
abilities have participated in caroling, an evening ethics series,
sing-ins, vacation church school, Bible dramatizations, and the
Lenten labyrinth, walked just this April by parishioners as young
as three-year-old Isabel Balderson. Whether under the stars at Salter Path, or in the waiting room
of an auto mechanic, Gretchen possesses a gift for glimpsing
pathways to God and for inviting and inciting us to join her.
Van Quinn - Organist and Choirmaster The Episcopal hymnal contains 720 hymns, and organist and
choirmaster Wylie ("Van") Quinn estimates that he has
performed over 50% of them over the course of his 34 years at the
Chapel of the Cross. He has directed the musical component of
weekly worship for approximately 5,400 (!!) services and counting.
Most significantly, since his arrival in 1970, our parish has been
home, by the rector's reckoning, to as many as 20,000
worshipers, and Dr. Quinn, alone among the staff, has ministered to
all of them. As if this net had not been cast wide enough, Dr. Quinn has
spread the "worship of the Lord through the beauty of
holiness" through the community at large, organizing frequent
opportunities for public attendance and participation, such as
annual parish choir and junior choir concerts, the Sunday night
compline services, and the performance of masterworks, including
the St. John Passion, numerous cantatas by Bach, the Requiem by
Gabriel Fauré, and large-scale settings of the canticles and
mass. He has also served as ambassador of the parish through the
"commonwealth" of music, teaching religion, philosophy,
and music from 1973 until 1998 at Saint Mary's College in
Raleigh, where he was the Fletcher Distinguished Professor of the
Humanities, and for four years at Saint Timothy's-Hale School
in Raleigh, where he was chairman of the Department of Religion and
Philosophy and organist-choirmaster at All Saints Chapel. During
the 1983-84 academic year, he was Artist-in-Residence at Duke and
conductor of the Duke University Chorale. On and off since 1978, he
has convened a Bach's Lunch series to which regional organists
are invited to perform on our organ (designed by Quinn in 1978 and
2001) and has been a frequent solo recitalist and conductor in the
North Carolina Bach Festival and other venues. Raised in Gastonia, N.C., Quinn undertook organ study in high
school under John Morrison of Queens College, Charlotte, and has
studied since under Charles Krigbaum, Robert Sutherland Lord, and
Wilmer Welsh. After graduating in 1965 from Davidson College, Quinn
received B.D. and M.S.T. (Master of sacred theology ) degrees from
Yale University before earning a Ph.D. from Duke University in the
field of philosophy of religion, supplying earthly credentials for
celestial abilities. Along the way he married Margaret Johnston
(another Yale Divinity graduate and accomplished chorister), with
whom he raised Nathaniel and Molly, a trained vocalist and asset to
both choirs. For those of us fortunate to have grown up from the early 1970s
at the Chapel of the Cross, Dr. Quinn's contribution of
uncompromising excellence and his example of faith have been
constants to which we refer in marking our spiritual
formation. And as he enters his fourth decade of service to the parish, he
begins the process anew with the next generation: under his
direction, daughters and sons of Dr. Quinn's first choristers
prepare, through music, "a path for us to walk in." They
sit just a choir stall or two away from the places in which their
parents, as choristers and teenage acolytes, learned new levels of
confidence and devotion on the strains of his organ
voluntaries. Seven-thousand-eight-hundred hymns later, he lifts our hearts
and minds still. In the words of Stephen, our rector and sometime
hymnodist, on Van's 30th anniversary at the Chapel of the
Cross: "Give thanks to God for what has
been; Give thanks for Dr. Wylie Quinn, Who helps us lift our hearts above, To grow in faith and hope and love."
Contact information and brief job descriptions of the parish
staff may be found on the parish website,
www.thechapelofthecross.org
. Deacon Ordination David Frazelle, who will join the parish staff in December, will
be ordained to the sacred order of Deacons at 11 a.m. on June 19 in
the Phillips Chapel at the Canterbury School, 5400 Old Lake
Jeanette Road, in Greensboro. Your prayers and presence are
requested. Summer Intern from Duke Divinity School Mark Graves I'm excited to have the opportunity to serve as a summer
intern at the Chapel of the Cross for the next 10 weeks. I'm
quite thankful to the parish for working with me in organizing this
internship as part of my divinity degree
requirement. I'll be starting my third year of study at Duke Divinity
School in August. Before beginning my Master of Divinity program, I
earned a BA in music from the University of Richmond and an MA in
music (Historical Performance Practice) from Duke. Outside of the
academic and musical worlds, I have interests in the outdoors
(backpacking), ecology, wine-making, and cooking. I'm also
looking forward to getting married (at the Chapel of the Cross)
next May! During my summer internship at the Chapel of the Cross, I'm
going to be all over the parish map. I'll be assisting with
vacation church school, the youth mission trip to Wyoming, pastoral
visitation, and general parish ministry. In addition, I'll be
facilitating an adult summer reading group. The group will gather
every other week for a span of eight weeks, exploring four books
together, with a general overarching theme of Christian faith and
its impact for our daily life. We'll begin with Getting
Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament by Ellen
Davis (a Hebrew scholar, Duke Divinity professor and lay
Episcopalian), and then move on to No Future without
Forgiveness by former Archbishop of Southern Africa Desmond
Tutu. The next book will be For the Life of the World by the
Orthodox scholar Alexander Schmemann. The series will conclude with
a novel, Jayber Crow by Kentucky essayist and environmental
advocate Wendell Berry. I'll also be reading Morning Prayer in
the chapel Mondays through Thursdays at 8:45 a.m. I'm eager to become immersed in parish life over the coming
weeks, and hope to get to know many of you during this time.
Mark Graves became a communicant of the Chapel of the Cross in
January 2003 and has also served as a 5:15 volunteer
organist. If you would like to know more about the Duke Divinity School
Program, please visit
www.divinity.duke.edu
or call
919-660-3400. Summer Reading Groups Imagine sitting on a friend's screened porch on a summer
evening hearing the crickets and the cicadas buzzing, sipping a
cool drink and discussing a good book. That's the idea behind
the summer reading group Seminary Intern, Mark Graves, will be
leading. Four books are planned that relate to how faith impacts
our daily life. Dates for the gatherings are Thursdays, June 3,
June 17, July 1, and July 15. Book titles in reading order are:
Ellen Davis's Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the
Old Testament; Desmund Tutu's No Future without
Forgiveness; Alexander Schmemann's For the Life of the
World; and Wendell Berry's, Jayber Crow. Sign up
for one week or all. More details are available from Mark Graves
or Vicky Jamieson-Drake. Sign up in the parish office.
Parish Breakfasts Join other parishioners for breakfast on
June 13 and August 8 and continue aChapel of the Cross summer
tradition. Ken Stynes will prepare a traditional southern breakfast
between the 8 a.m.and 10 a.m.services. Prices are $3 for adults, $1
for children ages five-ten, and children under five are
free. Dinner-on-the-Grounds On June 27 and July 25 we will have
wonderful opportunities for food and fellowship. Bring a dish to
share for dinner-on-the-grounds after the 10a.m.service. Tea and
lemonade will be provided. University Honors Four Parishioners Order of the Golden Fleece The Order of the Golden Fleece, founded in 1904, is the
highest and oldest honorary society of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. For 100 years, the Order has represented
excellence and leadership on the campus. While the demographics of
its membership have changed over the years, the principles of
integrity and honor remain intact. The Order recognizes individuals
- students, faculty, staff members, and alumni - who have made
lasting, innovative, and extraordinary contributions of excellence
to the entire University. Members of the organization, as in the
Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece, are referred to as
Argonauts. Virginia Carson - for her creativity and deep commitment
to service and students of the Carolina Community. Virginia Carson
has been a passionate motivator who successfully guides students to
turn enthusiasm for social justice into meaningful projects. A
graduate of the University in 1971, she returned to the campus in
2000 as director of the Campus Y, an organization that serves more
than 1700 members in 20 different communities. Her mentorship has
extended to members and non-members alike, including presidents of
many UNC student organizations. She has made a personal commitment
to the Campus Y Building Campaign for its restoration and has led
the fundraising of $3.5 million in the past four years. She also
contributes to the University in her posts as the President of the
UNC-CH Association of Women Faculty and Professionals and as part
of the Chancellor's Task Force for a Better Work Place. For
these and other accomplishments, the Order of the Golden Fleece
proudly taps Virginia Carson. Joseph F. Ferrell - for his service to the University as
secretary of the faculty and as, "the living archive of the
campus." Joseph Ferrell joined the University community as a
freshman in 1956. After his graduation he earned a LLBD from
Carolina Law (1963), joined the faculty at the UNC Institute of
Government (1964) and served a Secretary of the Faculty (1996). He
is an institution at Carolina, providing guidance to his colleagues
on the faculty, deans of the School of Government, and the Chairs
of the Faculty with whom he has served. His work with University
and North Carolina government administration displays both depth
and breadth, and countless Carolina leaders have benefited from his
insight. For these and other accomplishments, the Order of the
Golden Fleece proudly taps Joseph Ferrell. Edward Kidder Graham Outstanding Senior Awards This award recognizes seniors who have contributed to the
organization's strength, vitality, and longevity by promoting
the goals and ideals of the organization through their leadership,
dedication, and innovation. Benjamin Garren, Episcopal Campus Ministry - has been a
fundamental part of the leadership team. As a communications
leader, much of the work that he has done has been behind the
scenes and has thus gone unrecognized by a majority of the
membership. His work was crucial to creating a very smooth
transition within our leadership team. He has balanced the
pressures of leading a historically significant and extremely
active student organization along with the pressures of being a
graduating senior. It takes a person of exceptional strength to
contentedly grapple with the uncertainties of graduation and the
demands of an active organization without any recognition. His
support and encouragement have helped many of our incoming freshmen
realize their potential and adapt to life at the University of
North Carolina. Sarah Love Taylor, Episcopal Campus Ministry - has served
heroically this year in her position. In spite of this being a year
of transition, she has been able to fulfill her duties of providing
an outstanding worship program seemingly effortlessly. She worked
diligently to coordinate with the other priests to minimize the
impact that being without a chaplain might have on the membership
of the organization. She encouraged members to contribute their
expertise to ensure that the new leadership was constantly
developing. She's detail oriented, committed, courageous, and
executes well planned programs. It was stated that, in 20 years of
advising the organization, she is one of the top five leaders the
organization has ever had. From the Parish Mailbox Dear Reverend Elkins-Williams, Ms. Sandra McClaskey, members of
the Social Ministry Committee and Chapel of the Cross
congregation: Thank you for your gift of $280 to Our Children's Place. It
will be used to fund construction of a residential facility and a
nursery and preschool classrooms for 20 inmate mothers and 40
children through eight years of age. We couldn't do this work
without your involvement in the project, and are grateful for your
commitment. Eventually we can keep mother and child together in one
location, while the mother serves the final portions of her
sentence in rehabilitation and education programs and her children
participate in nursery and preschool activities. Our primary
mission, therefore, is to break the intergenerational cycle of
crime, substance abuse, poverty and to provide a stable home
environment for the children and enhance their overall
development. Thank you again for your donation. Ellie Kinnaird Chair, Our Children's Place Reprinted with permission from The Herald-Sun,
April 25, 2004 By Lucy Bryan, CHAPEL HILL -- In 1842, a university professor founded the
Chapel of the Cross. Today, the lofty bell tower, gothic windows
and handmade brick walls testify to the Episcopal chapel's
heritage, but they do not reveal the legacy of service that
characterizes the congregation within. The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams, who has served as rector at
Chapel of the Cross since 1985, said that the parish is marked not
only by a strong sense of service to the community but also by a
refusal to be content with the way things are. One of the many organizations that has benefited from the
congregation's drive and generosity is the Inter-Faith Council.
"We were the site of the first meeting of the six
churchwomen from various congregations with the seed of the idea
that became the Inter-Faith Council," Elkins-Williams said.
"We have been active supporters ever
since." The parish has provided the IFC with volunteers, interns and
even a van. Congregant Bob Millikan said that for the past three years he
has volunteered on the church's meal team, which prepares and
serves dinner once a month at the IFC Community
Kitchen. Millikan said getting to hear guests' stories has changed
his impression of homelessness and been a meaningful
experience. "Most of them are in a temporary situation," Millikan
said. "Many of them are trying to pursue their education. Many
are veterans. A large proportion are families."
Recently, Millikan has been organizing the Chapel of the
Cross' response to the temporary closing of the IFC's
homeless shelter. The parish will provide housing, breakfast and
basic medical services to homeless men for last two weeks of
July. "Our education director is going to center our Vacation
Bible School on the homeless," Millikan said.
"They're going to make care kits and make meals and freeze
them." Millikan said that he is seeking ideas and input not only from
the church but also from the wider community. Last fall, Chapel of the Cross participated in Project 5000, a
multi-congregation effort to supply the IFC's food pantry with
nutritionally balanced foods. Frank Holt, who led the effort at Chapel of the Cross, said that
over a six-week period members picked up boxes and food lists. The
congregation provided more than 650 boxes, each of which would
provide a family of four with a two-day supply of
food. The congregation also provides for IFC financially - from its
annual "ABC" rummage sale to its stewardship
policy. Elkins-Williams said that the church tithes, or spends 10
percent of its income, on unexpected gifts to the parish that are
undesignated. The church gave 10 percent of a $250,000 gift to the
IFC's HomeStart program for homeless women and children, which
lost more than $300,000 in federal funding last
spring. Elkins-William has dedicated himself to planning a positive
future for the IFC as part of the task force appointed by Mayor
Kevin Foy and IFC President Natalie Ammarell. Members of the Chapel of the Cross are also devoted to reaching
the community through student ministries, prison outreaches and
racial reconciliation. They especially value their partnership with
their sister congregation St. Paul's African Methodist
Episcopal Church. Elkins-Williams said that the congregation is guided by faith
that God created all human beings as brothers and sisters - that
when one suffers, all suffer. "It's so easy for human beings to become self-absorbed
and to move in their own circles," Elkins-Williams said.
"Obviously, you can't serve every need and fill every gap,
but the object is to be faithful." © Durham Herald Company, Inc. |