Six members of the Appleton branch made the covenant of the People of Praise on October 22. They include a married couple from Africa, a married couple in their 80s, a retired heavy equipment operator and a single woman who met the community through a church choir.
My understanding of ecumenism comes from my father, Christopher. He grew up in Little Greece in Downtown Chicago and was raised Greek Orthodox. (While growing up, my family had Orthodox iconic pictures of Jesus on top of our television, and grandma would walk up to them and kiss the pictures, as we tried to watch TV around her.)
I have been in the People of Praise here in the Twin Cities for the last 37 years first as a Presbyterian and now a Lutheran and have had many ecumenical moments. Here I will share one that relates directly to the most recent issue of Vine and Branches.
Trinity Academy, a school founded by the Vancouver-Portland branch, opened its doors on September 6. That morning, five ninth-graders and their parents walked into hurriedly painted classrooms in the basement of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Portland.
A moment that comes to mind is when I went to the hospital to visit my sister Pam Peterson (South Bend) who had been very sick for a week. I walked into her room and her husband Ken was kneeling next to her bed praying.
In 1977, our family (at that time John and Jill Boughton, Eric and eventually baby Lydia) and the Timler family (Mark and Ginny, John and Peter) shared a house for five months while the Timlers were between houses. At the time we were Catholic and they were Episcopalian, but that didn't hinder our ability to pray together and joyfully share life.
