Friday, January 12, 2018
Dear Michael, Jennifer, Margot, and Patrick,
Our love to you as Paula and I join you in remembering and giving thanks for your dear mother. Unfortunately, the bad weather has kept us at home for the visitation this afternoon, but please know that our thoughts and prayers are not snowbound.
Earlier this week, I sent an email to the Steering Committee of the K-W Council of Churches, and reminded them of your mother's faithful and long service on the Executive, crediting her with recruiting the large Catholic lay membership we have had ever since Vatican II. Fr. Clarence Hauser recruited the Resurrectionists and a few diocesan priests, but your mother rallied the laity and enjoyed nothing more than seeing Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, and Lutherans become friends and collaborators on projects, forgetting their denominational boundaries. Your mother, herself, was the first Catholic lay person to serve on the Council's Executive Committee. Fr. Clarence recruited her, and he never tired of bragging to me of his accomplishment. She joined the Council in the mid-1960s; I joined in the late 1970s, it's probably only Jim Erb, Emily Finney, Brice Balmer, and I who appreciate just how much your mother contributed to the vision of our organization over the golden years of ecumenism and inter-church sharing. Although it has been several years since she has been able to participate in meetings and events, we remember her in love and gratitude. And so, on the behalf of the K-W Council of Churches, I want to assure you of our deep-felt sympathy and friendship in your loss. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
God be with you.
(The Rev.) James F. Brown, Chair,
Kitchener-Waterloo Council of Churches
