Heeding a Call to Serve
When Lay Eucharistic Visitor Keith Frazier thinks about what inspires him to serve at Christ Church, he reflects on a lyric from a praise song by Andy Gullahorn — “…Walking through a garden of a thousand burning bushes looking up to heaven for a sign.”
“I think faith calls us always,” Frazier said. “Most of us don’t listen because we are waiting for God to come down and say, ‘I want you.’”
The “call,” however, can be as simple as a willingness to match an interest with a need. Or just saying yes to an ask.
For longtime Cathedral member Flo Ray, teaching the Bible is an abiding interest. She has taught Sunday School to both children and adults and said that the experience prepared her well for a 21-year stint as the religion teacher at Episcopal High School.
“I really believe the words that are in the prayer book,” Ray said. “We say things like we are going to praise God not only with our lips but in our lives. That sticks with me. If I have that attitude that God has prepared me to walk into a good work today, I might notice it when it comes up. That’s part of why I do things, but I also do things because they’re fun.”
Since the 1970s Ray has volunteered in a wide range of roles. Ray was the first chair of the former Christian Education Council, now known as Adult Formation, and served as a member of the Religion and the Arts Council. She has been on the Altar Guild for many years.
“When I was a little girl, my grandmother took me with her to do her Altar Guild things on Saturdays,” Ray said. “The way she treated everything with holiness and respect made an impression on me.” After retirement, Ray chose to work one morning a week at the Beacon and also joined a Wednesday morning Bible Study that she later ended up leading. “You can’t prepare a lesson without learning it first,” she said. “My Bible study teaches me something every single week.”
Ray currently serves on the Vestry as Junior Warden and is a member of the 9 o’clock choir.
“We rehearse one hour a week during the school year, and I absolutely love it,” she said. “People say, ‘I would love to sing in the choir but I’m not very good,’ and I say, ‘that’s why you come to the choir practice.’ Our choir director is one of the best voice teachers for amateurs I think anywhere.”
Member Kristin Johnson, who has been at the Cathedral since 2005, said that her Council experiences have enriched her life.
As a member of the Children’s Ministry Council, she relished making worship bags for the children. “It was a very quiet time to sit in the sanctuary,” Johnson said. “I had a lot of opportunities for reflection.”
Next, Johnson served on the Justice and Peace Council. “I was drawn to the work that they were just beginning to do with migrants and asylum seekers,” she said. “We took a trip to a refugee camp on the southern border. It woke me up to the understanding that small gestures of service can make a tremendous difference.”
Later Johnson organized another trip to the border with Canon Simón Bautista — a third one is in the works — and rolled onto the Mission Outreach Council. Here she is helping to expand migrant ministries, in part through the recent Cathedral adoption of a refugee family from Guatemala. “I greatly benefited from the way that the Council system is set up,” she said. “It provides an opportunity for fellowship and service and a way to find your passion.
For me, that trip to the border was my Holy Spirit moment, in that I felt like my eyes were opened to a new perspective.”
Parishioner Bob Richter said that God doesn’t always speak to him in any language he understands but it certainly doesn’t stop him from volunteering. “I like helping people, and I think Jesus told us that’s what we need to be doing,” he said. In 30 years at the Cathedral, Richter has said yes a lot.
He’s headed usher teams and mentored elementary school children. He served as chairman of the Altar Guild and of the Every Member Canvass. “I’ve done quite a number of things at the Cathedral, and oftentimes I didn’t even choose them,” Richter said.
“I started being a Lay Eucharistic Visitor because of Canon Luchy Littlejohn who asked if I’d be interested in doing something like that. I told her I didn’t know anything about it but I’d sure like to learn.”
Now, for Frazier, the role of Lay Eucharistic Visitor is the only one that he wants to do after years of service in other areas. “It is the thing that gives me the most joy,” he said. “It’s personal and it is intimate.”
Frazier said that one of the reasons he goes to church is for communal worship. “I’m 74 now. What happens one day when I’m sitting at home and I can’t go to church?” he asks. “I would miss that.
I would hope that someone will come to me and bring me communion to help me feel a part of the community. It’s about not being alone.”
For those thinking about volunteering, Ray said there is a place for everyone. “Don’t tell me what you can’t do, tell me what you can do and what you like to do,” she said.
Learn more about volunteer opportunities during The Fundex, finding your ministry at the Cathedral August 28 at 10 a.m. in Reynolds Hall. “If you feel even the slightest inclination to serve the people of the Cathedral, to serve the Lord, get with it. The clock is ticking,” Richter said.
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