Spiritual Mentors

From the left: Fr. White, Me, Karen, Al, Betty, Laurie and Eleanor at the Healing Prayer Group Christmas 1989, Thelma took the picture!

On the last day of March I stepped into an old role for me, assisting my former priest the Rev. Kenneth Gordon White at the funeral of our friend Thelma Hoyle. She and her husband Al retired and moved to Alpine, TX to be near other members of their family. Al brought Thelma back to be buried in a family plot in Lowell, MA. I was a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Lowell, MA from 1980 until 2001, when I left to be The Rev. Karen Ann Campbell's secretary at Church of the Good Shepherd in Fitchburg, MA.

Karen had served an internship at St. John's when she was a student at the Episcopal Divinity School and I was part of her supervisory committee! We had a wonderful Lenten Program that year in which Al and Thelma and myself played a part in Narnia! Everyone loved her and when she left I joined a Women's Group she was leading at St. Mark's in Westford. She was ordained to the Diaconate in Vermont June 8, 2000 and I was one of her proud presenters. She was hired by the Church of the Good Shepherd September 11, 2000 and in the Fall of 2003 she was ordained as a priest. I was very honored that Karen asked me to deliver the sermon on that day.

Thelma was a wonderful spiritual mentor to me. I attended the weekly Healing Prayer Group that she and Al sponsored and I followed in her footsteps as a Lay Reader. When they left for Texas I became the hostess of the Prayer Group. And Karen became a spiritual mentor to me and has remained a good friend. She was also the best "boss" I have ever had! Both women were exceptional role models and I was blessed to have them both as friends. I have said good-bye to Thelma and I will be saying farewell to Karen soon as she will be pursuing her calling and serving the priesthood in another state. My life has been greatly enriched by knowing them both.

"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that lovelth is born of God, and knoweth God." I John:4:7