[Sundaycommunity] Fwd: Gratitude
Brenda Holtkamp
holtkampbrenda at gmail.com
Fri Nov 24 08:33:15 PST 2023
I thought some of you might appreciate Jim Wallis’s reflection on
thanksgiving and the life of his mother in law.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jim Wallis <jimwallis at substack.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 10:09 AM
Subject: Gratitude
To: <holtkampbrenda at gmail.com>
Giving thanks for the life and witness of Thelma Carroll.
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Gratitude
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thanks for the life and witness of Thelma Carroll.
Jim Wallis <https://substack.com/profile/50245434-jim-wallis>
Nov 24
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On Thanksgiving Day, I was in England. Of course, the Brits don’t do
Thanksgiving here, but it was an appropriate day for celebrating my wife
Joy Carroll’s mother’s passing – peacefully and painlessly at 91 years old.
The gorgeous old St. Alban’s Church in Hindhead
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was packed with people to give great thanks and deep *gratitude* for the
life of Thelma Joy Carroll, and what she has left in all of us.
My son Jack and I had the great blessing of spending a week with Thelma –
and her husband John – just a few weeks ago. On the first day I was there,
Thelma said to me, “Jim, would you speak at my funeral service … but only
if it is convenient.”
That was so Thelma: mum, nan, grandma, auntie, sister, wife – and my other
mother. Someone who was always thinking of you first, thinking about the
others in her life first and always. I said, “Thelma, whatever you need
from me will always be convenient.”
<https://substack.com/redirect/a63064b6-c31e-4d1b-9bc3-7591ccce3f83?j=eyJ1IjoidWc3MWoifQ.5tfl4AhlAfH-_VveOQ_eJQQ8DTSjn4H6wpqovQEHc5s>
Thelma
and John Carroll.
So there we all were – friends and family in that very English looking
historic church, with more watching online.
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The service included tributes from people around the world whose lives were
touched by Thelma and John, who is a retired priest in the Anglican
Communion, including my wife Joy Carroll, one of the first women ordained
in the Church of England.
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The texts Thelma chose for this memorial celebration service are both about
love. But for Thelma, love was not just syrupy or sentimental; it was
always practical and willing to be sacrificial. And for she and John, their
love always included justice for the poor and marginalized of this world.
Thelma and John were subscribers to our *Sojourners, *a magazine and a
movement committed to faith and justice, long before I met their daughter
Joy. They marched with me and others in London against the nuclear arms
race. They knew my life and work before I met and learned theirs.
John and Thelma cared for the poor and the excluded in their urban parish
neighborhoods. They preached for and acted for the ones Jesus said to
prioritize in Matthew 25, “As you have done to the least of these, you have
done to me.” They both got that.
They founded the relief agency, Emmanuel International UK,
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and traveled around the world to see and feel the suffering of those living
in poverty. And when I came to visit they wanted to talk about the “social
justice issues” about which they were well informed. And we discussed
British politics!
It was Thelma who seemed to intuitively and instinctively understand the
relationship between justice and love, and to see how justice was the
living out of love. Justice is love lived out – both publicly and
personally. That integral connection went very deep in her. Love wasn’t
just for our personal lives but was also core to living the gospel of Jesus
Christ in the world. She understood that.
So when I read the text she wanted us to read and remember from *Romans
8:35-39*, the reminder of the power of the love of Christ went even deeper
for me. It concludes famously with:
*For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. *
It’s been a tough time in the world and in the United States. And in my
struggle to deal with all those complicated dangerous issues, I needed this
text from Thelma. Neither the deep threats to American democracy, nor the
deep suffering of war in the Middle East, nor the deepening deterioration
of child poverty, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Thelma wanted us to know that *nothing* can separate us from the love of
God. I needed to hear that again and believe it again. Thelma Joy Carroll
preached and most importantly lived that gospel and regularly showed it to
us.
Thelma loved her husband John Carroll and all the people in the parishes
they served together – and they all felt it. Thelma loved her children, Joy
and Ray, with all her heart. She loved all their children who felt her love
for them personally, and loved her continual smiles for them, as my boys
both did.
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Thelma
and John cutting a birthday cake for Emmanuel International UK
<https://substack.com/redirect/defe14c2-da1b-4fd7-9da1-d777b782f0b4?j=eyJ1IjoidWc3MWoifQ.5tfl4AhlAfH-_VveOQ_eJQQ8DTSjn4H6wpqovQEHc5s>.
Thelma had a rare gift of healing, of loving people unconditionally as
Jesus did, and always bringing people together. I believe she was doing
that again at her memorial and celebration service – watching down on us
and praying for our healing with that smile we all loved so much.
My dear friend, song writer Ken Medema
<https://substack.com/redirect/522b5cc8-219d-41fd-a6d7-37295a9c7437?j=eyJ1IjoidWc3MWoifQ.5tfl4AhlAfH-_VveOQ_eJQQ8DTSjn4H6wpqovQEHc5s>,
sent me a song he had arranged called “Crossing Over,” which he thought
might resonate in the celebration of Thelma. Our family decided to make the
processional into the service, with Thelma’s grandchildren carrying her
coffin, followed by her great grandchildren, which was very moving. The
words at the end of the song say:
*And as the tears freely fall*
*There is healing here*
*For one and all*
*Gathered here by the river of grace*
*And the river where we gather is a comfort place*
------------------------------
I said I believed Thelma was actually praying for us with the Apostle Paul,
who said in the second reading she chose from *Ephesians 3:14-21:*
*I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power,
together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and
high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of
God.*
At the end of my homily, I recalled a t-shirt and button that my son Jack
likes which simply says “Love Wins.” I said that Thelma was the love wins
button for all of us. And at the end of the sermon we all raised our voices
to give Thelma Joy Carroll and her message of love a rousing AMEN!
Happy Thanksgiving. And welcome now to the season of Advent where we wait
for Christ to appear.
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