Dear Friends,

Most of you know that our faithful Pastoral Care Ministry, led by Vestry member Robert Evans, meets on the last Wednesday of every month at noon in the parish hall. It is a small, faithful group: Robert, Mabel Nelson, Randi Wortham, Mary Owen and me. Pastoral Care plans the Lay Eucharistic Visitor schedule and assures that communion kits are cared for and prepared for use on proper Sundays, writes personal notes to parishioners, and sends cards for birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions.

This ministry serves our parish family close by, but also our far-flung members who want to be remembered. Maintaining these contacts is an important means of keeping the parish family in touch. It is what people are meant to do for one another, the small acts of kindness that make the world a better place. The courtesy works both ways, of course. Pastoral Care members receive notes in reply from those who are pleased to be remembered.

The writing by hand of personal notes and letters, with care given to grammar, spelling and proper expression, has always been one of the blessings of civilization. Good personal letters are one step below poetry. Letter writing is a social grace not much practiced anymore, and never taught to children these days. When a fine letter comes our way, it can remind us of how gracefully communication flourished once, and of how it still survives among the more mature.

What follows is a note from Ruthanna Wilkinson, a longtime parishioner who now resides in a Roman Catholic retirement home in Chatham, New York. It was written to Mabel Nelson. The original is handwritten in cursive script lovely as fine homemade lace, on a note card bearing the picture of a cool mountain lake.

June 12, 2008

Dear Mabel,

How thoughtful of you to write a real letter to me! You must know that I miss my old haunts. The scene on the front of this tiny note should cool you somewhat. We’ve been in the throes of a heat wave here.

We have a “Mabel”, but she arrived only a few days ago and I haven’t been able to find out very much about her.

There are plenty of opportunities here to “get religion” if one is Catholic. So I’d rather just stay in my room and think about St. Paul’s, Hanover. Your little group is a great help in that regard.

Remember me to John, and to anyone else I need to greet.

Love to you —

Ruthanna

Ruthanna reminds us of how fine a thing good manners are. Teaching our children these ways of relating to others makes a kinder place of this broken world. Faithfully yours, Jack