July 1996

In Returning and Rest…

NEAC Hosts National Retreat While Thousands Mourn and Remember

More than 700,000 people are expected to view the display of more than 40,000 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, DC, over Columbus Day Weekend. The National Episcopal AIDS Coalition is holding its first-ever national retreat during this largest display ever of the Quilt. The event is being co-hosted by the Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Edmond L. Browning, and the President of the House of Deputies, Dr. Pamela P. Chinnis.

Browning is also one of the national sponsors for the display along with President William J. Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, national honorary co-chairs, and the Bishop of California, The Right Reverend William Swing. Each is expected to be a reader at the National Capital Stage of some of the 70,000 names commemorated in the Quilt.

Dr. Chinnis and Retreat Chair Holly McAlpen of San Francisco, CA; NEAC Board President Jesse Milan, Jr, Esq, Philadelphia, PA; and NEAC Executive Director and Associate Director, the Reverend Ted Karpf and Barbara Milton, also will be readers at the National Capital Stage.

Officials with The NAMES Project Foundation, hosts of the display, are expecting up to 500,000 for the Candlelight March and Vigil at the Lincoln Memorial, some three weeks before the national elections on November 5. The March is sponsored by the NAMES Project Foundation, Washington-based Whitman-Walker Clinic, and the National Association of People Living with AIDS (NAPWA).

The retreat, In Returning and Rest, will begin on Thursday evening, October 10, with an address by the Reverend Martin Smith, Superior of the Order of Saint John the Evangelist. A noted leader of retreats and conferences and chaplain to the House of Bishops, Father Smith will set the tone and focus of the retreat.

On Friday, the retreat will continue with the opening of the Quilt from 8 am until 10 am, followed by a Service of Healing at 11:30 am. The service will be celebrated during the liturgy of Holy Eucharist in the Ballroom of the Loews L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. The hotel is the site of the retreat and located just a five-minute walk from the Quilt.

On Friday afternoon, Bishop Browning will read names and work as a volunteer on the Quilt. Later in the day, the Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas of Howard University Divinity School, Washington, DC, will lead the first of three Bible Studies presented over the weekend. Other Bible Study leaders on Saturday include the Reverend Doctors William Countryman of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA, and Minka Sprague of the New York Theological Seminary.

Small Groups

Retreatants will also gather in small groups to reflect on their experiences. The groups, composed of 10 randomly-selected participants, will team up with five groups to form a Quilt team of 50 members. Each of the 10 teams will have a chaplain. Among the chaplains for the retreat are: the Reverends Ruth Black, Ph.D., University Hospital, Jackson, MS; Richard Younge, Episcopal Church Commission on AIDS/HIV, Seattle, WA; David Forbes, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA; Lucy Talbott, Episcopal Church Commission on AIDS/HIV, Fayetteville, NC; Carlos Sandoval, M.D., Ph.D., Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL; Richard Brewer, Rector, St. Lukes, Brooklyn, NY; William Frampton, NEAC Board of Directors, Williamstown, NJ; Deacon Crickett Park, Diocese of Southern Ohio AIDS Task Force, Columbus, OH; Deacon Dudley Lippett, Albany, GA, and lay spiritual director, Patricia Bleicher of Arlington, VA.

Other leaders for the retreat weekend will include the Reverend Michael Merriman of Church of the Gethsemane, Minneapolis, MN, as liturgist; Ana Hernandez and Deborah Griffin-Bly, /The Miserable Offenders/, as music leaders, and the Reverend William Wallace, Emmanuel Church, Boston, MA, as a retreat speaker.

Labyrinth Display

Another feature of the weekend will be the simultaneous display of the Labyrinth in the Grand Ballroom of the Loews L’Enfant Plaza. The Labyrinth, which is presented by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, is identical to the one displayed at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and at Notre Dame du Chartes Cathedral in France. Retreatants and their guests will have the opportunity to walk the Labyrinth on Saturday from 8 am until 4 pm.

The weekend will conclude with two events. Closing worship for the retreat will be held on Sunday morning and will include a celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the Blessing of Symbols of Ministry. This service of rededication will give Retreatants the opportunity to summarize their experience of the retreat in prayer and song.

Journey Home Service

Later in the day, after the closing the Quilt, The NAMES Project, AIDS National Interfaith Network, Washington National Cathedral, Episcopal Caring Response to AIDS of Washington, DC, and NEAC will host some 4500 worshipers in the “Journey Home: a service of prayer and healing” at Washington National Cathedral at 7:00 pm. The service will include a healing meditation by Torkin Wakefield of AIDS, Medicine, and Miracles; Ram Dass; Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati; Rabbi Mark Blumenthal; Balm in Gilead founder Pernessa Seele; the Right Reverend Ronald Haines, Bishop of Washington; the Very Reverend Nathan Baxter, Dean of the Cathedral; and The NAMES Project Foundation Executive Director, the Reverend Deacon Anthony Turney.

The hour-long service also will include women’s music pioneers Cris Williamson and Tret Fure; the Miserable Offenders; a Cathedral Carillon concert; Cathedral Organist/Choirmaster Dr. Douglas Major, playing the Cathedral’s Great Organ; Native American drumming; the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington; and a massed gospel choir from the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Future Conferences

This is the first time NEAC has attempted to host a national retreat. Usually NEAC holds a national conference every 18 months to two years; however, the magnitude of the display and the number of special events challenged retreat planners to develop a flexible, reflective, and highly participatory schedule. In 1997, NEAC will cosponsor a national event with the AIDS National Interfaith Network, National AIDS Fund, and National Minority AIDS Council. Plans are now being made for an international interfaith conference in 1998, and a NEAC Conference in San Francisco in 1999.

See a related listing of special events at the Quilt.