An Afternoon with Debbie Reynolds, A Month of Sundays with Mary Tyler Moore

Two bright lights of our entertainment heavens, Debbie Reynolds and Marry Tyler Moore left us recently. They both had charm, beauty and a perky sparkle of personality that shone like the true stars they were.

An Afternoon with Debbie Reynolds

I was a student at Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa when I spent an afternoon with Miss Reynolds who was still a teenager herself. Someone at MGM thought she should go on a press tour to promote one of her first major films made with actor Carlton Carpenter, now 90, called “Two Weeks with Love”. The wrinkle was the press conferences were with high school newspaper writers and photographers. I was taking a journalism class and occasionally wrote for our school paper the “Rail-splitter.” On the appointed afternoon a carload of us were driven to the stately Kirkwood Hotel and rode up the elevator to the top floor and a suite. I had never been in a hotel suite. There was a large room with flowers, windows with views of the city, and a coffee table that held tubs of chilled bottles of Coca Cola and large bowls of Potato Chips for refreshments.

High school journalists and photographers from the four other high schools began arriving as we waited for Miss Reynolds. Across the room were two double doors which I presumed went to the bedroom or another part of the suite. Was there a back entrance to the accommodations? We were all facing a large sofa on the other side of the coffee table as we sipped our cokes and tried not to make noise crunching potato chips until the double doors opened and a press representative from the studio said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Debbie Reynolds.”

I seem to recall a collective gulp as a beautiful, young, five foot two, California tan girl emerged from the other room smiling it seemed at each one of us. She wore a light blue dress and matching pumps as she walked to the upholstered arm rest on the sofa and sat down, crossing her legs choosing to dangle part of a shoe off the end of her foot. An assistant handed her a coke and the boys, anyway, grabbed their pencils in hopes of writing some answers to questions they and the girls had trouble framing. When she asked “What do you do for fun in Des Moines” there was a round of awkward laughter that broke the ice and from then on our group relaxed.

The press conference was a smart idea. All over the city the next edition of the school papers had stories and pictures about Debbie Reynolds new movie, the one that had the song “Abba Dabba Honeymoon” It became a big hit. Her next film was her breakthrough “That’s Entertainment.” Little did I know I was in the presence of someone who was destined to be one of our country’s great entertainers who continued in her craft nearly up to the end, truly she was “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

A Month of Sundays with Mary Tyler Moore

The Betty Ford Center opened in Rancho Mirage California sometime in October of 1982.

Their treatment program was based on the model of the Long Beach Naval Hospital and Hazelton in Minnesota using the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as part of the spiritual path to recovery.

Frs Andrew and Barnabas helped arrange a Betty Ford Day

 at the 1985 General Convention in Anaheim California. 

Both did volunteer ministry at the Betty Ford Center in the 1980s and 90s

. 

One of the directors at BFC, in fact the second person hired, was the Rev. Vernon Suter an Episcopal Priest. From the beginning they established a Sunday morning chapel service roughly based on morning prayer but significantly adapted to meet the needs of people of any or no faith. The first Clergy in 1982 to lead the program was a recovering Lutheran Pastor and the second person as me. I began when the Lutheran retired in 1984.

In those days a lot happened in the central administration building from admissions to lectures. Betty Ford had a small office off the main entrance accessible to patients from which she would walk to give her lectures and talks. We had a close knit sense of community. On the grounds there were three well designed resident building. In the center of each was a sunken living room where the counsellor gave talks. There were no private rooms at BFC. Our chapel, if one could call it that, was a circle of chairs in one of the rooms in the main building. We used printed leaflets for the service guide. No singing. Alcoholics weren’t ready for that. The program was more spiritual that religious.

I knew there was the probability of well-known people showing up. The Betty Ford Center had a strict rule of confidentiality in place. That’s what Anonymous means. It was only if the individual made a public statement about being present at the center could we acknowledge his or her presence. Several celebrities had come and gone. The of people there were alcoholics like me seeking sobriety and recovery.

One Sunday morning I was setting up the chairs and putting out the service leaflets as worshippers arrived when I saw a woman I recognized walking through the doors. She was wearing a white blouse, tan slacks, loafers, and a sweater around her shoulders. It felt like my jaw dropped. It was her. Had to be. Mary Tyler Moore. Like all newcomers, life was a bit strange and out of kilter for her. Others in the circle tried to be at ease. It was late fall, I think, and very chilly for the Coachella Valley.

I made some comment about how cold it was in the desert, and I hoped everyone had a coat of some kind. Truthfully it was about fifty degrees. There was a chuckle or two. Mary snorted and said something like “You people don’t know what cold is. I’m from New York where it is really cold. Let me tell you about cold.” The other easterners chimed in and the game was afoot. No pun intended but my comment about cold weather broke the ice.

Here is what Miss Moore wrote about how she felt in her own words years later: “Inside I was scared. I knew I’d gone over an edge, some edge, and I didn’t know what to grab for steadiness. I couldn’t, wouldn’t stop,” she wrote. That recognition, though, ignited light at the end of the tunnel. “Some part of my brain functioned well enough, however, to get me to the Betty Ford Center, where in 1984, over a period of five weeks, I grew up some,” she penned.

A person who has a successful four-week recovery experience undergoes a major transformation and the changes I witnessed over and over were nothing short of miraculous. Tears give way to smiles and joy, anger and resentments take flight replaced by hope for a better tomorrow. I suspect that’s the way it was in the first century church before Constantine brought us out of the catacombs and into the Basilicas

A writer in a Washington Post article following her death wrote, “Mary Tyler Moore grew to deeply admire Betty Ford, the former first lady and founder of the clinic where Moore — and several years later, her mother — finally found sobriety. Moore felt she could “be her sister.”

In one of her books MTM said, “You see, at that time (and less so today) many women felt that being a female alcoholic was a disgrace, the lowest of the low, and that an intelligent, well-read, dignified woman couldn’t possibly be a drunk,” Moore stated, But Ford “was, first and foremost, a lady (kind, well-mannered, gracious), anything but the commonly held image of an alcoholic woman.”

We all grew to admire and love Betty Ford whether worshipping with her at St. Margaret’s Church in Palm Desert or hearing a lecture from her at BFC or strolling the grounds at the Center. What a blessed person I’ve been to walk and work among the lights. Thanks Debbie, Mary and Betty. Thanks be to God for all your blessings.

The Rev Canon Andrew Rank SSP

Stewardship: a joyful noise!

Each of our Stewardship Receptions this year have been special -- but Sunday night's post-Evensong event in the Chapel was especially sweet as we were able to welcome The Rev. Canons Barnabas Hunt and Andrew Rank – the last two living members of The Society of St. Paul – and hear a hint of what's to come from that exciting new space! Learn more about The Society of St. Paul here:
http://www.stpaulcathedral.org/society-st-paul

Cathedral Chapel to be Remodeled thanks to Generous Gift

 Dear Ones,

On my first visit to St. Paul’s in January of this year, we toured the Cathedral and then entered the Chapel of the Holy Family.  I was taken with the exquisite architecture, the proportions of length, width and height so expressive of a sacred geometry that shapes one’s experience of peace and serenity.  This was my first thought: What a wonderful place to sit quietly and pray.  But then, on closer inspection, it was also clear that this space was in need of restoration and repair.  I shrugged and thought, it’s not going to happen on my watch.

On this Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, it is especially appropriate to remember his prayer at the Church of San Damiano when he heard Christ speak to him saying, “Francis, repair my church.”  We know there was more at stake than the physical space, but space does matter.  And in the economy of God, who knew that a way would open for the restoration of our chapel.

In late July, the Rev. Canon Barnabas Hunt and the Rev. Canon Andrew Rank came to talk to me about the Chapel of the Holy Family.  They were prepared to make a significant gift to repair and restore the chapel.  As we discussed the project and walked through the chapel space, it became clear that this was something within our capacity to manage.  The problems in the chapel were mostly cosmetic and functional.  We were not looking at large architectural fees or structural challenges.
In addition, a long term need of the Society of St. Paul’s was expressed and discussed.  Here is an excerpt from Canon’s Hunt’s letter:

The Rev. Canons Andrew Rank
and Barnabas Hunt , SSP

Ever since Andrew and I moved to the Cathedral as our place of ministry and spiritual home, in 2001, we have had a unique problem. Namely, a final resting place for the ashes of our departed brothers and ourselves when we depart this life. Our desire is a distinctive location for a new columbarium in which to inter eight single urns, six of which already exist. It is customary for religious who are set apart by their vows to be buried together in a community cemetery or columbarium.

The time has come for us to put our house in order and we would be relieved of a great burden if you can assist us in resolving this matter.  Like Moses in the book of Exodus we have a need to lay the bones of our tribe to rest. 

And so we began taking those first few steps, beginning with a consultation with a construction firm.  They did not know the size of the gift but when their bid came in right on target, our dream became reality.  The project was discussed and reviewed at the August meeting of Chapter and a scope of work was developed.  A timeframe was established and worked with our own liturgical rhythm.

On Wednesday, October 2, the work began.  Demolition first, a clearing of the space, getting ready to refurbish the plaster on the walls and redo the floor.  The altar platform has been removed and the whole chapel will now be on one level, eliminating the steps.  Cathedral chairs will replace the pews, allowing for a much more flexible and creative use of the chapel space.  Chairs can be easily repositioned for small concerts, overflow crowds and more intimate services.

This renovation will be complete in just a few weeks.  There is more to come but in the meantime, I would like to thank Canon Hunt and Canon Rank and the Society of St. Paul for their vision and generosity to make all things new!            

Blessings, Rebecca
The Very Rev. Rebecca McClain

Check out the pictures below for a closer look at the work!