Today, Trinity Emmanuel Church in Stamford, CT dedicated a Garden Labyrinth ‘to the glory of God and in loving memory of Malcolm Wechsler’. The Right Reverend James Curry officiated.

Trinity Emmanuel has gone through tough times. Stamford had two small Episcopal churches, Trinity and Emmanuel, which merged into Trinity Emmanuel. Last fall, Malcolm Wechsler, who had been their organist passed away. During my journey, I’ve attended Trinity Emmanuel from time to time, along with many of the other Episcopal churches in the area.

This spring, The Reverend Kate Heichler started as Priest in Charge at Trinity Emmanuel. Kate and I go way back. In the early 80s, we both attended Grace Episcopal Church in Manhattan. It was a special time for many of us. Wednesday nights we would gather for prayer groups. On summer weekends, many of us would travel to Ocean Grove together. We would swim and sunbath on the beach during the day and in the evenings sit on the porch of The Kings Inn and sing folk music. Few of us had any idea what our lives would bring.

I met my first wife at Grace. We were married there. Our eldest daughter was baptized there. We moved to Stamford, CT and stayed in touch with our friends from Grace, but over the years drifted away. By the time my wife and I separated, we had lost touch with most of our friends from Grace.

Kim and I met and started dating. Kim’s mother was fighting cancer and on Kim’s birthday her mother went to be with God. The priest from Kim’s church, Christ Church Bethany, came over to sit with us as we grieved. On Sunday morning, Kim and I rallied and made it to Christ Church.

It was a strange day for me. Everyone there had been supporting Kim for so long during her mother’s illness, and they all joined in the mourning as they met me for the first time. It was a strange day for Kate Heichler as well. It was her first day as Seminarian at Christ Church and everyone was meeting her for the first time as well. We looked at each other asked each other, what are you doing here?

I guess that is the question that we all need to ask ourselves from time to time, what are we doing here?

Now, Kate is Priest in Charge at Trinity Emmanuel. She is helping the community at Trinity Emmanuel on the next phase of its journey, as she starts the next phase of her own journey. Kim and I are worshipping at Trinity Emmanuel as we wait to find where the next phase of our journey will lead us. Like the early days at The Kings Inn, Kate is getting us to sing folk songs again.

At the end of the service, we sang a song, “Draw the circle wide”. Part of the chorus goes, “Let this be our song, no one stands alone”. Perhaps this ties together so many of these stories. It is something Kate, Kim, myself, and hopefully many others have learned in our personal journeys. It is something that churches like Grace Church, Christ Church and Trinity Emmanuel need to understand, especially during these days of conflict in the Anglican Communion. And, it is something that we especially need more of in our political discourse. We need leaders that are committed to making sure that no one stands alone, when they come home from Iraq, when the attend schools burdened with an unfunded ‘No Child Left Behind’ slogan, as they try to get sufficient health care, as they look to see their city rebuilt after a hurricane, or after so many things in our lives that make us feel alone.