religion

First Presbyterian Church, 300 E. Main St., Batavia, is holding a special remembrance service at 6:30 p.m., Friday, to honor those who have passed in 2012 and also to pray for those touched by the recent tragedy in Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Pastor Roula Alkhouri holds a service annually for those who have lost loved ones during the year, but this year, there's greater sorrow for the nation following the massacre in Newtown, Conn.

"We are reminded once more that Christmas can be a painful time for some," Alkhouri said. "In the face of loss, we struggle to find joy in this season. For some this may be the first Christmas without a loved family member who has recently died."

Alkhouri said she is reaching out to pastors and congregations throughout the county to join in this year's service.

"This will be a quiet service of remembrance and hope," she said. "We will light candles for the loss of loved ones. We will also light special candles for the victims of violence of last Friday’s tragedy. We will hear through Scripture and music that God’s presence is (there) for those who struggle and mourn and how God’s Word offers us strength as a light shining into our brokenness."

Bishop William R. Franklin, the Episcopal bishop for all of Western New York, praised God and praised the efforts of the congregation of St. James Episcopal Church in Batavia today at a dedication ceremony for the restored church tower.

The restoration was a difficult financial undertaking for the congregation, but Franklin said the tower was an important symbol of hope in the community.

"When we look upward, we look to the future and it reminds us that the joy of God belongs to us," Franklin said.

The front doors of the church, which have been kept closed for years because of safety concerns from falling masonry, were once again reopened.

"We open doorways of hope," Franklin said. "We open our doors and go out into the community and give people hope."

Previously: Photos: St. James restoration project reaches pinnacle with placement of new cross

Le Roy's Holy Family School closed its doors for the last time a couple of weeks ago, but the school will long be remembered for the outstanding staff and students who graced its hallways and classrooms, for the positive community atmosphere it enjoyed, and for what it meant to local families during its 123-year history.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Hansen

There were 10 students in the final graduating class of the school at 46 Lake St., which was attached to Our Lady of Mercy Parish and served pupils in pre-K through eighth-grade. Students came not only from Le Roy, but also from elsewhere in Genesee County as well as Wyoming, Livingston and Monroe counties.

Photo courtesy of the Le Roy Historical Society

The school has seen a lot of changes -- including a change in its name -- since it was first staffed by the Sisters of Mercy more than 120 years ago (see the  timeline of milestones at the end of this story). Throughout all of these changes, its tradition of academic excellence and thriving school family remained much the same.

People who were part of the Holy Family community are filled with sadness, but also with fond memories and hope for the future.

Here are some stories that give an idea of just how special a place Holy Family was:

Michael Ficarella

Michael Ficarella, of Batavia, was hired as a sixth- through eighth-grade teacher at Holy Family School for the 2011-2012 school year. It was his first full-time teaching job.

"I couldn't have picked a better school to start (teaching)," Ficarella said.

He talked about the supportive team of teachers who welcomed and helped him throughout the year.

"From real early on, they were always coming by my room to see how I was doing, offering pointers on how to make this or that lesson better or how to make the classroom run smoother, etcetera."

In addition to teaching science and social studies, Ficarella also worked with younger students in the school's after-school program. During his brief time at Holy Family, he got to know a lot of kids.

"The students were great," he said. "They were well-mannered, very eager to learn and took pride in their school."

He mentioned the eighth-grade field trip to Washington, D.C., on which the kids were "phenomenal."

Despite losing his job his first year teaching, Ficarella said he is "absolutely 100 percent" glad of the experience and has no regrets.

The Hansen Family

Photo courtesy of Kelly Hansen

One of Ficarella's students was Alex Hansen, who was part of Holy Family School's final graduating class. He attended the school from kindergarten through eighth-grade.

"(The graduation) was bittersweet," said Kelly Hansen, Alex's mother. "What we were witnessing was never to take place at Holy Family School ever again."

"There were many 'lasts' over the past few months. It was very difficult for everyone as the adults tried to make the last days of school the best they could possibly be."

Hansen said that the decision she and her husband made to send Alex to Holy Family was "curious to some because we live in Batavia."

"The answer is never an easy one," she said, "but it always contains the same elements. The high test scores, great word-of-mouth, a place where God could be mentioned without fear of ridicule, not to mention a stellar reputation within the community for more than one hundred years."

She and her husband were also impressed with the parish to which the school was connected, which was called St. Peter's at the time.

"I'm not sure there would be a way to calculate the grand sum from the parish that has kept the school afloat for 123 years," she said.

Photo courtesy of Our Lady of Mercy Parish Secretary Sue Bobo

Of course, the school environment was also a major factor in the decision.

"We were impressed with what we saw the day we first visited," Hansen said. "Children holding the door for us as we came and went, walking down the halls and having students greet us without an adult to prompt them, students standing and greeting adults as they entered a classroom -- all this left us knowing that we were making the right decision for our family."

Second-grade teacher Patty Page is pictured with her granddaughter at a Halloween party at Holy Family School. Photo courtesy of Sue Bobo.

As for the teachers, their "commendable dedication" has left an impression on Hansen.

"Many teachers at (Holy Family School) have taught for 20 or more years," she said. "Catholic school teachers are state certified yet make a small fraction of what their public school counterparts do. They clearly are not in their chosen profession for the money -- it is something they do because they love it."

She sees this as part of a pattern of sacrifices that everyone involved in the Catholic school system makes for what they consider the greater good.

"Most families who choose to send their children to a Catholic school quietly go without things other families take for granted so that their children may reap the abundant benefits," she said.

"We’ve had the same car over the course of all nine years (of Alex attending Holy Family School). It is a bit rustier and a lot noisier. It has driven from Batavia to Le Roy hundreds of times, often carrying multiple students to one event or another."

"To pay for education that could otherwise be obtained for free at a public school is a bizarre choice to some," she said. "But for us it was the only option we could imagine. Anyone familiar with Catholic education knows about the sacrifices made in order for it to be possible."

The Winters Family

Photo courtesy of Bryan Winters

When first-grader Anna Rose Winters learned that her school would be closing, she was very sad. But then the first question that came out of her mouth was: "What are the uniforms like at St. Joe's?"

Anna Rose, like other Holy Family students, will attend St. Joseph School in Batavia in the fall.

"She went through the normal grief stages," said her father, Bryan Winters. "There were tears, but then she very quickly started to incorporate St. Joe's."

Winters was on Holy Family School's Finance Committee for several months, which put Anna Rose in a "unique situation."

"She's a smart kid -- she could read the writing on the wall," he said. "We were honest with her from the beginning that her school could close, but we'd try our best."

And try they did. According to Winters, who makes his living raising money for the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, the committees formed by parents to help save the school "were doing all the right things."

"It's remarkable how much money we were able to raise with the time constraint," he said. "But there were a lot of needs-based scholarships (and other expenses that could not be met with the current student enrollment)."

Like his daughter, Winters also went through the grieving process. But he has a "very great feeling" about St. Joe's and is optimistic about Anna Rose's future.

"(Of course), there are families who have been at Holy Family for three or four generations," he said. "Their grieving process is probably longer, and that's understandable. But I need to think of the best interests of my daughter. We're going to get fully involved in St. Joe's."

Bryan and Kate Winters moved to Le Roy from Monroe County a few years ago. Holy Family School was the main reason for their move.

Having just started a family, they wanted to move to the country to give their kids (they have two younger children in addition to Anna Rose) some "breathing room." But they also wanted to make sure the kids received a Catholic education.

"We looked around Western New York and the Finger Lakes region," Winters said. "We toured different schools in Livingston and Monroe counties, and even some in Erie County."

They were very selective in their search, because everything in their lives is a "distant second to our kids."

When they went to an open house at Holy Family, "that sealed the deal."

"That was where we knew we felt at home (at Holy Family)," Winters said. "We learned about the different programs and the curriculum -- they had a very rigorous program. We liked the student-teacher ratio. It was primarily for that reason that we moved to Le Roy."

With three years as a Holy Family parent under his belt, Winters still sings the school's praises loudly.

"It blows my mind that there were people around here who didn't send their kids to Holy Family," he said. "They must not have known what we had there."

Pictured Principal Kevin Robertson with Mrs. Page's second-grade class. Photo courtesy of Sue Bobo.

Like Ficarella and Hansen, he touted the supportive atmosphere the school offered.

"We could call or email any time, and (the issue) was taken care of," he said. "There was a real family feel, whether it was students with teachers or families with teachers. It was an open community."

Part of this openness was the teachers' willingness to share personal stories with their students.

"Every once in a while Anna Rose would share a story at dinner about a teacher's dog, or about Mrs. So-and-So's son getting into a certain college," Winters said. "The fact that these teachers would recognize (for example) that a first-grader wants to hear stories about a dog means a lot. It goes back to that feeling of family."

Winters' wife is a teacher, so the two of them "have a pretty good pulse on what a good teacher is."

"And these teachers -- they had it," he said.

And the students weren't bad, either.

"The Holy Family slogan was 'Teaching Tomorrow's Leaders,' and I think that's what they were doing," Winters said.

He commented on how the kids would hold doors for people and demonstrate politeness in other ways.

"All that stuff goes above and beyond two plus two," he said. "It was about more than just standardized testing; the focus was on growing the student as a person. It was built into the curriculum."

Anna Rose is excited about going to St. Joe's, but she and her family will always have fond memories of Holy Family School.

STORY CONTINUES after the jump (click the headline to read more):

A Brief History in Pictures

Holy Family's original name was St. Peter's School, after the church with which it was affiliated (St. Peter's Church became Our Lady of Mercy Parish in 2008). The school was placed in the charge of the Sisters of Mercy, who lived in Batavia and commuted every day by train the first year.

A photo of St. Peter's academic department in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Le Roy Historical Society, originally published in the Le Roy Gazette.

St. Peter's grew significantly between its founding in 1889 and 1955, when it was expanded to serve the children of both Catholic parishes in Le Roy (the other one being St. Joseph's Church). At that point, it was renamed "Holy Family School."

Note: Unless otherwise specified, all of the following were published in the Batavia Daily News and obtained courtesy of the Le Roy Historical Society:

Photo published in the Holy Family School Newsletter

Over the years, Holy Family slowly made the transition from a parochial school to a regional school. Hansen said that by the time it closed, "only 40 percent of the students were from Le Roy, with remaining students coming from Wyoming, Livingston and Monroe counties."

Regional schools have different requirements than parochial schools, including, according to Hansen, a "suggested class size (of) 20-25 students per grade level."

Take that, the fact that the school was staffed by state certified teachers instead of religious sisters receiving a modest stipend (which kept tuition costs low), and the population decrease in our area, and you get a good idea of the reason for Holy Family School's closure.

For more information on Holy Family School's history, please see the timeline at the bottom of this story.

Here are some pictures of the school through the years, courtesy of Sue Bobo and the Le Roy Historical Society:

Graduating class of 1957

Graduating class of 1965

Graduating class of 1978

Thank you to the interviewees, Sue Bobo and the Le Roy Historical Society for the information and pictures.

Timeline: Holy Family School:

• 1849 -- Rev. Edward Dillon founds St. Peter's Catholic Church in Le Roy.
• 1852 -- Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald, Rev. Dillon's successor as pastor, begins collecting funds to enlarge parish in response to rapid membership growth.
• 1857 -- Temporary parish school established by Rev. James McGlew in the church basement.        
• July 1889 -- Work is begun on new school behind St. Peter's Church (now called "the annex").
• Sept. 2, 1889 -- St. Peter's School opens, with the Sisters of Mercy recruited to teach.
• Early 1900s -- St. Peter's School has enrollment of 260 students.
• Feb. 14, 1907 -- Most Rev. Charles H. Colton, bishop of Buffalo, administers Sacrament of Confirmation in Le Roy; large number of Italian-American residents ask for their own "National" (or ethnic) parish.
• Feb. 16, 1907 -- Bishop Colton sends Rev. Joseph A. Gambino to establish St. Joseph's Church.
• 1913 -- Significant improvements to St. Peter's Church and School.
• 1955 -- St. Joseph's and St. Peter's unite to build a new school building to serve all Catholic children in Le Roy. Upon completion, St. Peter's School is renamed Holy Family School.
• Sept. 23, 1956 -- Holy Family School is officially dedicated by Most Rev. Leo R. Smith, an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo.
• 1965 -- Gymnasium is built in the school.
• 1989 -- Holy Family School is run mostly by laypeople rather than nuns.
• 1993 -- Barbara McVean becomes the first layperson to serve as principal of Holy Family School.
• 1990s -- 2000s -- Holy Family School begins to serve students from other communities as neighboring Catholic schools close.  Children from elsewhere in Genesee County as well as from Wyoming, Livingston and Monroe counties attend the school.
• 2008 -- St. Joseph's and St. Peter's merge as Our Lady of Mercy Parish.
• 2009 -- 2010 -- Under diocesan plan, Holy Family School transitions from parochial to regional school.
• 2011 -- Parents establish the Holy Family School Finance/Fund Raising Committee to try saving the school from closure.
• 2012 -- Holy Family School closes in spite of valiant student, parent and teacher efforts.
• June 8, 2012 -- The Holy Family School Choir performs for the last time in public at the Le Roy Bicentennial Celebration; receives standing ovation.

Previous coverage of Holy Family School:

Mancuso's hosts Holy Family School, of Le Roy, for Catholic Schools Week

Pictures: Holy Family and St. Joe's kids

Students at Holy Family learning and having fun with art

With prayer and praise, members of the Indian Falls United Methodist Church, celebrated the congregation's 150th anniversary Saturday with an outdoor service led by Rev. Karen Grinnell.

The service circled around the building with stops for a message from Grinnell, prayer, singing and Old and New Testament readings.

"We wanted to not only rededicate the building, but rededicate the congregation," Grinnell said.

The Indian Falls congregation is an active one and Grinnell said it's always had a strong sense of its mission.

"We like to be a strong, faithful presence in the community," Grinnell said.

The chuch was organized June 9, 1862, when Indian Falls was known as Tonawanda Falls, in the Robinson schoolhouse by 12 men as the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The current building was first erected in 1945 and added to over the years.

Faith is what has enabled to church to survive through 150 years of changing times and still be vibrant today.

"This is a very strong farming community and you see God at work in nature all the time," Grinnell said. "The descendents from the original 12 men had a strong faith and that faith has been passed down from generation to generation and this is what we have today."

A group of Tibetan monks are at Genesee Community College this week creating a sand mandala as part of the inauguration ceremony celebration week for new college President Jim Sunser.

Sand mandalas are created using colored sand and the art form goes back at least 2,500 years.

Once created, mandalas are destroyed in a ceremony and the sand dispersed in the nearest body of flowing water.

On Friday, at 10 a.m., the monks will sweep away the sand of their painstakingly created work of art, take the sand in bags to the Tonawanda Creek and dump it into the flowing water.

Spokesman Tanzin Nawang said the process reminds us that life is just temporary.

The monks are members of the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Tibet.

Besides the mandala being painted by the monks, students and members of the GCC community are also working on mandalas in order to learn about the art form.

Every mandala has symbols with various means. Nawang said the mandala being created by the monks visiting GCC is about love and compassion.

"Everybody by nature wants to be happy and live in peace and harmony," Nawang said. "They do not want to suffer, so it is important to devote love and compassion, and when you devote your life to love and compassion, you will receive love and compassion.

If you're unable to view the slide show below, click here.

The video below of Monday's opening ceremony was posted to YouTube by Karen Reisdorf.

St. Mary's Church, of Batavia, got a visit from the Blessed Virgin Mary Monday night. The church at 20 Ellicott St. was one of her last stops in Genesee County as she tours the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

The International Pilgrimage Statue of Our Lady of Fatima has been crisscrossing the Western Hemisphere for the past 64 years (there is another statue made for pilgrimages in the Eastern Hemisphere). It was sculpted in 1947 by Portuguese sculptor Jose Thedim, who based it on descriptions provided by one of the children who received visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in the summer of 1917.

According to Carl Malburg, one of the statue's custodians, the Bishop of Fatima commissioned the Pilgrimage Statue 30 years after the three children -- Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco -- received the visions.

"The idea came from the message," Malburg said. "It was meant for all the world, not just the people of Fatima."

"Fatima is not over," said Malburg's fellow custodian Patrick Sabat (pictured below), referencing Pope Benedict XVI. "There is a continued need for prayer and penance."

Addressing the people who attended Monday's service, he added: "Pope John Paul II said the message of Fatima is more urgent and more relevant now than it was in 1917."

Much of the content of the Fatima visions -- which began on May 13 and occurred on the 13th of every month until October -- deals with the harm that human sins do to the world, leading to war and destruction. The Virgin Mary reportedly told the children that if enough people carried out her instructions, there would be peace on Earth.

"Pope Benedict XV (who was Pope at the time of the Fatima visions) called Mary the Queen of Peace," Sabat said, adding that her intercession would work "when all human efforts at peace had failed."

Malburg, of Indiana, and Sabat, of the Philippines, escort the Pilgrimage Statue in its travels on behalf of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue Foundation, which is based in Munster, Ind. With permission from Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, they are making a 21-day trip through the Buffalo diocese.

Interestingly, the Buffalo diocese was the first place the statue visited in the U.S. on her very first pilgrimage in 1947. One of her stops was Our Lady of Fatima Church in Elba.

"And we thought, 'Why not bring her back?'" said Sally Ross, Ph.D, a member of St. Padre Pio Parish (which includes Our Lady of Fatima in Elba and St. Cecilia's Church in Oakfield).

Ross was the one who came up with the idea of bringing the statue back to Western New York for a pilgrimage. It all started when she, as a member of Our Lady of Fatima, did some research into how her church got its name. She learned three interesting facts about the Elba church:

1. The Pilgrimage Statue's visit in 1947.

2. It is the oldest church in the U.S. to bear that name.

3. The knoll in front of the church on which the Fatima Shrine is now located was once used by the Ku Klux Klan as a place to burn crosses.

Fact number three is especially interesting if you think about the Fatima message.

"Our Lady wants all her children to live together in peace and harmony," Malburg said. "She said that if we follow her instructions, there will be peace."

To that end, Sabat called everyone to be "Prayer Warriors."

"This is a different kind of war," he said. "It's a war of reparation for the sins of the world."

According to a pamphlet from the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue Foundation, fighting this war includes making each of one's daily sufferings a sacrifice in atonement for sin, praying the Rosary every day, and wearing the brown scapular as a sign of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Miracles and favors have been reported in areas the statue has visited over the years. One of the most famous of these miracles is the "Miracle of Tears," which refers to reports of the statue crying human tears in more than 30 instances.

While there may not have been any tears in Western New York so far, people have been affected by the statue. The pilgrimage isn't over yet, and Ross has already gotten some follow-up calls.

"I wish I could have recorded them, (as they talked about the message)," she said. "Even just the timbre of their voices...it's just incredible."

As much of an impact as the statue has had, Sabat and Malburg were both very clear that Catholics do not worship Mary or statues.

"A statue's just a piece of wood," Malburg said. "And the person it represents (Mary) is not divine. But we do talk to her and ask her to pray for us."

He also said that he sometimes meets fundamentalists who object to giving this type of honor to Mary. To this he replies, "You have a guardian angel, don't you?" His point is that Catholics talk to Mary the same way most Christians might talk to their guardian angels.

"Mary is still the greatest catechist (teacher of the faith)," Sabat said. "She's a role model for all Christians, and we continue to imitate her virtues. Our goal is to be as close to Christ as possible, and she was the closest person to Christ there ever was."

St. Joseph's Church welcomed the Pilgrimage Statue at Mass this morning. It is heading to Orleans County today, but will return for a visit to the New York State Veterans' Home on Aug. 19. All total, it will make seven more stops throughout the region before the pilgrimage concludes on Aug. 22.

For more information, go to www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com.

Supplemental Video: Malburg and Sabat on local news show in Cincinnati

 

Hundreds of local residents gathered at Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia on Wednesday evening for "A Service of Prayer and Remembrance."

The annual service sponsored by funeral home company H.E. Turner and Co., is a chance for people to remember loved ones who have passed and light a candle in their honor. The candles can then be taken home and relit on Christmas Day.

Rev. Greg Brotzman and Rev. Donald Shirk (pictured at the microphone below) participated in the service, which included music and a memorial sermon.

Peaceful Genesee, a coalition dedicated to making Genesee County a nonviolent community, launched the first in a three-part series of workshops on nonviolence last week at the Office for the Aging.

Each workshop is taught by Barry Gan, Ph.D, above left. He's talking to Rev. James Renfrew of First Presbyterian Church of Byron, and Ed Minardo, center, of Genesee Justice.

Gan is a philosophy professor and the director of the Center for Nonviolence at St. Bonaventure University. He is also the co-editor -- with Robert L. Holmes -- of the book, "Nonviolence in Theory and Practice."

Outside of academia, Gan's experience includes taking part in a nonviolent protest in New York City about 10 years ago, after the police officers who shot and killed Amadou Diallo were acquitted of murder.

He also participates in conferences and interfaith dialogue groups, and has travelled around the world to places that are, for one reason or another, important in the history of nonviolent philosophy.

Recently, the whole violence/nonviolence issue hit somewhat close to home. One of Gan's students -- interestingly, a student in his course on the peaceful philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi -- was beaten up recently by a group of thugs.

"I was talking to him (in the last week)," Gan said, "and I asked him, 'Do Gandhi's words still ring true for you after what you experienced?' He said: 'Yes, because I would have made it worse by resisting them.'"

Questions not only of how to end community violence, but also of how to deal with violence when it occurs are very important to Peaceful Genesee (see April 29 article).

William Privett, a Peaceful Genesee member and regional coordinator for Pax Christi, talked about his hopes for Gan's workshops this way:

"I hope we have a movement expand, over time, where the primary way of thinking (in Genesee County) is to be peaceful and nonviolent. In other words, it wouldn't be just a secondhand thought -- we would like people to look to nonviolence, instead of dominating other people, as a way of transforming society."

How people do this is not an easy question to answer. Gan told everyone, in so many words, right at the outset that he did not intend to oversimplify such a complex matter. 

The topic of his first talk was nonviolence as being at the root of all of the world's major religious and philosophical traditions; one of his first comments was that in each religion, you see references to nonviolence but also instances where it seems like punishment and force are being advocated.

"So I don't want to present what I'm saying as necessarily being 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'"

Still, he believes firmly in, and finds support in the world's religions for, nonviolence as a way of life and a means of achieving peace.

"I like to use the term peaceful rather than peace," he said. "Because really, everyone wants peace. It's just a question of how we get there."

Wednesday night is the next workshop -- from 7 until 8:30 p.m., Nov. 10. Gan will present different ways people can put nonviolence into practice in personal life, in the community, in the workplace, and at the national and international levels.

"It'll run the whole gamut," he said.

One thing he wants people to keep in mind, though, is that we have to be careful not to be too gung-ho about it.

"I think the temptation to go out there and change the whole world is the greatest cause of harm. Instead, we should ask ourselves, 'What can we do right here, where we are now?'"

Last week, he dealt mainly with the theoretical component of nonviolence. He talked about the teachings and practices of various religions/philosophies -- including Jainism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the writings of Plato and Henry David Thoreau -- demonstrating the importance of nonviolent attitudes and behavior to all of them.

One of the audience members contributed to the discussion by using the phrase "compassionate selflessness" in reference to the single point that all religions have in common.

People who faithfully practice these religions foster nonviolence in themselves by fighting their own egos. In various ways, they try to detach themselves from material possessions, sexual and other pleasures, and even, if necessary, other people.

"The idea is that when you're too attached to something, you become selfish," Gan said. "It makes you less concerned with taking care of others."

Humility is another aspect of nonviolent teaching found in all religions. Again, the aim is to keep the ego at bay so that people do not try to lift themselves up above others.

As you might expect, the Christian teaching of "turning the other cheek" came up, along with Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount and command to "love your enemies."

"One of the dangers is that people can interpret 'turning the other cheek' as meaning we have to roll over and play dead," Gan said.

There seemed to be a pretty unanimous agreement that turning the other cheek doesn't mean taking violence lying down, but rather refusing to cooperate with it -- for example, by exchanging evil for evil (i.e. using violence to stop violence).

Gan referenced a scene in the 1982 movie "Gandhi" where the famed title character, as a young man, is forced out of first-class on a train because he is a "colored person." He resists by grabbing firmly onto his seat.

"He fights by holding onto what he believes in, but without hurting anyone."

That's what Gan wants to see in people: active resistance without harm. But again, he cautioned people not to go too far with the "active resistance" part.

Even civil disobedience should be a last resort, according to Gan. He mentioned that Gandhi didn't turn to it until after he tried everything else.

He will deal more with what we can do in this week's talk.

The final workshop, which is on Wednesday, Nov. 17, during the same time slot, will cover the "myths about violence and nonviolence."

Gan said there are five such myths:

• That violence is primarily physical (In this week's talk, he said that "physical violence comes from a buildup of psychological violence, which you see on television all the time -- even in sitcoms.");
• That there are good guys and bad guys;
• That violence is sometimes necessary;
• That wrongdoers should be punished;
• That nonviolence doesn't work ("We have thousands of years' worth of evidence showing that violence doesn't work, but we haven't given up on that," Gan said.).

All of these workshops are at the Office for the Aging, at 2 Bank St. in Batavia. They are free, open to the public, and interactive rather than just lecture-driven. People with different opinions on the whole violence/nonviolence issue will be able to share and discuss their views.

Contact William Privett at wprivett.paxchristi@gmail.com for more information.

Some of our readers had questions about the Bell Tower Restoration project at St. James Episcopal Church.

After the Aug. 25 article, church officials and committee members were kind enough to answer some additional questions about the nature of the tower's condition, the cost of the project, and other issues addressed by our readers.

They submitted the following information via e-mail:

The deterioration that we’re trying to address is structural in nature. This stems from water infiltration and the use of an overly hard mortar when the Church was re-pointed in the 1950s-1960s. As you can see if you look at the Bell Tower façade, some sections of the stonework have actually fallen off and we have had to rope off the front of the building.

We believe that the first phase of the Bell Tower reconstruction project, which includes rebuilding the top 10 feet of the tower and the roof, will cost no more than $500,000.

After completion of this first phase, we will attempt to address the additional issues relating to the stonework façade of the Bell Tower and the remainder of the Church in a multi-phase process. While the additional costs relating to the façade repair may run twice the cost of the original phase, the additional phases will no doubt take many years to complete.

The reason the cost is so high is that the project is very labor intensive, involves heavy materials and the work involving the first phase must be done at a height of 70 to 80 feet above the ground.

Neither the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, nor the Episcopal Church of the United States are directly involved in the project. Nor under our form of church governance would we expect them to be directly involved.

Even though the building is a source of concern, it does not diminish our desire to reach out to the community to fulfill our missions. St. James’ outreach to the community comes in many forms:

- George Rupprecht Fund: This summer, over 150 girls from 84 families have received school clothing, footwear and school supplies. At Christmas, we will again help the same number of girls with Christmas gifts. Year round, we help pay for extra-curricular activities and work to assure that each girl has a comfortable bed in which to sleep at night. This year, our budget is $72,000.

- Thrift Shop: St. James expanded its shop hours in 2010 to serve the community. Apart from clothing, we sell household items, books, toys, small furniture and lots of bric-a-brac. Persons coming to the George Rupprecht Fund are often given bags of clothing and household items for free. Four times a year, we host clothing giveaways.

- Episcopal Community Services: Serves the underprivileged in the Diocese of WNY.

- Bishop Masereka Christian Foundation: Sponsors children in Uganda to assist with schooling and medical needs.

- Comfort Food Dinners: Two dinners were held at St. James this past winter. All proceeds went to local charities.

- St. James is the local meeting place for other churches in the Deanery.

- St. James donates to the local food pantry, collects school supplies for children and, each Christmas, selects a local charity to support.

- We host many programs in the church so that the community can enjoy the ambience and the musical acoustics of the building, such as the Genesee Symphony, Genesee Chorale, Go-Art! and Crossroads House.

We have made the hard decision to stay at this location because of its viability to the community. St. James would exist and function without the building, but the building needs a caretaker and we have chosen to take on that role.

The alternative would be to leave a large untended building on Main Street. If we did not try to take care of the building, we would not be very good stewards of the building or good members of the community.

For more information, please call the church at 343-6802 or visit its website.

"Save the clock tower! Save the clock tower!"

Some of our readers will remember that line from the 1985 movie, "Back to the Future." Well, Batavia's St. James Episcopal Church has its own version of that plea:

"Save the bell tower! Save the bell tower!"

The tower, pictured above, was built in 1908 and has been showing signs of wear in the last 10 years.

"Especially in the last couple of years, we've noticed deterioration," said Cathy Judkins, a member of St. James who is also on the committee for the tower's restoration.

St. James Vicar Steven Metcalfe said there has been a "real push" since 2008 toward preserving the tower, which is very important to the religious heritage of St. James Church -- not only because of its historical significance (St. James is one of the oldest religious communities in Batavia and makes use of the old, awe-inspiring cathedral architecture -- see the April 12 article on the stained-glass tour), but also because of what it means to St. James as a family in faith.

"We have a very vibrant, caring and faithful worship community," Metcalfe said. "We want our building to reflect that."

To that end, he also offered this defense of the importance of restoration: "It's like what they say about a house turning into a home: it becomes more than just a building when it's been lived in."

The church and the various fundraising committees dedicated to preserving and restoring the tower have worked hard over the last couple of years. They have hired architects and consulted stonemasons; they have organized fundraising events -- including concerts, a calendar sale during the Christmas season, and fish fries every Friday during Lent; they are starting a Captial Campaign next month, and have applied for four grants -- three from private organizations and one from New York State.

According to Judkins, they have divided the overall project into six phases in order to make it more "financially manageable."

"The first phase is the most expensive," she said. "We're trying to raise about $500,000. We hope to have at least a fail-safe project by fall, something that can hold us together until we've reached our goal."

The church will accept monetary donations from anyone who would like to help out. People can also assist their efforts by supporting and/or attending their fundraisers, which are well-publicized.

Upcoming fundraisers include the second annual "Pedal to Save the Church", which starts at the church -- at 405 E. Main St. in Batavia -- around 8 a.m. (check-in) on Sept. 11, and a theatrical performance of "Tuesdays with Morrie," starring Batavia Players' Norm Argulsky as Morrie, on Oct. 16-17. All are invited to attend.

Additionally, Metcalfe invited anyone interested in lending a hand to come to the congregation and "get to know us." 

Marcia Gann, another member of St. James and the preservation committee, said that this project has garnered "great community support." She gratefully cited the support of the churches involved in the stained-glass tour, Adam Miller's Toys & Bicycles, and Present Tense Books as examples.

For more information on the bell tower restoration project and related fundraisers, please call the church at 343-6802 or visit their website.

Batavia resident Frank VanApeldoorn was positioned on Ellicott Street this afternoon with his religious sign. VanApeldoorn said today wasn't the first time he's stood in front of the former Dellapenna building with his sign. He's also travelled around the region, and even around the country, with his sign. VanApeldoorn, a member of Calvary Baptist Church on Galloway Road, said he likes the Dellapenna's location because it's visible, but still out of people's way and, "It's where God put me."

They are private, and they are public.

They are contemplative, and they are active.

Their ways are ancient, and modern.

They are Presbyterian, but with a Celtic flavor, and with a bit of Franciscan spirituality and the Desert Fathers thrown in.

They are local -- and they are nationally significant.

They are the Seekers of East Bethany's Seeker Community Church, and they have just been named a "New Church Development" in the Presbyterian Church USA.

This group of Seekers was founded in 2007 by Rev. Bill Hockey, a pastor for 30 years and currently a half-time pastor at North Bergen Presbyterian Church.

It started as a spontaneous project between friends (Hockey included) who wanted a new worship experience, one that would let them live differently from the fast-paced and goal-driven culture around them and be present to the people in their lives and communities who needed them.

They modeled their commitment on the New Monastic movement, which is built on the premise that people become more aware of and available to serve the needs of their neighbors by fostering a deep connection with God and His presence in their lives.

As a recovering alcoholic, Hockey appreciates that angle on spirituality.

"I made a lot of connections in the 12-step recovery program," he said. "I found there were a number of people who longed for a place to worship but didn't feel connected to the churches they had been to."

Right now, the Seeker Community Church -- which currently has about 15-20 members -- meets every Sunday at East Bethany Presbyterian Church. But the Seekers will soon have a space to call their own, thanks to an anonymous donor who gave them 22 acres of woodland in East Bethany. There they hope to build a "refuge of prayer" to which the people of the Genesee Valley can come to get away from their hectic lives and "seek the Lord."

While Hockey's congregation is Presbyterian in terms of organization and accountability, their spirituality is in line with the Northumbria Community, which embraces sixth- and seventh-century Celtic Christianity.

"(Celtic Christianity) has a very simple way about it," Hockey said. "It's Trinitarian, very orthodox, and very much connected to the Earth."

While it may be simple, the spiritual life of these Seekers is appreciably disciplined. They have a regular rhythm of daily prayer, starting with morning prayer and then progressing through mid-day prayer, the prayer of silence and evening prayer.

The prayer of silence is an especially interesting aspect of their worship, and is part of each Sunday service. Meeting at 6 p.m., the congregation spends 20 minutes in total silence. This is not a mandatory part of the service, which officially starts at 7 p.m., but Seekers like to use it as a way to "deepen [their] sense of God's wonder, help to understand [their] own humanity, and make [themselves] aware of Christ's presence within [them]."

This type of prayer is not found very often in Protestant religious life, and some who are of a more conservative Reformed and/or Evangelical persuasion tend to question its value. One of the most common objections to this sort of thing is, "Where is that in the Bible?"

To these individuals, Hockey offers the following response: "Read your Bible.

"We know very little about Jesus's private life, but one thing that's noted for us over and over again is that He goes off by Himself to be alone. And then in the Old Testament you have Elijah, who sits at the front of the cave for days while earthquakes and storms are going on outside -- and he finds God in the silence. You find it in the Psalms, too: 'Be still, and know that I am the Lord.'"

Hockey recognizes that the contemplative stance is not only strange to much of the Protestant community, but also counter-cultural.

"I think there's a kind of fear of silence here in the U.S.," Hockey said. "People don't like it, because they're used to having lives that are very busy and noisy."

As far as their Protestant identity goes, the Seekers are also unique in their use of the Sign of the Cross during worship services. Hockey, who was raised in a conservative Protestant family, admits that he "belittled" this practice for a long time.

"In the end," he said, "it seemed right to draw the image of Christ's Cross on my body, after seeing how He had worked in my life. It's a very ancient Christian practice. It's not supernatural or anything like that, it's just a simple reminder of who we are."

The Seekers Community Church welcomes anyone who is interested in seeing what they are all about. Hockey says that they are a nonjudgmental community that seeks to serve the poor -- which refers not only to the economically poor, but also to the "poor in spirit" -- to be there for, and listen to, those who are hurting, and to offer people a place for prayer.

Anyone interested in learning more can contact Hockey at 591-2657, or visit the Seeker Community Church's Facebook page.

Pictures of the Seekers' new woodland site:

(all photos taken by Rev. Bill Hockey)

Entrance path

Cross on Indian village

Cemetery prayer garden -- old stone wall

Site of Indian village