Jan. 26, 2013, column:

St. Thomas parishioners visit Catholicism's overseas roots

Nicole Koetting, right, directs members of Amarillo’s St. Thomas Catholic Church at Santa Maria della Mercede Church in Rome.  

By Mike Haynes    
     It’s one thing to celebrate Mass in the spacious, 30-year-old, St. Thomas the Apostle Church on Amarillo’s South Coulter Street.

            It’s quite another for St. Thomas members to sing and receive the Holy Eucharist amid ancient vaulted ceilings built a thousand years before Amarillo existed, just a few feet from the tomb that many believe contains the remains of Mark, author of the first gospel.

The Rev. Scott Raef, pastor of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Amarillo, officiates at a private Mass in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice.

            In that crypt below St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, the Rev. Scott Raef of the Amarillo church officiated as Jim Gardner and Nicole Koetting led the music a month ago for a group of 68 visitors from Texas.

            For many, the intimate service was the highlight of an Italian trip that began the day after Christmas and ended Jan. 3.

            Koetting said members of the St. Thomas adult choir told her “it was so special to celebrate Mass where the grave of one of the gospel writers was actually behind the altar.”

             The private Mass began a tour that included children’s, youth and adult choirs and musicians from St. Thomas plus family members and friends. “It was a great way to start,” Koetting said.

Jim Gardner, music director at Amarillo’s St. Thomas Catholic Church, visits La Pieta church in Venice, where composer Antonio Vivaldi planned the acoustics. 

            Another highlight was attending the New Year’s Day Mass and blessing at St. Peter’s in Rome, attended by thousands and officiated by none other than Pope Benedict XVI himself.  The Amarillo group was among the faithful inside St. Peter’s Basilica with its 151-foot ceiling and 95-foot altar canopy, below which is the apostle Peter’s tomb.

            The group joined the throng outside in the square as Pope Benedict appeared in a window to give Jan. 1 greetings in multiple tongues. Koetting, who has been the St. Thomas assistant music director for almost 15 years, was accompanied by her husband, Dan, and three of their four children.

“We stayed for at least seven languages,” Koetting said. “But the kids were there with us, so we left after English.”

In addition to the Vatican and Venice, the group provided music at a public Mass in St. Croce Basilica in Florence and for another private Mass in Santa Maria della Mercedes in Rome, a modern church.

They also visited Padua and Assisi. “We were able to see the St. Francis cross in a side chapel of the church in Assisi,” Koetting said. “It’s from the late 1200s. It was pretty moving.”

The Amarillo church has sponsored several such trips, usually at five-year intervals. In addition to the late Rev. Joseph Tash, a key figure on the trips has been Gardner, music director since 1993.

“Jim is an amazing musician,” Koetting said. “He arranged all the music done on the trip. The music that we did at the private masses in Italy, he wrote.”

Brittney Richerson, a violinist on the trip, agreed that Amarillo is blessed to have Gardner. When not wearing his St. Thomas robes, he is active directing music at Amarillo Little Theatre as well as playing piano for the Polk Street Jazz ensemble.

“Too few in the Panhandle realize what a blessing a man with his unique gifts and incredible experience is to the community,” said Richerson, a former Amarillo College student now studying in Corpus Christi and who also has played with Gardner in ALT productions.

Indeed, it also is true that too few know about the quality of music and the arts radiating from the church on Coulter, a little of which was put on display this winter in the pope’s back yard.

            * * *

            Mike Haynes teaches journalism at Amarillo College. He can be reached at AC, the Amarillo Globe-News or haynescolumn@hotmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.

C.S. Lewis College update
For those of you interested in the status of C.S. Lewis College, which I have written about several times, below is the latest from the C.S. Lewis Foundation.
The bottom line is that Hobby Lobby has given the Northfield Campus in Massachusetts to a Christian foundation that will decide who gets to use the campus. The CSL College people still are trying to get approval for the college to be on the Northfield Campus. --Mike H.

C.S. Lewis College Update

Greetings and Happy New Year! I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your contribution as a Founder of C.S. Lewis College and for your words of encouragement and prayerful support through the ups and downs of this past year of uncertainty. In particular, I am writing to apprise you of late-breaking news regarding the Northfield Campus: The Green Family of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. has donated the campus to the National Christian Foundation (NCF), which is a nonprofit grant-making foundation. NCF has taken ownership of the property and will, from this point on, conduct the search for a suitable recipient for the campus. An excerpt from Hobby Lobby’s press release reads as follows: "NCF is a nonprofit charity based in Alpharetta, Ga. Hobby Lobby has made donations of other properties to NCF in the past and is confident they will care for the property with the same commitment demonstrated by Hobby Lobby over the past three years. NCF will continue the work of finding a long-term owner for the property that will honor the legacy of D.L. Moody. We're thrilled with the opportunity to further preserve the heritage of the Northfield campus and to serve Hobby Lobby with their charitable giving objectives," said Steve Chapman, NCF Vice President of Communications." Please know that the C.S. Lewis Foundation remains deeply committed to the founding C.S. Lewis College at a site that suits the particular vision of the College as a Christian college of the Great Books and Visual and Performing Arts that is actively committed to engaging the broader secular community. We continue to be interested in the Northfield Campus as our preferred site and are seeking the needed funding to launch the College there. With this in mind, we would welcome your continued prayers and best wishes as we make contact with the National Christian Foundation to explore the future possibilities of launching C.S. Lewis College on location in Northfield. Further up and further in! J. Stanley Mattson President & Founder C.S. Lewis Foundation

Jan. 5, 2013, column:

End of the world should be last thing we worry about

By Mike Haynes

In case you missed the news, the world didn’t end Dec. 21, as some people thought the Mayan calendar predicted. In fact, if you’re reading this, we’ve made it to Jan. 5.

Some “worlds” did end that day. By coincidence, it was the last day at work for my wife, who is moving to a new job after 28 years in a place she loved. It also was the last day at work for my brother, who is retiring after a productive career in education.

But both are embarking on new phases of their lives, so they have new worlds to enjoy. Kathy is glad she will be closer to the patients she treats, and Sam will have more time for golf, travel and ranching.

Actually, followers of Christ believe that at the real end of the world, they will have a wonderful new environment to enjoy forever. Many of us are uneasy about the future, but those who believe the scripture’s words should be confident.

“Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret?” wrote C.S. Lewis. “There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Paul said it more succinctly in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

I don’t waste much energy worrying about when the world will end. The final day could be tomorrow with some comet striking the Earth or with Jesus showing up literally as portrayed in the Bible.

For any of us individually, though, it also could end tomorrow as our pastor, Tommy Politz, described in his sermon Sunday — with a car accident, an aneurysm or any unpredictable calamity.

Even in the best scenario, the longest any of us will be here is a few more decades, so for each person, the end will arrive soon. Compared to the trillions of years of eternity, each life is shorter than a tweet.

My mother has been in poor health for a while. Although little was said about it during Christmastime, I know all my family, especially Dad, my brothers and sister, were thinking more about Mom than about presents or turkey and dressing. We’re thankful that as the New Year approached, she was feeling better.

Christmas Day did remind us we can’t predict the future. The electricity went out on the windy, snowy day, and instead of our traditional holiday feast, we ate cold ham sandwiches.

I didn’t hear anybody complain. There’s no point in worrying about what we can’t control, and the biggest thing in that category is when we will leave this Earth.

Sunday’s sermon was based on a letter by James, brother of Jesus: “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. … If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:14 and 4:17)

Clearly, as our pastor said, we should do good things now, not “someday.” We all put things off until someday, whether it’s losing weight, volunteering or telling someone we love them.

What we do today should be our focus, not when it all will end. And even when we worry about our loved ones, Christian hope can comfort us. Consider this German saying: “Those who live in the Lord never see each other for the last time.”

Mike Haynes teaches journalism at Amarillo College. He can be reached at AC or haynescolumn@hotmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.

Dec. 15, 2012, column:
College documents key Methodist figures

By Mike Haynes

            Asbury, Coke, Wesley.

            If you keep up with Christian denominations, you know which one counts those three among its founders.

            Having grown up in a Methodist church, I certainly know and respect those names. So while on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas with Amarillo College journalism students a few weeks ago, I visited the Bridwell Library, part of the Perkins School of Theology. On display were books and documents associated with those iconic Methodist names as well as many others – including Carhart.

            If you’re familiar with Clarendon, one of the Texas Panhandle’s first towns, you might recognize that name. I have a cousin who lives on Carhart Street, in fact, in the Donley County seat.

            We’ll get back to Carhart. First, I have to tell you how glad I was that I walked across the gorgeous SMU campus to that library. One of the first documents I encountered was a yellowed piece of paper with a circular, bright red, wax seal on it – signed “John Wesley.” The 1770 signature of the founder of Methodism was at the bottom of the manuscript in brown ink.

It was his last will and testament, in which the 67-year-old preacher entrusted James Rouquet with many of his Methodist duties, such as making payments to the Kingswood School and allowing other ministers to use his personal library.

            Rouquet died in 1776, 15 years before Wesley, so the will later was revised. But 12 inches in front of my eyes was the signature of one of the most well-known preachers in history.

            The Bridwell collection also includes a May 14, 1765, letter from Wesley explaining his theory of “Christian perfection.” Who did he send it to? John Newton. You may have heard of Newton, too; the Anglican vicar wrote “Amazing Grace.”

              There’s a Bible bought in 1806 for the Methodist church in Coeymans, N.Y. The renowned Francis Asbury used it when he preached at that New York church. But just as interesting to Panhandle residents is the fact that it later was owned by John Wesley Carhart (1834-1914), another Methodist minister, writer, physician and inventor who was the cousin of Clarendon’s founder, the Rev. Lewis H. Carhart.

            Lewis Carhart, who established the town in 1878, had gotten J.W. Carhart,  living in Oshkosh, Wis., to print Clarendon’s first newspaper. For a while, it was mailed from Wisconsin to Texas.

            Clarendon began as a Methodist community and was known as “Saints’ Roost.” For the full story, see “Panhandle Pilgrimage,” a book by Pauline Durrett Robertson and R.L. Robertson.

            Still excited to see the Clarendon connection in the SMU library, I made a quick descent to the Bridwell basement to be sure I didn’t miss anything in this building where so many pastors have studied.

In a hallway were three library carts with signs that read, “Free Books.” Not able to resist, I scanned the carts for books that looked old. I picked J.B. Phillips’ “Letters to Young Churches” from 1948, Evelyn Underhill’s “Worship” from 1937 and, mainly because it was printed in 1856, “Life of Rev. John Clark” by the Rev. B.M. Hall.

It wasn’t until that night, back in the hotel, that I discovered this in the Clark book, written in brown ink:

“J. Wesley Carhart’s Library.”

The minister and printer of Clarendon’s first newspaper was born in Albany County, N.Y., and the book has a sticker that says it was sold in “Albany.” He would have been about 22 when it was published.

I’ll have to do more research to confirm that one of the Carharts inscribed his name in that now-fragile book, but it sure looks like it.

OK, I guess what I will do since the Amarillo Globe-News started charging for access to amarillo.com is to post my entire column here each time. I also will include a link to the column at amarillo.com.
(I know I should go back and post every past column here in addition to the link, but I don't know when I'll have time to do that.) Thanks for your patience.
--Mike H.

Uh, oh. All these links to my columns go to the Amarillo Globe-News website, amarillo.com. The Globe-News is about to start charging for access to its website, so I suspect that unless you are a Globe-News subscriber, the links no longer will take you to my columns.

I'm not sure what to do about that or if I have time right now to come up with an alternate way to make the columns easily available.

We'll see.

Thanks for your interest.

--Mike H.

Nov. 24, 2012, column:
Spend time on the road with God
(This column has two parts: the first is about praying while driving; the second is an update on C.S. Lewis College.)

Nov. 3, 2012, column:

Katy Magee speaks Oct. 14, 2012, at the 110th anniversary of First United Methodist Church of McLean. She was instrumental in the installation of the historic windows and the church renovation.

This century-old window at First United Methodist Church of McLean is in the new fellowship hall.

First United Methodist Church of McLean marks 110th anniversary

Oct. 13, 2012, column:

More churchgoers embrace technology

Sept. 22, 2012, column:
C.S. Lewis College supporters march on

This chapel is on the Northfield, Mass., campus that Hobby Lobby is giving to Grand Canyon University after supporters of C.S. Lewis College failed to raise enough funds to open their proposed school on the campus.

Smith Reunion, Amarillo, Texas, July 21, 2012

Sept. 1, 2012, column:
Reunions rekindle family bonds

Jack and Rose in 1997 movie, "Titanic"

Aug. 11, 2012, column:
Tears show appreciation for life's tender moments
(Also notice that there's an update on the C.S. Lewis College situation at the end of the column.)

July 21, 2012, column:

Houston Bible museum worth the time
At left is a page from the 1455 Gutenberg Bible, printed in Latin in Mainz, Germany. It's on display at the Dunham Bible Museum at Houston Baptist University. The portrait of Gutenberg is from the painter's imagination, because there are no known pictures of Gutenberg from his lifetime.

June 30, 2012, column:

Couple heads to third-world Boys Ranch

For those interested in Texas history, here are two book reviews that were in the Amarillo Globe-News June 24. One is by British rock singer Phil Collins.

Collins' history collection impressive look at Texas

Zaboly gives us fresh view

June 9, 2012, column:

Christian rocker turned WT teacher writes book

May 19, 2012, column

L.A. Dodger, wife raise money for orphans

April 7, 2012, column:

C.S. Lewis College encounters money woes

Happy Easter, or as our pastor says, "Christos Anesti!" It would have been good timing for me to write a column about Easter, but I didn't want to wait any longer to alert people to the C.S. Lewis College situation. –Mike H.

March 17, 2012, column:
Authors seek Christian unity

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I wanted to write today’s column on something related to Ireland, but I had interviewed these two guys and needed to get it in the paper before it was too old. I do hope you’ll take a look at their book. –Mike H.

 These three photos show James Robison, Jay Richards and their book tour bus.

Feb. 25, 2012, column:

Spiritual undertone grips show