A blessed burning

Michele Marr

Sunday morning, after celebrating Communion on the Feast of

Pentecost, the clergy and congregants of St. Wilfrid of York

Episcopal Church processed to the courtyard for another celebration:

the burning of the mortgage that helped pay for a $3.4 million

construction project on their campus 10 years ago.

“This is a big day for us,” the Rev. Harold Clinehens, Jr., rector

of the parish, said in his sermon. “Now that we have paid for them,

we are thanking God for these facilities and for those whose prayers,

efforts and dollars made them possible.”

In the courtyard, Clinehens took his place on an improvised podium

in front of a portable barbecue, while more clergy, acolytes and

parishioners gathered around.

An acolyte waved a censer of incense: Its fragrance wove through

the crowd.

Another acolyte whirled a white nylon, kite-like dove with a long

tail of streamers -- representing the Holy Spirit -- high above the

crowd. The choir and its accompanists struck up an exuberant South

African hymn, “Freedom is Coming.”

The people joined in. They sang while they passed the paid-off

mortgage hand to hand, finally passing it back to the Rev. Canon Fr.

Charles Sacquety, former rector of the parish.

Sacquety read a story in Exodus about the generous response of the

Israelites to a call from Moses for materials to build a place of

worship, then to whoops and shouts he slipped the mortgage document

into the fire in the portable grill.

The newly, debt-free parishioners quieted as he took a moment to

describe a particularly insightful moment during the construction of

the church’s main worship area in 1992.

Sacquety had arrived at the campus one day to find the place that

would soon be the sanctuary’s tabernacle -- a receptacle used to

reverentially hold consecrated Communion bread -- newly framed but

still unfinished, with a Coke can in it.

“Holy is what we see as holy. There is more than one way to have

communion,” Sacquety said he had realized.

The idea, which has grown to be the heart of the church’s

ministry, was met with applause so fervent it could have been a

standing ovation had the crowd not already been standing. Anderson

and Clinehens each closed the ceremony with prayer.

Before worship Sunday morning, many of the church’s members

gathered to watch a presentation of the 43-year history of the

church. For some it was a walk down memory lane. For others it was a

learning experience.

“It was wonderful for me. It was pretty powerful,” said vestry

member Paula Hulse.

“To simply celebrate this day and rest on our laurels would be a

blunting of the power of the Gospel,” Clinehens told the congregation

during his sermon. “As we turn the page today, we [have] the

opportunity to do some things for God here in Huntington Beach that

we haven’t done before.”

The start of those things began on Sunday with a new capital

fund-raising campaign, for a pastoral care center, without borrowing

money.