2024 Summer Series - Carol Kooistra and Heather Palmer, Guest Speakers

e brother for e for hope [Music] [Music] good morning good morning and welcome to Fountain Street Church on this Labor Day weekend my name is Carol Kyra and it is wonderful to see so many of you here today in our final 2024 summer service welcome to those too viewing on YouTube today or in the future I want to say a special welcome to Reverend Anison and his family today it is a blessing to have them as part of the service thank you for being here and their friend Sunny too next week will be reverend dannis in the what we call the big house so we're looking for to that thank you this is this is a opening that I heard every time I went to this Sanctuary a long time ago I think you'll recognize this is indeed a beautiful day which the Lord ha made let us then rejoice in it and be very glad and let us count our many blessings let us be grateful this morning for everything in our life that is good and true and gentle and kindly let us be grateful for everything that blesses and Graces our days let us then be especially grateful for the ties of love that bind us together giving dignity meaning worth and joy to all our days um if you would now turn for our gathering hymn uh into 318 and and stand if you are able [Music] h singing God to ourselves that I we are and what in US true we Liv [Music] we for tomorrow the world [Music] for to make could please join in the responsive reading in the back of the book it's number [Music] 466 I will be starting out with the bold words J uh Heather will lead the congregation in that following the title is religion let religion be to us life and joy let it be a voice of renewing challenge to the best we have and may be let it be a call to generous action let religion be to us a diss satisfaction with things that are which bids us serve more eagerly the true and right let it be the sorrow that opens for us the way of sympathy understanding and service to suffering Humanity let religion be to us the Wonder and lure of that which is only partly known and understood and I the glories Nature's majesty and Beauty and A Heart That rejoices in Deeds of kindness and courage let religion be to US security and serenity because of its truth and beauty and because of the enduring worth and power of the loyalties which it engenders let it be to us hope and purpose and a discovering of opport unities to express our best through daily tasks religion uniting us with all that is admirable in human beings everywhere holding before our eyes a prospect of the better life for humankind which each may help to make actual [Music] sh [Music] n a [Applause] a [Music] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] how wonderful to have a musician and a minister yes I'm very happy about that thank you very much aan we have reached our final summer service for 20124 it has been a wonderful summer as we heard from 15 Fountain Street church members tell us what Fountain Street Church means to the and I see several of them here today so thank you these speakers have gifted us with a meaningful stories and provided the gift of bringing us together as a church team helping to prepare us for a new beginning with Reverend Anison and other new members this feels like a very hopeful time to me and I hope it does to you it took so many people to provide these summer services and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart it would take too long for me to name them all but I feel the desire to highlight kale Clemens and the AV team who produced every s service so beautifully we could not have had these services without them thank you to kale to Cliff to dick and to J Oscar thank you [Applause] cliff and then there's Todd Wii who has blessed us with his delightful music [Applause] Todd as we have discovered is an excellent musician but as we have heard a very entertaining one as well thank you Todd today is my turn to speak about what found Street Church means to me I have about 10 minutes to tell that story Fountain Street Church is my spiritual sacred place I found this space on a Sunday morning in the fall of 1984 I was sitting in the third row from the back on my first visit to Fountain Street Church even though I had lived here most of my life David Ranken was leading the service and the choir was singing something happened I can't explain it I felt a spiritual High I never felt before in my 46 years attending church David's words connected me to a new place of meaning the choir's music connected me to my soul in a new way I've been singing in choir since I was 7 years old and now I wanted to sing in this choir that was the beginning of Fountain Street Church for me I did sing in the choir for 20 years up in the loft where the organ once was I sang with Bev Howton who taught us the music of the pant Gloria and brought us to New York City to sing the Mozart requium in Carnegie Hall when Bev left we were blessed with the hiring of Jim Culver along with our blessed Sunday music we also performed numerous Palm Sunday concerts including the Leonard Bernstein mass and the Andrew Lloyd Weber reum this was an amazing time in my life I felt like I lived on a musical Planet during those 20 years my husband bill and I became very active members at Fountain Street in addition to many other involvements bill and I each serve two full terms on the governing board in 2004 life changed when Bill was diagnosed with with ALS that became a caretaking year and after Bill's death I moved to mosan and became involved in the harbor YuYu congregation in 2013 I moved back to Grand Rapids and was relieved to be back at Fountain Street Church my spiritual home I so missed it when I was away I realized again the speci of worshiping at Fountain Street Church music became important again as a few of us formed a Fountain Street Church care Choir This choir was very active for many years until Co which ended our ministry beginning in 2014 I again served on the governing board for two terms and became involved in the religious Services committee planning the summer Services which I have been part of planning for the past 8 years in the fall of 2023 Christopher told the religious Services committee that he had other plans for the summer of 2024 and decided to disband the committee what none of us knew at that time was the changes that lay ahead when Christopher announced in early 2024 that he would be leaving Fountain Street at the end of June he asked if I would be willing to plan the summer speaker program 15 speakers agreed to speak with us about what Fountain Street Church means to me what a gift they were to us this summer thank goodness Heather Palmer agreed to assist in some important duties especially select the gifts from Summer speakers which were so cool I am so grateful for all Heather did as my team member during my years at F Street Church I discovered a spiritual world as I gleaned lessons from six of our senior ministers Duncan little fair this is the day the Lord hath made when Duncan said these words it felt like they had to be true David Ranken the Wordsmith told us love is the sum of all theology he told us and he showed us Brent Smith who stood outside on the corner of Fountain and Library streets and welcomed all into our blessed Sanctuary it was a great feeling Fred wooden after his sermons I always walked out of the sanctuary with a gift of new thoughts and challenges from a great preacher Mariella Perez Simmons Whose beautiful spirit and messages only shared on video because of covid-19 few members got to experience her personal value it was our loss Christopher Ro in his first sermon I lo I looked at him and I thought he seems to be connecting with everyone in this room connecting is Christopher's beautiful gift what an amazing crew time does not allow me to share the lessons I received from our associate ministers but one interm Minister holds a special place in my heart excuse me please Tom or told was our senior Minister excuse me interim Minister when my husband died Tom was an amazing healer he played his guitar so beautifully Tom encouraged me to sing Oh Holy Night at our Christmas Eve service 3 weeks after Bill's death I hesitantly agreed to sing and as I stood in the Loft next to the lighted Christmas tree under that magical night I looked at the Rose window where I saw the face of my dear bill and the many faces of this church and realized what meaning this church had held in our marriage what about this place from the minute I walked into the sanctuary I felt lifted to a new space The Fountain Street Church Sanctuary is golden to me in spite of my many years in Christian Schools hearing differently those feelings of awe have never changed I love the Fountain Street Church sanctuary and I love this special Chapel then there is Katherine the Great wow sitting in the Loft with that organ listening to Bev and Jim play the Glorious VOR Takata was Heavenly and then in 2001 we decided Catherine needed some help we spent the next two years working with Jonathan Tu as our consultant and the Austin Allen Organ companies to design our updated organ an organ for our Sunday services and an organ like none other for concerts we now have an amazing 8,000 five keyboard organ like none other hopefully some of you have seen this beautiful program printed by my son when we decided when we dedicated this amazing pipe organ in 2003 to say I love Katherine the Great would be an understatement I almost worship her in this year 2024 I am once again serving on the governing board my 13th year and look forward to working with Reverend Anis at age 86 I am not sure how long I will be actively involved in this position I may be the oldest person to have served on this board in reflecting with my friend Don lovers about what I felt the first time I sat in Fon Street Church Don suggested that my mind may have let my spirit take over and my spirit made a connection to my spirituality in a way I never felt before I have since come to understand that finding freedom in my belief system is crucial David ranken's writing on freedom helped me understand that connection this is what David had to say about freedom freedom is the ground of all vital activity faith without freedom is Dogma love without freedom is an illusion Justice without freedom is oppression in every instance freedom is the factor that sustains and completes the other goal it is the oxygen of the human Spirit the indispensible element for growth and wholeness I believe freedom is one of the major reasons Fountain straight Church means so much to so many I leave you with a sweet memory from the co years the sanctuary was closed most of the time but one day my friend Sharon and I spent a short time sitting in our regular seats in the dark singing some of our favorite hymns just as we were about to leave Christopher and father Christian from St Marks walked into the sanctuary I asked Christopher if the four of us could spread out and sing my mother's favorite hymn abide with me so the four of us sang the four verses of that great hymn and when we finished we all had tears in our eyes Christopher said he wish this feeling could last forever we all agreed it felt like a Sacred Space for all of us this is what Fountain Street Church means to me what an act to follow I'm like why did we switch the order excuse me my name is Heather Palmer and this is more of a little history lesson versus what we just heard um I was one of those fountain streeters that was here all my life I actually came to church in a Market Basket they didn't have car seats back in those days you know and uh my first big accomplishment that I can remember was in the nursery and uh excuse me there was a little red stairstep climber and I remember walking up those two steps all by myself standing there like this and think it was the biggest person in the whole world and that was you know it meant a lot and they finally replaced it with a new one with a slide but you know that one was there for years and years I'm sure somebody made it uh but moving forward to seventh and eth grade um which was Tower Club and we actually met in the second floor Tower room and for our opening every every week and then we divided into classes and those classes in seventh and 8th grade we studied other religions and especially those religions that had churches in the Grand Rapids area and in the Grand Rapids area after we studied them and learned about them from our teachers uh we visited them and we were also told that if you found a church that you thought was better fit for you remember what it was um most of us stayed with us but I remember one kid went to another church um and this was the one place that I think at that time I learned um and appreciated to believe in the sanctity of all religions and all people and that was seventh grade when that was set in my mind I know that uh I also gained some that from my family but that was never specifically spoken it was more like a vision and watching my father you know what he did um but after Fountain club we had after power club we went into Fountain club and Fountain Club was led by Jack Bowers and our elected officials that we had officers and they help plan the program but we also had our banial um Study Tours and the first one that I went on had 70 kids in it and the second one had 110 we were the place for f for high school kids at that time the other churches must not have had anything or it wasn't very exciting um we divided into study groups and uh show us our interests and the first study group I was in for our first tour that I was a part of um we went to I was in the integration segregation section and we went to bedre sent we had speakers like Adam Clayton Powell speak to us and they were pretty impressed that you know we had questions for them and the second tour I went on um I was in the group called European Commonwealth I'm sure that wasn't my first first choice but you know we had 110 people you didn't all get your first choices but when we BR visited the British Embassy in Washington DC and we asked them about the European Commonwealth the guy who was leading us was shocked actually he was like what and you know 18 years later when it actually became a real thing I knew all about it and I thought and it was Fountain St and gave me that in um and this was a time when politicians were more civil to each other and we had in our congregation the chairperson of the Republican the County Republican committee and we also had the chairperson of the democratic committee that both went to Bound Street and therefore their children their daughters got to introduce us to Gerald Ford and Bobby Kennedy when we were in their office so um choir when I was in third grade you joined choir and uh then I went through Tower Club and Fountain club with Chuck bur and B Howton we called them both Mr and then um in junior choir we would sing at our monthly Chapel Services with Mrs Evenson in the chapel and um and when we were in Fountain club we saying you know maybe once a month at our weekly services that we had before Fountain Club started so and then all of us get to sing in the sanctuary during Christmas sometimes we sang under the the rose window and that was a great scene if you're a kid and you're seeing everybody else sit out there and then we would always sing the desk C of sing oh heavens and um you could just feel the sound of the whole building and you could feel Catherine the Great you know shaking the floors and the music went the Raptors and it was just magical as a kid um we also had wonderful concerts Fountain Club made money by doing concerts back then and nobody else had a venue that would match us and I personally remember going to see the birds Dave rubic Duke Ellington um The Moody Blues and Paul winter and I remember the Paul Winter concert because I remember sitting in the main floor and looking up into the West balcony and all these people were listening to this great concert with their umbrellas up because it was not only raining outside it was raining in the leaking roof inside um and then the con the Oregon of course we used to have great concerts in the past and we've had them in the present and I hope we certainly have them in the future and I was going to cut this line but you know I told Carol I was going on um you know if I drop dead tomorrow uh the middle of my service has to have the beater Tata play in it and it's in the middle so everybody has to hear it um in 196 7 uh Reverend Bishop Pike spoke on a Sunday afternoon and we were all told y to go and listen to him he's kind of a heretic Rebel from New York and uh one of the things I remember that he said um he said that there was peace rally coming up in Washington and and if Jesus were here he would be a part of it and that really stuck and uh you know the next week we had a a bus already and we all went to Washington and stayed overnight and got up in the morning went down to um the Washington Monument and we all marched past the Supreme Court and that was 5 years before row and that was something that really affected me and still does to this day um because you know among other people that were there was like Betsy manook and we worked on the choice fund together and I'm still on the choice fund committee more officially now and uh I'm co-chair of that committee and when row was overturned we suddenly got un it was like Mana from heaven we just got tons of money that came in because people were so upset they found oh pal Street has something and we received tons of money but you know now that everybody feels comfortable back in Michigan again that money is all dried up but as good stewards of this money um that's left we try to make sure we have some for the future and but is cult share I get to help decide um you know when somebody needs money for a procedure in the state of Michigan cuz we've now expanded to Michigan the whole state um you have to make decisions and you have to decide okay they need $350 for this procedure that's what they still need and we can only give them a 100 and you feel you know I've bought a couple lotto tickets you know after I've had hung up sometimes just to see if I could get some money somehow but uh you know we can only give him 75 or 100 and you just pray that they can continue and find the rest of the $300 they need before the week is out so that's something that we're always searching for um after I graduated from college split into another area uh you know I came out the newspapers said more people have graduated in education than ever before in the United States so you're kind of and I also got a master's so if you're a school you must pay the master price so if you have a new person huh this person has no experience this person has no experience let's go for the cheaper person um so later in the fall uh Peg research in P Street pegged me in the narx and said you must apply there's an opening at campfire girls and there's an opening and you need to go apply right now and I thought well I was a camp kiano lifer so I could probably do that for a year they made me stay for two and then after 20 years later um you know I decided to go a different direction I'd been the camp director and everything uh but while I was during that time because I was a camp director and other things I only volunteered for individual items like fundraiser a single thing a single thing but I did join the tour guides because we had meetings right then and Dorothy Jud planned our whole program and we learned all about things right from Dorothy herself and I also was on the governing board and ended up working my way up to the vice chair and was in charge of the oversaw the um finance committee and which you know had oversight on the church's spending and I can tell you I learned a lot about church politics during that time also um after I left after uh some other jobs as a Vista volunteer and a flower place I was once again looking for a job and Joanne Earl called me and said we need you to apply for being in this assistant to the character School director I went in there and I was either the only applicant or the only one that had been here forever knew what character school was um so I got the job and after and during the five years I worked with character school I had five bosses we had three different ministers in charge and uh and two other people and I can tell you I improved my skills on being quite flexible and uh because everybody had their own plan but I want you to know that of the five people Lydia stubs was the best director so my job changed again and I was a program person assistant to Fred um overseer of the AV department and had a set of mics myself this was not a great fit um at the same time Heather Beretta asked me if I wanted to help with some weddings because she was overwhelmed because we had so many and I said sure and that actually is the only job I still have at found Street and I see a couple in the back that we always hope they'll come back they have um but the budget needed to be cut so I predicted I would be the first to go and I was um but since that time and during that time I've been on uh participated in different committees such as tour guides religious Services membership committee and have part participated in great associations like the women's Association which I think is the heart and soul of this place um a little book club it's great makes me read my books um and uh the last one is um the tower committee and because I'll do anything to get those bells to ring again um some of these things have given me great skills all you know or fine tune skills I already had and came with um but it's been fun I've gained support it's a place for new friends old friends um and I see some old acquaintances and older friends in the background you know that I only see periodically in here um and it's also a wonderful place to contemplate the little thoughts the great thoughts of what's going on in your life and in the world um sometimes when you grow up in a church like this you just expect it you take it for granted this is the way everything should be um and then I have a you know and I sometimes envy people that had aha moments cuz I you know I never had aha moment because this is what I believe and this is this is what is you know um but this place I know has greatly influenced me whether I know it or not and uh there a little quote that I'm going to change something that I've said many times but like the M Memorial Bell Tower of the church its shadow may fall or it may never go thank you Carol and thank you heather so much and thank you for welcoming me here thank you and thank you for putting this summer together as well my name is Nathan danis I am your new interim Minister we have a great deal of work ahead of us in the next 2 years this coming Sunday we'll begin a 9month program year where our worship service will revolve around presentations and images of the feminine Divine in human history and I have been blessed so far to hear many of your stories last week I did my 96th interview out of those interviews 74 of them were members of Fountain Street Church I've also benefited from the recordings of these services and there could not have been a better time in the life of this church for Carol to have pulled this together and had people share those stories and I've already been able to give those to folks who are looking to connect with the church in new and in important ways this coming Sunday when you return to your Sanctuary you'll be introduced to your new staff we'll have an opportunity to celebrate them and reintroduce you to your staff who are returning and say thank you to so many people who have helped this summer happen but this is the meditation and is a time for being present yesterday I officiated a wedding ceremony it's my 160th wedding at Camp Roger just north of here were 400 people in attendance in a very holy and sacred place for the two human beings that were tying their lives together and a miracle happened I didn't see a single cell phone nobody was taking taking video Everybody Was trusting the professional photographers to do their job and everybody was present present in that moment happiness can be cultivated and planned but joy has to take us unaware Joy can be as fleeting an ephemeral it's a flower saw these beautiful flowers that showed up at the very start of the service Lea Fagan has donated those it can be a song it can be something that is there and then gone and that is joy we can't cultivate it but we can make ourselves ready to receive it and so for our meditation today very briefly I want us to be present today the dog star still hangs in the sky summer lights begin to fade we head into this new season together and so a brief meditation from an individual who I hold in very high and somewhat curious respect man who was a psychologist a historian Professor Harvard Stanford University Dr Timothy ly let us take a moment and be present together hear these words be here now and be now here be here now and be now here be here now and be now here amen I'm ready with your sweet PE it [Music] is I [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] than [Applause] well what do you say after that thank you Josephine for your gift of music and sharing it with us today and for Dad to accompany her we are so pleased and thrilled to have the danis family here many of you have already met Heather I'm sure and now we met Josephine and soon we can meet Theodore and Natalie and it's just anyway it brings such joy to me and I know it does to others so thank you for being here and thank you for doing your remarks and your meditation very meaningful too thank you so I asked Todd if he would play for the alator the blue b home because it's one of my favorite songs and if you sang in the qu care choir like a few of us did we sang it hundreds of times it is great and then when I walked into the church into the chapel this morning what did I hear I heard our violinist accompanying our pianist and it was woo how exciting this is so thank you both here the offeror words of Rand lovely let there be an offering to sustain and strengthen this place which is sacred to so many of us a community of memory and of Hope for we are now the keepers of this dream the offering that is now received will be shared between the needs of this church and of our community [Music] a [Music] d aah [Music] [Applause] thank you it's great I have announcements now next two Tuesday night and continuing for other Tuesday nights there are potlucks that continue in the social hall from 6:00 to 8:00 and next Sunday as you sort of already heard um is the opening Sunday for our new church here and the service and Nathan will be speaking from the pulpit in the 11:00 service there is no um Chapel service next week so every want will be here at 11:00 and then there will also be a light appetizer reception at 12:15 after the service so you can come in and greet friends and have a cup of coffee um also next week there will be a table to learn about what color District you're in which I'm excited to see if I'm in the same color as last time or not um there will also be a table staff with people who can help you negotiate the online membership directory so I'm going to be in a whole bunch of lines next Sunday um art prize also runs from the 12th to the 23rd and the subject of the Fountain Street Church art prize is the divine feminine volunteers are still needed to help visitors you know figure out how to find the art so please check online in the in the beat you'll be able to see how to sign up um and today there will be a little cake reception in the social hall to celebrate the comple of the summer speaker series and then after you have your little piece of cake you can go right into the reception that Lea flans going to have because that is the last Sunday in the keer lounge for her work um it's coming down on Monday so if you haven't seen it check it out right now and I'd also like to thank Lea for the beautiful flowers that are in front and I've heard they're in honor of Carol um so if you want to read any other messages that're in the beat and uh you can see them there I'd also like you right now to turn um to the sending hymn and turned to 159 this is my [Music] song God of all the nations a of this is my hope the country where my heart my my with and true and [Music] highest the ocean and are everywhere as all okay if you could now turn in the back of your book to join in unison our final blessing [Music] 684 the blessing of Truth be upon us the Power of Love direct us and sustain us and May the peace of this community preserve our going out and our coming in from this time forth until we meet again [Music] n [Music] l [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] love that