THE REPLACEMENT CHILD

 
CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a place of winter For the Years of Winter…
 
The Replacement Child
 
I suppose each one of us is a replacement child in the grand scheme of things, but I have known only two intentional replacement children. One was a girl in The Wesley Foundation [Methodist campus ministry] at Indiana State University in Terre Haute when I was the campus minister there. I did a lot of counseling with her. The other one died on Sunday, June 10. During our years as colleagues in Charleston, IL, he did a lot of counseling with me.
 
George W. Loveland was the director/campus minister of The Wesley Foundation at Eastern Illinois University during the time I was directing minister at Wesley United Methodist Church. The WF building was located in the church’s front yard, and although The WF had a separate board and budget, George operated very much as a member of our church staff. It was an exceptionally good staff, and George helped to make it such.
 
George loved language and used it both well and cleverly. We had a student from Ghana at EIU, Clement Asare, pronounced uh-sor´ry. His father had written me from Ghana to ask me to look out for him. Clement was a bit older than the usual undergrad, but we had several very nice young single professionals in the congregation, so we arranged a supper at our house to introduce them to Clement. He assured us he would be there. Everybody else came, but no Clement. We didn’t know it at the time, but his culture demanded that he say “yes” to any invitation from an elder, but didn’t require him to come. We had a good time, though, so we decided to keep meeting as a young singles group. Each time we invited Clement. Each time he accepted. Each time he failed to show. George named the group The Clement Asare Supper Society, and suggested that we could take turns pretending to be Clement and whenever someone arrived, they could ask, “Who’s Asare now?”
 
During the presidential campaign of 2000, he ended a sermon with “I’m George W. Loveland, and I approved this message.”
 
He was usually one of our liturgists for our second worship service on Sunday morning. That was the one that had the majority of students, and we wanted them to see our campus minister in that worship-leadership role. He gave the prayer after the sermon, and if he felt I had gotten something wrong, or incomplete, during the prayer he would “perfect” what I said during the sermon. I didn’t mind; I figured George was as likely to be led by the Holy Spirit as I was, and it gave people a choice.
 
I have often described my time at Wesley UMC in Charleston as “seven years of hell.” My successor, Terry Clark, worked hard to help me make peace with my experiences there, a very gracious and highly unusual thing for a successor, giving me far more credit for advances in the church than I deserved. During those seven years, though, it was George who kept me sane. It was very hard for George to compliment anyone, but one way or another he would remind me that although there was a small and well-organized opposition to me, [George called them “the children of darkness.” Well, I called them that, too.] I was doing good preaching and good pastoral work and that the vast majority of the congregation appreciated my work. I knew he had my back.
 
George had two older sisters, and an older brother, Howard. He never knew Howard, though. He was killed in a train accident when he was ten. George’s parents had him specifically to replace Howard. I have often wondered how that affected George, because I knew how difficult it was for that girl in Terre Haute who had been conceived to replace her sister, even down to having the same name. He was a private person, though, and we never talked about that. All Helen and I ever really knew about George was that he was our friend, and we love him, and we shall miss him.
 
George never married. He had no children. Somewhere, though, at 2:35 on Saturday, June 10, a replacement child was born. He will not be named George, but I hope that child will be as good a person as the one he is replacing.
 
GWL’s memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, June 16, at 3:00 pm, at Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities, 3019 N. Harrison, Davenport, IA.
 
JRMcF
 
The “place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where life is defined by winter even in the summer!
 
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I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}