The Friend of Friends...
"Everything's in God's hands."
Thirty-five years ago, my family and I lived in Appleton, Wisconsin. One day, my Bishop (East Central Synod of Wisconsin, ELCA), someone I’d met but did not know well, invited me to breakfast. Several years earlier, I’d launched my own business, consulting with non-profit organizations. Before we downed our first cup of coffee, the Bishop stated his intentions.
The Synod Council wished to construct a new facility to serve as synod offices and as a resource center for the region’s 114 Lutheran congregations. In support of these plans, the Bishop intended to embark on the synod’s first-ever capital campaign, targeting affluent congregations and selected individuals, seeking multiple-year financial support. He sought my involvement, although he was somewhat vague about whether I was to be hired or a volunteer (that’s another issue). I said sure.
Shortly thereafter, having heard glowing reports about a woman from Green Bay, Polly, who would be my colleague and collaborator, I met this volunteer leader. Polly is smart, articulate, and energetic. After a slow start, our campaign eventually attained many of its objectives… enough to be called a (modest) success.
It was a busy time for me, with a young family, serving multiple clients, attempting to grow my small business, meaning I didn’t think much more about synodical matters.
Meanwhile, Polly and her husband, a Lutheran pastor, moved west, to Minnesota, something my family did a few years later. Eventually, attending confirmation services for a nephew and a niece, I reconnected with Polly and John. Pastor John was serving the congregation where my brother’s family worshipped, on the east side of the Twin Cities. Polly, an attorney, was working for a large Minneapolis-based law firm.
Unrelated, about twenty years ago, five Twin Cities men, including my brother and me, started a book club, which I’ve written about previously. Several years ago, Pastor John became a terrific addition to our reading ranks. (I must say, books John suggests for our group are invariably “long slogs”… which we groan and tease him about.)
When our club, now numbering seven, met recently for our quarterly gathering, much of the discussion was NOT focused on our assigned book – Wendell Berry’s “Jayber Crow” – but rather about Bob, who John and Polly met in the late 1970s. John, then in seminary, was fulfilling his Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) requirement before ordination as an ELCA clergyman.
John’s three-month CPE commitment was at Abbot Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. Bob, of a different faith tradition – Roman Catholic – was part of the same summer program, one of John’s four classmates / colleagues. Bob lived in a small apartment on the hospital campus reserved for nurses, students, and others connected to the health complex.
John, Polly, and Bob became friends that summer, doing things together like dinners, movies, and periodic outings. John, Polly, and Bob have now sustained this friendship for 45 years.
At our last book club gathering, we warmly congratulated John on his recent retirement. On May 18, after three-plus decades at St. Stephens Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, John led his last worship service for this congregation. Ironically, the same day, at a Mass held at the Vatican, John and Polly’s friend Bob assumed a significant NEW assignment, accompanied by a change in his name.
Bob is now Pope Leo XIV.
Knowing his friend would be voting at the papal conclave, John had sent Bob an email on April 27. “Dear Bob, Polly and I send our love and prayers for you in these momentous days. As I near retirement – three weeks – you are taking on such intense responsibility (selecting a new pope). God is with you, John.” Then-Cardinal Prevost responded, April 30, “Hello, John & Polly, Many thanks for your message. Everything’s in God’s hands. Thanks for your friendship through the years. Best wishes, Bob.”
I’ll have to ask John if he, Polly, and Bob attended any Twins–White Sox games during their summer in Minneapolis. Despite the Holy Father being a White Sox fan, count me among the legions praying for Pope Leo XIV.
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