By Rev. David Moyer
Wisconsin Conference UCC

Sometimes there is just a convergence of things; of thoughts and events and feelings, and this morning was one of those times.
 
December 7, 2011....  The 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  I put out the flag this morning, and as I did, I thought about the many who died and the terrible and tragic events of the succeeding years, flowing out of that momentous day.
 
My thoughts, however, were much more specifically about three "saints" of our Conference who have departed us in the past year, two in the past couple weeks, following long and rich lives and faithful and valued ministries.  These three colleagues, Roy Alberswerth, Jim Savides, and Dick Wichlei, were all early members of the Wisconsin Conference staff, Dick even beginning his work in the settings of the wider church in the old Congregational Conference in Wisconsin.
 
Like many of their generation, born in the teens and 20's of the past century, these three men are bound together by the great events of World War II and the service and sacrifice of so many in that era.  Each of them served and sacrificed, but in different ways.
 
Roy was drafted into the service and was a sergeant leading a squad of men in heavy combat in the Pacific.  He served with great bravery and distinction and was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.
 
Jim enlisted at age 19 and entered the Army Air Corps, serving as a navigator in air combat in Europe.  He left military service as an officer.
 
Dick was a student at Union Seminary and joined seven of his classmates in refusing conscription, because they held pacifist beliefs.  The group served a year in federal prison, continuing their justice work fighting racial discrimination in the prison system.
 
All contributed their service to the cause of a democratic society in a time of great crisis.  All made sacrifices.  All had distinguished careers in the ministry and served and sacrificed on our behalf here in the Wisconsin Conference.  All were our friends and colleagues here in Wisconsin for the better part of the past 50 years.
 
What is so dramatic and precious to me in this moment, and what struck me as I put up the flag and thought about December 7, 1941, was that these three men came together and formed a remarkable staff here in the Wisconsin Conference: the enlisted air combat officer, the drafted sergeant from the horrific island fighting in the Pacific, and the pacifist who was imprisoned for his Christian beliefs. They then served together for many years and shared ministry, travel, laughs, tragedies, and service to the church.
 
By the time they were a staff together, my read is that they held fairly similar beliefs about war and violence.  They opposed it.  Coming out of different experiences and contexts, all were passionate advocates for justice and critics of any structures that limited access to justice or used violence to solve human problems.  I would have loved to have heard late night conversations among them, but perhaps, like many of their generation, they kept their experiences to themselves.
 
What intrigues me about them and their presence on our staff is that I am right now reading a book for a meeting I will soon attend.  The book is The Big Sort:  Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart (Bill Bishop, Houghton Mifflin, 2008).  The author documents how, in the past 30 years, "the country (is) separating in every way conceivable."  The two political parties are becoming more extreme every day and now are so far apart that they can't find common ground.  Compromise, the art that we were all taught in American history was the key to democracy, is now a curse.
 
Churches, always places of some segmenting of people, are now even more strictly divided, especially along cultural and economic lines.  There was an attempt several years ago to create a fundamentalist Christian society with the goal of taking over one of our 50 states and creating a "theocracy."  The book tells of a suburb in Texas with the name of a presidential candidate and with restrictive covenants, limiting those purchasing lots to supporters of that particular candidate.
 
The thesis of the book is that "Americans grew anxious and disoriented" in the turmoil and the changes of the last 50 years, and "reflexively sought comfort in the familiar, cocooning themselves in communities of people like themselves." (Stossel, New York Times, review)
 
What has happened since the mid-60's makes the journey that led Dick and Jim and Roy together all the more remarkable, and makes me appreciate the kind of church and society that could allow the space for people like them to "converge" and not "sort" and to work for the common good rather than a narrow partisanship, and to serve one Lord in one Church that sought hospitality rather than exclusivity.  Of course, all these were imperfect characteristics.  The times in which the "greatest generation" lived were times that were deeply flawed.
 
But they were times that at least didn't drive men like our beloved brothers into different camps to harden hearts and defend positions, but drew them together, as brothers in Christ, to be transformed and to find such joy and to serve us so faithfully and well.
 
With great thanks to God for the powers of convergence that are a gift of the Holy Spirit.
 
Wishing you rich Advent blessings.