CONTRA MUNDUM

CONTRA MUNDUM is an occasional Blog committed to the theological reflection on the present situation with a special focus on the religious establishment. CM seeks to summon persons to theological awareness and religious obedience. Raymond J Lawrence Jr. Raymondlawrence@cpsp.org

Sunday, January 30, 2005

In MemoriumWAYNE E. OATES
by Myron C. Madden

It was the first week-end in October of 1999. I was in process of selling the house I had lived in for forty-five years. The word came that Wayne Oates had died. So I put aside the grief over my house to enter a greater grief to go to Wayne's funeral in Louisville, Kentucky.

In the funeral procession on Monday, October 4, I had the feeling that nature should revolt, convulse, or erupt for such an event. It was the passing of one of earth's great ones. Since nature didn't speak I had the feeling that if all those cars going in the opposite direction just knew, they would stop, turn around, and follow us to the grave.

I mourned in my spirit that there was no one with the gift that Shakespeare gave to Cleopatra when Anthony died as she grieved saying,The crown th'earth doth melt, my lord! O, withered is the garland of the war, The soldier's pole is fallen! Young boys and girls Are level now with men. The odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon. (IV,15)

Wayne was my hero, my idol. He had been my mentor for more than fifty years. It all began shortly after World War II. He was teaching all the things I so sorely needed as a chaplain in combat. The seminary had not begun to deal with any approach to clinical pastoral training before it sent a batch of us off to the war. The assumption was that one could wing it with a good grip on the sacred scriptures. I am not saying that was unimportant. But it was not enough to make the vital connections between word and flesh.

Wayne had the prophetic insight that seminary education could be greatly enhanced by hands- on supervision of students, by helping them learn ministry in the process of practicing it. It is amazing to look back and see how much a big faculty, including administration, gave resistance to change. But there came a lull. Wayne marshaled forces enough to establish a strong comeback.

But, alas, the victory was lost in the end, and the forces of reaction took the day at the seminary. As we shoveled dirt on Wayne Oates' casket in Cherokee Park, not far from his mother seminary, no representative came to claim and honor him as one of its staunchest soldiers. But I recalled it was also said of another that "he came to his own and his own did not receive him."
Myron C. Madden

1 Comments:

  • At 9:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Very well written, very sad; at least Jesus had the women - and John- watching. Looks like we can't expect much or demand much even or hope for much- yet, then again, one well wisher who knows us and is there can write the above and 4 billion can know what his opposition doesn't yet get but someday will! Thank You.

     

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