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      As you've no doubt heard by now, St. Luke's bell tower was struck by lightning Sunday night, resulting in pieces of the northeast turret falling on the sidewalk below. The fire department was called Sunday night to the scene, where they staked out the walkways below with crime tape ("Police Line Do Not Cross") and red "Danger" tape, making the courtyard look very dramatic. The next night, the bells went haywire, and at 12:30 a.m. they began ringing nonstop.

        I got one of those late night calls at about 1:30 a.m. from the Chautauqua County Sheriff's office, asking if I could go to the church and stop the bells from ringing. Not wanting to wake anyone else at that hour, I tried everything I could think of, including unplugging the keyboard that programs the carillon of bells and climbing the tower to try every switch I could feel in the dark (the light bulb in the tower was burned out and I could not find a flashlight anywhere in the church), and finally called music director Andy Schmidt, hoping he would know how to stop the bells.           

        He had the same ideas I had, none of which worked for him, either, and he finally suggested calling Chip Ulrich, who couldn't think of anything that I had not done, and suggested that I call Jack Twinam, who brought a flashlight with him, climbed the tower, and pulled on a few remaining fuses, and the bells finally, mercifully, stopped.

        My first thought was for the neighbors, who MUST have been very annoyed at the late night interruption of their sleep. My second thought was to bless Jack profusely and enthusiastically. He wasn't taking any credit, however, for his random trial and error of pulling fuses (yes, pulling them; these were VERY old fuses).

        The next day, the jokes began flying. In my sleep deprivation, I hadn't made the connection, but Sunday morning -- the morning before the lightning strike that evening -- I had moved the altar out from against the wall in the chapel so that I will not have to celebrate communion with my back to the people, changing a centuries old tradition here at St. Luke's to meet the current tradition in the church of facing the people. You know what they say about change in the church. CHANGE???

        "See what happened when you changed things? We got struck by lightning."

        Followed by more jokes. "No, the reason we got struck by lightning is because God doesn't like ____" (fill in the blank). "We could really use this to motivate people to change their ways," someone else said.

        Beneath all the humor is the more sinister reality that religious people have been using random acts of nature, illness, and other bad things that happen to human beings, throughout this adventure called life, to control, manipulate, and motivate people to do what misguided religious leaders wanted. No wonder there are people who have given up on God, refuse to believe, and refuse to have anything to do with church.

        For those of us with the wisdom to see past this superstition masked as religion, we must be on guard against what is the worst kind of religion, that which makes God into a tyrant who must punish even innocent people because human beings -- as always -- aren't perfect.

        Who made us that way in the first place? God did! And why would a loving God create us with free will, in God's image, but without omniscience? So that we will be more dependent on God before we make decisions, before we set into motion some major event that could have consequences, and so we will think twice before ascribing to God events and acts of nature that have nothing to do with God.

        Perhaps God wants us, in our limitations, to have enough humility to admit we don't KNOW why bad things happen randomly to people who really don't deserve it.

        But, when all is said and done, and when no one has been hurt and insurance is covering the repairs, using humor to diffuse the situation might be one way we ARE created in the image of God!                                      -- Madre Liz   :-) 

• Able to stand for about much of the service

(Most Sundays you'll have time to sit)

• Learn how to run the system

  (it's not that difficult and Jay will train you)

• Be at church on your Sunday or call a substitute

It would be great to have several people who could rotate through a weekly schedule.  This is for anyone at any age, teenagers to senior adult members able to do the job. Please contact the parish office at 483-6405 or speak to Jay Phillippi personally.  Thanks for your help!

The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin, Bishop of Western New York

 The Rev. Elizabeth Simmons, Interim Rector 

 The Rev. Cathleen Smith, Deacon 

   Miguel Covarrubias, Youth Minister

 Kim Johnstone Mann, Secretary/Administrator  

Barbara Bumsted, Director of Adult Formation

Andrew Schmidt, Organist & Choirmaster 

Paul Johnson and Linda Dawson, Wardens.

Office: 410 North Main St., Jamestown NY 14701 

http://www.stlukesjamestown.org