[Oe List ...] Being Black, (or Yellow and White) in the Order Ecumenical

Sun Jun 3 20:14:17 PDT 2012

This is a wonderful recollection, Evelyn. Thank you, Diann McCabe

From: Evelyn Philbrook <joyful52 at gmail.com<mailto:joyful52 at gmail.com>>
Reply-To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black, (or Yellow and White) in the Order Ecumenical

Dear Colleagues,

Larry and I were married in Nairobi Kenya and our two children Lloyd and Lela were both born in Nairobi. Infact, Lloyd Philbrook could speak greetings in Kiswahili, Kikamba, Kikuyu and probably Kiluyo and other languages taught to him by HDTI participants while living in Kamweleni, Kenya...as well as English when he was only  two or three having been born in the Nairobi hospital and living in Kenya most of his life. When I asked why he did not speak those languages to me, he said, you speak English to me. I took him back to Kemper in the summer and he trusted the black staff as a toddler in day care, or so it seemed to me. I don't remember her name, may be it was Phybee, but we had a black staff working in the preschool at Kemper and I always found Lloyd with her when I picked him up. She said when he woke up from nap he would always come and sit on her lap so they became good friends.

My mom and sisters volunteered to care for him and I sent him with Ray Spencer and Jill Egland to Los Angeles (if memory serves me correctly) and he went with them without hesitation too.He was preoccupied with water and electricity in California. He wanted to know where it came from and where was the generator and where the water went instead of to a kitchen garden. My dad laughed when he showed him the town water tank and the huge pump from the ground and the the sewer drain at the curb in front of the house. Once he ran around the house looking for a  jerrycan (20 liter plastic container) when it rained because we always collected all the rain water and stored it in jerrycans in Kamweleni. My parents were bemused and puzzled. He did not know what to do with a hamburger at McDonalds. He took it apart and ate the meat, but not the bread.  He called french fries chips because we would once in a while go to Machakos town for sausage and chips. But he did not eat cold cereal with milk. My mother called me and asked what he ate. I answered everything. Then she told me what he was doing. So I told her to make him soupy grits with milk and butter for breakfast and make all his food like a stew. She called back later to say he loved the grits and bread with peanut butter and the stew works just fine. I told her he eats any kind of cooked egg, but I usually scrambled it. He will drink milk at room temperature or warmed and mangos or bananas. He called ice cream hot as a temperature because never had anything frozen before. He loved the refrigerator with ice cubes and water coming out of the door.

I think he knew more black people than white people while growing up, but we had plenty of folks around the training center and Nairobi, Filipinos, Indians from India, British, Caucasian Americans, Afro Americans, and Japanese American.

Lela grew up in the Philippines and Malaysia as a toddler and attended most of her education in Taiwan. But both Lloyd and Lela knew the Kemper building as their second home with built in cousins with the Philbrook/Otto family in residence most every summer.

Remember the African contingent that came to USA for that summer program in Kemper! OMG,  Benadetta, a girl from Machakos who ran a race in Chicago barefoot and won. David Mbulu who lives in Scotland now, or Sam and Ester Were, or Issac Kariuki, or Joshua or Henry... the hundreds of faces and names who appear like it was yesterday as the New Village Movement.

We really were the rainbow coalition before that term came into being for which I am always grateful.

What does it mean to be a global presence now?
I still try to think global and act locally when I build models or constructs in training. How would you work in China?

Hope to see y'all in Nepal this year!

Evelyn Kurihara Philbrook

On 6/4/2012 2:09 AM, McCabe, Diann A wrote:
Realize I left Marcella off the list I sent earlier—She was a force of beauty, strength, and humor in the Atlanta House in 74 or so. Went to Nairobi after that and returned to live in D.C. Is married and has beautiful daughters.--Diann McCabe

From: Paula Philbrook <paula.philbrook at gmail.com<mailto:paula.philbrook at gmail.com>>
Reply-To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical

She was my roommate in 1969.

On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 11:54 AM, R Williams <rcwmbw at yahoo.com<mailto:rcwmbw at yahoo.com>> wrote:
I have a name in my head that I can't quite put a face with.  Does the name Marcella Buchanan, or something like that, ring a bell with anyone?

Randy

"Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in the world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it desires."
-Martin Buber (adapted)
From: James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com<mailto:jfwiegel at yahoo.com>>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
Cc: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical

You sang on the bus all the way to the Bahamas ?  Wow.

Jim Wiegel
Jfwiegel at yahoo.com<mailto:Jfwiegel at yahoo.com>

I can't say as I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.  Daniel Boone

On Jun 1, 2012, at 18:25, "Ann Shafer" <asgoodasitgets at hughes.net<mailto:asgoodasitgets at hughes.net>> wrote:

> And I so enjoyed working with everyone in Fifth City but most especially
> Velma Brocks who is my daughter, Catherine's, godmother. Velma could say so
> much without saying anything. She and I handled the Fifth City payroll for
> awhile. Plus David and I had a wonderful time on the Fifth City to the World
> trip to the Bahamas so beautifully enabled and spiritized by Alice and Jim
> Baumbach. Remember Peggy who led the singing on our bus all the way there
> and back? I know the Fifth Citizens were not O:E but they were our
> colleagues and mentors. Ann Stewart Shafer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> [mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net>] On Behalf Of David Scott
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 10:23 AM
> To: Order Ecumenical Community
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical
>
> Phylis Christmas
>
> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 8:55 AM, Nancy Lanphear <nancy at songaia.com<mailto:nancy at songaia.com>> wrote:
>> Dear Ones,
>>
>> Our common memory is such a gift.  Each of us can let go of some of
>> our worry about loosing our own.  Thanks for sharing your memories with
> me.
>>
>> Love,
>>
>> Nancy
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 7:48 AM, E B <marosel2000 at yahoo.com<mailto:marosel2000 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Who can forget Dawn Lingo and Lynette Shanklin?
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Mary Laura Jones <mljones2022 at gmail.com<mailto:mljones2022 at gmail.com>>
>>> To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>>
>>> Sent: Friday, June 1, 2012 9:37 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Being Black in the Order Ecumenical
>>>
>>> I learned so much from Lois Reeves and Emma Melton in the Cleveland
>>> Region. I am so grateful for their presence in our lives. Many things
>>> they said still make me smile. Their wisdom and leadership were very
>>> important in the ICA's work.
>>>
>>> Mary Laura Jones
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 9:12 AM, McCabe, Diann A <dm14 at txstate.edu<mailto:dm14 at txstate.edu>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Sharon Turner stands out for me. Vincent Scott and Mary. And deep
>>> colleague in Mississippi, the late Ruth Wilson.
>>>
>>> Diann McCabe
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6/1/12 8:17 AM, "Nancy Lanphear" <nancy at songaia.com<mailto:nancy at songaia.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Randy,
>>>
>>> I, too would appreciate hearing some of the stories about what it was
>>> like to be black in the Order.  I remember Phoebe Reynolds, Christine
>>> Harris, and some of the children  .... Tad and Todd Mueller, Eric
>>> Shropshire, Adam and Kaira Lingo, Emanuel Ward, Kevin Woodward  ...
>>> I am sorry , who are the others who have slipped through my memory
>>> ...?  Thank you Joyce and Randy
>>>
>>> Nancy
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 3:55 AM, R Williams <rcwmbw at yahoo.com<mailto:rcwmbw at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Joyce,
>>>
>>> Your brief comment, in remembering Robert Shropshire, about what it
>>> was like to be black and to have been in the O:E has me wanting to
>>> hear more about what that experience was like, and trying to recall
>>> our black Order colleagues prior to our being dispersed around the
>>> globe, embracing cultures of color everywhere.
>>>
>>> In addition to you, Carlos and Shropshire, I remember Larry Ward,
>>> Nadine Ward, Harold Williams and Richard whose last name was, I think,
> Epson.
>>> Other faces are pictured in my mind's eye whose names I cannot
>>> recall.  Who were they?
>>>
>>> My interest is peaked by the fact that the white majority, in the U.S
>>> at least, is shrinking and will likely soon no longer exist, combined
>>> with the fact that there is a glimmer of indication that cultural
>>> diversity of all kinds is coming to be not only tolerated but
>>> embraced by more and more people.
>>>
>>> On behalf of the future, with an eye toward how all people may live
>>> together in peace on this flat, increasingly diverse and crowded
>>> planet, I would love to hear more of your reflections, as well as
>>> those of others, on what it was like then to be black and in the O:E
>>> and what, with
>>> 50 years of experience behind us, we all have learned.
>>>
>>> A conversation like this could be a fitting tribute to Robert,
>>> Nadine, Harold and others now departed who have impacted our
>>> community and consciousness over the years.
>>>
>>> Randy
>>>
>>> "Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in
>>> the world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it
> desires."
>>> -Martin Buber (adapted)
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Margaret and David Scott
> Flathead Valley College
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--
Paula

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie

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