Homily by Cheryl (Phills) King)
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Some of you may be wondering what I am doing here. I am wondering the same thing, myself. I will share with you the history to this but I promise not to talk too long. On December 1, 2003, I received an e-mail from fellow Villager Wade Williams with the words, " Cheryl, it may be nice to organise a gathering of Villagers next summer in N.Y. Let's meet on earth before we leave for heaven." On December 15, 2003, I shared this sentiment with the group of Villagers with whom I have been blessed to maintain a solid relationship for many years. This wish had been expressed many times before but had not come to fruition. I stated that in our group there are many movers and shakers and I suggested as our core-group in the NY/NJ area Fr. Ulric Jones, Joel Toney, Artie Phills, Mak Richards and, if we needed females in the group, I would give whatever assistance I could and I felt sure that Marilyn Jones would do likewise. Things took off from that point and we were pleased that the core group was able to liaise with other Villagers in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, England, Canada etc. Through our collaborative effort we were able to come up with a time, place and series of events for a Villagers Reunion in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for July 3-9, 2005.
In August 2004, at one of our early morning beach swims at Villa, Fr. Jones said to me: "Chu, (that's a pet name given to me by my father) I was not joking when I sent out my e-mail message saying that you would do the homily for the Villagers Reunion service." Up until that point I had thought he was joking but he sounded quite serious-dead serious, in fact, and so I thought I would go back to my home parish in Madison, New Jersey, and observe my Rector. I started writing a few notes and this led one of my sister choir members to ask if I were writing another book. What she did not know is that I was preparing for something much more difficult than that. I was thinking ahead to this very moment, and so, here we are today.
Psalm 118 :24 tells us: "This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." I am going to ask my daughters Cherene & Debbie to help me with singing and the congregation can join in.
Singing:
Cheryl: This is the day
C&D: This is the day
Cheryl: This is the day
C&D: This is the day
Cheryl: The day the Lord hath made
C&D: The day the Lord hath made
Cheryl: The day the Lord hath made
C&D: The day the Lord hath made
Cheryl: We will all rejoice, rejoice be glad in it
C&D: We will all rejoice, rejoice be glad in it
Cheryl : We will all rejoice, rejoice be glad in it
C&D: We will all rejoice, rejoice be glad in it
Cheryl: Alleluia
C&D: Alleluia
Cheryl: Alleluia
C&D: Alleluia
Cheryl: Alleluia
C&D Alleluia
Cheryl: Alleluia
C&D:Alleluia
Cheryl: ALLELUIA
C&D: ALLELUIA
Thank. You.
I would like us to focus on three different themes under the rubric : "What a Gift !"
The themes are (1) Love (2) Praise and (3) Thanks.
(1) LOVE
God has blessed us abundantly, in general, and the Villagers, in particular. He loves us all unconditionally and as stated in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life." As my Grace Church, Madison, New Jersey, Rector likes to say: "There is nothing more we can do to make God love us more, and nothing less we can do to make God love us less." What a comforting thought !!! That love transcends FROM God THROUGH each of us TO all of us. What a gift !!!
(2) PRAISE
Psalm 37 :3 tells us to "Trust in the Lord and do good ," and by and large that has been the mantra of the lives of many of us in general, and the Villagers, in particular. We sing God's praises often because to a large extent many of us have had our characters and our entire lives shaped by our religious upbringing. Many right here at St.Paul's. It has been a wonderful journey with God as our guide, leader and protector.
We are all familiar with the words of the Hymn:
"This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long."
What a gift !!!
(3) THANKS
The Villagers would like to give thanks to God for His many blessings and we would like to take this opportunity to thank those members of the community who were instrumental in shaping our lives, in general.
As we spoke about this reunion we shared many laughs about the recollections of Scout-Master Alban Radix, in particular. I say, [he often said those two words] his contribution to cultivating leadership skills in the youths of this area are deeply manifested today in the success of the lives of those who came under his tutelage. We want to thank God for all the lives of those who have gone before us and those who are still with us today, especially our parents, honorees and the community. Later, we will sing together the words of one of my late mother, Eloise Phills' favorite hymns.
The first verse goes like this:
"Now thank we all our God,
With heart, and hands, and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In Whom His world rejoices,
Who from our mother's arms
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today. "
In a nutshell, the Villagers were fortunate to have spent our formative years in a loving, caring, Christian, supportive community and environment and for this we are extremely grateful. What we are humbly giving back to the community is a mere inkling of our immense gratitude. We have taken our roots with us far and wide and will continue to do so in the future.
What a gift !!!
I end with this short prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us all together and for this wonderful gift of fellowship,
Continue to guide and direct us and help us always to do Thy will,
In Thy name we pray.
Amen.
