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Events
Treasures for Haiti
FOR THE MILLIONS EFFECTED BY THE EARTHQUAKES IN HAITI:
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this
night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick,
Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the
suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your
love's sake. Amen. (BCP p.132).
May the souls who have died rest in peace and rise in glory.
Relief Effort for Haiti –
We are now receiving your special donations to Episcopal Relief and
Development (ERD) to reach out to our brothers and sisters in
Haiti. You are invited to
1) place your donation in the offering and mark it “ERD” OR
2) make a donation by phone at 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129, OR
3) mail your check to P.O. Box 7058 Merrifield, VA 22116-7058, OR
4) donate online by going to https://www.er-d.org/donate-select.php.
We
have items for sale in the Parish Hall during coffee hour. These
items include Note cards and envelopes with the new sketch of St.
Christopher’s on it. All proceeds go to the relief effort for
Haiti.
GARNER AREA MINISTRIES
On the third Sunday of each month, we take donations of non-perishable
food items, gently used clothes, and toys to Garner Area
Ministries. This is an extremely rewarding ministry for our
congregation.
Welcome, Father Fogg!
Garner’s St. Christopher church has new vicar
Posted September 1, 2010 at 12:52 pm and filed under Faces and Places, Faith.
Patrick O’Neill
Citizen Journalist
When Episcopal priest Ralph E. Fogg celebrates Mass, he thinks of himself as an artist for God.
The Rev. Ralph Fogg sits behind the desk in his new office at St. Christopher Episcopal Church. GARNER CITIZEN
Says Fogg, “The Eucharistic action embodies all the art forms there
are: poetry, prose, architecture, sculpture, dance. The whole way you
use your body during Mass. You take all of those forms, gather them
together and present them to God.”
Reenergizing the congregation
Fogg may be 78 years old, but he exudes the energy of a much younger
man. He’s quick-witted, he’s bright, and he loves being an Episcopal
priest. On Aug. 1, Fogg, who was ordained in 1960, signed a
quarter-time six-month contract to become vicar of St. Christopher
Episcopal Church on Vandora Springs Road. Fogg, who lives in Holly
Springs with wife Ingrid Anna Lechner, will teach Sunday school and
celebrate Mass on Sundays, and he will also come to Garner for Tuesday
staff and vestry meetings.
A major part of Fogg’s work will be trying to get more folks,
especially young families, into the pews of the small congregation that
is a mission parish in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Since
its founding in 1959, St. Christopher has always been a small
congregation; but after the retirement of its long-time rector, the
Rev. Worth Jennings, in 2008, the number of folks at Mass on Sundays
has declined significantly.
“Too much gray hair,” Fogg said during an interview in his new office.
“Not excepting present company,” he added, pointing to his own head of
gray hair.
Younger worshippers want to find people their own age at church, Fogg said.
“Somehow or other, we have to be a more inviting community to younger families,” he said.
Fogg has some ideas, but for the time being, he’s getting to know his new parish family.
“I’m busy trying to get my head around everything’s that going on here, or not going on as the case may be,” Fogg said.
Today, families searching for a home church are often not looking at
the mainline Protestant denominations that once dominated the landscape.
“They look at denominations as a smorgasbord and pick and choose from among the ones they like,” Fogg said.
A key to attracting new people are programs for children and teens,
Fogg said. Fogg said he believes in “creating a sacred space for the
children.”
“If you don’t have a program for children and teenagers, you’re
shooting yourself in the foot,” he said. “So one of my things is to get
a viable Sunday school for children cranked up and going — even a very
small one. There are four small children here, and that’s what we got.
That’s what we start with.”
The road to the priesthood
In 2002, Fogg retired from two posts: priest-in-charge at St. Andrew’s
Episcopal Church in New Paltz, N.Y., and clinical director at
Mid-Hudson Counseling Center in the Hudson Valley area of New York. A
daughter on the coast and a stepdaughter in Cary — both with
grandchildren — brought Fogg to North Carolina in 2004. He had four
children from his first marriage: Stephen, Jennifer and twins Juliet
and Allyson. Juliet Elisabeth, who was nicknamed Lisa, died in 2008 at
age 48 after a 30-year battle with brain tumors. His stepdaughter,
Kirsten, lives in Cary. Fogg has 10 grandchildren and one
great-grandchild.
Fogg is an adult child of two alcoholics, a reality that informs who he
has become. When his parents separated, he and his brother went to live
with their abusive father.
“He was old school, very strict, physically abusive in today’s terms,”
Fogg said. “But always, always, always there was the church. My brother
and I were both baptized in the church. My dad was very big on the
church. My mother less so.”
Before Fogg entered high school, his family had moved around the
Northeast more than 10 times. The Foggs had lived in every New England
state except Maine. After his father lost his job, the family settled
in upstate New York. While he was attending Manlius High School, Fogg
talked to his local priest.
“I think I want to be a priest,” he declared.
A local Catholic priest, Fr. John Lynch, also took Fogg under his wing.
Lynch introduced Fogg to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas — in Latin.
Aquinas was a 13th century doctor of the church who is considered a
model for those studying for the priesthood. Fogg was finding his
vocation, but college costs loomed.
During high school, Fogg held jobs as a soda jerk and in a restaurant.
He loaned his savings to his father; but when he asked for it back to
go to college, his father said he wasn’t giving it back, and the
younger Fogg had no funds for college.
An Episcopal priest, Fr. E. Rugby Auer, helped the penniless Fogg
enroll as a freshman in Hobart College, a small liberal arts college in
upstate New York, where he earned a degree in philosophy.
Fogg earned a master of divinity from the General Theological Seminary
in New York City. His counseling background came at the American
Foundation for Religion and Psychiatry in New York City, where he
studied pastoral psychotherapy.
Real worship for real ministers
At St. Christopher, Fogg is part of community that appreciates the
sacraments. Their form of worship closely resembles the Catholic Mass.
“I’m an old-fashioned Anglo Catholic,” Fogg said. “I like a basic sacramental worship, done decently, and in order.”
Empowering the laity is also part of his job, Fogg said.
“Church is a gathering of the people of God,” Fogg said. “I’m their
servant. They’re not here to be overwhelmed by me. My job is to enable
their ministry.
“What I tried to do is empower lay people to be the real ministers
because they’re ministers. It’s not for nothing that I’m called a
priest, and that I’m not a minister. The lay people are the ministers.”
After almost six months of serving St. Christopher as a Sunday supply
priest, the vestry asked Fogg if he’d a like part-time job as vicar.
Sure, he said.
“I love having an altar first of all,” Fogg said. “I love working with
small congregations that are struggling because I’ve evolved a way of
working with those that I think can be helpful to them. And saying Mass
is what I do. I still marvel that I got to be a priest first of all. My
road was not a smooth one.”
For inspiration, Fogg likes to read the works of the great English
mystic and Catholic saint, Julian of Norwich, whoM he calls “my
lifetime buddy.”
Fogg said Julian has been his “guide throughout my life since high
school when I first discovered her. I can’t tell you how many times
I’ve read through her showings. I am so awed by her wisdom.”
Fogg said the wisdom of Julian has comforted him in hard times. He
specifically cited this famous Julian quote: “All shall be well, and
all shall be well, and every manner of thing shall be well.”
“That mantra got me through some really crazy times with my parents,” Fogg said.
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