Even before the Ministry of Money officially came into being, Elizabeth O'Connor was a major supporter and thoughtful advocate for its founding concepts. Her contributions over the years were many and varied: she presented at over 20 basic workshops, served for years on the Board of Directors, wrote the call statement for third world pilgrimages which we still use today, fashioned the questions that we suggest people consider as they write their money autobiography, was a strong advocate for the Women's Perspective, provided a listening and questioning ear, and offered wisdom and insights that drove us to look deeper into ourselves as we discerned our mission and call to ministry.
 

Perfectly Human, Partly Divine

In her giftedness as a writer, teacher, counselor and passionate advocate of equality for women, the poor, the oppressed (victims of political, social and economic oppression),

Elizabeth was there in a quiet, but profoundly momentous and dignified way.

Whether it was protesting on the Mall or at the White House, worshiping with the intergenerational marginalized at Sarah's Circle, leading retreats at Kirkridge or Dayspring, or doing private counseling or group therapy with rich and poor, Elizabeth was there--all there--fully present!

Perhaps it was through her nine books, and the thousand others by Gurdjieff, May Sarton, Dante or whomever she was in the moment advocating, that most of her large following knew her. While there were many "other selves" in this extraordinary woman, some of us in closer community were privileged and blessed to observe and experience priceless expressions of her humanity and humor. These we choose to lift up, after quoting extensively from Dorothy Devers' (long-time friend and editor) memoriam to Elizabeth, in this tribute to our very special sister in Christ.
 

One evening, in the third or fourth year of the existence of The Church of the Saviour, there came through the door of 2025 Massachusetts Avenue (the Headquarters) a guest of several members--Elizabeth O'Connor. She had come to please her friends, but before the evening had ended, she knew that she had come home. I well remember meeting her as those three came through the office. It seemed then as though it was a foreordained moment as I know now, almost fifty years later, that it most certainly was.

Those were the days when we had "cell groups"--studying, praying and yearning for direction about outreach, the call to corporate mission. In a group that included Elizabeth, Gordon [Cosby], and me, I recall how shy she was, so inhibited that she had not the courage to read aloud even one verse of Scripture. She and I, both living in Virginia, rode to and from the School of Christian Living classes together. We talked about the inability we both felt about speaking out in a group and we determined to offer a class for others who had this same difficulty. We called the class "Proclaiming the Faith" and we knew that it was led by the Holy Spirit. Our eleven-week class ended just before Easter.

That same week an invitation was received by The Church of the Saviour from the nearby Church of the Pilgrims to send a speaker to address their well attended Easter morning breakfast. When this invitation became known, Elizabeth, without a moment's hesitation, offered to give the talk. The breakfast was attended by about two hundred people--and she delivered an inspired message. Her determination to do that and her courage in the doing of it gave indication of the tremendous potentiality encased in that slender frame of hers.

As Gordon Cosby's vision of church comprised of small groups with a focused corporate mission, such as the Potter's House and the Retreat Mission Group, came into being, the momentum gathered strength. Other mission groups were formed and, by early in the 1960's, a request came from Harper and Row for a book about this unusual ecumenical church.

Having believed for many years that writing was to be her vocation, and already having written several articles, once again Elizabeth volunteered and began to write her first book, Call to Commitment, which was published in 1963 ... Sometime after the book came out, she called me and asked, "Have you read it?" I had seen chapters in the making, but confessed that I hadn't read the finished product. Her response: "Well, I'm asking you to read it right straight through." In three days I read it. When I finished it, I burst into tears and exclaimed to my husband, Bill Ham, "This is a great book!" It proved to be just that, having brought untold blessings to many persons in this country and abroad who, week after week, have come to The Church of the Saviour to see firsthand and to participate in the life of dedicated commitment that is so vividly portrayed in those pages.

The books that have followed Call to Commitment have revealed the progression of Elizabeth's own spiritual growth and served as a stimulus and guide not only for the community of which she has been so vital a member and so clear a portrayer, but for countless others throughout the world. Her inability to respond personally to the flood of letters that has kept coming over the years, particularly during her illness, has been a source of genuine regret for her.

She never could have written the fundamental truths that flowed from her pen with such fervor had she not experienced what she so beautifully expressed. And she took tireless pains with her choice of words so that every nuance would concisely convey her thought. Much of her writing is what I have always considered to be poetry in prose.

Once when I made a suggestion about one sentence, she leaned back, smiled an impish smile, and said, "You take care of the dangling participles and the punctuation and I'll take care of the content. When some question of moral or spiritual significance would arise, and I would take a specific stand, invariably Elizabeth would defend the opposite side of the issue. Finally, one day I challenged her--"Why do you always take a stand contrary to mine?" Her response was quick and decisive: "But Dorothy, you are my friend and I want us to look carefully at both sides of the question before coming to a conclusion." In retrospect I can see that she knew what Parker Palmer called the promise of paradox. Thomas Merton, in No Man Is an Island, wrote: "All the answers [to paradoxes] that are not supernatural are imperfect; for they embrace only one of the contradictory terms, and they can always be denied by the other." Of this truth, Elizabeth was intuitively aware.

Her devotion to her twin brother, Dick, was life-long, deep and constant. A brilliant young man, drafted into military service during World War II, he suffered a mental breakdown from which he has never recovered. Elizabeth's abiding concern for the mentally afflicted is evidenced especially in her short treatise, Our Ragbone Hearts. The dedicatory page of Our Many Selves reads: "For Dick, twin and companion of my growing up, whose divided self keeps me close to suffering, and for all those who labor that the mentally ill may know wholeness."

Her love and concern for the welfare of others, particularly the underprivileged, was evidenced when, over fifteen years ago, she invited a group of about eight to meet in her office at the Church. Here the seeds were sown for a mission groups whose aim was to establish a place of residence for elderly persons of low income to live in pleasant surroundings at affordable rates--where their lives would be enhanced by opportunities to enjoy life by exercising their innate gifts in the service of one another and others in the neighborhood. After several years of prayerful, dedicated effort, the apartment building known as Sarah's Circle came into being, serving well the purposes for which it was intended.

Ever in the vanguard of some worthy cause, she participated in Ministry of Money workshops and called into being at the time of the Million Man March a group dedicated to reconciliation between and among the races. In May 1984, Elizabeth received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.

One after another of her books came into being--books that seemed always to be taking shape in that creative mind of hers. She would ask for help in the selection of titles, but always she herself came up with the fitting name: Journey Inward, Journey Outward; Eighth Day of Creation; Our Many Selves; The New Community; Cry Pain, Cry Hope; Letters to Scattered Pilgrims; Search for Silence; Servant Leaders, Servant Structures.

[Her] last book, Servant Leaders, Servant Structures, is a triumphant summary of what Elizabeth experienced during the years following that first evening when she was present in Gordon's class on the Sermon on the Mount, and what she has so artistically and skillfully shared with all the world through her books, her Compassion Groups, her classes and retreats, her unique manner of speaking, and her innate gifts and personal charm.

No one can fill the place that was and is hers among us. It is difficult to imagine life without her physical presence, but we rejoice that she became a part of our life and has left to us a heritage of lovely memories and the rich wisdom that radiates from the pages of her writing.

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