"The Christian Church has a secret at her heart and the only call upon her is to share it. Whenever by repentance and forgiveness one enters into the community of grace, he or she discovers the very end of life. Another person is then the possessor of the news that must be told, and must run to find a housetop from which to proclaim it."  Elizabeth O'Connor, Call to Commitment

It was in the summer of 1995 that she received the diagnosis of cancer. By February the cancer had spread and her doctors said she had about six months to live. Her indomitable spirit fought back but finally it was time to cross that thin veil into her new life.

In the death notice in the Washington Post it says, "She is survived by...a family of friends large enough to hold hands around the world." Her books have made a profound impact on countless lives. We know that because of what she shared in those books most of our readers are included in that family of friends.

From a letter by Elizabeth in the Wellspring Newsletter, September, 1996:

"You, dear friends, have known every step of the way what I have needed. You have kept my heart in peace. Each morning and night I thank God for your prayers and my healing. This is important to me. It gathers you around a communion table spread out in my heart. It little matters if the healing for which I give thanks is a healing into life or a healing into death. In me is a deep knowing that a part of you will go with me where Igo, and where you are I will be. Such is the eternal nature of the love we have in God. It knows no boundaries of here and there."

In 1973 when the Wellspring call was sounded, that first little group looked to Elizabeth's guidance. Early on we worked with Call to Commitment to glean a deeper understanding of our own faith community. We knew that the way of being church described there was what we were called to share. Then when we were ready to offer our first event, we went to Elizabeth and asked for the names and addresses of everyone who had written to her in response to her writings. That was our first mailing list.

Through the years, Elizabeth has been so generous to Wellspring in sharing whenever we asked, in meeting with Wellspring participants before or after events, in her affirmation of our ministry. We will miss her! Yet she is with us still as her writing continues to feed searching people. Over the years, we have wondered about changing the work of preparation for people coming on a Wellspring Gathering. From the beginning, we have required reading Call to Commitment and the first three chapters of JourneyInward, Journey Outward. Every time the question is raised, it seems clear that the message of these books continues to be most helpful and still challenging in preparing those who gather to consider the question of how to be God's faithful people in our time.

At this writing, we prepare to welcome participants to the Living Life out of Call event here at Wellspring. Elizabeth has taught us so much about this particular, central aspect of the Christian journey.

Each person, no matter how old, has an important work to do ... This good work not only accomplishes something needed in the world, but completes something in us. When it is finished a new work emerges that will help us to make green a desert place, as well as to scale another mountain in ourselves. The work we do in the world, when it is true vocation, always corresponds in some mysterious way to the work that goes on within us. Elizabeth O'Connor, Cry Pain, Cry Hope

On the day for celebration of Elizabeth O'Connor's life, several hundred people gathered at The Festival Center. Near the end, her desire had been that during her dying time, her friends would gather and first listen to some tapes which meant a great deal to her having to do with "conscious dying". Then they would sit with her. Once again her longing was to stretch herself and all of us into learning. So on that memorial day, the tapes were played as we gathered. Then we worshiped together through music, scripture, remembering, sharing, laughing and weeping. Her spirit was certainly there, probably with a bit of cringing at all the adulation with her wry grin and bursts of laughter.

At the Twentieth Anniversary Celebration of Wellspring, Elizabeth shared these words:

'The present time is a time of transition. All times for churches are always times of transition. Transition is a time of confusion with the potential of metamorphosis. The first question we face in transition is, 'Will there be a place in the new for me? Will I be received?" We recognize that this is the deepest longing of the human heart, to have a place not even at the margins of life but at the center where the action is. Not until we are able to give space to this longing in ourselves will we be able to make a place for others. Wellspring has provided a place at the center of community where those in transition could find a place to look at their past, respond to the present and look toward the future with a quality of being."

To read articles by Elizabeth O'Connor and reflections by those whom she has influenced, 
visit A Tribute to Elizabeth O'Connor. 
Elizabeth O'Connor's books available through Faith At Work.