Returning Home to Grieve

This Sunday I suspended my 50 churches project to return to Advent Lutheran to grieve with friends over the loss this week of our dear friend, Glenn Kelly.  

Glenn was a formative member of a group of 5 couples at Advent jokingly and lovingly called the "Winos".  We traveled together to local, west coast, and Italian wineries and used Glenn's expertise in wine and wine glasses to develop our pallets and taste for good wines.  But this was just an excuse to develop deep friendships and explore our common love for travel and exploration.  Since we are all Lutheran, we often explored different Lutheran churches in our travels (was this the seed of the 50 churches project?).  And when that was not feasible we had far-reaching discussions about our faith, the church (and its politics!), and finding God in beautiful natural settings, and great art (Michelangelo in Italy!).  Sometimes these discussions would go to the wee hours over great wine and bridge games.  Glenn was always our anchor and could  always cut through our discussions with an insight or quip that would bring us to our common faith and love of Jesus Christ.

This past week as his health spiraled out of control of the doctors and all of us, we gathered at the hospital to mutually support each other, his wife Pat and sons Kevin and Forest.  Their faith in the midst of this tragedy was a testament to Glenn as the head of their household, father and husband.  

Glenn truly loved Advent, its music and ministries.  There will be a hole in The Room at the Inn, the chili supper, the church BBQ, Lutheran Men and numerous ministries of the church.  He was a mentor and anchor to many individuals in the church. Glenn helped us laugh at the absurdity of church politics and the tradition of Morgan David wine at Communion.  

He will be missed, but we celebrate his life as a Child of God who brought a deeper understanding of faith and how to live it out in the world to many of us.

The Winos at Butchart Gardens in Victoria

Teaching and Learning about wine in California

Beside a mountain of hops at Rogue in Oregon.  Our rental car smelled like hops for days!

He always dressed and got in character for our  murder mystery games

Donning a football cap at a Super Bowl party

Venice - he helped us pick out glass art 

The art in Rome and Florence often brought tears to his eyes

Their love for each other will remain an example of a great marriage for their sons and all of us.