June 3, 2005 - Issue #11
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Sacred Heart Parish’s old church isn’t slowing down
WASILLA — From atop a monolith, a gleaming white statue of Christ, arms extended, welcomes visitors to the sprawling Sacred Heart Church in Wasilla.
Approaching the impressive building with the striking statue out front, one might overlook the parish’s previous church, a smaller, dark red structure set among the trees on the other side of the lot. The old church has not been retired, however.
In fact, the old church on 1201 Bogard Road buzzes with activity, sacred and secular. Sacred Heart Parish’s faith formation and religious education classes, as well as an apologetics course, are held in the old facility weekly. Russian Orthodox, Byzantine Catholic and nondenominational worshippers use the church for services at different times, and until May 2004, a Jewish community did as well. The church also hosts two weight-loss support groups, three Girl and Boy Scout troops and a garden club.
All of which have turned the 38-year-old church into a sort of community center in Alaska’s fastest-growing area — the Matanuska-Susitna Borough."The old church is busier than the new church," said Sacred Heart pastor Father Kasparaj Mallavarapu, a native of India. "All the time busy — all the seven days."
Sacred Heart Parish’s administrative assistant Sheila English juggles the schedule. When one of the organizations hosts special events like parties, a retreat or a sleepover for a Girl Scouts troop, she sometimes reschedules classes or shunts them to other church meeting areas.
That finagling is "no problem at all," Father Mallavarapu said.
"It is good to share what we have; that’s why we are Catholics — universal. We welcome everyone."
St. Lazarus Russian Orthodox Church, a mission of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Alaska, started worshipping this spring in the old Sacred Heart Church. Before that, the group was somewhat nomadic, making long drives to Eklutna and later meeting in a room at a Wasilla funeral home.
On a recent Sunday, about 35 Orthodox worshippers stood in a large semicircle while Father Christopher Stanton led the Divine Liturgy from behind two slim screens, or iconostasis, decorated with icons.
Since the Orthodox stand throughout most of their liturgy, most of the room’s chairs remained stacked in the back. A cappella singing in Russian, English and Slavonic languages filled the little church, with only windows and beeswax candles for light.
Father Stanton smiled broadly at the group.
"Christ is Risen!" he shouted.
"Indeed he has," parishioners answered.
"This space is great," the Orthodox priest said after the liturgy while snacking on yogurt and cake. "It’s huge. This is like, ‘woohoo!’ "
The priest said he hopes that offering a regularly scheduled Divine Liturgy in a well-known church may encourage inactive Orthodox believers to join the community again.
"We can start advertising," he said.
The old Sacred Heart church has also become a home away from home for an "outreach" of St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in Anchorage, the only Byzantine Catholic parish in the state.
A year ago, St. Nicholas began offering Divine Liturgy weekly at the old Sacred Heart for 13 parishioner families from the Valley who routinely drove 90 miles round trip to Anchorage for services. Now the outreach group numbers about 16 families, according to parishioner John Michalski.
Michalski said it’s important to have the "presence of the Eastern lung of the Catholic Church" in the Valley, and he added that Father Mallavarapu’s warm welcome of the group has helped them establish that presence.
Most of the Scouts who meet at the old church are members of Sacred Heart, according to Jenny Michaelson, who leads a junior Girl Scouts troop and also coordinates the parish’s adult sacramental preparation.
The old church is a private enough place for girls to let loose, for dancing, chatting and even having sleepovers, Michaelson said, but it also retains a church feeling.
"I walked in on Wednesday night and you could smell the incense from Sunday, and so it’s still a reverent place," she said.
Twice a week, chairs and tables are set up for weight-loss groups.
"Economy-wise it works for us and location-wise it’s great," said Kathy Miller, coordinator for Wasilla’s chapters of TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly) and a 20-year member of Sacred Heart.
TOPS and other groups that use the space make donations to the parish though they aren’t required to; Miller’s organizations also collect canned goods for a food bank as "payback" to the community, she said.
Menting celebrates 60 years as a Franciscan, 20 years in Eagle River
Sister Camilla Menting, a familiar and well-loved figure at St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River, celebrates her 60th anniversary with the School Sisters of St. Francis this month.
The Franciscan, who spent 35 years as a teacher and principal in the Midwest, has become something of an institution in Eagle River, serving with three different pastors and spending a third of her life of ministry — 20 years — in the growing parish.
Sister Menting was a longtime director of religious education at St. Andrew and today is a pastoral associate, devoting her time to liturgy, ministry scheduling, working with first communicants and helping out in any other way she can.
"She’s always there when needed," said Rich Pauley, a longtime parishioner who was on the selection committee when the parish hired Sister Menting 20 years ago. In her younger days, that even included shoveling snow.
"If the snow was being shoveled, it was probably Sister shoveling," since she often got to the parish office before anyone else, Pauley said.
Father Leo Walsh, the third St. Andrew pastor to work with Sister Menting, sings her praises as well.
"She has trained us all well," he said. "Her ageless wisdom, her quiet spirituality and her steadfast witness are a powerful example of the grace of God at work in the ordinary tasks of everyday life."
Sister Menting laughs at the notion that 60 years is a long time, and it’s no wonder. When decades of service are celebrated at the motherhouse in Milwaukee, she’s something of a youngster.
On June 18, when Sister Menting celebrates in Milwaukee with her community, two School Sisters of St. Francis will be honored for an astounding 85 years with the order. Both women are over 100. Nine others will be celebrating their 80th year as a Franciscan, as well as some at 70 years. The oldest sister is 106. Almost all entered at 16 years of age.
"When everyone processes in by years of service, I never quite make it before the ‘Canticle of the Creatures’ is done playing," Sister Menting said with a smile.
As a young girl in the small town of Phlox, Wis., Sister Menting was educated by School Sisters of St. Francis in elementary school, then went to their convent boarding school in Milwaukee.
She entered the novitiate immediately upon graduating high school. There were 50 members of her novice class. Today, 18 remain.
"Some have left, some have died," Sister Menting said.
In a sign of the times, there will be only one sister celebrating 25 years with Sister Menting’s community in June.
However, she said, the order, which was largely based in the United States and Germany when she was young, now has about 3,000 members worldwide, with many of the new members joining in India and Central America.
Sister Menting arrived in Alaska on a short sabbatical, planning a visit with her sister, Margaret Menting, of Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai. But she quickly fell in love with Alaska, and when Father Al Giebel, then the pastor at St. Andrew, offered her a job, she signed on.
She said she hopes to stay "as long as I’m capable of working and the parish wants me."
Sister Menting has already taken a special trip this anniversary year, a Franciscan pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Leaving right after Easter with parishioners Joe and Terry Beatty, the group of 18 toured, prayed and learned about archeology at a time when visitors are only beginning to return to the embattled area.
St. Andrew Parish celebrated Sister Menting’s years of service with a Mass and potluck on May 30.
Alaska Pacific University hosts discussion on end-of-life issues
On a near-perfect spring evening, over 50 people forsook the garden and the walking trail May 18 to attend a panel discussion at Alaska Pacific University titled "Letting Go: Catholic Perspectives and Medical Futility."
The event, sponsored by the Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at Alaska Pacific University, Holy Spirit Center, and the Archdiocese of Anchorage Office of Evangelization, featured five local experts who spoke from various viewpoints on end-of-life issues.
The program began with a prayer by Archbishop Roger Schwietz and was moderated by Peter Zografos, Ph.D., director of the Office of Evangelization.
Dr. Catherine Schumacher, a physician and researcher who is a member of St. Patrick Parish in Anchorage, began the discussion saying that "it’s very important that every discussion of medical ethics must begin with the medical facts."
Schumacher, who said she has faced end-of-life decisions in both her professional and personal life, emphasized that these decisions are "always unique and often complicated," and "you can’t make a diagnosis based on what you hear on CNN."
Dr. Maria Wallington, a physician and ethicist who serves as director of medical ethics at Providence Alaska Medical Center, defined "medical futility" as meaning "unlikely to be successful."
She said the term refers to "a medical intervention that is unlikely to achieve any of the goals of medical treatment or, if it does so, will achieve them only in a minimal or transitory way."
Wallington said she tells people, "I’m not the ethics police." Rather, an ethicist is consulted when people need help working through challenging end-of-life issues.
As medical intervention makes it possible to prolong biological life, these issues become more common and more complex. Decisions must be based on whether the treatment is more of a burden or more of a benefit, and the answer will not be the same for every person, according to Wallington.
"Most ethicists agree that the person who has to endure the burden should make the decision," she said.
But at Providence, nearly 80 percent of patients who are incapacitated and unable to express their wishes haven’t discussed with their families what kind of decisions regarding treatment they would want.
That, said attorney Steven Ellis, who serves on the board of directors of Anchorage’s Holy Spirit Center, is why the Alaska Legislature passed the Health Care Decisions Act in 2004.
During a talk entitled "Planning Ahead: Advanced Directives," Ellis gave out copies of forms created by the Legislature to help people make specific instructions for their end-of-life care, including the use of artificial nutrition and hydration and withholding or withdrawal of treatment.
Regina Boisclair, Ph.D., the Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at Alaska Pacific University, presented a talk called "Catholic Perspectives on Life and Death."
Boisclair emphasized that Scripture and Catholic teaching affirm that life is precious.
Yet biological life is not "the ultimate human destiny," she said. Rather eternal life, attained for us by the reality of human mortality, is our fate.
The Catholic faith teaches that there is a difference between "actively taking life and letting go," Boisclair said. Ordinary means must be taken to maintain human life, but not extraordinary means.
These tenets must be applied to "the very specific conditions of the situation," the professor said. "What is excessive (treatment) to one may be merely difficult to another."
Father Leo Walsh, pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River, spoke to the pastoral perspective on death and dying.
Alaskans and other Americans "are in abject denial of the reality of death," he said.
"We cannot begin to live now unless we come to grips with the reality of our own death now," Father Walsh said.
After the presentations, audience members submitted written questions for the presenters.
Although no mention was made of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died in April after her feeding tube was removed, some questions pertained to the Catholic perspective on the care of patients in a permanent vegetative state.
Referring to the state’s new legal form, a questioner asked whether a Catholic in good conscience could refuse or remove a feeding tube.
"There are circumstances where this can be morally permissible," Father Walsh answered.
Boisclair also responded to the question, noting that in a 2004 speech, Pope John Paul II "rightfully called into question the use of that term ‘persistent vegetative state’ " to describe a human being.
However, Boisclair said, the definition the pope gave to the term in his address did not correspond to the definition the medical profession gives it, muddying the waters for a clear understanding of what treatment, or withdrawal of treatment, is appropriate for people in such a medical state.
In case anyone wanted to go home with "cut and dried" answers, Father Walsh said there aren’t any.
Boisclair said that Catholic moral theologians are not in agreement on all end-of-life issues.
"What’s important is that the discussion must continue in a spirit of charity and mutual respect," she said.
In the future, she added, "the problems will only get more complex."
St. Michael celebration
The Palmer parish’s first Mass was celebrated in a tent. Seventy years later, worshippers gather to remember a historic Catholic community.
A great deal of history — Catholic, Alaskan, American — intersects at St. Michael Parish in Palmer, which celebrated its 70th anniversary last week.
St. Michael was born along with the community of Palmer in 1935. That year, the federal government, in one response to the Great Depression and farmland drought, moved 202 struggling Midwestern farm families to establish the Matanuska farming colony in the valley nestled between two snowcapped mountain ranges.
Before cabins could be built, a tent city emerged, and it was in one of these tents, on a Sunday in May 1935, that Father Francis Sulzman offered the first Mass for what would become St. Michael Parish.
Within a year, a little log cabin church, holding barely 40 people, was built, and it remained the parish church until the late 1960s.
Rosella Scheibl, who moved to Palmer in 1952 and later married one of the original colonists, remembers that log church.
"You know those little candles that everyone lights at the vigil Mass at Easter?" Scheibl asked. "Well, there was such a draft from between the logs that it would blow out the candles. There was no insulation in the ceiling, and by the end of Mass your feet would be freezing."
People dressed accordingly, Scheibl said.
"Everybody wore Army coats and bunny boots from surplus, and I remember sitting behind families at church and not being able to tell the mamas from the papas."
On the other hand, she added, in those days there weren’t many stores offering Sunday clothes anyway, even in Anchorage.
Today, worshippers gather in a spacious wood church with large windows that was built in the late 1960s. Fields and farms form the parish’s immediate borders, and steep-sided Pioneer Peak towers nearby.
Like the rest of the Matanuska Valley’s population — the fastest-growing part of the state — St. Michael’s is increasing too. There are now 425 families in the parish.
The present church is larger and better-built than its predecessors, but it still has limitations, including a lack of classrooms, according to Father Leo Desso, St. Michael’s pastor since 1999.
Palmer, 42 miles northeast of Anchorage, retains a Midwestern small-town charm despite the rapid population growth in the Matanuska Valley in recent years. Although agriculture remains part of the economy, many parishioners are professional people, business owners, Slope workers, or newcomers who commute to Anchorage.
Still, "it’s a close-knit community," said Eve Hermon, who arrived in 1956 from Nevada, looking for adventure but "not having a clue what I was getting into."
There wasn’t a paved road in Palmer in 1956, and Hermon walked to work and church.
"No one was a stranger here for very long," said Hermon, who remembers being impressed by the large families who all came to Mass together.
Like countless Alaskans, she was "only coming for a year," she said, but three years after arriving, she married her husband, Ben, a colonist who came to the tent city at the age of 9.
During her years at St. Michael, Hermon has helped out at the Bishop’s Attic, an offspring of the thrift store with the same name in Anchorage. The Valley Bishop’s Attic provides income for both St. Michael and Sacred Heart Parish in Wasilla, as well as other charities chosen annually.
"Slippery Gulch," another parish mainstay, is a food concession at the annual Alaska State Fair in Palmer, a must-stop for fair-goers seeking hearty hamburgers and homemade pie.
Proceeds benefit the parish.
Jeanne Jordan, the secretary at St. Michael for the past six years, has been a parishioner with her husband, Jack, since 1982. She praises both parishioners and priests.
"We have wonderful people in this parish, sweet-spirited people who are willing to do anything," Jordan said. And each priest has been brought unique gifts, she said, including Father Desso, whom Jordan describes as a "Vatican II priest."
Father Desso is the 15th pastor assigned to St. Michael over its 70-year history. Coincidentally, he was born the same month and year that the parish was founded.Msgr. James Snead served the longest, from 1939 to 1966. Other popular pastors included Father Ernest Muellerleile, 1972-74, and Father Michael Shields, l987-1994.Today, Father Desso is looking to replace Bonnie Cler, the vibrant director of youth ministry who recently resigned to pursue an advanced degree. She’ll be sorely missed, the pastor said.
Earlier this year, an 11-member contingent of Cler’s youth group won the St. Francis of Assisi Youth Award, an archdiocesan service award, for their participation in a two-year program of study and service coordinated through St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.
Archbishop Roger Schwietz presided May 29 when St. Michael parishioners gathered for an anniversary Mass and reception.
Meanwhile, parishioners Jamie Barrett Wise, Sharon Benson and Dee Covalt are working on oral and written histories of the parish.
Msgr. Allen’s cancer treatment is halted
A priest who served on the archdiocese’s supply priest circuit, Msgr. Richard Allen, has terminal cancer and has returned to his home diocese of Charlotte, N.C.
Msgr. Allen came to Alaska in 2000, after retiring from service in Charlotte. He rode airplanes and drove his Subaru Outback all over Southcentral Alaska ministering in parishes without resident pastors.
In March Msgr. Allen announced in the Anchor that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer and that he was going to New York for treatment. Last month the priest informed Archbishop Roger Schwietz that he and his doctors had decided to discontinue the treatment because it was not effective. Msgr. Allen decided to return to Charlotte for the remainder of his life, the archbishop said.
Deacon Bill Frost of Willow, a friend of Msgr. Allen’s, told the Anchor last week that Msgr. Allen sounded very weak when they had spoken a few days before.Deacon Frost said Msgr. Allen enjoys receiving letters from Alaska. Correspondence should be sent to Msgr. Allen’s former parish secretary, Jean Panischil, at 1614 Dilworth Road E., Charlotte, NC 28203.
To Our Readers:
The Catholic Anchor Web site has a new address: www.catholicanchor.org. The site used to be housed in a folder of the archdiocesan Web page. Please update your bookmarks.
The Anchorage Archdiocese, meanwhile, has totally renovated its site, which retains its address: www.archdioceseofanchorage.org. It’s attractively designed and brimming with information about the local Catholic community.
These Web sites are intended to serve as means of communicating the Good News, as tools of evangelization. Visitors to the sites can read the latest news and opinions and see pictures of the faith community in action; learn about upcoming events in the archdiocese; find links to national and international Catholic news and programs; learn about the history of the archdiocese and its different ministries; plus find contact information and links to parish Web sites.
We hope you’ll utilize the sites and, as always, we welcome feedback.
Time-tested practices dictate postures, gestures
Much to our embarrassment, our friends can often tell us how we are feeling before we say a word.
Our bodies, particularly our facial expressions, speak volumes for us. Body language it’s called. We cannot prevent it; we act the way we feel and, of course, we all know the wide range of our emotions.
We also know that the positions of our body assist us in accomplishing certain things that we may plan to do. When we wish to take a nap, for instance, we lie down. If something important is about to be said in a meeting, we sit erect and keep alert. If an important person comes into our midst, we stand up in recognition. If we want to relax to watch a sport event, we sit in a comfortable position.
Bodily positions can help us participate in the human activity we have chosen.
For Catholics, all this is particularly important because we are a people who pray not only with our lips and our voices but also with our bodies. The position that we take enhances what we reflect on with our mind and speak with our lips.
For that reason our church has wisely integrated certain bodily positions into our prayer life.
Sitting is a posture of attentive listening and meditation. For that reason, we sit for the Scripture readings before the Gospel. We remain seated as the gifts of bread and wine are being collected, prepared and set apart for Eucharist.
After receiving Holy Communion and when the Eucharist has been replaced in the tabernacle, we sit for some moments of quiet thanksgiving.
Standing, a posture which identifies us most uniquely as human persons, is also a posture of respect, honor and reverence. From the days of the early church standing has been understood as the posture of those who are risen with Christ.
So the General Instruction of the Roman Missal calls the assembly to stand for the proclamation of the Gospel, for the reception of Holy Communion and for many of the prayers addressed to God.
Kneeling, from the earliest days of the church, has signified penance; indeed, so much so that believers were forbidden to kneel on Sundays and during the Easter Season when the spirit of the liturgy should be joyful and thankful.
In more recent times, kneeling has also become a posture of adoration. It is for this reason that the U.S. bishops have adapted the General Instruction to call for the posture of kneeling for the entire Eucharistic prayer.
As the General Instruction points out, "A common posture … is a sign of unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the Sacred Liturgy: It both expresses and fosters the intention and spiritual attitude of the participants" (No. 42).
It is sometimes said that we Catholics, who have the longest tradition of using certain gestures in our liturgy, often appear reluctant, even stuffy, in their use.
If one wishes to experience religious gestures in their most exuberant form, we need only attend a group of fundamentalist Christians at worship, or a community of African-American Baptists. These folks have no reluctance in using hands and arms, and indeed their entire bodies, to pray.
Nonetheless, reluctant as we often seem in the use of our sacred gestures, there are several such gestures that have been our practice for centuries and that speak volumes about our prayer.
The sign of the cross, which begins and ends every liturgy, recalls the one who suffered and died for us on the cross. In fact the sign of the cross begins and ends all we do as Catholics — from the cross we receive at baptism to the cross that is made over our body at death.
Many Christians spontaneously lift their hands in prayer when so invited or at the Lord’s Prayer. As a sign of respect for the words of Christ when they are publicly proclaimed at the Gospel, we sign ourselves on the forehead, lips and breast.
We bow at the words of the Incarnation during the creed and before we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. We bow to the altar, the sign of Christ present, when we enter or leave the church. If the tabernacle is located in the sanctuary we genuflect in reverence to the bodily presence of Christ.
In short, even though we may not seem very emotionally demonstrative in our external gestures, it is because we are recipients of an ancient Roman tradition that observes moderation and brevity in all things sacred. We know the meaning of the old saying, "Less is more."
Editorials
Poor, vulnerable overlooked again
Politicians in Juneau (and elsewhere) usually justify cuts to services for the poor and vulnerable by saying there is just too little money to go around. The state has to cut back, they say, then quickly draw the budget knives and cut, first and foremost, from programs that benefit the poor.
So when the state receives a huge influx of unexpected cash, as it has recently because of super high oil prices, wouldn’t one expect these same politicians to restore some of the previously whacked funding?
Right.
In 2003 the Legislature and governor lowered income eligibility levels for Denali KidCare, the state’s health care program for low-income women and children, and eliminated the program’s inflation-proofing component. Cost containment was cited as the reason.
The same year, those in charge in Juneau also removed the inflation-proofing component of the state’s new minimum-wage law. Too costly for business, they argued.
Two years later, state coffers are overflowing thanks to a sustained spike in the price of oil. Since fiscal 2003, unrestricted oil revenue to the state has leapt from $1.64 billion to over $2.62 billion in 2005. The unrestricted state general fund revenue in the budget just passed by the Legislature for fiscal 2006 is $2.98 billion, compared with $2.3 billion this year.
Politicians found ways to spend the extra $700 million, and uncounted millions more in federal funds, but no one sought to restore Denali KidCare, and no one fought for minimum-wage earners. In fact, the Legislature cut $25 million from the governor’s proposed Medicaid budget.
The extra state money has been divvied up between education, savings and one of the largest capital budgets in state history.
But who hears the cry of the poor? Should the state’s extra income go to improve traffic flow at the expense of health care for women and children of moderate means?
Juneau needs more politicians who stand up for the most vulnerable citizens as the state decides how it will spend its money.
Some facts about stem cell research
It is important to remember a few subtle but important facts as the war of words over stem cells comes on.
The war is shaping up as a contest between President Bush and Congress over embryonic stem-cell research. The U.S. House just passed an act that would lift the president’s 2001 ban on federal funding of stem-cell research that destroys human embryos.
The president has vowed to veto the act if necessary. But this won’t end the push for embryonic stem-cell research.
As the debate rages, here are some points to remember:
• Embryonic stem-cell research for which federal funding is currently banned destroys the human embryo from which the stem cells are extracted. There is ample federal funding for research using stem cells derived in morally neutral ways, such as from umbilical cord blood.
• Embryonic stem cells have the ability to differentiate into any human cell type, and thus are especially prized for their potential in treating diseases that involve tissue degeneration, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. But adult stem cells show great promise as well, and in fact are already being utilized to treat leukemia, lymphoma, inherited blood disorders and conditions requiring bone marrow transplants. Plus, recent advances with bone marrow stem cells have shown their potential to differentiate into many types of cells, increasing their value to scientists.
• The Catholic Church opposes the direct destruction of innocent human life, even embryonic life, for any reason. Therefor it opposes research that destroys a human embryo, even for the good of science.
• The Catholic position does not place greater value on frozen embryos than on suffering patients; it values both forms of human life equally.
Letters to the Editor
Don’t perpetuate ‘pro-life’ myth
Whoever wrote the headline for my May 20 letter to the editor ("Pro-life group deserves space") grossly misrepresented my position. I support pro-life groups, not ones that pretend to be. Secular political groups that call themselves "pro-life" simply because of their positions on abortion, euthanasia, stem cells and assisted suicide are engaging in political spin, not the truth. In my view, picking out whichever four pro-life positions we like most is like obeying whichever four commandments we like most. I don’t believe Catholic newspapers should contribute to dumbing down moral discourse and to diluting moral standards. It’s bad enough that more and more secular news media are surrendering to the spin doctors by unquestioningly adopting their misnomers. But we Catholics are blessed with the Truth. Our newspapers should reflect that.
Anchorage
Donations were very helpful
On behalf of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, I am writing to thank all of the faithful of the Anchorage Archdiocese for your very generous 2004 collection contribution of $22,137.11. This support enables the church in the United States to continue to support people who are poor to break the cycle of poverty. For more than three decades the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been able to support low-income people as they find a way out of poverty for themselves and their communities. We turn the gifts of individual parishioners into hope for communities caught in a cycle of poverty. In 2004, you helped us grant $9 million in support of 330 local projects in the United States and its territories. We are proud to be one of the largest private funders of anti-poverty programs initiated and led by people living in poverty. Thank you.
Washington, D.C.
Bring ‘ring thing’ to Alaska
I saw in the April 22 Anchor that youths in Detroit have committed themselves to abstinence (Nation News & Notes). Each wears a silver ring to show that he or she is abstaining from sex. It started with a church program called "Silver Ring Thing," the story says. I think all of Alaska youths should have the opportunity to have a "ring thing." Is there any reader out there who could help promote this idea?
Anchorage