<Begin Segment 10>

BB: You mentioned a little before about music, and I know that's a great gift of yours. Can you say more about music. And the years that you were here? I know that people sang simultaneously in Japanese and in English, but you haven't mention the fact that you also compose music. And I know when you were here recently, you brought a wonderful benediction to us. I'm guessing that you shared in musically in the years that you were here.

CE: I shared musically mostly by singing loud. [Laughs] I felt sort of limited, but I figured if I would sing loud, they would sing a little bit because they were very hesitant in those years. They didn't really, were almost afraid of their own voice sort of thing. But I tried hard to get them to sing out a little bit. The person who came after me in the music area after I had retired did much better with them than I did. She, Sue Lundig got them really going on being willing to sing. I wasn't as successful about that. But I did, you know, share... don't know whether I should tell this story. I went on vacation from here, and I, on vacation one year, it was 1980 actually. I read the book Shogun, and I became enamored with the word wa, the deep inner peace, when in the book Mariko says to Anjin, "I'm sorry I disturbed your wa." And I became just fascinated with that concept, and I tried to relate it to some biblical things. And I wrote a song, Wa of the Soul, but it was not a group song. It was a sort of soul song. So I decided I would sing it for them one morning. But before I was going to sing it, I wanted to talk about it. And so I went out in the middle of the congregation, and I was talking about wa, peace, deep peace, and there's probably no English equivalent to really express the depth of what wa means and so forth and wa and peace. All of a sudden one of the members looked to me and kind of raised her finger and said, she said, Reverend, I think you need to start over. You're talking about wa and peace, and Shinya's talking about "war and peace." And Shinya, I thought there was no reason in the world that he would have read Shogun and what there was that he picked up, and how I was saying it and probably a good part my fault. But whatever it was, he got the impression that I was talking about war and peace, and he was trying to talk about that book War and Peace. [Laughs] And we all had a good laugh, and then we started over. It's like the time I... I was sort of an independent person. The communion was so easy to fix; I just always did it myself. And rather than having people have to come down to the church and prepare it and so forth, and this is all we're going to do. And I was going on sabbatical, and it was the first Sunday in September, and I said, "One of my great wishes is to have communion with you before I go away for three months on this study leave." We are supposed to do studies every eight years, and I had been nine years and hadn't. So I was very sentimental about old habits, so I wanted to do this and so forth. And I got to the communion table, and I lifted the bread, and then I lifted the cup, and I looked at the cup, and there wasn't anything in it. And I set the cup down, and I thought there's no way I can get out of this. I can't bluff anything here. There is just nothing in that cup. So I went down into the middle of the congregation, and I said, "I am so grateful that I can be vulnerable with you people. I got to tell you the cup is empty. The grape juice is still in the refrigerator down in the kitchen." At that, one lady jumped up real fast, ran down, and brought up the bottle of grape juice. And I was pouring it in the cup, and it was going glug, glug, glug, and I looked out at the congregation and said, "I sure don't feel very holy right now." [Laughs]

BB: Home, this was really home.

CE: It was fun, and they were so patient with me. One other wonderful memory. The emperor had died, and I was informed that it would be appropriate for me to go to the consul general's home and pay my respects and a good share of the days I had lunch Ikoi no Kai. I paid my way because it was a good way to get lunch and be with the people and you know. So we were having lunch at Ikoi no Kai, and I was going to go up to pay my respects to the emperor after the lunch. And Elmer Nishimoto decided that he'd better check if I knew how to bow right before I left. So before everybody, here I was standing up in the middle of the crowd with Elmer telling me whether I was bowing right, little bit lower you know, a little slower, and you know. He wanted to be sure I had it exactly right. And I got there, and there was nobody in the room. Nobody would have seen me bow anyway, but perhaps the emperor would, and so it was all right. And I cherish that memory, and Elmer was trying to do his best and being sure I was proper. Properness protocol, I depended hugely upon Mrs. Chiyo Endo for when I didn't, wasn't sure about something, I would go to her and talk to her about it. She gave me good guidance.

BB: And during the time you were here, the Northwest Nikkei Conference met here.

CE: In its turn.

BB: In its turn and the youth conference also would meet here. So the connections with the rest of the United Methodist Northwest.

CE: I switched between United Methodist and Methodist. And we were Methodist Episcopal until 1939, and then we were Methodist until 1968 and then we were United Methodist. And so I get a little mixed up on the Methodist terminologies.

BB: We have been many things. Well, what else or is there anything else of that twelve year period that you were here that you'd like to share, any stories or... I know, I think you said at the end, there was something you wanted to read before we --

CE: I wanted to share this, and I think we, you know, pretty much covered a lot of the history and the... I wanted to say that after I made the decision to stay in that sort of uncertain fall time, you know, I don't think I said that in late September, that same three men took me out lunch again and said, and wanted to ask if I would stay two years. And I said, "You know, we're hardly started into the first year yet, and we're just getting into the fall stuff, and I don't know what to say." They said, "Well, would it be an absolute no?" And I said, "Well, I can't say that it would be an absolute no." I'll think about it and so forth. And after I made that decision to stay, some of my colleagues in ministry chided me a bit. Gently, but they said, "That's no way to treat your profession." And I knew they meant, "You're going backward, not forward, and certainly not up to bigger and better things." And I simply said to them, "Perhaps we have a different measure of success. What is success except to be doing something that needs to be done and enjoying doing it?" So I felt like I was successful at Epworth Church, and I just loved being with my people because they were my parish, my flock, and I loved being with my people. In those twelve years, I officiated at the funerals or memorial services of twenty-four Issei and twenty-two Nisei, and that's almost four a year average. And I wanted to say that I think on the, back on the names of those persons with joy and with an inner warmth, and I think of those who still carry the torch, and I am grateful. I still experience a kind of warm smiling sadness that those days are gone, and I certainly would live them again if I could.

BB: Amen.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.