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BB: The transition really strikes me in those years that you were here.

CE: Well, it was, it was very different when I left from when I came. And I'm glad for that, but I won't take all the credit for that. I had ideas, but it was always the people's choice. I... one of my fondest memories is one week in the Oregonian, a full page ad was printed, anti... racist -- as I remember anti-Jewish, a horrendous message, and I immediately got a letter from Ecumenical Ministries because Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon had decided that this could not go unanswered, and so they immediately appointed a little committee of people to write a response. And the letter included the response they had written and asked each church in the Portland area if they would support this response, if they wanted to support it by attaching their names to it, and if they would, we would all send in a contribution to help cover for the cost of the thing because it, again, was a full page ad. And of course, I had not the slightest clue. And then the Sunday morning service, I had a pattern a little ways into the beginning of the service, I'd walk down right into the center aisle right in the middle of all the people and stood there, and we had a little conversation. People had a chance to express joys and concerns, ask questions and so forth, and I said, "You know, this morning, I need to bring you something that's really serious and really, you know, I would not speak for you, and I want you to know." And I read, referred to the first ad. I read the letter and the response that was written, and I said would you like to do this. And the proposal was that the church and the minister's name be together on the page if we wanted to do it. Well, the first thing that happened was a young man stood up, a young Japanese family that had started attending here but hadn't joined yet, but I had talked to them about joining. And he stood up, and he said, "I am not a member of this church yet. But if I were a member, I would want my church to support this reply, this response." And everybody sort of said yes and nodded and a couple of claps. And then someone said, "Does the church name and the minister's name have to be together? Can they be separate?" I said, "I don't know, I'll find out." So I called the Ecumenical Ministry's office. I asked for the director and said this was the question that was raised, and I can't answer it, you know. What do you think? He said, "Let me talk to the committee. We're going to meet this afternoon." I'd called Monday morning, and he called me back late afternoon and said the committee thought that was a remarkable idea for all the churches and all the ministers. Put all the, the churches would be listed separately as the church and all the ministers would be listed separately. I thought it was a remarkable contribution to the whole thing. And it was a very moving time, I thought, and great stand up against discrimination, move in active.

BB: And that represented, the separate listing represented the strength of the church itself?

CE: That's right. They weren't doing it because I said they should. They were doing it on their own. They were speaking for themselves.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.