This is the presentation I offered to the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan on October 4th, 2013.

1. Episcopal Diocese
of Northern Michigan
118TH ANNUAL CONVENTION
October 4th, 2013
1Saturday, October 5, 13

2. The Parable of the Crude Little
Life-Saving Station
by Reverend Doctor Theodore Wedel
2Saturday, October 5, 13

3. On a dangerous sea coast
where shipwrecks often occur,
there was once a
crude little life-saving station.
3Saturday, October 5, 13

4. The building was just a hut,
and there was only one boat…
4Saturday, October 5, 13

5. but the few
devoted members
kept a constant
watch over the sea
and, with no
thought for
themselves, went
out day and night
tirelessly
searching for the
lost.
5Saturday, October 5, 13

6. Some of those who were saved and various others
in the surrounding area wanted to become
associated with the station
and gave
of their
time and money and effort
for the support of its work.
6Saturday, October 5, 13

7. New boats were bought and new crews trained.
The little life-saving station grew.
7Saturday, October 5, 13

8. Some of the members of the life-saving station
were unhappy
that the building
was so crude and poorly equipped.
8Saturday, October 5, 13

9. They felt that a more comfortable place should be
provided as the first refuge of those saved from the
sea.
They replaced the emergency cots with beds and
put better furniture in the enlarged building.
9Saturday, October 5, 13

10. Now the life-saving station became a popular
gathering place for its members, and they
decorated it
beautifully
because
they used
it as a sort
of club.
10Saturday, October 5, 13

11. Fewer members were now interested
in going to sea on life-saving missions,
so they hired professional lifeboat crews
to do this work.
11Saturday, October 5, 13

12. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s
decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in
the room where the club’s initiations were held.
12Saturday, October 5, 13

13. About this time a large ship wrecked off the
coast and the hired crews brought in boat loads
of cold, wet and half-drowned people.They were
dirty and sick.The beautiful new club was in
chaos.
13Saturday, October 5, 13

14. So the property
committee
immediately had
a shower house
built outside the
club where
victims of
shipwrecks could
be cleaned up
before coming
inside.
14Saturday, October 5, 13

15. At the next meeting, there was a split among the
club membership. Most of the members wanted to
stop the club’s
life-saving
activities as being
unpleasant
and a hindrance
to the normal
social life of
the club.
15Saturday, October 5, 13

16. Some members
insisted upon life-
saving as their
primary purpose
and pointed out
that they were still
called a life-saving
station.
16Saturday, October 5, 13

17. But they were finally
voted down and told
that if they wanted to
save the lives of all the
various kinds of
people who were
shipwrecked in those
waters, they could
begin their own life-
saving station.
17Saturday, October 5, 13

18. So they did.
18Saturday, October 5, 13

19. As the years went by, the new station experienced
the same changes that had occurred in the old. It
evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving
station was founded.
19Saturday, October 5, 13

20. History continued to repeat itself and if you visit
that sea coast today, you will find a number of
exclusive clubs along that shore.
20Saturday, October 5, 13

21. Shipwrecks are frequent…
…in those waters,
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22. but most of the people…
…drown.
22Saturday, October 5, 13

23. At what point do you think that this
lifesaving station first began moving away
from its original identity and purpose?
23Saturday, October 5, 13

24. Where would you have
intervened in this story?
24Saturday, October 5, 13

25. What language does your local congregation use
to talk about terms like "rocky sea coasts,"
"shipwrecks," being "lost," "tirelessly searching"
and "saved"?
25Saturday, October 5, 13

26. Guidelines for follow-up conversations:
• How would you describe the purposes of the original life-saving station?
• Why do you think that volunteers signed up to help with those purposes?
• At what point do you think that this lifesaving station first began moving away from its original identity and
purpose?
• What might an outsider have noticed as a first sign of this move from Station to Club?
• What might have been the underlying reasons that caused the earliest volunteers to commit to the station's
mission?
• Once the station began functioning as a club, what was the primary benefit of membership?
• Whose taste and needs were represented in the decor of the new clubhouse?
• What makes it easier to start a new station down that proverbial coast, rather than turn the existing club around?
• At what point in the evolution from station to club would it be easier to turn the trend around?
• If you were to start a new crude little Lifesaving Station today, what would you do to prevent this shift from
eventually happening?
• Who would you imagine to be the most motivated volunteers in your newly forming station?
• What are the parallels you see between this parable and your own congregation's history?
• If you think of the crude little lifesaving station as being one place on a continuum of possibilities and the
exclusive club as occupying another spot on that continuum, where do you think your ministry is located?
• What is the significance of decommissioning one of the lifeboats and placing it on a liturgical stand as symbol of
identity?
• Do you know of any other "means of grace" that have been decommissioned and then turned into symbols in our
churches?
• What language does your local congregation use to talk about terms like "rocky sea coasts," "shipwrecks," being
"lost," "tirelessly searching" and "saved"?
26Saturday, October 5, 13

27. REFERENCES:
The Rev. Dr. Canon Theodore O.Wedel, son of a Mennonite minister, was ordained an
Episcopal priest in 1931. He served as canon of the Washington National Cathedral and
warden of the College of Preachers from 1939 until 1960. President of the House of
Deputies of the Church's General Convention from 1952 to 1961, he was active in the
ecumenical movement and served as chairman of evangelism for the World Council of
Churches.
For the Birds is a 2000 animated short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and
directed by Ralph Eggleston. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in
2001. It premiered on June 5, 2000, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in
France.
Reverend Tom Brackett
Missioner, New Church Starts & Missional Initiatives
Episcopal Church Center
815 2nd Ave.
New York, NY 10017
646-203-6266
tbrackett@episcopalchurch.org
27Saturday, October 5, 13