1. Email thirddraft BishopMarc interview 812016
++++++++++++DearReverend Joseph Peters-Mathews
Working Group Head for Communications
Episcopal Diocese, San Francisco
I’ll be talking with Captain Guy T. Gruters again by phone from my home in Mill Valley regarding
an interview-article about his relationship with Christ and God in prayer during his 5.3 years as
a Prisoner of War at the Hanoi Hilton. You may recall it held 300 Americans who were part of
the American forces fighting the Communist enemy in Vietnam during that conflict.
When Captain Gruters came home, Senator John McCain was one of those aboard the
American air craft with him.
He can be seen in that same video, and is also wearing an American uniform again after
enduring captivity at the hands of the cruel North Vietnamese.
As one part of the article-interview, I’ve asked the Gruters, the pilot who was shot down, and
who is an Air Force Academy Graduate, if he will view all three parts of the video shown on
YouTube where Bishop Marc leads a march from Grace Cathedral for peace to the Federal
Building.
I included a link to the first part of the three videos for your information. This is the first video:
https://youtu.be/dHsuu0abrr0
I did not meet Captain Gruters when my wife suggested we visit St Hillary Church (Roman
Catholic) in Tiburon one evening for a fund raising event that evening for a number of activities,
including a Mexican dinner, and Captain Guy T. Gruters giving a talk about his time as a prisoner
in the Hanoi Hilton
We parked in the St. Hillary Church lot from Mill Valley. My wife is Roman Catholic, and has
been a member of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in downtown Mill Valley her entire 62 years.
She has literally lived her entire life in Mill Valley.
We are no strangers to St Hillary, and we were married in her Mill Valley Church where she had
been Baptized as a baby.

2. Please ask Bishop Mark about his 2006 Requiem Eucharist – March, and if he will speak with
me about it for the record and Church of England Newspaper, London. Of course, can speak
freely about it.
I’d phone him from my desk that is in the corner of my living room.
Has the Bishop as much as an hour and a half to enter into a conversation about his experience
on the walk. This would include his time in prayer when in his cell. His reason for allowing
himself to be arrested. After all, he is a Bishop. Not many San Francisco Police Officers really
want to put the cuffs on an Episcopal Bishop of San Francisco. Nor does a Bishop volunteer to
put themselves in a position for the local police to help into a jail cell. Consider those thoughts
points of departure for questions.
Does Bishop Mark have thoughts or current prayers in mind or heart still in consideration as a
result of today’s situation of conflicts in Iraq today, and how they’ve played for Americans
today. This terrible area of violence, hate, terrorism in America, and its literal threats on our
own soil, infects so much of our lives today: This fear and hate infects our neighbors world
wide: Beheading a Catholic Priest 82 years old serving Communion in the Church before the
Parish in France. I call all of this due to Isis, and the stretch of violence from that day to the war
off Isis on America in our own country, not only Europe and the rest of the world. Does he hold
a Req uiem Eucharist today in remembrance of all dead who are part of the forces of ISIS?
My wife and I were deeply moved by Guy T. Gruters talk, and its Christian faith. We had never
heard anyone speak of the war in Vietnam in this manner. Certainly, I had not. It was so
important to me to hear him speak about Forgiveness, and of course prayer in a manner that
spoke of deep contemplation, and what I heard as unity with Christ in God. This man found
harmony through prayer with our God in a Prisoner of War campt in North Vietnam called
Hanoi Hilton. It was a place of torture and notorious evil. Guy T. Gruters Religiously inspired
life’s purpose was born through prayer in silence in a matter of the heart’s recognition of
experience with the Lord. This new life was the result of a previously unexplored result of an
inner depth.with the One. (Apologies to Stuart Thornton, writing for Monterey Count Weekly,
about New Camaldoli Hermitage http://www.contemplation.com/ ) Captain Guy T. Gruters
called this, “Locked up with God.”
The theme of Captain Gruter’s talk that evening was Forgiveness. Another moving and key
theme of this pilot of F-100 U.S. fighter jets with more than 500 literal and successful combat
missions was Courage. The men who came home from Hanoi Hilton knew about courage. This
was apparent in their appearance on ABC television with Barbara Walters. I bet it was part of
the reason they attended dinner at the Nixon White House. And part of the reason they were in
a Prisoner of War camp, and tortured mercilessly.
I had the distinct pleasure and even special experience of speaking with Captain Guy T. Gruters
for 39 minutes at his home by phone from Starbucks on my cell. One matter of conversation

3. was Mercy. He knew I was calling because I wrote a column for Church of England Newspaper,
London and had been associated with the paper, appearing online, for about 12 years or more.
He knew I wrote about religion. This was the Starbucks in Mill Valley, near where my wife works
at The Redwoods taking care of elderly ladies in Personal Care, and close to the high school.
This Starbucks is not too loud, I thought.
I did not go to Starbucks to phone Captain Gruters. I get these ideas in my head and act on
them. Good thing.
Perhaps you have never heard of Captain Gruters. One experience in his life at Hanoi Hilton was
three months of silent prayer. I cannot recall if he was alone at the time. The Bishop may want
to ask him about this himself, if he talks to the Captain.. I believe these were contemplative
times of Mercy he gained through God’s grace to be with Christ in God while locked up in the
enemy’s terrifying prison during the Vietnam War. He certainly testifies to such. This is my
description, of course of how I found his talk at St. Hilary Church in Tiburon that wonderful
night while in the pews along with about 300 other people. There were many children with
their parents. This includes small children, who appeared to pay attention to Captain Gruters.
He spoke from a podium. Captain Gruters is a serious Roman Catholic layman. And though he
speaks at Roman Catholic Churches, perhaps a few like the beautiful one in Tiburon, with many
in short that evening, gathered from the public at large, they were quickly in awe of the Ace Air
Force Pilot. I think most all were without a clue who Captain Gruters might be, or the Gospel
Choir that followed. I want you to know this Church community is the well-healed crowd.
My wife Linda and I joined the rest of the crowd present in realizing this was a true American
hero, and one we had never heard from. I’d never heard anyone say the things this American
pilot was saying: “enemy,” “prisoner of God…” and so many other things. Many of them
personal truths of faith.
The Captain is a true man of faith in the Christian God.
Did you know, Reverend, the United States servicemen who were prisoners of Hanoi Hilton held
Christian Church every Sunday. The Communists tortured them, demanding they quit. They did
not cease their Church services, ever. I say again, because I like to say this, These were literally
Christian Church services. Every Sunday. Ask Senator McCain. He was one of them.
The American war prisoners wrote hymns, and sang them in Hanoi Hilton. I understand they
wrote their hymns on toilet paper.
You’ll find this link to the interview given by Barbara Walters very soon. I include the Link for
the Bishop’s information. He can see and hear Captain Guy T. Gruters in this talk with Barbara
Walters, with two other prisoners. They needed each other. All 300 prisoners needed each
other, so it was as they told it.
In this video, Captain Gruters was with his wife, and attended a dinner together with other
prisoners. This was a formal dinner for them at the Nixon White House.

4. I did not find the ABC News Video very long. Even the choir singing one of their hymns as they
wrote it is relatively short; I think you’ll agree, it is also well presented.
https://youtu.be/-DZ23NZOIxI
Please click on the next link to find the Captain return to his family and wife, to his own home.
Here he is home right after his flight on an American plane packed with former POWs. Thank
God these men returned!
Again, I provide this moving black & white video so the Bishop has an introduction to Captain
Gruters, and those other Prisoners of War like him.
Has Bishop Mark met a Prisoner of War held at Hanoi Hilton, Reverend? As his Press Officer, I
direct the question to you, too.
Is it true, Reverend, that the Bishop does not believe in war on any basis. I assume he does not
select one war, or another, based on some kind of political, or other belief?
Does he know the definition of a Conscientious Objector as defined by The Selective Service?
Do you think the Bishop’s belief’s meet their definition, or those formal definitions held by any
branch of the U.S. Military Service? I assume he has talked with and perhaps counseled
Episcopalians considering or who said they were men of peace, or even conscientious
objectors? Am I correct in my assumption, Reverend Joseph Peters-Mathews. Is there
anywhere I can find this in the published press, or news media on video where I can find a
report? Of course, again, will Bishop Marc reply to this question, too? He may even remember
someone frm his past, previous to his time as Bishop. I guess he has had a long interest in
peace, and conducting or being a part of a Requiem Eucharist of a similar kind and intent. Was
he involved in this kind of of worship during the Vietnam War era?
Has the Bishop ever formed a religious sense of his objection to war, or written an objection to
war that is available to the press? Is there something in print in the press about his dedication
to this objection, or when put another way, dedication of conscience and even religious life? I
am trying to reach back prior to his time as Bishop, of course, and evidence of his religious life
in this way after 2006 as well. Please help me here, even in a small way. Or in forwarding my
interest to the Bishop, at least.
I ask these questions for you to answer, Reverend from your reservoir of knowledge of the
Bishop, and also to forward to the Bishop himself. These are apparently no small part of his life
in faith. Correct me if I am wrong about this observation.

5. To be clear on the matter, as I have been misunderstood at the Diocese and Cathedral in
previous inquiries before in my opinion, has any member of the press, in any form of media,
ever asked him if he ever marched for Peace again, or held a Requiem Eucharist of a similar kind
and intent –especially at Grace Cathedral. Assuming he takes Communion at home, has he
silently held a Requiem Eucharist of a similar kind on his own? Is he taking Communion in
recognition of or for Isis, or anyone else defined a terror group in the Middle East: That is
soldiers or individual leaders, too? Did he talk about these acts with others at Grace
Cathedral, or the Diocese?
I do want to know what the Bishop thinks of our men in arms, those who serve in the military,
and fight and die in wars? Has he held a Requiem Eucharist for our men in arms who have died
in battle, or Prisoners of War who have died in any Prisoner of War Camp, including Hanoi
Hilton?
I want to hear him speak about Forgiveness, in light of torture, a merciless and cruel action on
the part of the North Vietnam systematically imposed by the enemy on our men imprisoned by
them. Will he say something to me about this when I talk with him? I’d like him to talk with me
about Mercy. I hope the Bishop has something to say about Courage. Is he willing to talk about
Courage in battle, and in life in general. I assume he has even given a homily on the subject.
Will you point me to one of his homilies that speaks of Courage?
I know I am asking agreat deal. These are but two areas of Captain Guy T. Gruters that are a
part of his life in prayer while a Prisoner of War. They were a very important part of that life of
Prayer. They are a subject of faith, they are religious questions and so they are matters with
which Bishop Marc is more than familiar, as he is familiar with Mercy. I assume he, too, thinks
of these in terms of Christian concepts, as Christian teachings, as does Guy T. Gruters. There
they must share common ground, even if one is a Warrior, who became a Prisoner of War, who
flew 500 successful combat missions into North Vietnam in an F-100 as an Ace with other Misty
pilots for American forces fighting the Communist enemy.
He is probably aware that former Prisoner of War, John McCain, did not received any medical
treatment from the North Vietnamese Prison Captors until the Communists discovered his
father was an Admiral. In the event the Senator had not received the treatment, it is agreed by
most people who know about these matters that he would not have survived very long after he
was downed as a Navy Pilot.
Church of England Newspaper, London, asks me to write about matters religious.
It is my desire that the Bishop will speak in terms that have a religious basis in matters of faith.
Though his acts of being arrested enter into other arenas, my interest as a journalist allow
others to write about areas that are political, and more military even, or geopolitical. This is a
different opportunity for Bishop Marc. I look forward to his answering in terms as an Ordained
Bishop, a man living a religious life, speaking in words of faith as a Christian. I want to be sure

6. that his is Diocese of California. That Diocese includes San Francisco and its Bay Area in
California.
I cannot recall if there any other reporters on any large paper in the Bay Area has religion as a
beat. I’d like to hear about it if anyone has a title like Religion Writer. It’s been a long time since
I’ve heard of anyone in that kind of job. You probably know more about that kind of thing than
do I. This is that link to the video of Captain Gruters return to his home after captivity:
https://youtu.be/kVoXDLTb9MY
Uploaded on Apr 16, 2011
My website: www.guygruters.net for info and to book me as a motivational speaker: Book:
Locked Up With God - Amazon; I was shot down and rescued the first time with Capt Charlie
Neel. The USAF sent now Major Charlie Neel and his wonderful wife Linda to bring my wife
Sandy to meet the aircraft that flew us home from North Vietnam to Maxwell Air Force Base,
Alabama. There the video starts as I meet my youngest brother, Peter, my Dad, my Mom, my
sisters Mary Ann, Jeannie and Faith, my daughters Dawn and Sheri, and my sister's husbands.
Major Neel took this video in March of 1973. Please read my new book, "Locked Up With God,"
available on Amazon, for real detail. I also speak professionally now on faith, family, teamwork,
leadership and the POW and combat experiences for a wide variety of audiences.
Reverend, this is the last of the videos I suggest. It may be one too many. It shows the
remaining Hanoi Hilton Prisoners of War coming home. They speak a little bit in this video just
after their return State’s Side. One says, “There are pretty nurses…” Another tells the chef he
wants a dozen fried eggs, then goes back and asks for seven more. He eats all of the eggs!!
https://youtu.be/xj88Wspkn1s
This is Guy T. Gruters web page. You’ll find out a lot about Captain Gruters on this page. You’ll
find his phone number in case the Cathedral has an interest in his speaking sometime.
This is his web page:
http://www.guygruters.net/

7. I am happy to talk with Captain Gruters with him about Bishop Mark speaking with him off the
record regarding my inquiry of the Bishop about his video where he goes on a March in 2006.
Other than a conversation by phone with Captain Gruters in preparation for my talk with the
Bishop for publication in Church of England Newspaper, London, I have no reason to be
included in any phone call. That really goes without saying.
I want to add, Reverend Joseph Peters-Mathews, that I am clearly interested in an interview
with Bishop Marc.
You are not in any way a subject of this this story, of this interview.
Somehow you had the idea that you were the focus of my inquiry for a story and interview last
time I contacted Grace Cathedral to get an interview with Bishop Mark.
I might not have been clear to you in that inquiry regarding his press release about his desire to
talk to members of newspapers and all other media.
I do hope I have been understandable this time.
You can certainly write me directly if you have a problem of some kind with this of who I am
interviewing, or any matter.
Email is fine. I also have an answering machine on my phone.
Please call, as you are an important man in the Diocese, and certainly very important to people
who have an interest in contacting Bishop Mark. That is especially true for those like me who
are associated with writing about the subject of faith and religion.
With many thanks for getting this far down in this long email letter.
I almost need to congratulate you for your dedication.
You have my permission to share any or all of this email letter with Bishop Mark, of course.
Or please share it in the same manner with any one you think will be of help in securing his
attention regarding an interview with on the matter of his peace regarding the March and
incarceration in 2006 at the Federal Building, San Francisco.
You may publish parts or all of this email letter.
If there is a problem with the video links, including the one of the March itself of that
December, 2006 March showing him handcuffed his first year as San Francisco Bishop by the
City Police, I found it on YouTube. Let me know if I can help. Please contact me if there is a
problem with the video. You may have a better copy. Let me know, please if I may use it in
Church of England Newspaper, London.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Menkin
Mill Valley, California USA
Landline phone: 415-380-1852
August1, 2016, 5:10 a.m.

8. Please Note that I’d like to see if Terry Peck can take pictures of Bishop Marc at his Diocesan
Office. Let’s discuss when he may do this, and perhaps one of the times could be when he is on
the phone with Guy T. Gruters. Or at a time of his choosing. He can be somewhere in the
Cathedral, too. Terry is an Architect and Photographer. He is a Church friend and I have worked
with him previously. I do not know if I will accompany him. I injured my right knee, and must
use a walker. I don’t get around well.