Have Faith: A faithful farewell

I like that my saying goodbye to The MV Times can be written in this column — a column some people doubted. A column that looks at Islanders and their spiritual life. Because yes, indeed, we have a spiritual life here. For many of us, it’s taking our time sitting beside the ocean and realizing the perfect beauty that God (or someone else?) created for us. Maybe it’s walking one of the trails, or helping at the Food Pantry. All I know is that good comes from this Island, and good comes from this newspaper. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t have spent the past eight years working here.

I’ve had a wonderful time getting to know this community better through these pages, and as an editor here, I’ve tried to make sure that getting to know one another is part of the character of this newspaper. As an editor, I’ve been lucky in that I can write what interests me, and I can ask other writers to do the same. And there is no end to the amount of interesting stories and people here. It’s pretty much a writer’s dream.

But “Have Faith” is especially important to me. I came to the Island from Syracuse, N.Y., a dozen years ago, and I had been the editor of the Catholic Sun there for more than a while, so many of my decisions and my spiritual life came from that experience. And I wanted to keep writing about religion and spirituality after I moved here, because they truly are not the same thing. The MV Times welcomed my idea for this column, because even back then, they knew it had a place in our community.

I’m happy to report that with the new publisher, Charles Sennott, and also the new owner, Steve Bernier, we have two people who truly believe there’s a place for “Have Faith” in this newspaper and on this Island. New folks will be writing it, but I truly believe it will live on.

There were so many times I was out in the community and someone would ask my name and I’d say it, and then they’d say, “Oh, you write that column. I love that.” It was hands-down the single thing folks mentioned most when I met them, and I’m so grateful for that, and that maybe it resonated with some people. We never meant it to be preachy or one-sided, we just wanted to write about the community and how they explore or express their faith.

One of the things I really wanted to accomplish was to have the clergy — or just us regular folks — represented here. Our clergy on the Island are so busy, and very much connected to the seasonal nature of the Island. But I’ve met all of them in some way or another, and I can say without hesitation that they’re good people who care about this community — the whole community, not just their congregations who might believe like them. I’m convinced that if you’re a searcher at all, you can find a spiritual home here. And if you don’t, you’ll still find like-minded folks.

I’m happy and grateful to have lived 63 years, and to have spent more than half of them writing for newspapers and magazines. Whenever you are lucky enough to love your work, you’ve been given a gift, no matter what that work entails.

One of the first places I visited when I moved here was the Unitarian Church; and you know, it’s not necessarily a church per se, but more of a place of thought. Open-minded and social-justice-oriented, it’s not unlike Unitarian societies I’ve visited before. Whenever the social justice-minded Catholics in Syracuse participated in a protest, or when we all went to Fort Benning in Georgia to protest the School of the Americas (it has a more neutral-sounding name now), where soldiers who killed Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador were trained, the Unitarians and the Quakers were there too.

I visited the Episcopal churches here, remembering that one of my college professors told the class that “Episcopalians are Catholics with money.” I’m not convinced that’s true. Maybe it was a little religious-professor comedy. The First Baptist Church and the Chilmark Community Church are both places where I’d feel very comfortable worshiping, as well as the tiny church up in Aquinnah, where the history runs very, very deep. There’s no denomination here that didn’t make me feel welcome, including Rabbi Caryn Broitman at the Hebrew Center and the new Chabad on Martha’s Vineyard — both deeply affected by what’s happening across the globe.

I guess what I’d want to part with is a reminder that this Island is a good place to explore your own nature, your spirituality, your relationship with the divine, your innermost self. You’ll find love and acceptance here. I have, and you will too. Don’t be afraid to explore it.