Another in a string of

Jun 25, 2001

Another in a string of glorious summer days here in Cleveland, as it was yesterday for Anna’s baptism. Among the friends and family gathered were my mom, Anna’s godparents Tom and Katie in from Chicago, and Pat and Patty Shaughnessy in from Erie. Richard Gildenmeister was there, too. After mass in the old hall of Our Lady of Peace Church, we gathered beneath the scaffolding in the main church, which is being repainted on its 50th anniversary. I smiled when I saw the aluminum scaffolding filling the beautiful sanctuary, lit softly by the light coming through the blue stained glass windows. I want to teach Anna to appreciate architecture, though I doubt Erin will let me cart her off to New York to see the Frank Gehry exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum. (Need a good archicture novel? How about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand or Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth.) Here’s the poem we wrote in honor of Anna’s christening:

You are a community, a family, a village,
you are gathered as communities gather in villages and churches
around the world, as in Vanuatu and Liro,
Cleveland, Chicago, Honolulu
to present a baby, a son or a daughter,
held before you to proclaim her names:

Anna
gracious gift in our lives
to remember joyous Enna, adoptive daughter on Paama

Olivia
of the olives, for peace
to continue the core of our beliefs – faith is family

Zuiker
sugar, sweetness
to honor tradition in Irish linen,
as Nickels, Shaughness and Sisco infants before.

This new life, awesome and miraculous
entrusted to us, we turn to you
Katie, Tom, and community

to ask you to join in nurturing in Anna
the spirited compassion of Christ
the baptism of belief
the awareness of God in our lives.

Anton Zuiker ☄