HILLSPEAKING
from The Anglican Digest 

ADVENT - CHRISTMAS - EPIPHANY A.D. 2003

EARLIER in this Jubilee Year, Patient Wife and I strolled from the Farm House across Trinity Park to see a tentative layout of the first bricks contributed to and incised for the Hillspeak Memorial (Easter 2003 TAD, page 57 and following, and on the inside back wrapper of this issue).

Trading on “insider information,” I contributed the first four bricks of the memorial in memory of my great-grandfather (Samuel, 1800 - 1873); my grandfather (Simeon, 1849 - 1908); my father (Richard Stanley, 1891 - 1955); and our infant son (Richard Stanley, March 1949).

Contributions have been coming in slowly, but steadily, and from the beginning, it has been evident that the rationale for the wording on each brick is as wide-ranging as the homes of the contributors.  Consider the following inscriptions.

From Missouri:

 For A Friend
From A Friend
    Shalom

Who is friend #1?  We do not know for sure: perhaps the Father Founder, perhaps Hillspeak, or maybe TAD itself.  There is no ambiguity, however, in this one from Virginia:

Happy I Met Fr Foland
    Nevada MO ‘59

Father Foland is not the only TAD editor to receive specific recognition.  From Arkansas:

  Fred Barbee
 Editor - TAD
  1986 - 2001

Visits to hallowed places, and there are many who feel Hillspeak to be such, leave lasting impressions:

H Dean Cowles
     For Visits
   1974 -1998

There are many who remember SPEAK's genesis in Missouri from the Episcopal Book Club and its parish garage headquarters to its many faceted role now ensconced in the Twin Barns atop Grindstone Mountain and dubbed “Hillspeak,” by the Father Founder:

Cottey & Nevada
   To Hillspeak
 Marion and Dee

And remembrance is not just for editors.  A Trustee who served on SPEAK's Board, while first in Nebraska and later in California, has been memorialized by his widow:

 James Brice
Clark 1914-96
 Priest Printer

Weddings also are being remembered:

Ben & Martha
    Carson
 May 5, 1998

May their marriage last as long as, or longer than, the brick that memorializes it.

The Psalter is also brought to our attention:

John Caton
 Lingold Jr
 Psalm  90

There are many who have found a refuge at Hillspeak “from one generation to another.”

We hope your visit has left a lasting impression, or that, if you have not visited, you will do so to make your own lasting impression.  We will welcome your visit, and if you wish to leave an incised brick, or two, for the Hillspeak Memorial, that, too, will be most welcome.