Coping with Grief, Honoring a Loved One, and Reconciling the Past

ENUMCLAW, Wash., Jan. 9, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Any loving husband would go to great lengths to defend his wife's reputation, but what if there were things she did not tell him? What if her actions reverberated beyond her death to devastate her family? Rev. Rich Rockwood's new novel, "Memory Theft", tells the story of a man overwhelmed by heartache and fear; a man who strives to defend the memory of his wife and learns something about himself in the process. 

In the midst of struggling with near crippling grief, John Jergun was faced with surprising and disturbing information. A few short weeks after his wife Rita's death, he began receiving threatening letters and phone calls regarding her large, unpaid gambling debt -- almost $100,000. All at once, he was stunned with disbelief, unsure he could prove her innocence, and apprehensive about the future if he was ordered to pay this immense sum. In this journey to clear his wife's name, John encounters devious financial fraud, health and spiritual crises, and details of Rita's life of which he had no knowledge. It would be an intensely difficult, but eternally rewarding trip.

Portions of "Memory Theft" are somewhat autobiographical for Rev. Rockwood. Just before retiring from twenty years of ministering to people struggling with fatal illness and death, Rev. Rockwood's wife died from a brain aneurysm while playing Bridge. He learned firsthand the impact that grief has on daily life, normal decision-making, and plans for the future. He has now retired to Michigan where he recently re-married and is developing an emerging writing career.

Orthodox Patriarch calls for reconciliation of Russia and Georgia

By ENInews

3 Aug 2011

Patriarch Ilia II of the Georgian Orthodox Church has called on his Russian Orthodox counterpart to reconcile Russia and Georgia, which have remained at odds since a short, bloody war in August 2008 -writes Sophia Kishkovsky.

"Your Holiness, those political relations that have taken shape between Russia and Georgia are completely unacceptable," he said to Patriarch Kirill I, after co-celebrating the liturgy with the Russian Orthodox leader. "We are close Orthodox peoples, and these relations were created by the envy of our foes."

The service to mark the Day of the Baptism of Rus, the event in 988 that brought Orthodoxy to Kievan Rusa and then Russia, was meant in particular as a show of unity among the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian Orthodox churches under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Ukraine has experienced tensions between rival Orthodox churches since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Nonetheless, Russian and Georgian church leaders have maintained a close relationship and the Russian church staked out an independent stand from the Kremlin in speaking out against the 2008 war between the two countries.

Ilia's comments underscore the problems that mark relations between Russia and Georgia. "We must do everything possible to restore friendship and fraternity among our nations and states," said Ilia, according to the Interfax news agency. "You must go down in the history of Russia and Georgia as a peacekeeper, as a man who created peace between the two peoples."

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]

[Ekk/3]