A Fond Farewell to a Beloved Interim Priest

On Sunday, August 19, 2007, the Calvary community celebrated the interim ministry of Fr. Richard T. Loring. More than 60 parishioners attended.

Remarks by Sr. Warden Fran Weil:

Dear Father Loring:

Calvary has been richly blessed by your gentle, loving, solicitous ministry during the all-too short 10 months during which you watched out for our every spiritual need.

Your sermons have been small jewels offered to us each Sunday, gently proffered, full of wisdom and insight that resonated within each of us every week. So valuable those sermons became to us that many of us started collecting reprints from you, so we could keep them close and revisit them long after their Sunday had passed.

Your accessibility, responsiveness and dependability; your gentle humor and your loving attention to every detail have been lovely gifts to us — so generously and wholeheartedly offered by you, even when it meant driving back and forth from Bedford or Westport on what seemed to be an all too frequent rotation that called you to minister to the sick, preside over the burials of some 18 people whose departure from our midst was made more bearable because of your presence. 

Your penchant for getting the job done — even when the job seemed insurmountable, as tracking down some 60 errant baptisms for the Church Register must have been — is now legendary at Calvary. You have led Calvary by shining example, and that example will be the standard by which others will be measured for years to come.

So we thank you, dear Fr. Loring, for your kindness, your light and your leadership. Know what an imprint you have left on our hearts. Know that we will miss you greatly and that we thank you for being God’s hands and heart in our midst. God bless.

A Farewell Poem to Fr. Loring
by Gail Arnold

October 29, 2007 was the date,
Father Loring was chosen to be our interim priest, with no debate.
Soft-spoken, gentle, unassuming are words that come to mind,
In addition to being caring, generous, humble and kind.

A very learned man with a masters and a PhD,
Full of wisdom, insight, and experience, to the highest degree.

During his short tenure with us, Calvary was certainly blessed,
He gave us comfort, guidance, and spiritual advice, with which we were all impressed.
And what do we say about his pastoral care?
You will find no one better – nowhere!

His sermons were pithy, concise and short,
A wordsmith for sure who gave us much support.
With a little shrug of the shoulder to emphasize a word or two,
As we all sat attentive in our pew.

The Calvary books he up-dated to a tea
He tracked down 40 out 50 Baptisms, you see.
And then there were the funerals – 14 in all,
But always upbeat and ready to serve, as I recall.

Now to get a little personal about Richard T. Loring,
I can assure you his life is not boring.
An adventurous boy at age five he went exploring,
Hopped on a train to get to Bermuda, needless to say, his parents were roaring!

In his spare time you might find him on his skiff
Trolling the beaches in Westport, do you get the drift?
Or cleaning his chimney, high upon the roof,
We even have pictures for proof.

His shoes are going to be hard to fit,
A size 14, he does admit.

So we bid a fond farewell to our dear interim priest,
And hope that you all have enjoyed this feast.
 Or….
We bid a fond farewell to our dear Father Loring,
And hope we have sent you on your way – soaring!

There is no need for anyone to sob,
As Father Loring would say, “I’m only doing my job.”