Greetings, Everyone. So many of you are friends of Cedar Carrier's that I wanted to share with you the Memorial Service from Saturday, December 15, 2012. Cedar is known for her loving nature and her interesting activities. So, I share photos as well of her

taken over the years. First in the line of pictures we are sending is a lovely Madonna she painted for me after being inspired by the Absent Mother power point. Enjoy and see her life as we enjoyed her

together....Love Carol

Cedar Carrier Memorial Service 

Piano Music by Roberta Wilkes and last five minutes Chanting Om Padma Hum

 

Welcome: Rev. Carol Parrish, Officiating

 

 Thank you for being a part of our Memorial Service for Cedar Carrier this day.

Memorial Service are a loving service to our friend and to each friend of the one

we jointly loved and cared for. Certainly, n As we gather here this morning to

remember Cedar and to give thanks for having had this dear friend in our lives,

we must remember also, the Children and adults that lost their lives in New

Town, Connecticut yesterday. Grief lives with the human family and at times

like this, we know we are a part of the greater collective.

 

Our service this day will help us all to express this collective sorrow. I could not

help but remember how Cedar loved the little children of this Village. She loved

Susan Jennings’ son, Jason, the Fladie Children and when visiting children came

she welcomed them and often, pitched in to care for them.

 

Last night as I watch the horror on television I pondered is Cedar one of the

invisible helpers working with the terrified little ones on Spirit Side today.

Leadbeater explains how loving humans passed to spirit because helpers to those

who pass over, especially in times of tragedy or group loss. I cannot help but

believe Cedar was there loving and caring just as if each child was one of her

grandchildren, one of her charges and there she was calming and caring for them.

 

We not only say goodbye and express our love to one person but we join the nation in our collective grief this morning. We do not understand but our

loving hearts pain that such destruction can be visited upon the human race by our own. We remember those families touched by pain this day, even as we

are.

o one in this community will be remembered with more fondness than Cedar.

 

Group Hymn:  Make Me a Channel of Thy Peace

 

 Obituary:  Today we are gathering to honor and say goodbye to a special

friend, family member and community member. Cedar Carrier was born an

adventurous Leo on August 9, 1949 in Morristown, New Jersey. Her youth was

spent in Baltimore, Maryland, New York as well as New Jersey.

Both her parents, Sam and June Carrier are deceased. She leaves a brother, Sam

Carrier III of Oberlin, Ohio and her sister, Greta Cirillo of Crossville, Alabama.

Her son, Zack Dorwart and two grandchildren, Sam and Luke Dorwart of West

Fork, Arkansas, she also leaves three nieces, Ashley, Amy and Renee Cirillo.

Members of the Village were fortunate to get to know Zack and Greta in these

last few months, as they have been here to care for Cedar.

 

Some know but many do not, Cedar had a famous ancestor who was a quite well-known artist. Charles Willson Peale was one of the most talented artists of

the Revolutionary Era. He painted more that a dozen picture of George Washington and founded the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was quite the

leading portrait artist of political figures of that period.  His work is quite well known and can be admired on the internet. Cedar told me of him and said to

me that art was in her blood.

 

While we think of Cedar as ours, we need to remember she was a World Server

before we knew her. She graduated from Skidmore College in 1968 with a

degree in Sociology and then went traveling extensively through Europe, the

Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, India and Central America. Cedar married Sage

Dorwart, returned to the US and became a homesteader in Arkansas. Cedar had

two sons, Zack and a baby, Thomas, who died as an infant. She divorced and

came to the Village after living in Arkansas.

 

Cedar came here to become a part of this spiritual family in the early eighty’s.

She has been a part of all the many activities that have gone on here. She raised

money for each new building, worked at daily life helping to make this mountain

livable, striving in so many ways. She was the campground attendant, lead

morning chanting; she assisted everyone that had an art project, she did child-

care with the Fladie children and loves them dearly. She worked and played with

us all and became a significant part of our group life.

 

 Her life changed dramatically when she met Professor James Harder, a

professor from UC Berkley, when he was a visiting dignitary speaking at a UFO

Conference sponsored by the Village. They divided their marriage between

Berkley, CA and the Village. Cedar continued to study art, added new skills and

interests and eventually brought Jim to live here until the end of his life. In 1998,

she was ordained and became a member of the Order of Sacred Artist,

established by Dr. Rev. Richard Kirby.

 

Cedar, also, became a part of Tahlequah. She made friends with local people and

introduced the Village to them. She enriched the greater community through her

friendships, skills, paintings and pottery. She became a part of the local artist community and continued her personal art development until even this last

year.

 

She opened her first studio in town and then later moved it to the Village. She painted all 360 Sabian Symbols, gave Shustah readings and Soul Portraits;

also she was an excellent Palm Reader and donated her skills on Public Skills Days. I personally thank her for illustrating the Aquarian Rosary book and

Book of Rituals. She did many illustrations for Sancta Sophia and Light of Christ.

 

Cedar is remember by most of us as a wonderful artist and you see much of her work here in the chapel surrounding us today, It is the intention of the

family that you each received an original piece of art as you entered today. But few know that she also wrote poetry and songs for the LCCC song book and

frequently led chants in meditations or for services. We are going to join now in singing one we frequently sang. We shall enjoy it in her honor.

 

Blessed Are We….will be lead by Rev. Jesse Garnee,  Rev. Peggy Eaton and

Isaac Porter. They will sing the first verse reminding us of the tune and we will

then join them. You

have words of this song in the flyer you were given as you entered.

 

Congregation will sing:  Blessed Are We

 

These Scriptures were chosen by Cedar as she prepared herself and us for the conclusion of her life. She requested the following Bible Readings:

 

Psalm 23: 1) The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2) He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3) He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4) Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou aret with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5) Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

Also

 

Matthew  5:4:  Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.

 

It is important that we recognize Cedar had a special fondness of the Native

American Tradition and no service for her would be complete without a Native

contribution. Cedar’s friend, Chaplin Jerry Henson will now share with us a

Native American Prayer.

 

Native American Prayer

 

We thank Chaplin Jerry Henson for coming and being with us today. He offered

his prayer orally and I do not have a written copy to insert here.

 

Poem from Rev. Thia McGinnis sent me an original poem written in Cedar’s

honor for this celebration of her life, recognizing her gentleness and her strength,

her love of beauty and of service.

 

Original Poem:             Carry Her On

 

She walked in the Beauty of Love

She brought Peace and Salvation

To the world of Nature

And in the hearts of all she touched.

 

Such Beauty not spoken or understood

Came through the bristles of her brushes

She was Keeper of all the Love

Shared by Nature and the Cosmos

 

All that was of this World and Beyond

 She leave with us the Grace of God

 

Watch for a glance or a gentle touch

For she lives in our hearts

Where she painted each of us

A heart full of Love and a Mind of Peace.   

In loving Memory of Cedar Carrier

Reverend Thia McGinnis 2012

 

We will now have a Solo by Rev. Jesse Garnee, accompanied by Rev. Roberta Wilkes  

“The Lord’s Prayer”

 

Rev. Parrish continues:

We love life; therefore, it is natural to dread death.

But death is no more the enemy of life than sleep

is the enemy of work and play.

Sleep makes it possible for us to work and play the next day.

Death makes it possible for us to live on. It has therefore a real contribution to make to life in the large,

being the gateway through which we slip from the lower life

into the Higher, from the briefer into that which is eternal.”

 

Rev. Linda Oliver will now lead us in a Remembrance Meditation:

 

Remembrance Meditation

In the rising of the sun and in its going done, we remember her.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember her.

In the opening buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember her.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember her.

In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember her

In the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember her

When we are weary and need of strength, we remember her.

As long as we live, she too shall live, for she is now apart of us, as we remember her.

                                                 Adapted from a Temple Beth El Memorial Book 1992

 Thank you Rev. Oliver.

 

We will now have guitar music courtesy of Mark Throckmorton, and Steven Chase…gentlemen, please.