Episode #67: Clara Letter Seven - Interim

Jan,16 2026

<-#66: Clara Letter six - Pilgrimage#68: Letters of Myriam Chapter 1 - Fragments ->

February 22, 2016

To the Council and to all who grieve,

The news reached me before dawn: Kendrick, his wife, and their children were lost in the crash while traveling to our fellowship in Africa. I read the message twice, then set it on the kitchen table and watched the steam rise from my tea as if the ordinary world might correct the sentence.

It did not.

Kendrick served longer than any of us expected and better than many predicted. Whatever disagreements we carried, he walked among distant chapters with patience and courage. I pray that the soil which receives him will be kind.

You ask that I return as interim leader. I must answer honestly: I am seventy years old, a widow, and my hands are already full with the work I promised long ago-the new edition of the Christopher books accompanied by my grandmother Myriam's letters. That task is my final stewardship, and I cannot lay it down.

I am grateful for your confidence, yet I believe the season calls for younger strength.

I propose instead my son, Daniel Mercer II, whose life has prepared him for this moment more than mine now could. He holds a degree in theology, but more importantly, he holds a farmer's back and a teacher's patience. Unlike his mother, he is willing to travel, to sleep in borrowed beds, and to sit with the restless youth who write such troubled letters.

He seeks to help the younger generation find God through the path Christopher first opened: a return to a world without shame, without lying, without external constraints-a world where thought, care, and hard work for others are valued more than money or fame.

Daniel and his wife raise their children-my grandchildren-on a communal farm in southern Florida where the fields produce all year. They have joined the old methods we inherited with newer science, tending soil as Christopher once taught while allowing knowledge to breathe beside tradition. I have seen that place with my own eyes; it feels less like an enterprise than a promise.

For those who wonder why I traveled for him and not as a leader of our church, let it be known that I have a responsibility to my grandchildren, which overrides my faith and forced me to act.

So, if our church must step forward after this tragedy, let it be led by hands still strong enough to lift crates and by hearts still curious enough to learn.

I will remain what I have always been: a keeper of letters, a listener at the edge of the table. When the new edition is ready, I will place it in your hands as a grandmother sets bread before her family, hoping it nourishes, knowing it will not solve everything.

May Kendrick's memory be gentle among us,

and may the work continue without bitterness.

In quiet faith,

Clara Mercer

<-#66: Clara Letter six - Pilgrimage#68: Letters of Myriam Chapter 1 - Fragments ->