About The Author
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Walter E. Williams was born June 7, 1941 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. For the first

four years of my life, we lived in a small trailer in a clearing in the

woods in West Virginia. When my father abandoned us, my mother

took us back to Scranton where we moved in with her parents.

Our family became active in the Washburn Street Presbyterian

Church.

By the time I reached junior high, the issue of salvation

confronted me. A wily adolescent, I decided I would live as I

pleased and get into heaven with a deathbed conversion. I was so

mischievous that my Sunday School teacher Ted Koch joked to

my mother that he would like to demote me. Yet Mr. Koch, who

was also our youth fellowship advisor, was an example of a love

that was there for me despite the trouble I caused.

We all moved to Middletown, Pennsylvania between ninth

and tenth grade. There we attended Middletown Presbyterian

Church, where my Sunday School teachers and youth fellowship

advisors were Bob and Marge Lebo. Once more they displayed an

unlimited patience and love for all of the young people. They really

reminded me of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson who were prominent

on TV at that time. In school I was the science nerd, but in the

church I found a loving fellowship. Still during these years I began

to worry that I might die too quickly to get that deathbed

conversion in.

I entered Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania in the

fall of 1959. I majored in Physics. While reading a letter by Martin

Luther for freshman religion, I suddenly understood Luther’s belief

that we are saved by faith, as a free gift of God’s grace. This was

my rebirth experience, which I now realize is simply a flash of

insight that is not even necessarily correct. I wanted to share the

good news of the gospel with others. Each summer since I

graduated from high school I volunteered to counsel at our church

camp, Camp Michaux. Between my junior and senior year of

college, I decided that I would rather be a minister than a physicist.

I graduated from Lafayette College in 1963 with a Bachelor of

Science in Physics. That summer I worked with children in wheel

chairs at Camp Harmony Hall for the Easter Seal Society.

I enrolled in Princeton Theological Seminary that fall. There

I majored in pastoral psychology. I served as student pastor at

Irvington Presbyterian Church near Newark, New Jersey in the

summer before my last year of seminary. I graduated from seminary

in 1966 with a Bachelor of Divinity, which I upgraded to a Master

of Divinity in 1970.

The summer of 1966 I took a quarter of clinical training in

psychology at Philadelphia State Hospital, living on the hospital

grounds for the three months of training.

In the fall I began my work as assistant pastor at First

Presbyterian Church in Ambler, Pa., just north of Philadelphia. I

chose an assistant pastorate to get more experience before

launching out on my own.

In the fall of 1968, I moved to McAlisterville in central

Pennsylvania to become the pastor of Lost Creek Presbyterian

Church, which had 120 members. Now I was on my own, and I

looked around for needs I could meet. I saw that the school district

was not transporting children to kindergarten. So I began

transporting some of the poor children who would not get there

otherwise. Eventually my concerns for a good and equal education

led me to serve on the school board for ten years.

I saw that no one was working with young people, so I started

a single young adult group. I also started an ecumenical youth

fellowship, became scoutmaster and opened a community youth

center.

The manse was located close to the Fayette Fire Company

and when the siren blew I knew someone needed help. I became a

volunteer fireman. I also became an ambulance driver and attendant,

eventually certifying as an Emergency Medical Technician. My

love of nature led me to also serve as a volunteer Forest Fire Warden.

When I came to McAlisterville, I was a young social activist

and anxious to make the church what I thought it should be. The

congregation patiently accepted my zeal and naiveté, until I learned

from them that loving and accepting people as they are is the best

way to minister to people’s needs. Love then may inspire people

to be more beautiful and loving themselves. Condemnation and

pressure inspires judgment and rejection.

From the many youth I worked with, there emerged a small

sharing group which met in my house to share faith and other

feelings. These teenagers helped me to love and accept even more,

as they loved me, and I loved them, as if they were my own children.

Despite my rebirth experience in college, which assured me of

my salvation, I was still troubled by my failure to live up to my ideal

vision of a Christian life. The sharing group made me want to be

worthy of their acceptance, yet I knew I was still a mixture of good

and evil. Reading the writings of the psychiatrist, Carl Jung helped

me to understand that we are all a mixture of good and evil.

Reading Walt Whitman’s poetry helped me to accept all parts

of myself and when I had accepted myself, to accept all others.

I had always had trouble with the idea that some people would

go to hell, but I did not know of any other way of interpreting the

Bible. Reading Behold the Spirit by Alan Watts opened my eyes to

other possible interpretations. I began to study other religions and

other philosophies, I took Walt Whitman’s advice to, ”Re-examine

all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss

whatever insults your own soul”.

I discovered it was possible to interpret scripture in other ways,

and found passages which could mean that God would save

everyone.

But if everyone is saved, why obey God’s law? I realized that

God’s law shows us the wisest way to live. To follow it is wisdom

and to disobey it is foolishness. The law is God’s loving guidance

to help us find the best possible life now.

In 1982 I began taking college courses in computer

programming. While I was taking courses at Harrisburg Area

Community College, I was hired to teach computer courses there.

I taught courses to people on public assistance, regular

undergraduates and even a course for the prisoners at the state

prison in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately driving back and forth to teach these courses

ruined my back and I had to quit. I did earn an Associate Degree

in Data Processing from HACC in 1983.

I continued as pastor of my church until 1987 by which time

it was obvious that my back was not going to improve, and I could

no longer accept money for a job I could not adequately perform.

Laying on people’s floors might be all right for visiting members,

but it did not work well for prospect calls. During the five years

that I could not adequately minister to the needs of my

congregation I wrote my book Love Without Limit. Some of the book

was even typed lying down.

I finally resigned from my pastorate in January 1987. I was

placed on the inactive list. After two years on the inactive list

Carlisle Presbytery set aside my ordination with the possibility of

picking it up again if I could ever serve another church. I retain my

ordination in the Universal Life Church. I continued to marry

people for a few years, until it became too hard on my health.

My interest in church camping continued throughout my

ministry. I served on and chaired the Carlisle Presbytery Camping

Committee, counseled, directed, and served as Chaplain at various

camps. When Camp Michaux closed I headed the committee that

negotiated our merger with two other presbyteries in Camp

Krislund. I wrote the “History of Presbytery Camping” for A

Bicentennial History of the Presbytery of Carlisle, published in 1986. I

also wrote a poem entitled “Relationships” at Camp Krislund. I

later submitted the poem to a poetry contest where it won

honorable mention and was published in Days of Future’s Past in

1989.

Each summer on vacation I would camp in the National Parks

of the U.S. and Canada. Ranger hikes and campfire talks sparked

my concern for the environment. I recycled all my waste and started

the first newspaper recycling in the county.

In response to the Arab oil boycott of 1972, I insulated the

manse and the church, installed storm windows, and constructed

solar heating panels on the manse. I also invented some electric

socks to keep my feet warm as I turned the thermostat back to 60

degrees. I bought a bicycle and began using it or walking for house

calls. I sometimes hitchhiked to hospital calls.

My hobbies were very practical. I did the maintenance and

repairs on my vehicles. I did woodworking, plumbing and electrical

work, as well as repairing radios and TVs. I was an organic gardener

and even saved my own seed from year to year. I studied eatable

wild plants and other survival skills in the wild. All these hobbies

ended when my back went bad in 1982. I fell back on reading

which I had always enjoyed, although this was limited because of

my inability to sit long. When I finally invented an infinitely

adjustable back rest I was able to sit enough to do more reading.

When I resigned from the church in 1987 I still did not accept

the reality of my disability. I thought I might be able to teach

school because teachers stand most of the time. I used my

certification to teach high school physics and mathematics to work

as a substitute teacher. I was tentatively hired to teach Physics full

time at John Harris High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but

I failed the physical because of my back problems. I soon found

that substitute teaching was also beyond my ability.

That summer I passed a course certifying me to be a District

Justice in Pennsylvania and worked two hours a day in that office

for a while. I found that even this was too much for my back.

I started walking and swimming when I was able. I suffered a

series of other health problems. Finally I was able to crawl out of

the hole enough to volunteer at the Juniata County Library for a

few hours a week. I had served as secretary of the library board for

about six years in the early 1970s.

When some of the people at the library learned I had written

a book many years ago, they read it and urged me to get it

published. The idea that writing might be a way to continue my

ministry, which was cut short by my disability, led me to start

writing a weekly religious column in Standard-Journal Newspapers

of Milton, Pennsylvania. The column has been well received and I

feel heartened that I am able to reach out and help people again.

I hope that my book, Love Without Limit, offers some service

and guidance to others. The book is only an attempt to pass on

some of the blessings and love I have felt from God and other

people.

Walter E. Williams

McAlisterville, Pennsylvania 2003

 

 

 

 

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