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Episcopal Church USA |
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Rev. F. Lyman 'Barney' FarnhamThe Rev. F. Lyman "Barney" Farnham, a New York native who spent much of his life as an Episcopal priest in Baltimore but never stopped summering in the Adirondack Mountains, died of cancer at his Baltimore home on Wednesday, Aug. 29. He was 74. In the years following his 1998 retirement from a lengthy rectorship in Baltimore, Barney served as the priest-in-charge at the Church of the Transfiguration, a summer chapel in Blue Mountain Lake that is active only four months of the year but has a year-round ministry serving Hamilton County's rural poor. "When he arrived it was a church that was already interested in outreach, but he really took it from point B, say, to point X," says his wife of 47 years, the former Suzanne Gipson, also of upstate New York. "Barney introduced the concept of doing what you have to do and the money will follow, which is exactly what happened. The church started giving more and more to outreach, and people started giving more and more to the church. Now the church gives more than half its budget to local outreach." As just one part of that outreach, the church earmarks $10,000 a year for the Community Action Agency. In another form of outreach, Barney unlocked the church and opened its doors a decade ago, making it available at all times to people for prayer. And several times he brought the joyful strains and company of the gospel choir from his church in Baltimore, St. James Episcopal Church at Lafayette Square, to the Blue Mountain Lake community. "To be open to all as a haven of spiritual nourishment by providing hospitality, healing and hope with attention to the needs of the community. That is the church's mission statement, and it really is a description of what the church is about and what it strives to live out in a really serious way," Suzanne Farnham says. "Barney's ministry at the Church of the Transfiguration is his legacy to the Adirondacks." Barney's connection to the Adirondacks began in the early 1960s when he first began working there as an ordained priest. Within a couple of years he and his wife built a camp at Lake Abanakee, and they summered there as a family, with their four children, every year. The Farnhams were at Lake Abanakee in July when they began to suspect that the prostate cancer that Barney survived 16 years ago had returned. "He lived life fully, and his life was grace-filled," says his wife of 47 years, the former Suzanne Gipson, also of upstate New York. Barney grew up in Westvale and lived with his parents – the late Hon. John H. Farnham, a state supreme court justice, and Katherine Doreen Lyman Farnham – on Cherry Road until graduating from Solvay High School in 1951, where he was president of the student council, and going away to Trinity College in Hartford, CT. From there he went to the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA., and was ordained a priest in 1962. He spent his early years serving churches in the Booneville Mission Fields in the foothills of the Adirondacks, and in Horseheads, NY. In 1968 he moved to Baltimore to serve as rector of Memorial Episcopal Church in the downtown neighborhood of Bolton Hill. Much like the Church of the Transfiguration, Barney made his mark on Memorial – and Baltimore. He not only preached about bridging Baltimore's racial divide, but worked hard to bring the city's blacks and whites together; he built a strong urban ministry and tirelessly championed the city; and he founded one of the city's earliest AIDS ministries. He was also a spirited and committed fan of the Baltimore Orioles (whose stadium sits a block from his home) and Ravens. In addition to his wife Suzanne, Barney is survived by his four children, Wendy Schon of Madison, CT, Whitney Farnham of Unadilla, NY, Austin Farnham of Severna Park, MD, and Brent Farnham of Atlanta, GA; his sister, Jo-An Howe of Coronado, CA; and his 10 grandchildren. Baltimore Sun obituary Rev. F. Lyman 'Barney' Farnham[ Age 74 ] The former rector of a Bolton Hill Episcopal church advocated racial and gender acceptance and loved the city. By Jacques Kelly | sun reporter The Rev. F. Lyman "Barney" Farnham, the former rector of a Bolton Hill Episcopal congregation who preached racial and gender acceptance and was an advocate for city living, died of cancer yesterday at his home near Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He was 74. "Barney was a significant and effective force in the urban ministry," said Bishop-in-charge John L. Rabb of the Maryland Diocese. "He was a real leader in the diocese and was personally a deeply spiritual and prayerful man." For 29 years, Father Farnham headed Bolton Street's Memorial Episcopal Church, making it "synonymous with urban ministry," according to a 1998 Sun article. "In so many ways, Barney stood for breaking down barriers," said the Rev. Martha Macgill, the church's current rector. "He was an institution in Bolton Hill. He had a way of enfolding you in his grand personality." Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Father Farnham earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and received his religious education at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. He was ordained a priest in 1962 and served a congregation in Horseheads, N.Y. In 1968, the rector of the Bolton Hill Episcopal church had resigned abruptly. The congregation was aging, and the church had only $75 in the bank. "If it hadn't have been for Barney, Memorial Church would have closed long ago," said Richard J. Roszel III, who recruited Father Farnham to the post. "The first thing he did was to wake up the place. In time, he put it on the map. He was a remarkable guy." Father Farnham, who moved to Baltimore with his wife and children, soon instituted liturgical changes that were considered revolutionary in the late 1960s, including a more participatory service in which the sermon consisted of the congregation's reflections on the Scriptures. He also initiated outreach programs, such as free breakfasts, a food pantry and support groups for substance abusers that riled some of his neighbors, a Sun report said. Some saw him as a rabble-rouser from the moment he walked through the front door in 1969. In an interview with The Evening Sun shortly after he arrived, he called his new neighborhood "a white island" and insisted, "We must face and attract a wider community. ... Black and white people must just talk to each other more." The sentiment did not sit well initially. "I had a lot of encouragement to go back to Yankee land," he said in a Sun interview. "People told me to 'Go home, Yankee,' in some rather nasty unsigned letters. One of my calls was to bring people together in a very racially divided city in any way I could in the context of the church. A lot of people didn't like that, and I lost some parishioners. But we survived that." In 1977, he hired a female priest to be his assistant. "He wouldn't lock the front door of the church," said the Rev. Phebe L. McPherson, whom he hired and who went on to be the rector of Epiphany Episcopal Church in Odenton. "Barney loved Baltimore City. You couldn't have lunch with him without him trying to talk you into moving into the city." The church had one of the city's first AIDS ministries, and at one time held diocesan AIDS healing services. In 1992, his church was the site of a ceremony that blessed the union of two lesbians. Father Farnham was on vacation at the time, but he was aware the ceremony was going to take place, had informed his vestry and thought that the bishop had been informed. "It really hit the roof," Father Farnham told a Sun reporter. "And, of course, the church is still fighting that one, whether they can bless same-gender couples. That whole issue of human sexuality is dividing the church right now, and I don't know where that's going to end. I feel for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters because they really are discriminated against in the church of Christ." As he prepared to retire, Father Farnham, who had lived for many years in the Bolton Hill rectory, bought a falling-down 1840s Ridgely's Delight home that had been occupied by two dozen cats. He had it renovated, and he and his wife lived in it. He also found the house convenient to Orioles and Ravens games. He remained an assisting priest at the St. James Episcopal congregation in West Baltimore's Lafayette Square. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Memorial Episcopal Church, Bolton Street and Lafayette Avenue. Survivors include his wife of 47 years, the former Suzanne Gipson; three sons, Whitney Farnham of Unadilla, N.Y., Austin Farnham of Severna Park and Brent Farnham of Atlanta; a daughter, Wendy Schon of Madison, Conn.; a sister, Jo-An Howe of Coronado, Calif.; and 10 grandchildren. |
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This site was last modified on December 9, 2007 |