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A Service in Remembrance and Thanksgiving For the Life of Charles M. Perry
June 21, 1947 - September 26, 2017
King’s ChapelBoston, Massachusetts
November 25, 2017
The Wood Road
If I were to walk this way Hand in hand with Grief,
I should mark that maple-spray Coming into leaf.
I should note how the old burrs Rot upon the ground.
Yes, though Grief should know me hers While the world goes round,It could not in truth be said
This was lost on me:A rock-maple showing red,
Burrs beneath a tree.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
2* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
A Service in Remembrance and Thanksgivingfor the Life of Charles M. Perry
PRELUDE Organ Works by J.S. Bach
OPENING HYMN Be Thou My Vision
3* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
GREETING AND OPENING PRAYER The Rev. Joy K. Fallon
Senior Minister
King’s Chapel
READINGS Poem: “Say I was Glad”
by Roscoe E. TruebloodRead by Thomas Perry
If sometime when this hour is memorySomeone makes mention chancewise, of my name(Though I should be surprised if such time came,)This one might ask, “What sort of man was he?”
Was he wise or wicked?” (Speaking of me!!)Say as you will; say I was wild or tame,
Rating some praise – and quantities of blame –But say I spent my days most gratefully.
Yes, one may keep or break the rules and signsThat line the highway where the living ride
And one may draw some punishments and finesBut still find vast rewards on every side –So tell the world that I was good or bad –But tell them first, I was alive – and glad!
Isaiah 43: 1-4, 18-19Read by Margaret Ketchum Powell
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, Your Savior.
You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.
4* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
Do not fear, for I am with you.Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert
Poem: “Birches”by Robert Frost
Read by Mark Perry
When I see birches bend to left and rightAcross the lines of straighter darker trees,I like to think some boy's been swinging them.But swinging doesn't bend them down to stayAs ice-storms do. Often you must have seen themLoaded with ice a sunny winter morningAfter a rain. They click upon themselvesAs the breeze rises, and turn many-coloredAs the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shellsShattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—Such heaps of broken glass to sweep awayYou'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,And they seem not to break; though once they are bowedSo low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woodsYears afterwards, trailing their leaves on the groundLike girls on hands and knees that throw their hairBefore them over their heads to dry in the sun.But I was going to say when Truth broke inWith all her matter-of-fact about the ice-stormI should prefer to have some boy bend themAs he went out and in to fetch the cows—Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,Whose only play was what he found himself,Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's treesBy riding them down over and over againUntil he took the stiffness out of them,And not one but hung limp, not one was left
5* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
For him to conquer. He learned all there wasTo learn about not launching out too soonAnd so not carrying the tree awayClear to the ground. He always kept his poiseTo the top branches, climbing carefullyWith the same pains you use to fill a cupUp to the brim, and even above the brim.Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.So was I once myself a swinger of birches.And so I dream of going back to be.It's when I'm weary of considerations,And life is too much like a pathless woodWhere your face burns and tickles with the cobwebsBroken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.I'd like to get away from earth awhileAnd then come back to it and begin over.May no fate willfully misunderstand meAnd half grant what I wish and snatch me awayNot to return. Earth's the right place for love:I don't know where it's likely to go better.I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,And climb black branches up a snow-white trunkToward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,But dipped its top and set me down again.That would be good both going and coming back.One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
*HYMN There is a Balm in Gilead
6* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
7* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
REMEMBRANCES ` Francis Chin
Lee Glenn
James Schoff
Jack Kelly
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING The Rev. Dr. Carl Scovel
Senior Minister Emeritus
PRAYERS FOR THE BEREAVED The Rev. Fallon
THE LORD’S PRAYERSaid in Unison
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those
8* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
9* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
*WORDS OF COMMENDATIONAll shall stand
All: Go forth, dear Charles, in the name of God who created you,
in the name of the Eternal who steadfastly loves you,in the name of the Almighty, in whose house you will dwell
forever. Go forth upon your journey from this worldin communion with all those who have come before you.May you live in peace this day.May your dwelling be in endless light,and may you find your place in God’s kingdom.
Minister: May he rest in peace,
People: And rise in glory. Amen
10* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
*CLOSING HYMN Now the Green Blade Riseth
11* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE
The family looks forward to greeting you at a reception immediately following this service
at the Omni Parker House Hotel, 60 School Streetin the Rooftop Ballroom
SERVICE PARTICIPANTS
Senior MinisterThe Rev. Joy K. Fallon
Senior Minister EmeritusThe Rev. Dr. Carl Scovel
Music DirectorHeinrich Christensen
UshersMembers of King’s Chapel
Who served as ushers with Charles for many years
12* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
Charles Mereness Perry Obituary
Charles Mereness Perry of Brookline, Massachusetts, died unexpectedly on Tuesday, September 26. Charles was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Henry and Marian Ballou Perry. He grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, graduating from Cohasset High School in 1965. He received a BA in history from Middlebury College and completed an M.A. in international affairs, an M.A. in international law and diplomacy, and a PhD in international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and was a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Charles spent his entire 40-year professional career at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was vice president and director of studies. He wrote extensively on a wide variety of national and international security issues, especially with regard to NATO affairs, European security, security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, the global arms trade, and nuclear proliferation trends. He was a generous colleague and mentor and touched the lives of generations of research associates.
Charles was a devoted, long-time member of King’s Chapel in Boston and served the church in many capacities, including as Junior Warden, a Vestry Member several times, and Chair of many committees. He was known to be a wise and compassionate leader, a strategic thinker, and an unfailingly patient listener, who treated all with dignity and respect. For years, Charles served as a member of the church prayer ministry, a group that daily offers confidential prayers for those facing hard times; to be held
13* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.
in prayer by Charles was a great gift. Charles enjoyed life, warmly greeting people when he ushered and raising a toast at parties. When Charles led worship services, members listened with care, because he read scripture and prayers as one trusting the larger story they told, of a better world that is possible.
A special place in his heart was reserved for the family compound at Moosehead Lake in Maine, where he found inspiration in its clear waters, the majestic mountains around the lake, and the loons that called the lake their home.
All who knew Charles knew that his family was central to his life. He was an unfailingly proud and invested father who enjoyed countless hours coaching and attending his children’s sports events and guiding them through their academic and professional pursuits. Among the many joys he shared with his family were his devotion to the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots, his love for Bob Dylan, his gift for story-telling, and of course his infectious sense of humor and enjoyment of the company of others.
He is survived by Adelaide Ketchum, his wife and partner of 29 years; his children, Nicholas of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Laura of New Orleans, Louisiana; Mark of Pacific Grove, California; and Nicholas’ fiancée, Linnea Sandin, of Washington, D.C. He also leaves his brother and sister-in-law, Thomas and Constance Perry of Orono, Maine, a number of nephews and nieces, and many dear friends across the globe from high school, college, and his wide-ranging career.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers those who wish may make donations to King’s Chapel in Boston or the Forest Society of Maine.
14* The congregation will stand; please feel free to stay seated throughout the service if this is your choice.