My Favorite John Buchanan Story

When HH and I were Co-Pastors of Fairlington Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia the congregation was preparing to celebrate it’s 50th Anniversary. Established in 1947, the church experienced explosive growth (We beat Hitler! Let’s have babies!) and – almost forty years later – an explosive church split broke spirits and hearts. When HH and I arrived, the church was a bruised remnant of what it had once been.

As the 50th Anniversary was approaching, we decided to invite the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly, the highest elected official in the denomination, to be our guest preacher. I had been a Commissioner to the 208th General Assembly and had happily voted for Rev. Buchanan for Moderator.

I called The Mother Ship in Louisville to ask how we could get on John Buchanan’s preaching schedule. We wanted him to be the preacher the day we celebrated our 50th Anniversary, and I was discouraged to hear that there were probably 3 requests for every possible preaching date in The Moderator’s 12 months of service.

Me: So is there to trick to having John Buchanan choose us – a small church that almost left the PCUSA denomination a few years ago?

Moderator’s Scheduler: It helps to have an unusual request, something unique.

Me: Like a candygram?

MS: Um, no.

Much less fun than a candygram, was the idea that we would have a petition, but not an ordinary petition. We would ask members the upcoming Sunday to not only sign them names asking John Buchanan to come to Fairlington Pres, but we would add comments about why we’d love for him to be the preacher on our 50th Anniversary.

Unfortunately there was a snowstorm that Sunday and worship had been cancelled. There would be no fun petition because the deadline for Moderator Requests was the next week.

We were shocked to hear back from the Moderator’s Scheduler that he had accepted our request and would be preaching on Mother’s Day 1997. The thing is: we never sent a request because of the snowstorm.

As the church secretary, ND and I were in the office pondering how this happened, she made a confession to me: On Monday morning, after the snowstorm, she had gone through the rolls of deceased members and – with different pens and different handwriting styles – had completed a masterwork of several hundreds of signatures and personal requests for John Buchanan to come to Fairlington. It would be our little secret. HH’s response:

He’s from Chicago. He’d understand dead people voting.

On Mother’s Day 1997, John and Sue Buchanan came to Alexandria and it was a wonderful celebration. The founding pastor Dr. Charlie Cowsert was present. General Presbyter Teri Thomas was present. The music was especially inspiring. And when I stood to introduce Dr. Buchanan, I shared the secret.

Charlie Cowsert had asked me before worship how we got John Buchanan to decide to come to our small church, and I told him I’d explain in my introduction. And so just before John preached, I told the story of the snowstorm and ND going through the rolls of deceased members and “he’s from Chicago so he’d understand death people voting.” It was kind of hilarious.

To my horror, John stood in the pulpit and PULLED THE PETITION OUT OF HIS FOLDER. “Please God don’t let him read it,” I thought to myself. I wasn’t sure it would be as hilarious when he read “comments by” the dead spouses and parents of those who had gathered. Thankfully, he did not read it.

But we laughed multiple times that day and John was delighted by our ruse. And for the rest of his term – unti Pat Brown replaced him as the Moderator of the next General Assembly, HH and I got phone calls from friends all over the country telling us that they had heard John Buchanan preach and he had told the story about preaching at Fairlington Presbyterian Church and the dead people’s petition. And he always chuckled at the punch line: “He’s from Chicago. He’d understand dead people voting.“

John loved Chicago. He loved elegant worship and justice for the underdog. He especially loved Sue and their children. And he – most of all – loved the God of Creation who died for us all.

Thanks be to God for an amazing life lived by an amazing man.

Image from the Fourth Presbyterian Church announcement of John’s passing. It’s from his last sermon preached at Fourth on the day of his retirement in 2012.