wfn.org | [ENS] Chicago judge's husband, mother eulogized at Chicago parish

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@mail.epicom.org>]

Monday, March 07, 2005

Chicago judge's husband, mother eulogized at Chicago parish

by David Skidmore

ENS 030705-1

[Episcopal News Service] Under a heavy security shield, over 600
mourners
filled St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Evanston Saturday morning, March
5, to
standing room only for the Requiem Eucharist for Michael Lefkow, husband
of
federal judge Joan Lefkow. Lefkow, 64, and his mother-in-law Donna
Humphrey,
89, were slain Feb. 28 at the Lefkows' Edgewater home on Chicago's North
Side.

With agents of the U.S. Marshals Service posted inside and around the
church
property, hundreds of friends, colleagues and members of the community
lined
up outside the church early Saturday morning for the visitation,
followed by
the Requiem Eucharist at 11 a.m.  Security was heavy and obvious, with
more
than two dozen U.S. Marshals stationed at the church and parish hall
entrances and at various points inside the 91-year-old Gothic Revival
church. Agents with automatic rifles and body armor were posted on
balconies
and rooftops of nearby apartment houses. Several hours before the
service,
agents with bomb-sniffing dogs did a thorough inspection of the church.

In her homily, the Rev. Jacqueline Schmitt, chaplain at Harvard
University
and former assisting priest at St. Luke's, paid tribute to Lefkow's work
for
social justice. Comparing him to the persistent widow in the day's
gospel
story of the unjust judge and widow seeking justice, Schmitt, a close
friend
of the family, praised Lefkow as "an agent of the kingdom of God."

Said Schmitt: "When Michael stood up for the rights of workers, of women
on
welfare, of people who needed education, who were wrongfully dismissed
from
their workplaces, Michael did so as an agent of the kingdom of God.
Michael
advocated for those who could not stand up for themselves against the
powerful institutions."

She called Lefkow and his mother-in-law martyrs, citing the Greek origin
which translates as "witness."	For the early Christians, martyrs were
those
who witnessed to their faith "and who were killed for that witness," she
said.

"Those who kill martyrs think that by this violent and banal act they
are
wiping out the truth by wiping out the people who witness to the truth,"
she
said. "We know that is not possible."

One such martyr was Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was
slain
in the northwest transept of Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, said Schmitt,
the
place of his murder is also known as "the martyrdom."

Now their Edgewater home shares that same distinction with Canterbury,
said
Schmitt in the closing of her homily, addressing Judge Lefkow and the
five
daughters seated in the first row. "It will always contain the place
called
the martyrdom," she said.  "But know, you must know, that the depth of
your
grief is more than overcome by hope.  That the garden you shared as a
family
is not really gone. That nothing, nothing, will ever take that from you.
That nothing, nothing, will separate you from the love of God that you
know
only because Michael and Donna loved and will always love you."

Among the dignitaries attending were Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago,
U.S.
Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. District Chief Judge Charles Kocoras
and
Illinois Chief Justice Mary Ann McMorrow. St. Luke's priest-in-charge,
the
Rev. Jeanette DeFriest, presided at the liturgy. Assisting clergy were
the
Rev. Cotton Fite, assisting priest at St. Luke's; the Rev. Thomas Scott,
president of the diocese's Standing Committee; and the Rev. Brian
Hastings,
associate at Church of Our Savior, Chicago. St. Luke's former music
director, Richard Webster, played the organ while current music director
Jonathan Scarozza directed the choirs of St. Luke's.

Interment followed the service at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago's
Ravenswood
neighborhood.  In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for memorial
contributions to go to Northwestern University School of Law, Public
Service
Program, to honor Michael Lefkow's work in civil rights and social
justice.
Please mail contributions to: Northwestern University School of Law,
Public
Service Program/Lefkow Memorial, 357 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL
60611-3069.

-- David Skidmore is director of communications for the Diocese of
Chicago.

___________________________
To SUBSCRIBE to enslist, send a blank email message, from the address
which
you wish subscribed, to: join-enslist@epicom.org

Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org.

The enslist is published by Episcopal News Service:
www.episcopalchurch.org/ens