Dear Idlewild family and friends,
Pastor Steve Montgomery's funeral service will be held on Friday, August 7th, at 2:00 p.m. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the worship is a private family service. The service will be available on Livestream beginning with the Prelude at 1:50.
Navigating a traumatic loss is absolutely complicated by COVID-19 - and that makes planning worship hard, very hard.
Congregants are invited to gather in the Idlewild parking lot for the playing of the carillon which will begin at 1:30 p.m. to give thanks to God for Steve's life and to bear witness to the resurrection. We know that death is not the end of life, but only the sign of an impending resurrection. We ask you to please respect the COVID-19 protocol and to stay in your car. Doing so, you may stay and watch the service on your personal device or return home at 1:50 and watch the worship service from home. We grieve that we cannot be together in the sanctuary, nor outside of our parked cars in the parking lot.
The bulletin will be posted on the church website.
As David Waters wrote in his obituary,
"Rev. Dr. Stephen R. Montgomery, whose prophetic hope and pastoral heart gently but firmly challenged and encouraged his church and community to be more just and loving, died Friday morning, July 31st, at Regional One Health with his family by his side. Stephen Richey Montgomery was born Aug. 21, 1951, in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 68. His wife, Patti, and their children, Aaron (AJ) and Sumita, were at his bedside. His two brothers and sister were on a conference call. The family abided by his “living will” and took him off life support when doctors said they did not expect him to recover. Montgomery, who retired in 2019 as senior pastor of Idlewild Presbyterian Church, died from multiple injuries he received when he was hit by a car while riding his bike on North Perkins Tuesday evening. He never left the intensive care unit at Regional One. “We held the phone next to his ear and they all told stories and said their goodbyes,” said Sumita Montgomery. “My dad passed quickly and peacefully surrounded by his family. We ended with a song.” It was the traditional Doxology, which begins: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.” Dr. Scott Morris, Church Health founder who met Montgomery when they both were students at Yale Divinity School in the 1970s, also was at the bedside. Pastor Steve retired in May 2019 after 39 years in a Presbyterian pulpit, the last 19 here at Idlewild."
Steve is survived by his wife, Patti, and their two children, Aaron (AJ) and Sumita; his brothers, the Reverend James (Jim) Montgomery of Indianapolis (Alyce), the Reverend David Montgomery (Ann Marie) of Toledo, Ohio, and sister, Dorothy (Deedee) Montgomery Murphy (Pat), an educator in Atlanta.
In life, and in death, we belong to God. Blessed are those who die in the Lord.
Love to you each, and all, as we navigate the grief from Steve's death together as a congregation.
In Christ's love and peace,
The Reverend Anne H.K. Apple, Executive Associate Pastor and Acting Head of Staff
The Reverend Sara Dorrien-Christians, Transitional Associate Pastor
Dr. Heather Chauhan, Clerk of Session
