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Every Sunday afternoon, the Spreckels Organ Society of San Diego hosts a free concert at the Organ Pavilion located in Balboa Park. The Society has used the concerts as fundraisers for various charities in the past. Currently they are raising funds to support humanitarian relief for Ukraine.

Beginning on Sunday, March 13, San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez has decided that he will begin each concert with the National Anthem of Ukraine until the crisis in Ukraine ends. He also dresses in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to show support.

“I think what I can offer, and because I worry and I care about my people here, San Diegans, and all my people here in this country, is to keep playing this national anthem to remind people of what is going on because news cycles may need to move to something else in the future, but this conflict seems it’s gonna go for quite a long time,” Prieto Ramírez said to KUSI News Photojournalist David Pradel.

On March 19 the Spreckels Organ Society held “A Music Tribute to Peace, Dignity & Democracy,” a benefit concert for Ukrainian refugees which was supported by the San Diego Diplomacy Council. Approximately 1,400 people attended the event. Prieto Ramírez told CBS 8 San Diego, “We decided to focus on dignity, on peace and democracy.”

The benefit featured several guest artists, as well as Prieto Ramírez on the organ. There were several singers, including Ukrainian Soprano Anna Belaya and Soprano Laynee Dell Woodward, Mezzo-Soprano Sarah-Nicole Carter and Baritone Michael Sokol. After a brief intermission, the Organ Pavilion Rock Band performed classic rock songs from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC.

All donations received at the benefit concert are given to Operation USA for humanitarian relief for Ukraine. The event organizers were hoping to raise $5,000. They raised more than $14,500, and they continue to accept donations. The Spreckels Organ Society has raised more than $15,800 as of April 13.

Several of the benefit attendees were wearing shirts they had gotten at the House of Ukraine, also located in Balboa Park, which featured the Ukrainian flag and the words, “I stand with Ukraine.” There were even a few Ukrainian flags being waved in the audience.

In his statement to announce the concert, Prieto Ramírez said, “This concert is a call for peace with no political affiliation. We see the current events as an opportunity to call for human dignity and peace. When JD Spreckels donated the organ to the City of San Diego, it was meant to be not just an entertainment tool, but a tool to feed every human soul with deeper and more delicate emotions to grow our human values.”

According to the website created for the Spreckels Ukraine campaign, all donations to this campaign will be fully allocated to Ukrainian relief. “Operation USA is currently responding to the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis with emergency cash grants to community-based partners in Poland and nearby countries, and is working to coordinate the delivery of in-kind material aid in the months ahead.”

Their website also explains the first phase of Operation USA’s plan to allocate the money received: “OpUSA has committed 40% of total funds raised (approximately $295,000 as of March 25th) to the urgent response phase. These funds will be quickly disbursed to community-based partners directly supporting refugees at this time. Emergency grants will allow these partners to increase capacity, meet additional needs and provide necessary support to displaced Ukrainians.”

All over the world, countries are showing their support for Ukraine. One of the most common forms of support is through music. “I believe music is music. It really doesn’t matter. Any music just brings the best of human beings. It brings out emotions. It’s communication without words,” Prieto Ramírez said in his CBS 8 San Diego interview.

Concerts staged for philanthropic purposes have been around since 1749, when composer George Frideric Handel wrote his “Foundling Hospital Anthem,” and put on annual performances of “Messiah” to support a charity for orphans in London. Other composers and performers participated in concerts to raise funds for charitable causes, but it was also common to see musicians in the 18th and 19th centuries staging performances to raise funds for their own work. Ludwig van Beethoven’s 1808 “Akademie” concert is a prime example of this.

Nowadays, the commonly understood definition of a benefit concert is a large-scale event intended to support either a charitable or political cause. The first benefit of the modern era is believed to be the Concert for Bangladesh, two events held at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1971 organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. But the most common modern benefit concert format is modelled on Bob Geldof’s Live Aid event in 1985.

The national anthem of Ukraine’s official name is “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia,” which translates to “The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished.” The lyrics were written as a poem by Ukrainian poet Pavlo Chubynsky in 1862. Inspired by the poem, composer Mykhailo Verbytsky set it to music. The first choral performance of the piece was in 1864. On January 15, 1992, “Ukraine has not yet perished” was adopted by Ukraine’s parliament as the national anthem, but the lyrics were not officially adopted until March 6, 2003, when a change was made to the first stanza.

Even now, more than a month after the benefit, Prieto Ramírez continues to play the Ukrainian national anthem and wear the colors of Ukraine. “Every Sunday I’m starting with the National Anthem of Ukraine because of the nation and her people and what that means for the free world.”

At the concert April 24, their Earth Day celebration, Ukrainian soprano Belaya performed again. Members of the audience stood during the song and Belaya had her hand over her heart as she sang.

Before singing the national anthem, Belaya said, “I also want to add that today is Easter for our Orthodox brothers and sisters. On this special day I’m going to ask God only for one thing: to resurrect Ukraine from ruins, to save my nation from suffering and pain, to help us fight Russian invaders and to grant us peace.”

After the Ukrainian National Anthem was another Ukrainian song (listed only as “Ukrainian Song” in the program), which Belaya explained was written for a birthday of Kyiv. She said that it is a very important song to Ukrainians.

And following the two Ukrainian songs, Belaya left the stage while Prieto Ramírez explained what was next on the program: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, only in the United States. More than 50 years later, Earth Day has become a world-wide observance encompassing 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. This support has led to important legislation being passed to protect our planet, with countries working together to clean up what has already been done and prevent future damage. The United Nations selected Earth Day 2016 to sign the Paris Agreement, the most significant climate accord in the history of the climate movement.

While the pandemic caused the 50^th anniversary celebrations to move online, people continue to work toward the goal of saving our planet. After all, it’s the only one we have!

Hear about how that first Earth Day got its start in the audio file.

The term narcissism gets thrown around a lot in our selfie-obsessed culture, usually to describe someone who seems exceptionally self-centered. We use it when describing co-workers, bosses, celebrities, exes and even pastors. The term narcissist is derived from Narcissus, which comes from the Greek word narc meaning, “numbness.” Narcissists are oblivious to their own pain and the pain they inflict on others. Narcissism may be the current catchword, but it’s nothing new. Self-centered, arrogant, evil people have been around as long as humans have existed.

According to psychologist Dr. Patricia Lindquist, narcissism is a developmental stage in early childhood, lasting from the age of two until around five. “It is essential to self-concept, self-esteem, and ability to act in one’s own behalf independently. We have to ‘love ourselves’ in order to have the stamina and motivation to become an independent self.” This stage is mostly complete by the time an individual reaches the young adult stage.

The other, more problematic form of narcissism, often called “malignant narcissism,” is the version we are most familiar with. This person “intertwines themselves with others, unable to stand independently, and manipulates others to provide what is needed” Lindquist explains. “What makes it malignant is that it is not a whole relationship. It is a one-person relationship who contrives, manipulates, even gaslights others to obtain needed resources. This individual as an adult has many broken relationships, many frenemies, and is constantly ‘putting on a show’ in a charming way to lure others to him/her, to be discarded as soon as someone more exciting appears on the horizon.”

In their paper Birth Cohort Increases in Narcissistic Personality Traits Among American College Students, 1982–2009, Jean M. Twenge and Joshua D. Foster reported that approximately 70 percent of students today score lower on empathy and higher on narcissism than the average student 30 years ago.

Narcissistic Leaders

If asked, most people would say that Jesus’ most important qualities were gentleness and compassion. He taught us to turn the other cheek when we are attacked. Christianity teaches us to follow the example of Jesus, so how can there be narcissism in churches and church leaders?

Manipulation may not seem like it belongs in a church, but there are many narcissists involved in churches. Some are the ordained leader—a priest, pastor, minister, reverend—and others are non-ordained leaders in the congregation. Lindquist believes that there is as much narcissism in the church as in the general population

It is easy to see why narcissists would be drawn toward ministry. As Chuck DeGroat, who is both an ordained minister and licensed therapist, explained during an Allender Center podcast in their narcissism series, “we give immense deference to people in pastoral ministry, pastoral power, because of position, title, authority, robe, clerical collar, and all the rest.”

In his paper Narcissistic Pastors and the Making of Narcissistic Churches, Darrel Puls wrote, “Narcissists require constant external admiration to be reassured of their self-esteem. The position of pastor would be quite attractive to those who crave such admiration, as it is central to the drama of worship and religious exercise.”

Puls continues that the position “offers continuous gratification through telling people how to live with holy writ for a guide, being an integral part of the joys and tragedies of life, being told people’s deepest fears and darkest secrets, being sought out for advice and counseling, and being invited to banquets and intimate dinners as the honored guest. Such glory and power might seem quite attractive to a narcissist.”

The Rev. Bekki Lohrmann described seminary as the set-up for narcissism. She said that students are constantly being told that they are the authority in the church, they are God’s conduit to the congregation, they are the spiritual leader of the congregation. What wouldn’t draw a narcissist in?

But church leaders aren’t all ordained. A narcissist might be the person controlling the money, wanting to decide where “their” money goes. It might be the council president, wanting to choose the direction the church will move in. It might be a music director or singer, wanting all attention focused on them and their gifts to the congregation.

The Rev. William Radatz pointed out that it’s a very human trait to believe that we are the center of the universe. “There is a tendency in all of us to want to step up and basically be God.” In an article for The Banner, DeGroat wrote, “Adam and Eve’s original temptation was to “be like God” (Gen. 3:5), transcending their God-ordained creatureliness.”

Bishop Andrew Taylor agreed, saying, “I think the root of sin is selfishness, and narcissism is just a part of selfishness. All of us tend to go back to our selfishness in a variety of ways.”

Sister Anne of the Mount Saint Benedict Monastery in Crookston, Minn. pointed out that it can be very hard to identify a narcissist. “We all have a little bit of it in us. A lot of people have a hard time admitting mistakes. You want to be fair. And most of us don’t have the training to recognize it.”

Narcissistic Church

But it isn’t just the leaders of the church who may be narcissistic. The church itself can sometimes be. Radatz says that for each person in the church, “there’s a balance of ‘what do I get out of this’ and ‘what good can I do?’ When the balance is off, there’s an issue. It becomes about reinforcing my beliefs and convictions rather than a place we are learning together.”

He also pointed out that all churches, particularly the more fundamentalistic churches, have a conviction of absolute right, that “we have the correct bent on the truth.” Yet we have seen that in trying to avoid sin, churches propagate sin, i.e., desiring to protect unborn children can lead to a callous disregard for women’s lives. 

“We have to be careful about how we understand who God is and how God is. If we in the church portray God as a figure who alone wants to be the center of our universe, who is alone the object of our admiration then we are casting God in a narcissistic image. And if we have a narcissistic God, then we can expect to find narcissism in the church,” Lohrmann explains.

Narcissism in the church has become an increasing concern. Puls’ paper was written in October 2020. DeGroat’s book, When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse, was published in March 2020.

One potential explanation for the increase in narcissistic churches is that church attendance is declining.

As Lohrmann expounded: “We know that apart from major personality disorders, narcissism is a natural byproduct of stress, struggle, and trauma. When we feel like we are falling, we naturally think of ourselves. Drowning people are not altruistic, they will steal lifeboats from each other in order to survive. The church right now is in a period of decline and so often it has turned congregations and leaders inward, reducing the mission of the church from a vibrant effort to share God’s love to a desperate effort to acquire new members for our own survival. And if this kind of narcissism is permeating church culture, then it will surely draw narcissistic leadership.”

What happens to churches that become narcissistic? The short answer is that they become cults. They become centered around a perceived powerful leader. The members follow their leaders in almost a cult-like way because of their own feelings of powerlessness, deficiency, insecurity.

According to Dr. Dan Allender of the Allender Center, shared in the episode of his podcast featuring DeGroat, people who feel disenfranchised gather around a particularly powerful leader. “They’re not going to come in and listen daily, weekly, to somebody who is offering a love-oriented, humble, spirit of servanthood-oriented approach to the Christian life. They want to hear we are in a war. We need to fight this war. We are being bombarded. In other words, it seems like narcissism has the ability to shift so quickly to a sense of victimhood.” Then they are willing to follow the leader anywhere.

Over time, members who see the narcissism will leave, which only strengthens the cult-like character of the church. Narcissistic pastors tend to surround themselves with their own “disciples” and the leadership becomes insular and self-serving. The staff suffers greatly. People who must deal with a narcissist must be in a constant state of alertness. The frequent chaos and instability create a continuous state of stress. This can lead to chronic illness, mental health problems and other symptoms related to constant trauma.

Lindquist shared that her husband, the late Rev. Jack Lindquist, “used to joke about having enough ego to ‘speak to God’ and proclaim God’s words, saying that anyone who did that had to be a little crazy.” Narcissistic people may not be crazy, but when they are in positions of leading people’s souls, they can inflict a lot of trauma.

In an interview by Jamie D. Aten Ph.D. for Psychology Today, DeGroat said, “When I think about how narcissism impacts the church, I’m immediately aware of the debris field of pain—broken relationships, vocational confusion, trauma symptoms, betrayals of trust, to name a few.”

What comes to mind when you think of quilting? A quilting bee of pioneer women on the prairie? You might be surprised to learn that quilting dates as far back as ancient Egypt. An ivory carving in the British Museum shows the first Egyptian Dynasty king wearing a quilted mantle. The Quilter’s Survey, conducted annually by Premier Needle Arts, estimates that there are 10-12 million quilters in North America as of 2021. Why is this still a thing?

Tradition

Peggy Cox of Stafford, Va. started sewing at an early age. Her grandmother in Germany sent kits that had cardboard pieces with yarn that was used to stich them together when Cox was around 4 years old.

“I’ve never counted how many quilts I’ve made. Probably in the thousands,” Cox said. Her grandmother told her, “you’ll never make as many as I do.” Her grandmother made quilts entirely by hand, and Cox makes them with modern sewing machines, but that conversation inspired Cox to not count how many quilts she made so that she would never truly know that she made more quilts than her grandmother.

Kris Smith of Galt, Mo. said that her grandmother was a quilter and taught her the basics. “I remember making a Barbie doll quilt at eight years old,” Smith said.

Judy Manza of Simsbury, Conn. didn’t learn from her grandmother, but says quilting is a connection to her grandmother, the first member of the family born in the U.S. “She was extremely poor. She would cut up old clothes to make them; she needed blankets for the family.”

An Expensive Hobby

No longer made from fabric scraps and rags, both Manza and Smith described quilting as an expensive hobby. “By the time you’ve purchased all your supplies and had it professionally quilted, each quilt can cost several hundred dollars,” Manza explained.

Many quilters, including Manza and Smith, sew their patterns, then send the quilt out to a long-arm quilter to put it together. Cox has her own long-arm quilter, so she does the complete quilt from start to finish.

A 2017 Quilting in America survey shows that quilters spend an average of $3,363 per year on quilting. Sewing machines can cost as much as $20,000.

Gift of Love

Cox, who can make up to 20 quilts per year, gives most to charity, donating the quilt itself or selling them and donating the proceeds. She made baby quilts for parents who had lost their babies when she worked at a hospital in Germany. She works with Quilts of Valor, an organization that awards quilts to service members or veterans. Cox has been making quilts for the children at an orphanage started by a friend in Kenya.

Smith has never sold a quilt; she makes them to give as gifts for weddings, birthdays, graduations, new babies. She hasn’t counted how many she has made, but says, “I can whip out a quilt in two to three days.” She has made one for each of her kids and grandkids. Currently she has 14 quilts waiting for her to tack down the binding.

Manza is much newer to quilting. She makes about one per year and has given all but two away: “It’s a real gift of love. I don’t have a huge repertoire, but I remember every one.”

Community

Quilting can be either a social or solitary activity. Manza speaks of the joy she gets attending classes at local quilt/fabric stores. Smith said that she and a friend go on road trips to quilt shops. She’s meeting more people and seeing more men who are quilting. Smith also reported that the most fun she had was when she was stationed in Japan while active-duty Air Force. Several Japanese ladies joined their quilting group and taught different techniques. “Quilting is worldwide.”

As Cox says, “There are so many different aspects of quilting. There’s traditional, contemporary, fabric art. Some are amazing, some are ‘what the hell is that?’”

Manza shared a story about when her son’s second-grade teacher did a cross-cultural study on quilts—the history, math and art. Parents were invited to bring in quilts for show-and-tell. She showed one her grandmother had made for her, pointing out her aunt’s shirt, her uncle’s tie, her grandmother’s apron. A girl in the class asked her, “When you wrap yourself up in your grandmother’s quilt, can you feel her love?”

Quilting is still a thing because it is an act of love, connecting the quilter to both the recipient and to their own family traditions. Manza describes quilts as “a perfect mix of art, functionality, and history. When you create any kind of artwork, especially visual, it will last forever.”

While it is never easy to be homeless, the San Diego weather at least makes it a little more bearable. But when the COVID-19 pandemic led many organizations to shut down vital services, being homeless even in San Diego became more difficult.

In March 2020, the city of San Diego consolidated services, moving individuals already in shelters to the San Diego Convention Center. The goal was to allow for proper physical distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well as providing vital services to the people staying there.

Michael Cruz, supervisor of Case Management for Father Joe’s Villages, was working at their shelter when the decision was made to consolidate. Families were moved to hotel rooms while single men and women were moved to the Convention Center. “It was really good when we were at the Convention Center because we had a lot of services,” including mental health professionals and security.

But one year later, the city decided this was too expensive and closed the Convention Center. The goal was to move everyone who had been living there to existing shelters, so that none would have to return to living on the street. But in practice, it was not that simple.

Finding Shelter

Homeless people don’t usually have their birth certificates, social security cards or other forms of identification. Not having ID can mean not being able to get food stamps, get into a shelter, open a bank account, get disability benefits or even get a job. It’s hard for a homeless person to get these documents any time; during COVID it became even more of a challenge.

“One of the difficult things was when the Social Security office closed because clients need social security cards, ID,” said Cruz. “We were still able to provide vouchers to the DMV.”

To get a copy of a birth certificate, a person can go online, pay a fee and request a copy be sent to them. But the homeless don’t have regular internet access, money or mailing addresses. When the libraries closed, access to the internet was cut off for many.

The Third Avenue Charitable Organization, known more commonly by its acronym TACO, continued to assist people trying to get ID. Executive Director Susan Fleming explained that TACO pays the fees to acquire the documentation: “It’s a huge dent in our budget.”

Positive Side of the Pandemic

But while the pandemic provided unique challenges for the homeless, it also provided opportunities for organization that help them. “We were unbelievably blessed with a huge amount of donations in 2020,” said John Savidge, director of Ladle Fellowship, located at First Presbyterian Church.

Fleming reported that many people were donating the stimulus money that they had received. “People were saying ‘I don’t need this, so I wanted to give it to an organization that does.’” She anticipated their annual No-Show Gala, a fundraising “pretend” event, would raise $30,000. Instead, they received $50,000.

Fleming said that TACO was the only place in the area still giving out mail to their homeless clients and allowing them to charge their phones. “Word on the street travels fast. The number of people we see increased dramatically.”

Both Ladle and TACO began providing to-go meals outdoors when the pandemic began. They also limited the number of volunteers that assisted. But otherwise, it was business as usual. “Nothing was disrupted with the exception of the building being closed,” explained Savidge.

“For TACO, even though this horrible pandemic was going on, it allowed for us to grow,” said Fleming. “We’ve found ways to make it beneficial for clients, which has helped TACO too.” They went from serving meals twice per week to serving meals four days a week, as well as handing out Starbucks sandwiches provided through their partnership with Feeding San Diego on a fifth day. Their low-key clothing giveaway became larger as word spread.

Savidge explained that while Ladle didn’t really grow during the pandemic, they focused on their core services which he calls “the four M’s”: message, music, mentoring and medical. They have not yet re-started Bible study, but the San Diego Street Choir has begun rehearsing again, and staff and volunteers are continuing to assist their guests with both mental and physical health needs.

Cruz summed up how nonprofits are handling the pandemic best: “We’re being adaptable, flexible, rolling with the punches.” And they will continue to do so to the best of their ability, even in challenging times.

English composer and conductor John Rutter said, “You express, when you sing, your soul in song. And when you get together with a group of other singers, it becomes more than the sum of the parts.” To accomplish this during COVID, choir directors have had to be creative.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the public found out just how easily singing could spread the virus through the experience of the Skagit Valley Chorale, one of the first superspreader events in the country. For their rehearsal on March 10, 2020, the group believed that keeping socially distant would be enough to keep members safe. But within a few weeks, 52 of the 61 people who came to the rehearsal were diagnosed with COVID-19, and two died.

An international coalition of performing arts organizations commissioned a study on the risks of in-person rehearsals. Based on the results, the group developed rehearsal safety guidance, which included wearing masks, remaining socially distanced, limiting rehearsal time, and providing ample time between rehearsals to allow the air to be cleared or rehearsing outdoors.

It seemed safest to move everything online. Schools moved to online learning, which provided additional challenges for performing arts classes. Jenn Opdahl, choir teacher at Olympian High School in Chula Vista, Calif., explained, “Students were muted, not showing video and we were not allowed to require the screen to be on. The energy, emotional connection, being part of a whole disappeared.”

Tracy Burklund, adjunct professor in the music department of Southwestern College, also in Chula Vista, said, “It’s really challenging to have more than one voice singing at the same time because of latency.” Variations in the speed and quality of the students’ devices meant the singers were not together or with the accompaniment.

One approach is to have the group mute their microphones, which is self-defeating because the instructor can’t hear the student. Burklund explains that having a single student sing is fine, but in a larger group, musicality is lost. “You lose the experience of being in choir.”

There’s no easy way for choirs to perform online. “Everybody and their dog would tell people, ‘Oh, you’re in choir? You should do a virtual choir,’ with no idea what it takes,” Opdahl said. She explained that she has the skills but not the time, and the varying quality of what comes from the students makes it a challenge. Also, it’s cost-prohibitive to contract it out—a 45-second clip could cost around $700.

Opdahl’s students did a cabaret-style performance online at the end of the last school year. Each student picked out a song, then the accompanist would record a track for them to sing along with. But that’s not choir.

Initially churches moved to online services. Many held services outdoors for months to minimize the risk. As they’ve moved indoors, safety guidelines have varied greatly, from having the choir be spaced out and all wearing masks to no precautions at all. Some churches still have not restarted singing at all.

There is still space though. “Churches did such a good job of pivoting to online services, people aren’t coming back,” Ron Bolles said. This means that it is easier for congregations to spread out for safety.

Bolles has been a choir director in public schools, churches and the community for more than 50 years. At the start of the pandemic, he was the worship and arts director at La Jolla Presbyterian Church and director of the San Diego Street Choir.

The San Diego Street Choir stopped all rehearsals for more than a year. First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, where they rehearse, refused to mandate masks, but the choir leadership required them. “If someone came in without a mask, we’d slap one on. They did it. They hated it. We all hated it,” Bolles explained.

Burklund is co-vocal music director for Southwestern’s production of the musical “The Addams Family.” She said that with the current surge in the area, the school wanted to move everything back online. Her response was to limit the size of the cast, split them into groups to rehearse separately and do rapid testing prior to rehearsals.

Even with these precautions, students are still masked and distanced. “It’s difficult for me to hear the students when they’re so far away and muffled,” Burklund explained.

Opdahl described another problem with masks: “If you drop your jaw open to get space to sing, the mask moves and doesn’t cover the mouth.” In addition, “I can’t see their technique, but at least I can hear them. I also can’t demonstrate.”

Almost two years into the pandemic, many choirs are striving to get back to actually singing together. With the emerging variants, there’s no way to know when that might happen.