New reverend in Willsboro Ric Feeney brings gift of renewal, art and faith

WILLSBORO — After putting painting aside for 30 years, Willsboro and Reber's new minister picked up the brush and dabbed it in watercolor. The inspiration came, Rev. Ric Feeney said, in part from the Adirondack landscape. It also came from the sense of "ah" that Feeney draws from his return to the pulpit. One of dozens of paintings in his parsonage home on Main Street reflects the striking lakeside view from his sister's place on Willsboro Point. The colors he used are bold, snapped crisp in composition under a careful eye. A phrase from a Donovan song — "Ah, but I might as well catch the wind" — is written like clouds across the heavens in this work he called "Ah." Reflection holds an essential place in Feeney's life's work, both art and faith. An art major with a Fine Arts degree, Feeney went from University of Northern Colorado onto Divinity school in Oregon years ago, a move that launched his work with the Brethren in Christ churches. Married then with four children, for 30 years he shared Christ's word in communities around the country. He spent eight years as pastor in southern California; three in rural Pennsylvania, and five in Hershey before building a new church in Philadelphia. His ministry took him for three years to a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia and then he "retired" from the Brethren and established the Queen City Farm on the East Side, the poorest section, of Buffalo. The inner-city garden space now covers five connecting vacant lots. A total 20,000 houses have been burned on the East Side, Feeney says of the empty and poor neighborhood. Urban soils around the filled-in basements was too toxic for growing plants, so they built rows of 54 raised beds, Feeney explained, and brought in good dirt. The gardens grew to be a center of both commerce and sustenance for the primarily poor, black community. "We began to sell food at market on Saturday. It has now become a community share-exchange, work in exchange for food," Feeney said. The sole white resident the East Side then, the retired minister joined a black church and read his Bible. That first winter in Buffalo, he recalled shoveling the roads and sidewalks around his block. "My neighbor Jerry became a good friend," Feeney said. "Jerry told me he didn't care about my race, he said, 'Someone was moving in. The U-Haul was unloading instead of packing up and moving out'. "Where I lived there was live gunshots. But I was an organic farmer in the inner city, planting gardens on vacant lots and feeding people." There was never a problem with theft from the gardens, Feeney said. "Nobody ever stole a tomato." Beautification curtails vandalism, Feeney said. His daughter, Meghan McCallum, runs the Queen City Farm now. And he returns some weekends to help and to babysit his grandchildren. Now almost 70, Feeney came to Willsboro to visit his sister and brother-in-law, Maura and Bill Dickerson, taking time to reflect after his wife left their marriage. It was time to recharge, the minister said of his personal renewal. Part of the story is being rewritten with a paintbrush. Another part came with return to the Methodist ministry. "This is getting a second chance, this is my do-over," Feeney said. "At first, I painted six hours a day and got much better." He has completed 20 images of familiar and beloved places around town: the diner, Ethel's and the old Mill among them. "The greatest power is love," Feeney said of the healing process. And love, he believes and preaches every Sunday, does not judge. The Methodist ministry came calling just about two years ago when Feeney was asked to substitute at Willsboro United Methodist Church. Once, then twice, he offered Sunday sermons, and parishioners responded with applause. Return to the pulpit was a good fit with Feeney's reverent life, one buttressed by building gardens to feed people on Buffalo's East Side. "I read the Bible every day," the minister shared. "It's a love story. And we drown out the love with lots of rules. Jesus says 'Come to me' and we (humankind) says 'you can come when you...' or 'you can come if you...' Jesus just said come." For 80 years, the church has shared its parsonage with the Reber United Methodist congregation. So after accepting the ministry at Willsboro, Feeney also started sharing sermons at the Reber United Methodist Church last July. "Both congregations have welcomed me," he said. "I love being here. It's beautiful." MEET THE REVEREND Rev. Feeney has a small studio and gallery in the front rooms of the parsonage on Main Street, next to the Church. Both are opened to the public. Church services on Sunday at United Methodist Church in Reber begin at 11 a.m., at 214 Reber Road. United Methodist Church services in Willsboro are at 9 a.m., at 3731 Main Street. Rev. Feeney encourages people attending service to bring a canned or non-perishable food item to share with Willsboro's Food Shelf.

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New reverend in Willsboro Ric Feeney brings gift of renewal, art and faith

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