Bishop Michael Rinehart

1922-2024

From the family:

Rachel Conrad Wahlberg died June 2, 2024 as a result of complications from a stroke and dementia. She was 101 years old.

Rachel was born December 23, 1922 and grew up in High Point, NC, the daughter of F.L. and Mary Conrad. F.L. Conrad was a Lutheran minister and bishop. Rachel’s three brothers all became Lutheran ministers; her sister became an RN. After graduation from high school in 1940, Rachel attended and graduated from Lenoir Rhyne College where she met Philip L. Wahlberg. Rachel and Phil became partners on the college debate team and later married. Rachel received a Masters Degree in English Lit from the University of Virginia and began a teaching career. Phil went to seminary and became a Lutheran minister. Rachel and Phil moved to Thunderbolt, GA, where he was the pastor of two churches. Following that, they moved to Corpus Christi, TX where Phil started another church and then moved to Austin when he became bishop for Texas and Louisiana.

Rachel and Phil were happily married and true partners for 71 years, until his death in 2021. “Happily married” is an understatement. Rachel and Phil were truly in love and engaged in public displays of affection well into their 90’s. Phil’s responsibilities as bishop and as a member of a number of church-related boards meant that he was on the road regularly. Rachel was always so happy that she would literally jump for joy on his return. True to their love, Rachel was buried with her collection of love letters from Phil. Rachel and Phil had four children, P. David Wahlberg, Christopher S. Wahlberg, Pauli W. Gonsoulin and Sharon E. Wahlberg, as well as six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

Rachel’s teaching career took a back seat for many years due to the demands of raising a family and being a minister’s wife. However, that did not mean she gave up on her career. For many years she wrote articles for religious publications including The. Lutheran, Presbyterian Life, Together, Theology Today and Lutheran Standard as well as cover stories for Christian Century, a noted publication. Those articles led to the publication of four books, the most successful of which, Jesus According to a Woman, was published in 13 languages and sold more than 50,000 copies. For many years she published a monthly newsletter devoted to women’s issues.

Rachel was a progressive thinker and an early advocate for women’s rights. She was a delegate to the United Nations Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1968. She was the author of “The Women’s Creed” which was adopted by the Ecumenical Women of the United Nations. Rachel was proud to be known as “feisty.” She said that her convictions led to Phil becoming a feminist. 

After the children were grown, Rachel went back to school at the University of Texas, studying journalism and women’s issues. Those studies led to her taking a position with the Industrial Education Department of UT, teaching management courses for ten years.

The family wishes to express our appreciation to the numerous caregivers who provided loving and devoted care for Rachel and Phil during the difficult years of declining health and dementia. Most recently that was Rachel, Lorena, Crystal, Rosalia, Aurora and Arik. There were numerous others, to whom we give thanks. The Family is also appreciative of the care provided by Seton Ascension and Mir Senior Services.

A family burial was held at Palm Valley Lutheran Church, Round Rock, Texas.

Pastor Sandy Wilcox Funeral Sermon for Rachel    

June 14, 2024  

Palm Valley Lutheran

Galatians 3: 26-29 – Inclusive Bible –

Each one of you is a child of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus.  All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 

In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave or citizen, male of female.  All are one in Christ Jesus.

Furthermore, if you belong to Christ, you are the offspring of Abraham, which means you inherit all that was promised.

John 14:14-17 Anything you ask in my name I will do.  If you love me and obey the command I give you, I will ask the One who sent me to give you another Paraclete, another Helper to be with you always – the Spirit of truth, who the world cannot accept since the world neither sees her nor recognizes her: but you can recognize the Spirit because she remains with you and will be within you.

SPIRIT OF TRUTH

Grace to you and peace  from God our Mother and Father, through the grace of our brother Jesus Christ and the love of the Holy Spirit, family and friends of Rachel Conrad Wahlberg.

In my file cabinet, I have about 2 inches of files labeled WOMEN in the Church full of articles and quotes dating back to the 1970s when Lutheran women were starting to be ordained.  As you can imagine, lots of those quotes are from Rachel and her newsletter Womens Network News plus 3 books on the shelves.  They are full of ideas Ideas that at the time seemed so new and revolutionary.

Those ideas of female images of God and stories of Jesus relationships that had been right there in front of us all – right there in the Bible for thousands of years, had only been seen through a distorted lens – a lens that filtered out God images of the Mother Hen or the woman searching for a lost coin the same way a Good Shepherd searches for a lost sheep.  Some of these images were just dismissed, they were invisible, never told to children in Sunday School or taught to the adults – just ignored.  Or they were dismissed as unimportant or maybe just silly.

Somehow, the church managed to totally ignore 4, count them, 4 Gospel stories of the Easter resurrection. Those stories of women as first witnesses to the empty tomb, women as the first to hear the Easter  imperative, Come and See, Go and Tell.   First witnesses and first evangelists.

But Jesus had promised a gift to those who listened, really listened to the Word of the Lord.  St. John reports the promise of

– the Spirit of truth, who the world cannot accept since the world neither sees her nor recognizes her: but you can recognize the Spirit because she remains with you and will be within you.

A Spirit of Truth – that’s the Holy Spirit – got stirred up in women and men, too .  Stories and images right there on the pages of our Bibles seemed to just pop out when the modern day prophets and writers and teachers pointed them out.   Rachel was one of those people, she was all of those things: a writer and prophet and a teacher. 

And she was uppity – one of her favorite words.  She had been taught as a daughter to speak up with all those brothers and a father who were all clergy!  I seem to remember that her dad encouraged her to speak up, be assertive.  In that family, I imagine a woman would HAVE to speak up or just disappear.  Rachel chose to speak up. To use and speak her mind.

Also in those days, too, she developed a great love of music.  Playing piano for her father’s church services she must have developed an understanding of God’s Truth that doesn’t just express in words, but also in rhythms and rhymes of old hymns. 

Thank God for that. Even in the last years when she lost that wonderful gift of words, she still delighted in singing with family and friends.  Our mutual dear friend, Barbara Wiederaenders, went weekly to visit and sing.   Music gave Rachel such joy.   The Spirit of Truth could still shine. 

Rachel’s early years with her dynamic family shaped her in such a unique way, opening her heart and that amazing mind.

And then she met Phil Wahlberg.  I totally loved hearing each of them tell their version of meeting.  They were on opposing debate teams in college.  Both would say that was really important – that they not only knew how to work together but they knew how to articulate their differences without hurting each other.  In Debate, they had to be able to argue both sides, so they already knew what the other was saying.  They could disagree and come out on the other side with a stronger and more resilient marriage.   Their marriage was truly blessed with the Spirit of Truth.

When I do marriage counseling over the years, I have used their example over and over for folks to hear how a healthy marriage functions.   When Rachel started writing books, she wrote one in 1971 called “Leave a Little Dust” about being a modern day woman / wife/mother/ career minded person. It’s very practical.  Do you know why Rachel always bought men’s jackets?  Pockets!  It was one of her more quiet crusades.

And did she really make an inventory of all the furniture in the house?  That was a suggestion, too, to save time shopping.

 In her book, she must have used the word partner and partnership over 100 times in the book.  “Team spirit” she writes is not attained without talking things over…. The three steps: communication, will and cooperation.”

The title of the book, “Leave a Little Dust” was from a little ritual.  Rachel would leave some dusty places.  When Phil found them, he wrote “I LOVE YOU” in the dust.  Can’t you just hear her giggle?

Rachel and Phil taught that to their family – communicate, speak up with love.    They were so proud of all of you.  They taught you to be independent thinkers.  I think they both liked the busy-ness of raising kids along with their own busy careers. Phil was a pastor and then Bishop Wahlberg.  Rachel was a trainer leading seminars on workskills for University of Texas.  And they raised a family.  They were busy AND they both enjoyed home life, all at the same time.   And I’m pretty sure they raised a family who are all overachievers, also. 

So in the 60s and 70s, when a lot of women were feeling unfulfilled , I do believe that Rachel was just ready for the next step.  She had accumulated all this knowledge and experience and curiosity and was ready to put it to bigger use. She sensed a divine Call from the Spirit of Truth.   So she took on the Lutheran church. 

She researched the Bible and writings of other feminist theologians.  She was on committees focused on women leadership and ordination of women.   She wrote countless articles for the Lutheran publications and for Christian Century.  She wrote books and her target audience was lay women and men in the church as well as clergy to open eyes to what had always been there.  Stories. Stories about her Lord Jesus and women. Stories that he talked about a generous baker woman or the persistent widow who pesters a judge for justice. And stories that move us all to action – to  Come and See, Go and Tell.

Rachel put out a 2 page newsletter for years , Women Network News  – that predated Huffington Post in that she collected excerpts from news all over the world about women issues.    Some were horrifying like the early stories about the Taliban torturing women and little girls and blowing up religious shrines. There were stories of celebration, laws passed, women leaders elected, men stepping into caretaking roles. *

One story for example:  A woman was attacked on the campus of Brigham Young University and the powers that be made a policy that women were not allowed to walk alone on campus at night. 

A women’s group published their own set of “rules” for the men:

-men cannot walk alone or in groups after 10pm.

-men who must walk through campus after hours must be accompanied by 21 women to show they are not threatening.

A BYU spokesperson claimed a male curfew was impractical.  Male students said such a proposal was “utterly ridiculous”.

The women’s group got national publicity on ABCs “Good Moring America,”  Maury Povick Show, and Phil Donahue.  Dec. 1991

Rachel wrote more books, books that for a lot of us, blew us away – surprised at these stories that were right before our eyes and ideas that set us all free.

A friend who is a Mennonite minister told me she remembers reading Rachel’s book JESUS ACCORDING TO A WOMAN  and feeling she met Christ in a new way – deepened her faith.  JESUS AND THE FREED WOMAN  helped a lot of us wake up to a new sense of reality  about this God of Love that we worship – expanded our understanding of the priesthood of all believers.  The words of Christ to the woman in the temple “Woman, you are set free!”  reverberate into our collective psyche.

Rachel’s life has been like a prayer – a wonderful amazing grace-filled conversation, much like the woman at the well, with her old friend, Jesus.  And now we come to the AMEN part of her life – Yes, it is so.  It’s been awhile in coming.

These last few years have been difficult for family and friends.  We’ve seen these two brilliant creative people fade away .  Heart-breaking. Thank God for a wonderful team of caregivers who have been so faithful and loving.

There were some times that shook us all.  Like when the two of them, in their confusion, took off and walked down the street out of the neighborhood, hand in hand,  to God Knows Where.   It occurs to me that that is where they go now – to God Knows Where!

There’s no doubt among any of us that Rachel and Phil have gone into this Amen with confidence and complete faith in their Lord.  They believed in a Christ who dies their death for them, goes before them into the grave, and welcomes them like a Mother Hen gathering her chicks into the great Mystery of God’s Eternal Love.  May we all who knew them be witnesses – Come and See, and Go and Tell.

Peace to you all!

Thanks be to God!  Amen