John Rocha with Winston & Barbara Elliott
On Saturday evening, I went to sleep reflecting on a text I had received from Winston Elliott about the film The Emperor’s Club. On Sunday morning, as I awoke—still a little groggy from Daylight Saving Time—I saw another text from him saying that his beloved bride, Barbara Elliott, had passed away earlier that morning. My heart was immediately heavy, and I reached for my wife lying beside me. I shared the news with her, and immediately prayed for Barbara’s soul, and for peace for Winston and their children.
We have lost a friend and a fellow pilgrim walking toward Christ. Winston and Barbara have had an enduring influence on my personal and professional life. I worked in the same suite of offices with Barbara as she founded and led the Center for Cultural Renewal and WorkFaith Connection. As a vibrant Christian, she was ahead of her time in supporting inner-city renewal through faith. Before Marvin Olasky made the term “compassionate conservative” part of the political landscape in the early 2000s, and before President George W. Bush created The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI), Barbara was working in boardrooms, inner-city churches, and within the conservative movement to rebuild Christian communities one at a time. Government was not the answer, but rather a tool to support the work of small church pastors in evangelizing their flocks, such as the City of Refuge (COR) Presbyterian Church, led by Rev. Rufus Smith.
Barbara and Winston’s faith journey led them to the Tiber, not through the usual parish RCIA program, but through friendships in which I was privileged to share—among many others, Fr. Michael Barrett, Brad Birzer, Gleaves Whitney, Ben Lockerd, Fr. Donald Nesti, and Clint Brand. They later continued that journey through the Anglican Pastoral Provisional Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, where they deepened their Catholic friendships with Irma More, Frs. Bruce and David—known as the Noble Brothers—and the visionary pastor, Fr. James Moore, among many others. All I can say is that I was along for the ride as Barbara then sought to evangelize Catholics to become disciples for Christ. She worked with Sherry Weddell when Forming Intentional Disciples was still in a three-ring binder. She brought people together and sought ways to support them by equipping them with the tools they needed to fulfill their call.
As my family left Houston, Barbara had moved into a formal teaching role, joining the founding faculty of Houston Baptist University’s Honors College, eventually becoming an Assistant Professor in the College of Liberal Arts. In seminar discussions, she continued to evangelize the next generation through the Great Books, guiding them toward Truth, who is Christ.
Winston and Barbara brought Donna and me into their circle of friends over the years. Stephen Baldemar, our second son, is famous among his siblings because, as an infant, he attended President George W. Bush’s Inaugural Party, which the Elliotts hosted. We were honored when Barbara and Winston said yes to being godparents to our third son, Thomas Josemaria. The Elliotts continued to guide our children from afar through their prayers, and they desired for them to receive a Catholic education through their undergraduate studies. Stephen attended Wyoming Catholic College’s PEAK Summer Program, and Thomas participated in Thomas More College’s Great Books Summer Program through their support.
One of her books, Candles Behind the Wall, focused on the fall of Communism—not through bullets or violence, but through prayer. She later wrote Street Saints: Renewing America’s Cities. I conclude by reflecting on her influence on me, and on the many others she encountered during her pilgrimage toward Christ. In Street Saints, she published a prayer of St. John Henry Newman sent to her by a sister from The Missionaries of Charity who typed it in a note of gratitude:
Dear Jesus, help us to spread Your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being, so utterly,
That our lives may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through us, and be so in us,
That every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus!
Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as You shine;
So to shine as to be a light to others.
The light O Jesus will be all from You, none of it will be ours;
It will be you, shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise You in the way You love best by shining on those around us.
Let us preach You without preaching, not by words but by our example.
By the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do.
The evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
I imagine and pray that as Barbara walked toward the gates of Heaven, she heard, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy” (Matthew 25:21).
Requiescat in pace.
__________
The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility.
