 |
Churches slate myriad Easter, Holy week services
Activist, author will kick off chapel series
Monday
|
Edwards lived the life he espoused |
The doctor, ethicist and great-grandson of Newberg
founding father Jesse Edwards, dies March 23 |
By Schellene Clendenin, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Schellene at sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Miles Edwards’ faith was part
and parcel of who he was. It was the basis for his ethical beliefs
and for his compassion.
And when he died March 23 at the age of 76 — after battling
pancreatic cancer that had spread to his lungs — his faith was one
of the things about him that will be remembered by his family and
friends, they said.
Edwards was the great-grandson of Jesse Edwards, one of the
founders of Newberg. Miles Edwards and his mother renovated and
donated Jesse Edward’s 123-year-old home to the university as a
residence for its presidents. He also served as a member of the
George Fox University board of trustees, regularly lectured in GFU
classes and was an ethicist at Oregon Health Sciences University,
where served as a lung and critical care specialist for 40 years.
Pastor Stan Thornburg of North Valley Friends Church, where Edwards
attended, said Edwards faith was authentic. “It was more than just
doing what he believed, it was being what he believed,” he said.
In late September, weeks before he learned that cancer had traveled
to his lungs, Edwards discussed medical ethics in a series of
workshops at the church. Edwards offered insight into how Christians
and physicians deal with controversial life and death issues, such
as physician-assisted suicide, to which he was opposed, genetic
research and withdrawal of life support.
“I know the scientific side of issues,” he said at the time. “I
don’t mean to sell people on my position. Rather I want to educate
them.”
He believed that physician-assisted suicide was destructive
emotionally to the doctors who administered the drugs. It was never
and option for him, Thornburg said.
Edwards’ wife Cynthia Arpke was with him when he died and said in
spite of some discomfort, Edwards was opposed to physician-assisted
suicide to the end. “He never considered it an option,” she said.
“The alternative was to quit eating and drinking, which he did.
Toward the end he wasn’t eating anything, maybe a little water when
he took a pill or to moisten his lips to be comfortable. It came as
it was bidden.”
Arpke said as her husband’s death drew near Edwards was nervous
about what would come. He gained comfort from one word uttered by
the hospital chaplain, one of five pastors to visit him in his final
few days. The word was Gethsemane, a sacred garden on the Mount of
Olives in Jerusalem.
The chaplain told Edwards it made sense for people to worry about
what would be next since even Jesus was unsure of what to expect.
A private interment was held Friday morning at the Friends Cemetery
in Newberg.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in Reedwood Friends Church,
2901 S.E. Steele St., Portland. A second service will be held at 1
p.m. April 9, at Oregon Health & Sciences University.
Edwards was survived by his wife Cynthia Arpke, four children and
several grandchildren. |
|
From
April 1, 2006, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
