The Stillwater Amateur Radio Association’s (SARA) annual event at Afton’s Belwin Conservancy has drawn a distant and illustrious visitor through the medium of “ham” radio. Belwin’s Savanna Center was once the home of the late Episcopal priest Father George Metcalf, a ham-radio operator with call sign WØJH. Last year, Springfield, Illinois Episcopal Bishop Brian K. Burgess, also a ham, contacted SARA during the event. This year he plans to visit January 9-11 to operate alongside the SARA hams. While here Bishop Burgess will visit local clergy, bring greetings from the Springfield diocese to the Episcopal Church in Minnesota and officiate with Fr. Jay Phelan at the 10:00 Sunday service at Stillwater’s Ascension Episcopal Church.

Bishop Burgess’ interest in this special event station came quite immediately. When asked what piqued his interest, he responded: “Since the Day of Pentecost, the Church has always commemorated those who have exhibited a greater capacity for kingdom of God priorities. Fr. Metcalf’s vocation as a priest was set apart by God for His particular use time and time again. Yes, we focus on the headline events such as Fr. Metcalf’s support of the Allied Command as chaplain ahead of their advancing the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. However, there is also his selfless, dedicated service as a parish rector, his taking on of leadership roles within his Diocese while being a most generous benefactor within his community. He was also a most proficient amateur radio operator who attended to a higher level of emergency preparedness while others slept. My interest in the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association’s annual Special Event Station was increased when I found a community of highly dedicated radio operators who live as it is they pray; to the glory of God and on behalf of those He came to redeem.”

“Remembering Father Metcalf – WØJH” will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 9-11 at the Savanna center, located at 795 Indian Trail S. The SARA-sponsored event is free and open to “anyone interested in communicating with other radio operators around the world,” said Dave Glas, past president of SARA.

“This is a way for us to honor Father Metcalf,” Glas said. “We want to recognize his generosity in donating the land and his support of amateur radio and other sciences.”

Metcalf, who died in 1995, founded the Oratory of St. Mary’s on the site in 1959. For years, the land and the buildings, which includes a residence and two small guest cottages, served as a spiritual retreat, and “Metcalf’s radio ministry was broadcast around the world from towers on the sloping hillside,” according to Belwin’s history of the center. Metcalf was a longtime volunteer with the Courage Center’s Handiham program, helping program members with ham-radio education and learning Morse code, Glas said.

Metcalf grew up in St. Paul and served as Gen. George Patton’s personal chaplain during World War II. He was one of two chaplains who drafted the “Weather prayer” that Patton’s troops believed ended three months of cloudy skies and rain in December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge.

“There was terrible weather in that part of the world,” Glas said. “The Allies couldn’t fly airplanes in to provide support, and the Germans had tanks surrounding Bastogne.”

At 8 a.m. on Dec. 22, 1944, Metcalf was at his desk in the Caserne Molifor, an old French military barracks in Nancy in the region of Lorraine, when the telephone rang, according to Stillwater historian Anita Buck, who interviewed Metcalf in 1975 and wrote about that interview for an article that was published in the Stillwater Courier News in 2003.

“‘This is General Patton,’” the voice on the other end of the phone stated, according to Buck’s account. “Can you find me a prayer for fair weather for battle? We can’t get air cover under the present conditions. It’s pretty serious, and I think we ought to pray about it.”

Metcalf told Buck that he found several excerpts from four or five prayers in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church. He also conferred with the Third Army’s head chaplain, James O’Neill, an American Catholic priest who “picked phrases from his missal of the Catholic church,” Buck wrote. “Using that material, the two men put together the ‘fair weather’ prayer.”

The prayer, which was printed and distributed to unit members, read: “Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”

The weather cleared soon after. After the war, Metcalf was chaplain for Episcopal students at the University of Minnesota and, later, associate minister at St. Paul’s On-the-Hill Episcopal Church on Summit Avenue.

In 1959, Metcalf and his wife, Mary, went looking for property in the country and fell in love with 100 acres in Afton. In 1972, the Metcalfs donated about 90 acres of their 100-acre parcel to the Science Museum of Minnesota. The couple wanted the land, which included a freshwater marsh, to remain undeveloped and to be used for the observation and study of natural phenomena.

The Metcalfs eventually became frustrated that the museum was not using the land for scientific study as stipulated in the deed agreement, family members said. In 2004, Mary Metcalf sued the museum to get it to abide by the agreement or to allow control to be transferred to another organization. A settlement reached in 2006 transferred the land to Belwin. Mary Metcalf died in 2007, and in 2009, Belwin purchased the family home and guest houses and remaining 12 acres. Since then, Belwin officials transformed the property into the Savanna Center. It is a hub for expanding programs and partnerships that make outdoor experiences more accessible to the community. The Center is surrounded by 250 acres of restored oak savanna. Belwin Conservancy specializes in outdoor science education and has protected more than 1,600 acres in the St. Croix Valley. The permanently protected land includes woodland, prairie, oak savanna, ponds, streams and wetlands.

For more information about the SARA event, radioham.org.