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Lyn
Scheuring

November 11, 1937 – September 20, 2018

Lyn Scheuring
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Memorial Candles Lit for Lyn | SEE ALL
"We are honored to provide this Book of Memories to the family."
— Schuyler Hill Funeral Home
"Our prayers and condolences are with Tom and his family. Lyn, now in heaven, is truly an inspiration and a light of Christ in the lives..."
— Sr. Mary Rose Bratlien, Franciscan Sisters, Third Order Regular of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother.
"All my love and prayers to Malissa and the entire Scheuring family <3 May Mrs. Scheuring's soul be at peace <3 God Bless you all "
— Kerrie Powers-Butler (PHS '90)
"Lyn was one of a kind! Her love for Jesus and His people will always live in our hearts. She often showed both of us such concern and compassion...."
— Glenn & Maeve Smith
"I am her grandson and want her to know that I loved her a lot and was such a holy and sweet person that I will miss very dearly. XOXO"
— Maddox Elbert
"So happy to have had the chance to meet Lyn at the Loftus Dinner to honor years of service for Iona College employees. Malissa received..."
— Patricia Besen
"My loving prayers and gratitude for the years of friendship. Lyn was a woman of faith, compassion and love. To Tom, Maria, Melissa and..."
— Susan M Greene,diGA-RDC

Obituary for Lyn Scheuring

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Lyn Scheuring, Co-Founder and Co-Director of LAMP Catholic Ministries, died Sept. 20, at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. She was 80 years old. Lyn was born Nov. 11, 1937 in Astoria, Queens, of parents who had immigrated from the Mediterranean Island of Malta as children. She attended Immaculate Conception Grammar School in her parish and Bishop McDonnell High School in Brooklyn. After attending college and some years of social work with Catholic Charities in Appalachia, Lyn went to Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, to complete her college studies and where she met her husband-to-be Tom Scheuring.
Lyn had considerable talent as an artist. During the summer before they were married, she worked as an artist with “Summer In The City”, a government program in the vastly populated S. Bronx, to engage the youth through the arts. She would often recall the day she was preparing her art supplies when Robert Kennedy, who was campaigning in the area, came into her art room, shook her hand and said: “Thank you for doing what you’re doing”.
She knew that her life’s direction was to serve the Lord through the Catholic Church, but didn’t feel called to consecrated religious life and didn’t know if it was compatible with married life. Tom, who was pursuing the same direction in his life, eventually convinced her that being married and serving the Lord through the Church was compatible. They were married at St. Athanasius Church in the S. Bronx 50 years ago, on June 15, 1968.
In 1970, they met an Assembly of God Minister named Rev. David Wilkerson (author of “The Cross and the Switchblade”). Having admired his ministries with youth from afar, on that occasion Lyn asked him if there was anything she and Tom could do to help him, as he was beginning an outreach to the hundreds of teenage runaways coming to the poverty stricken East Village of NYC each month. As it turned out, he was looking for a Catholic couple to serve with him who could minister to those youth who came from a Catholic home. They accepted his invitation and moved to the East Village where Lyn did street evangelization during the day, and with Tom, served in a storefront in the evening ministering to the runaways. They were often helped by Dorothy Day, who would occasionally lodge some of the youth and also provided some snack food for the outreach.
When they became pregnant and were concerned about the growing violence in the East Village, they pursued other opportunities for ministry and were invited to live in a House of Prayer in Stanfordville, NY (where their first daughter, Maria, was born) and then in Beacon, New York. Early one morning of their first spring there, the large house on the edge of Beacon where they were living with about 12 clergy, religious and other laypersons, caught fire. Lyn was 9 months pregnant with their second child (Malissa), and had to climb down sheets from their second floor room after their one year old, Maria, was dropped into someone’s arms on the stone patio below. They lost all their possessions but, but by God’s grace, escaped unharmed, as did the other occupants.
They moved to New Jersey and were part of a Catholic Charismatic Community for a number of years, during which time they also adopted their son, Paul, from an orphanage in Mexico City. With their children they would frequently make sandwiches and bring them to the poor on the streets of the Bowery. They would also help the Missionaries of Charity in their soup kitchen and on one
occasion were able to have a lengthy visit with Mother Teresa.
After a time they experienced a strong call to serve among the materially poor with a specific focus on evangelization. This resulted in their family moving to San Antonio, Texas, for training in missiology and Spanish. After the 6 month training they served in a poor Mexican parish for a year. Unable to find a program that had the vision they were seeking, by God’s grace, they began LAMP (Lay Apostolic Ministries with the Poor) Ministries, and moved back to the Bronx where they continued to raise their family and directed LAMP in its ministries of evangelization among the materially poor. From the beginning most of the LAMP Missionaries have been serving in the New York Archdiocese. In 1999, Cardinal O’Connor granted LAMP Ministries a canonical status within the Catholic Church, thereby affirming its Catholic identity. A year earlier he invited LAMP to be among the original ten groups to be on the Archdiocesan Council for Ecclesial Movements and New Communities.
To strengthen their service to the Church through LAMP, Lyn received an MA in Religious Studies from Fordham, and she and Tom each pursued and were awarded a Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham in 1990.
Two years later they were asked by Fr. Michael Scanlan, President of Franciscan University of Steubenville, to bring LAMP to that University to strengthen its faith outreach among the poor, and to teach Theology. Believing that was God’s call, they moved their family to Steubenville and developed faith oriented outreaches at the University. Lyn also taught courses in Franciscan Spirituality. In 1995, they returned to the Bronx to direct LAMP, with others from LAMP going to FUS to continue LAMP’s ministry outreaches there.
Lyn and Tom were both professed Secular Franciscans, and co-founded the Servants of God Fraternity, which meets monthly in Yonkers. Lyn always had a deep love for St. Francis and St. Clare and their spirituality. She authored and published a book, entitled, “Paradox of Poverty: St. Francis of Assisi and St. John of the Cross”, which was based on her doctoral dissertation. She, with Tom, published numerous articles, and authored two books: “Two For Joy”, and “God Longs for Family”, and with Marybeth Greene a book on LAMP entitled: “The Poor and the Good News”.
Lyn is survived by her husband of 50 years, Tom, their children, Maria Elbert, Malissa Leipold and Paul, their 5 grandchildren and her sister, Jean Coppa.
The wake will be at Schuyler Hill Funeral Home in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx on Friday, Sept. 28, and Funeral Mass at St. Frances de Chantal on Saturday, Sept. 29.

To send flowers to the family of Lyn Scheuring, please visit our Heartfelt Sympathies Store.

First Visitation

When Friday, September 28th, 2018 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Location
Schuyler Hill Funeral Home
Address
3535 East Tremont Avenue
Bronx, NY 10465
Additional Information In lieu of flowers you are invited to make a donation to LAMP Ministries by going to www.lampministries.org and clicking on “Donate”.

Second Visitation

When Friday, September 28th, 2018 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location
Schuyler Hill Funeral Home
Address
3535 East Tremont Avenue
Bronx, NY 10465
Additional Information In lieu of flowers you are invited to make a donation to LAMP Ministries by going to www.lampministries.org and clicking on “Donate”.

Mass of Christian Burial Information

When
Saturday, September 29th, 2018 10:00am
Location
St Frances De Chantal
Address
190 Hollywood Ave
Bronx, NY 10465

Interment Information

When
Saturday, September 29th, 2018 11:30am
Location
St. Raymond's Cemetery
Address
2600 Lafayette Avenue
Bronx, NY 10465
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