FALL A.D.

2020

VOL. 62 NO. 3

Holy Cross Church in Pittsburgh, PA

 Published quarterly by the Society for Promoting and Encouraging
Arts and Knowledge of the Church (SPEAK, Inc.).

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
CHAIRMAN
THE REV. CHARLESTON D. WILSON
VICE CHAIRMAN
THE REV. CHRISTOPHER COLBY

SECRETARY/TREASURER
THE REV. DR. C. BRYAN OWEN
THE RT. REV. JOHN C. BAUERSCHMIDT,
THE RT. REV. ANTHONY J. BURTON,
MARIAN CHANCELLOR
THE REV. CANON NEAL O. MICHELL
DR. E. MITCHELL SINGLETON, HONORARY

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
THE REV. FREDRICK A. ROBINSON, EDITOR
THE RT. REV. ANTHONY F. M. CLAVIER, ASSISTANT EDITOR

INQUIRIES AND CORRESPONDENCE

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do not necessarily represent those of the Board of Trustees.

ISSN 0003-3278 VOL. 62, NO. 3

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2 anglicandigest.org
 Reflecting the words and work of the
faithful throughout the Anglican
Communion for more than fifty years.

connecting gathering telling

For sixty-two years, The Anglican Digest (TAD) has been the
leading quarterly publication serving the Anglican Communion.
From its inception, TAD’s mission has been “to reflect the words
and work of the faithful throughout the Anglican Communion.”
At a time when print editions are becoming an endangered
species, TAD remains a familiar presence in the homes and
offices of many Episcopalians.

Founded in 1958 by the Rev. Howard Lane Foland (1908-1989),

our heritage is “Prayer Book Catholic,” and is open to the needs
and accomplishments of all expressions of Anglicanism: Anglo-
Catholic, Broad, and Evangelical. Thus, TAD does not cater to
any one niche or segment of the Church, but finds its enduring
ethos in serving the Church, including her clergy and lay leaders,
those theologically educated and “babes in Christ.” Each issue,
therefore, is unique.

TAD is sent to anyone who desires to receive it, and is supported

by contributions. To receive your own copy, or to partner with
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call 479-253-9701.

fall 2020 3
 A Letter from the
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Dear Digest Family,
Most everyone remembers the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, and it was the worst of
times.” Dickens set his historical novel in Paris and London just before
the French Revolution. I wonder how a historical novel set in the latter
half of 2020 might begin?
There is always a tendency to focus on the negative – “the worst of
times.” The news media make billions of dollars by trying to make the
negative normative, yet we generally avoid people described as “having
a negative attitude.”
In all that we face, whether in times of great rejoicing, or as we walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, God is there. “If I ascend to
heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there,” declares
the Psalmist. And this really does make all the difference in the world.
No matter how many waves slam into the ship, no matter how seasick
and soul-sick I might get, the Good Physician is onboard. Again, that
makes all the difference in the world.
In this issue, which Fr. Fred has brilliantly assembled, I hope you sense
that God is present in your life – in our life together – in ways like never
before. And, when we discover that He’s been here all along, may we all
fall down in praise and adoration mindful that the best is yet to come.
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (I Cor
13:12).
All my love,
The Rev. Charleston D. Wilson
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
P.S. Don’t forget to pray for the Digest, and don’t forget to make a con-
tribution so that we can keep this mission going.
4 anglicandigest.org
6 Letter from the Editor

8 The Rt. Rev’d John Buchanan

10 Coronavirus and the Sign of the times

14 St. Helena and the True Cross

17 The Sunday Procession

19 Conflict and Comfort: Our Lives with

50 the Angels

25 The Prayer of Faith

28 The Magic of the Camino

33 As the Ruin Falls

34 A Rule of Life

41 Analog Church

45 A Different Take On Living Water

49 Good Verses Evil

53 And I Mean to Be One Too

57 Thank You

fall 2020 5
connecting

A Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers of The Anglican Digest:

In this fall issue of TAD, there is no one basic theme, but a
kind of miscellany of subjects. Some of the articles were writ-
ten specifically for this issue, while others have been gleaned
from parish and diocesan newsletters, as well as other sources.
Please let me know what you find interesting and helpful, what
you would like to see more of, or less, and anything else you
would like me to know regarding TAD.
Also, dear readers, please make sure that TAD is on your parish
and diocesan mailing lists. My plan at this point is to glean as
much as possible from the excellent work already being done
in parishes and dioceses throughout the Communion.
One recipe per issue is a goal I hope to accomplish. You can see
I like achievable goals! Send me a copy of a treasured recipe
from your parish cookbook, making sure that I have the name
of the book, the name of the parish, the year it was published,
and any other interesting tidbits about it. The recipes add in-
terest and offer a unique way to get the name of a parish “out
there.” Besides, anyone who has been to a potluck supper at
one of our parish churches knows that Anglicans are amazing
cooks!
Some of the most beautiful buildings in the world are Anglican
churches. If you would like your church featured on the front
or back cover of TAD, please send a picture or two that you
would like for us to consider. Make sure we know the name of

6 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

the parish, its location, and, if possible, when the church was
built.
Finally, our primary goal is the building up of the Church, that
our Lord Jesus Christ may be known, worshipped, and obeyed
to the ends of the earth. TAD works toward that goal through
our publication, reflecting the words and work of the faithful
throughout the Anglican Communion. And yet, that work
only has an effect when people read the Digest. Thus, while
we have a huge mailing list, we are always looking for more
subscribers. Subscriptions are by contribution, so they make
wonderful gifts for your family and friends! If you are reading
this sentence, realize that it is a gift from thousands of gener-
ous Christians who want others to know, love, and worship our
Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a member of the clergy, consider
having us send a copy of TAD to leaders of your parish or even
to all members of your parish. We do not share our mailing list
with any other organization.
Thank you for reading my scribbles and considering my re-
quests, but most of all, thank you for bringing The Anglican
Digest into your homes and parishes. With every good wish for
God’s continued blessing, I remain
Faithfully yours,
The Rev’d Fred Robinson+
vvv
When you lose one of your senses another is enhanced. That is
why people who have no sense of humor have such a height-
ened sense of self-importance.
—borrowed
fall 2020 7
connecting

The Rt Rev’d John Buchanan

Longtime Member of the Board of the Angican Digest

The Right Reverend John Clark Buchanan peacefully entered

into eternal rest on April 15, 2020, at home surrounded by
his loving family. John Buchanan was born May 6, 1933, in
Joanna, South Carolina. He served in the US Air Force from
1951-1955 and then went to the University of South Caroli-
na where he earned a BA, 1958, and JD, 1961. He returned to
Laurens County to practice law. In 1966, he received the call
to the priesthood and began his studies at General Theological
Seminary in New York. Upon graduation from GTS in 1969,
Bishop Buchanan began his ordained ministry in the Episcopal
Diocese of South Carolina. He served three congregations as
rector, the first being St. Barnabas’s Church, Dillon, followed
by St. Matthew’s Church,
Darlington, and lastly St.
Andrew’s Church, Mt.
Pleasant. In 1988, he was
elected Bishop Coadjutor
of the Diocese of West Mis-
souri. He began his tenure
as Bishop in 1989. During
his Episcopate, Bishop Bu-
chanan spearheaded the vi-
sion of what was to become
the Bishop Spencer Place
retirement community in
Kansas City, Missouri. As
the Chairman of the Board
of Directors of Bishop
8 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

Spencer Place, he led a five-year effort including property ac-

quisition, design, construction, and, finally, the ground-break-
ing in 1995. He faithfully served clergy and parishioners as the
VI Bishop of West Missouri until his retirement in 2000. Bishop
Buchanan served on the Board of TAD for 19 years. In retire-
ment, he continued to serve his dearly loved Episcopal Church
in many different capacities: Parliamentarian for the House of
Bishops of the Episcopal Church (2003-2013), Bishop-in-res-
idence at St. Michael’s Church (2000-2004), Assisting Bishop,
Diocese of Texas (2004-2006), Interim Bishop of the Diocese
of Southern Virginia (2006-2008), Provisional Bishop of the
Diocese of Quincy (2009-2013), and Assisting Bishop, Diocese
of Chicago (2013-2014). Bishop Buchanan and his wife, Peggy,
moved to Bishop Gadsden in 2014 where he actively partici-
pated in the spiritual life of the community. Bishop Buchanan
spent much time in recent years using his unique talents to
bring about reconciliation within the Episcopal Church. He
believes that there is always an opportunity for redemption,
and you can always start anew. He was preceded in death by his
parents, Ella Virginia Buchanan and Dock Jones Buchanan; his
brother Kenneth Orin Buchanan; and his son-in-law, Charles
Thomas Bryant. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Peggy
Brown Buchanan; his daughters, Mary Ryan Buchanan Aimar
(Alton) of Savannah, GA, Margaret Clark Buchanan Bryant of
Mt. Pleasant, SC; his sister, Linda Buchanan Hardwick of Wal-
terboro, SC, and two grandchildren, John Clark Bryant and
Mary Ella Bryant.
Adapted from Charleston Post & Courier from Apr. 18 to Apr.
19, 2020.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory!
fall 2020 9
connecting
CORONAVIRUS
AND THE SIGNS
OF THE TIMES
Lord Carey
I am writing this in the middle
of May. It is lockdown here in
the UK. As with many other
countries in the world a fight,
literally to the death, against
an invisible killer has stopped
freedom of movement, wor-
ship, and even work. Econo-
mies have been severely weak-
ened and poverty beckons.
We have never seen anything
like it in our lifetime and, as a
London child in the last world
war, I have seen some grim re-
alities.
Perhaps the thing that has
depressed me the most has
been the failure of Christian
leaders in general to present
a living faith at a time of in-
ternational crisis. I have not
heard any statement from the
Pope, Archbishops, or lead-
ers of other denominations,
that has offered a robust and
10 anglicandigest.org
coherent philosophy of a liv-
ing faith confronted by a vi-
rus that, in our darkest fears,
threatens to wipe out the hu-
man race. At the local level,
ministers and priests have in
many ways offered powerful,
sacrificial service to the poor
and depressed struggling in
isolated lockdown. But, on
the national and international
level, the Church has absented
itself from the public square.
Are we so spiritually bankrupt
that we have nothing confi-
dent to offer to our world?
Disturbed by these thoughts,
as soon as the lockdown hap-
pened here on March 17th,
I decided to re-read Albert
Camus’s marvellous yet so-
ber book, The Plague (La Pes-
te). Set in the coastal town
of Oran, an ordinary French
prefectory on the Algerian
coast, it narrates the story of a
plague, similar to the bubon-
ic plagues of the Middle Ages
which ravaged Europe and
destroyed life as it was known.
gathering
Described by many critics as
the greatest European novel
of the second half of the 20th
century, The Plague portrays
through the eyes of a doc-
tor, Dr. Rieux, the frighten-
ing picture of an epidemic as
thousands of dead rats spread
death and disease throughout
a prosperous town. Camus
later dismissed ideas that The
Plague was a “metaphoric tale
of the recent Nazi occupation
of France.” Rather, he said,
“We are all living through a
plague that is a widespread, si-
lent, invisible disease that may
kill us at any time and destroy
the lives we assumed were sol-
id.”
Although not a Christian, Al-
bert Camus was far from being
anti-Christian. Metaphysical
concerns dominate his writ-
ings. In most of his literary
works Camus is centrally con-
cerned with religious-moral
themes: the nature and mean-
ing of life and the hopes and
possibilities of human nature.
telling
He had a high regard for Au-
gustine and his description
of human weakness. But he
found Christianity wanting
in the very place where the
Church finds it strong–in the
person of Christ. “Christianity
in its essence is a doctrine of
injustice. It is founded on the
sacrifice of the innocent and
the acceptance of this sacri-
fice… Christianity is found-
ed upon the humbling of the
human spirit.” For Camus,
Christianity’s espousal of the
incarnation directly attacked
the central thesis of rebellion
and power.
The redemptive vision of
Christianity and its vision of a
final imperative of right or end
of history derived from it are
hostile to the actual art of liv-
ing. “The Christian metaphys-
ic loosens the significance of
human morality and slanders
life.” Camus, therefore, had
no other choice than to fight
for the “disincarnation of the
Christian God.”
fall 2020 11
connecting
What then is the message of
The Plague? In fact, Camus’s
target is far wider than an at-
tack on the Church and its
message. It is an attack on
the modern, humanist world,
and the unthinking, casual as-
sumption of modern people
that life owes them prosper-
ity and enjoyment. Indeed,
Camus often reserved his
deepest contempt for fellow
humanists, of whom he said,
they are always the first to
pass away in a plague because
they do not believe in it and
fail to take precautions. “They
fancied themselves free,” he
wrote, “but no one will ever be
free as long as there are pesti-
lences.”
So the thesis is clear and ter-
rifying: we are alone in the
universe. As Camus puts it,
“We are living in a universe
devoid of illusion and lights;
man feels an alien, a strang-
er. His exile is without reme-
dy. This divorce between man
and his life, the actor and his
12 anglicandigest.org
setting, is properly the feeling
of absurdity.” Absurdity, the
key word in much of Camus’s
oeuvre, is a statement about
the underlying condition of
human nature. To accept hu-
manity’s condition as “ab-
surd” is the start of a redemp-
tive, tragic-comic journey of
truth. We have assumed that
we have been granted im-
mortality and with this na-
ivety comes behavior which
Camus abhors: hardness of
heart, obsession with status,
lack of joy and gratitude, and
love of possessions. Accep-
tance of the “absurd” speaks
of what life is all about: life is
a hospice, not a hospital; one
doesn’t recover, but simply ex-
ists. The tragic and bleakness
of Camus’s world is summed
up in the words of Dr. Rieux,
the central character, who
when asked what it all means,
replies: “This whole thing is
not about heroism, it is about
decency. This may seem a ri-
diculous idea but the only way
to fight the plague is with de-
gathering
cency.” When asked, “What is
decency?” Dr. Rieux replies, “I
can’t say what it is, but in my
case it is in doing my job.”
However, this powerful and
absorbing book has left me
with the puzzle of what pic-
ture of the Church was in
Camus’s mind when he wrote
it. Set in the predominantly
Muslim world of Algeria,” the
remoteness of Camus’s Chris-
tianity is leap years away from
the “hands on” faith known
to us all. I do not at all recog-
nize it in the figure of the Je-
suit priest, Fr. Paneloux, who
attempts to justify the plague
in terms of judgement. Camus
offers a weak, apologetic
Christianity that is a distant
cry from the faith we know.
William Temple used to de-
scribe Christianity as “the
most materialistic of all reli-
gions” because of the incar-
nation of Christ. The recent
epidemic has revealed the
sacrificial character of nurs-
es, doctors, porters, cleaners,
telling
and many others as they have
risked their lives to save oth-
ers. Many have been Chris-
tians but many have come
from other faiths or none. But
all have fought this plague,
our plague, with love, cour-
age, and for others. For us as
Christians, the Incarnation is
the root, the guts, the life and
the heart of what the Church
is about. The “signs of the
times” as used by Jesus in the
gospels points to the challenge
to his followers to ensure we
speak into the needs and fears
of our world. Relevance is a
key word, but on its own it
stands for little; what makes
it Christian is our willingness
to enter the fray. The Church,
indeed, is important, but we,
members of it, do not exist for
anything other than the King-
dom of God. Those of us who
are priests will know well from
sacramental theology the con-
cept of “in persona Christi.”
Broadening it out from the
Eucharist, for me it contains
the essential idea that ev-
fall 2020 13
connecting

ery Christian carries into the

world the incarnational im-
perative to take Christ into the
world. Viruses will inevitably
come and go, the mission of
the Incarnation continues.
A last thought, for me: the iro-
ny of Camus’s great book lies
in what he did not see in his
great parable. He wrote this:
“Everyone has in himself the
plague because no one in this
world can ever be immune.”
That is as perfect a description
of sin we are likely to get from St. Helena and
a modern writer. the True Cross
George Carey The cover painting for the
(The Most Rev’d and Right Fall Issue is in honor of the
Honorable George Carey was Feast of the Holy Cross and
Archbishop of Canterbury was borrowed from the front
from 1991-2002. He was made of The Epistle, the monthly
a life Peer in 2002 and sits in newsletter of St. James’s Epis-
the House of Lords.) copal Church in Livingston,
vvv Alabama. The following is a
description by the Rector of
“Where love is, there Saint James, the Rev’d Richard
God is also.” R. Losch:
Mahatma Gandhi
Titled Saint Helena, by Cima
vvv da Conegliano, the painting

14 anglicandigest.org
gathering
was completed in about 1495.
It is oil on a wood panel, and
is very small for a work of that
era, measuring only about 16“
x 15“. It is displayed in the
Samuel H. Kress collection in
the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. It depicts
Saint Helena, the mother of
the Roman emperor Constan-
tine the Great, holding the
True Cross on Mount Calvary
outside the city walls of Jeru-
salem. Just behind her is the
fig tree that Jesus cursed (Mk.
11:12ff).
Constantine was the first Ro-
man emperor to legalize and
defend Christianity, and he
was baptized on his death-
bed. His father, Constantius
Chlorus, was a pagan Roman
general in Britain who was
tolerant of Christianity. His
mother, Saint Helena, was
Constantius’s consort, and
was a Greek Christian. After
Constantine became emperor,
he commissioned his mother
in 326 to go to the Holy Land
telling
and identify the sacred pla-
ces related to Jesus’ life. Even
though it was almost 300
years later, those sites would
have been precious to the
Christians in Palestine. Their
locations would have been
handed down from genera-
tion to generation, so there
is likely considerable validity
to the sites that she identi-
fied. She also allegedly found
the True Cross, the cross on
which Jesus was crucified.
Again, it is entirely possible
that soon after the Resurrec-
tion the early followers of Je-
sus retrieved the cross piece of
his cross and preserved it. The
few fragments of it that sur-
vive today may well be actual
fragments of the True Cross.
One of them, embedded in
crystal, is suspended over the
high altar at the Cathedral of
Saint John the Divine in New
York City. The Feast of the
Holy Cross, also called Holy
Cross Day, celebrates not only
the finding of the Cross, but
also Christ’s triumph over sin
fall 2020 15
connecting
and death through his sacri-
fice on the Cross. The Feast
of the Holy Cross falls on 14
September.
Giovanni Battista Cima da
Conegliano (c.1459-c.1517)
was an Italian Renaissance
painter who worked mainly
in Venice. He is generally con-
sidered to be of the Venetian
school, although his land-
scapes are strongly influenced
by the Sicilian Antonello da
Messina, who followed the
Dutch school. Cima painted
mainly religious subjects, al-
though he also did a number
of mythological ones. Most
of his paintings were intend-
ed for homes rather than for
churches, and therefore are
quite small. He was born in
Conegliano in the province
of Traviso around 1459. His
father was a cloth-shearer
(cimator), thus his family’s
surname of Cima. We know
almost nothing of his ear-
ly training, but his earliest
works are so close to the style
16 anglicandigest.org
of Bartolomeo Montagna that
most critics believe he must
have been his pupil. His later
works show an influence from
Giovanni Bellini, and his use
of color indicates influence
from the young Titian. He
and Leonardo da Vinci were
among the first Renaissance
painters to have landscapes
behind the main figures (as
we see in the Mona Lisa), al-
though Cima’s were much
more detailed. This kind of
detailed landscape in por-
traits became standard in
the 16th and 17th centuries.
Cima died in Venice in about
1517, leaving his second wife
and seven children.
The Rev’d Richard R. Losch
St. James’ Church
Livingston, Alabama
“Good versus Evil,” another
article in this issue of TAD, is
also by Fr. Losch.
gathering
The Sunday
Procession
When I think of Sunday
morning church, I begin by
imagining processions. I do
not mean the great proces-
sional hymn, which accom-
panies the choir and liturgical
ministers each Sunday as they
enter the nave. I mean the
many, individual processions
that each of us takes as we
prepare to enter the church
on Sunday mornings.
All across the city, and from
beyond the city, our Sunday
morning processions begin
when we get out of bed. Al-
ready, we are considering
whether, and how, we will
get to church that day. And,
of course, our mind is still
sorting through worries and
hopes, maybe some left from
our night dreams and may-
be some left from yesterday.
Some of us are by ourselves,
wondering what to wear or eat
for the day, and maybe even
telling
whether we might rather stay
at home on Sunday morning.
Others of us have been out of
bed for hours, having hardly
thought about the choice, be-
cause we have small children
and household responsibili-
ties to manage.
Now, the morning routines
start to rule our time, and
some things begin to go
wrong. The dog needs more
care this morning. One family
member seems ill. The kitch-
en dishes need to be washed.
The car will not start. Maybe
this morning’s news strangely
interests us more than yes-
terday’s did. A fallen tree, a
stranded car, a traffic jam, in-
terrupts us.
fall 2020 17
connecting

But all those events are part of others completely new. This is
the procession. The true pro- the procession, the gathering
cession, every Sunday, winds of the faithful – known and
its way through our own unknown, from near and far
thoughts and imaginations – towards some holy event.
and worries, walks through Finally, we are in our pews, or
kitchen duties and family seats, maybe the same ones we
fractions, and then joins the were in last week, but maybe
traffic of streets and express- not. Maybe we are in a new
ways, in trains and buses and place this Sunday. Maybe we
cars. are in our old place, but with
a new spirit, a new outlook, a
Outside our individual new perspective.
homes, we join others in this
Sunday procession. In the car, The processional hymn be-
we enter the crowded church gins. The formal line of vest-
parking lot, and we begin to ed ministers slides forward
navigate politeness and ur- from behind us. They are only
gency. The church service the very last, in a long line of
will start in a few minutes. By those who have processed that
the time we have entered the day. All of us have processed
front doors, we have been ir- now, towards some gathering
ritated several times, worried that we trust, towards a sacred
several more times, maybe community that we know
laughed and talked, and may- from experience, will produce
be even cried, or comforted something in us. Maybe our
the tears of someone else cry- gathering will show us love
ing. As we walk down the hall, again, or respect again, or ho-
towards the nave itself, we are liness again. Maybe, we pray,
seeing familiar faces, some our souls will know grace
of them are old friends, and and blessing again, after our

18 anglicandigest.org
gathering
morning effort and routine.
Such discipline often results
in a grace that frees us again.
And oh! Of course! Yes, of
course, there will be others
whose processions are still
going on. They are late for the
processional hymn (and may
be late for lots of the rest of
the service!), but they, too, are
dutifully processing, in their
own time and according to
their own needs. The Church
rolls on with all of us, some
of us on time, of course, and
some of us not on time. But
all of us process. All of us are
part of the grand procession
of the Saints, making our way
towards grace and holiness
Sunday after Sunday. Thank
you.
The Very Rev’d Samuel G.
Candler, The Cathedral Times
The Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, Georgia
From an article on 16
February 2020
telling
CONFLICT AND
COMFORT:
OUR LIVES WITH
THE ANGELS
The Rev’d Jay C. James
Associate Rector of
The Church of the Advent
Boston, Massachusetts
God has blessed my parish
ministry in many ways. One
of the blessings has been His
calling me to a parish among
whose many and good works
was the oversight and opera-
tion of a school from pre-kin-
dergarten through middle
school. Serving as rector in-
cluded the chaplaincy of the
school. For twenty-five years
I had the privilege of lead-
ing chapel services, teaching
basic doctrines of the Faith,
and occasionally counseling
children from ages five to the
early teenage years. Over the
years I found that some of the
most enlightening moments
about matters of the spiritu-
al life came from the young-
er children. The reality of the
fall 2020 19
connecting

ministry and presence of an- For many of the young chil-

gels is one such moment. dren I was preaching to the
converted. They listened to
Toward the end of Septem- the story in The Revelation to
ber, as closely as I could to St. John 12:7-12 and the de-
St. Michael and All Angels scription of why St. Michael
Day, I would visit each of the had to fight Satan, discussed
kindergarten classes and talk why angels look the way they
about St. Michael: who he is, do in art and architecture,
what he accomplished, and why there are good angels and
what he and the rest of the bad angels, why we are blessed
angels do. I wanted to make to be on the side of the angels,
sure the children knew about and why Jesus has appointed a
the angels, their defeat of Sa- guardian angel for each of us.
tan and his angels, and the There were always children
protection and help the angels in each class bursting to let
are to all of us. I was amazed me know of their knowledge
at how freely and naturally and experience of the angels.
the children discussed the The children’s descriptions
topics and how intently they were not put forward out of
gave their attention to any de- fear. They were not repelled
scription of the angels. It was by talk of “war in heaven.”
almost as if I was telling them They spoke about the angels
something about which they just as naturally as one would
were already aware. Some of describe what good things
them were so anxious to tell were served for dinner at their
me about angels and I often families’ tables the night be-
got the distinct impression fore. The stories were offered
that these children had al- with a hint of excitement, but
ready made the angels’ ac- had an element of a common,
quaintance. everyday occurrence. Their

20 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

attitude seemed to be, “Angels main mission of SMC is to

are there and we know it!” deepen the faith and practice
of young people so they can
Some adults dismiss such joy meet the challenges faithful
and wonder as simply the re- Christians must face by living
sult of lively imaginations or in the world where the battle
a fondness for fantasy. That’s with Satan’s angels continues.
a mistake. What the Church The Revelation to Saint John
has taught through the ages shows us, “And the great drag-
about angels generally sup- on was cast out, that old ser-
ports what children tell us. pent, called the Devil, and Sa-
One only needs to read Scrip- tan, which deceiveth the whole
ture and examine the Church’s world: he was cast out into the
teaching tradition. We are liv- earth, and his angels were cast
ing with spiritual creatures out with him.” The strength-
created by God, who serve ening of the faith of these
God, from whom we receive young people is accomplished
God’s messages, and to whom through orthodox teaching,
our messages are taken. traditional worship, public
and private prayer, delving
Another great blessing has into the Scriptures, and ex-
been serving on the staff of St. ploring the full sacramen-
Michael’s Conference, a teach- tal life of the Church. These
ing conference for high school young people are battling ev-
and college aged young peo- erything Satan’s angels can
ple. The conference I serve is throw at them and they know
in West Hartford, Connecti- it. When they return home
cut, but there are at least four from the conference, they are
other conferences like it in in more of a position to use
Texas, Michigan, Illinois, and their faith in Christ to survive
New Brunswick, Canada. The and thrive the rest of the year.

fall 2020 21
connecting
St. Michael the Archangel
was chosen as the patron of
the conference from its be-
ginning in 1960 because St.
Michael represents the kind
of religion required to repel
and defeat Satan. He is on
the side of God, has limit-
less spiritual strength, and is
obedient to and serves Jesus
Christ (Mt.25:31, Col.1:16,
Heb.1:14). Young people in
high school and college, by
their own admission, want a
religion that is strong and has
substance. More sophisticat-
ed than previous generations,
they are aware of all that the
world has to offer, both good
and bad. In some ways, they
are looking for something
that is counter-cultural and
other-worldly. St. Michael
represents that kind of reli-
gion. He is “other-worldly.”
He knows Satan and all that
Satan’s angels can do. The
young people, at least the
ones who are part of SMC,
want that and are fed by that
kind of religion.
22 anglicandigest.org
The younger children from
those kindergarten classes
and the teenagers and young
adults from those SMCs are
aware of the timeless battle
between good and evil, be-
tween order and chaos, be-
tween being on the side of
God and opposing Him. One
would think children would
shy away in fear when hearing
about a “war in heaven,” or
that hearing about Satan and
all his devils would frighten
them. Other Biblical descrip-
tions of sin, temptation, and
the wickedness of the Devil
might discourage both the
young and old from wanting
to learn about angels. Why
would they want to live with
angels, if they have simultane-
ously to live and learn about
that kind of ungodliness?
There are other places in
the Bible where it’s even un-
pleasant being confronted by
angels. The angel Gabriel,
when appearing to the Bless-
ed Virgin Mary, approached
gathering
her with, “Fear not, Mary:
for thou hast found favour
with God.” The same is true
for St. Joseph when the angel
appeared to him in a dream:
“Fear not to take unto thee
Mary thy wife...” The shep-
herds in the field were fright-
ened by the angel announc-
ing Jesus’ birth: “And, lo, the
angel of the Lord came upon
them, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them: and
they were sore afraid.” The sol-
diers guarding Jesus’ tomb on
the morning of that first Eas-
ter Day were overtaken with
fear when the Angel appeared
to them: “And for fear of him
the keepers did shake, and be-
came as dead men. And the
angel answered and said unto
the women, Fear not ye: for I
know that ye seek Jesus, which
was crucified. He is not here:
for he is risen, as he said.”
Throughout the Bible when
angels appear, they invoke
fear and awe.
At the same time, there is
telling
a great attraction to angels,
archangels, and the other sev-
en orders of angels. It is prob-
ably the result of the comfort
given us by the ministry of
angels. Living with the angels
whose ministry is devoted to
protecting us and taking mes-
sages back and forth to God
allows us a calm and quiet
confidence while we are here.
In our lives with the angels we
come closer to God in Christ,
have more of a sense of God’s
presence, have a glimpse of
our future in heaven, and are
comforted that we are part of
the created order in the life of
the Trinity.
Isn’t it good to know that
when we pray, or think, or
have the slightest inclination
toward anything having to
do with God that those mes-
sages are carried to God by
angels? Some are messengers
bringing God’s messages to
us and taking our prayers and
thoughts to God. They can do
this because they are spiritual
fall 2020 23
connecting
beings and not harnessed to a
body. St. Augustine reminds
us that their position in cre-
ation is “messenger.” “‘Angel’
is the name of their office, not
of their nature. If you seek the
name of their nature, it is ‘spir-
it’; if you seek the name of their
office, it is ‘angel’: from what
they are, ‘spirit,’ from what
they do, ‘angel.’
Jesus says that each child has
a guardian angel. “Take heed
that ye despise not one of these
little ones; for I say unto you,
that in heaven their angels do
always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven.”
(Mt.18:10). Because we are all
“children” in relation to God,
comfort comes from knowing
that each of us has a guardian
angel. What could be more
comforting, especially when
we know that Satan’s angels
are out there to pull us away
from God?
Knowing that we are living Living with the angels does
with the angels places us in the not mean that things will al-
love of God the Holy Trinity. ways be well. It does mean
24 anglicandigest.org
God created everything out of
love. When the creation was
finished, He continued to love
it and declared it “good.” “And
God saw every thing that he
had made, and, behold, it was
very good. And the evening
and the morning were the sixth
day. Thus the heavens and the
earth were finished, and all
the host of them.” (Gen. 1:31-
2:1) God created everything,
as the Nicene Creed teaches,
“visible and invisible.” This is
why we pray each Michael-
mas, “O everlasting God, who
hast ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and
men in a wonderful order.” It
is within that creation that He
placed His angels and set forth
their ministry to us. The true
comfort comes in knowing
that the angels are doing what
they are supposed to be doing
and we are part of the happy
recipients of their work.
gathering
that we have God’s helpful
agents on our side to protect
us in times of spiritual attack
and conflict, that we have ac-
cess to God in prayer, and
that just as angels ministered
to Christ, they minister to us,
too.
vvv
The Prayer of
Faith
Fr. Craig O’Brien
Rector of the Parish of
Sackville
The Diocese of Fredericton of
The Anglican Church of Canada
A Sermon preached, using the
ancient eucharistic lectionary
of the BCP, 1962, Cdn.
“Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great
is thy faith: be it unto thee
even as thou wilt.” Mt 15:28
+ the coastal quiet with her des-
This Gospel is a perplexity.
How could Jesus greet the
desperate, anguished Canaan-
ite mother with indifference,
then harshness? The miracle
telling
is accomplished, the prayer is
answered; but at what cost to
human dignity made to grovel
as a dog, an obvious object of
human sympathy imperiously
passed by, and this by Jesus,
the face of love, “a man of
sorrows and acquainted with
grief?”
Jesus has departed from the
tumult of his pharisaical crit-
ics, to the non-Jewish heathen
land of Canaan, perhaps to
train the disciples in a quiet
retreat from the mission field
to Israel. The Patriarch Jacob,
who would be called Israel,
also returned to Canaan af-
ter he had had a vision of a
ladder of ascent from earth
to heaven and would pray as
one striving, struggling, wres-
tling with an angel. Here the
Canaanite woman shatters
perate cries for help: “Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou
son of David; my daughter is
grievously vexed with a devil.”
We identify immediately with
fall 2020 25
connecting
the distress of a mother for
her child; it distresses us. It’s
the cry of faith. It will be the
prayer of Jesus to the Father
on the cross.
Then we identify with the
disciples, whose intervention
with the Lord to tend to the
woman’s request at first looks
like the needful compassion
the situation demands. But
on closer scrutiny—an iden-
tification we might make our-
selves in shame—seems to be
of the order of giving her what
she wants so she’ll just shut up
and leave them alone.
Our perplexity at the Lord’s
response is only partially mit-
igated by the context. Jesus in
his public ministry before the
resurrection is but sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Isra-
el, not to heathen Canaanites.
His mission has a limit that
appears to us, as all rules and
disciplines often do in our cul-
ture, as bars to freedom and
insults to the dignity of our
imagined autonomy. When
26 anglicandigest.org
he does respond, Jesus’ words
seem to give credence to our
preconception, going back to
blood and tribal belonging,
likening only the Israelites to
his “children,” and the hea-
then, the rest of unwashed
humanity, of which the Ca-
naanite woman was one, to
“dogs.” But this doesn’t deter
a mother. Her heart “was en-
larged with sorrow” for the
helplessness—the taking siege
of, the possession beyond
foreseeable control or cure—
of her daughter. Her cries are
of faith—they come from God
in that spark of recognition of
who Jesus is—and they go to
God. Jesus is God. And be-
cause God is the object of her
desire, that seeking knowl-
edge that goes beyond what
we can know—it is a prayer.
She takes the limits imposed
by Jesus’ words and submits
them to the “badgering” im-
portunity of prayer borne by
faith and love, humbly taking
her place under God’s will,
and conforming herself to it
gathering
as a decree of his good will for
her and her daughter. ‘Truth,
Lord: yet the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from the
master’s table.’ Then Jesus an-
swered and said unto her, ‘O
woman, great is thy faith: be
it unto thee even as thou wilt.’
And her daughter was made
whole from that very hour.”
Faith is that mode of know-
ing that knows it does not and
cannot know everything. “No
one can be an atheist who does
not know all things,” wrote the
young Flannery O’Connor in
her prayer journal. Only God
can be an atheist.
And so by the humility of
faith in the reality in which we
are set and constituted as hu-
man, we exercise this faith in
prayer working by penitential,
self-effacing love. It is not just
from the systemic “adversities
that happen to the body” that
we pray God to keep us, but
from “those evil thoughts that
assault and hurt the soul.”
The possession afflicting the
telling
Canaanite woman’s daugh-
ter finds connection with
the sexual impurity of which
St. Paul warns the Thessalo-
nians: sex outside marriage or
closed to procreation within
it—because of its attraction,
impulsivity, intoxication, self-
ishness, and denigration in
thought and deed. “Fear not,”
says Jesus, “them which kill
the body...rather fear him
which is able to destroy both
soul and body in hell.” Noth-
ing is more important than
the exercise of faith and hope
in prayer, the ordering of our
souls and bodies in confor-
mity with God’s will, and, as
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A Religious Order of men and
women, both married and single,
not living in community.
For information contact:
The Father or Mother General
The Order of Saint Andrew
2 Creighton Lane
Scarborough, NY 10510
(914) 941-1265; 762-0398
http://www.osa-anglican.org
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fall 2020 27
connecting
with the woman, for those we
love, with whom we take our
part in humanity, bearing one
another’s burdens and so ful-
filling the law of Christ. The
Irish Canadian novelist Brian
Moore, in The Lonely Passion
of Judith Hearne, has Judith
muse on faith and prayer: “...
the Mass was very long. If you
did not pray, if you did not
take part, then it was very,
very long. If you did not be-
lieve, then how many things
would seem different. Every-
thing: lives, hopes, devotions.
If you do not believe, you are
alone. But I was of Ireland,
among my people, a member
of my faith...O Lord, I do not
believe, help my unbelief.”
In faith we are never alone,
because faith, by definition
and content, is in Jesus our
participation in God’s under-
standing of himself. So let us
in the faith that ennobles and
establishes and situates our
humanity, stoop to gather up
the crumbs under the table of
28 anglicandigest.org
God’s Word. That we might
wrestle in prayer and scale the
ladder of divine ascent and
hear and know the words of
soundest affirmation in joy
and in sorrow: “Great is thy
faith.”
vvv
The Magic of
the Camino
A Pilgrimage
The Episcopal Church in Col-
orado sponsored a pilgrimage
from Portugal through Spain
in November 2019. The desti-
nation: The Cathedral of Saint
James in Santiago de Compos-
tela in the province of Galicia,
Spain. This is a perspective
from one of the 22 participants.
When The Episcopal Church
in Colorado posted the Portu-
guese Way Pilgrimage in late
2018, it coincided with the
conclusion of chemotherapy
treatments I had been receiv-
ing since spring. The illness
gathering
forced my retirement and was
a difficult and anxious time for
my family. By November we
began to see the light, and all
I could think of was thanks-
giving for the healing and
tremendous love and support
I received from my wife and
daughters, and from friends
at St. Gabriel the Archangel.
The Camino called to me as
the perfect venue for giving
thanks and for beginning to
contemplate what life might
hold for me next.
Twenty-two people signed up
for the Camino trip, a group
representing the breadth of
TEC in Colorado, from Grand
Junction to Sterling, and even
a couple of Colorado expa-
triates who now make their
home in places from Missouri
to Maine. Our diverse group
began mostly as strangers to
one another. Our leader, the
Reverend Canon Greg For-
aker, was committed to help-
ing us prepare well in mind,
body, and spirit to ensure we
telling
would experience a true pil-
grimage versus a “tourimage.”
Beginning in May, we met by
video conference monthly to
discuss our preparations and
to reflect on how we would
make this trip a spiritual jour-
ney in addition to a physical
journey. Weekly discussion
topics posted in the Canvas
learning system invited us to
go increasingly deeper in our
exploration of what brought
us to the Camino and where it
might take us.
In late September the bulk
of our group met for the first
time in person at Cathedral
Ridge. We hiked, shared per-
spectives, heard stories of
Greg’s previous journeys on
the Camino, worshiped, and
socialized. The time assured
a natural transition from be-
ing acquaintances walking
together to friends embarking
on a pilgrimage. During the
retreat Greg related a story
of how a pilgrimage group he
had planned from St. Luke’s,
fall 2020 29
connecting
Fort Collins, solicited prayers
from the congregation, and
how impactful it was for the
group to pray for these needs
while on Camino. Greg chal-
lenged us to find our own
spiritual disciplines to bring
with us.
At one of my medical ap-
pointments, I was approached
by a nurse’s assistant who
asked me if I was the one
who was going on the Cami-
no. After a brief conversation,
she asked if I would pray for
her mother, who recently
had been diagnosed with an
ominous “pancreatic mass.”
Tearfully, she related that her
mother’s Catholic faith had
lapsed but that she had con-
vinced her to speak with her
priest for comfort and guid-
ance. I was humbled and felt
unworthy of the responsibili-
ty asked me by a stranger who
was trusting and hopeful that
my prayers would make a dif-
ference. Knowing we would
spend time in Fatima, I of-
30 anglicandigest.org
fered that this would be a spe-
cial place for her prayers and
that I would be proud to have
her and her mother join me in
spirit on the Camino.
Her sincerity touched me
deeply, especially having just
a year prior received a simi-
lar dire diagnosis and know-
ing the shock to one’s family
it brings. During my own
treatment and recovery, I was
comforted by a prayer quilt
I received from St. Gabriel’s
“Holy Comforters” ministry.
I decided to enlist my friend
Sharon, one of the saintliest
Holy Comforters I know, to
If you are called to the
Traditional Religious Life
contact
The Sisters of St. Anne
Chicago, Illinois
Vocational inquiries email
stannechicago
@hotmail.com
or phone 312-388-6787
The Sisters of St. Anne is a
women’ religious order
founded in 1910
Advertisement
gathering
help me repurpose my quilt.
She readily agreed to create a
rededication label, and I pre-
sented the quilt to the young
woman to be blessed at her
church for her mother. Her
prayer request became the
start of my Camino spiritual
discipline.
Recalling Greg’s story of so-
liciting prayers, I reached out
to family, friends, and fellow
parishioners with the simple
offer while on pilgrimage to
pray for them. My Camino
experience was now more
than just my own; I would be
walking with the more than
100 people, known and un-
known, represented in the 42
prayer requests I received. My
prayer discipline served to
focus my journey away from
me for what was, to an acute
awareness of what is, for so
many who are dealing with
their own challenges every
day, and to be present to how
interconnected we are in our
brokenness.
telling
Before beginning the Cami-
no, we traveled to Fatima,
Portugal. Even in the cold No-
vember rain, the crowds from
around the world attended
the nightly candlelight pro-
cession of Mary through the
central square that has held
upwards of a million faithful.
I was overwhelmed by the sa-
cred devotion of so many, all
there for the common pur-
pose of receiving God’s grace,
love, and healing. The physi-
cal Camino de Santiago start-
ed in Valenca, Portugal. Over
five days we traveled to San-
tiago de Compostela, averag-
ing 15 miles a day, walking
through towns and country-
side, farmland and vineyards,
often over the same Roman
roads pilgrims have walked
for the past 800 years. Occa-
sionally we saw wheel ruts
worn in the ubiquitous gran-
ite paving stones. We were
greeted with “Buen Camino”
by fellow pilgrims and local
inhabitants alike. We offered
TEC in Colorado lapel pins
fall 2020 31
connecting
to others along the way. Some
pilgrims we continued meet-
ing as we walked; others we
met again at the peregrino
(pilgrim’s) mass at St. Francis
Church in Santiago; a few we
saw a final time at Finisterre,
Km zero, at the ocean’s edge
in northwestern Spain.
Something curious happens
to you on the Camino as you
walk. The tensions of the
world fall away. By day four
you are comfortable that your
physical and safety needs are
being met; you are underway
with friends, some of them
you came with, others you’ve
just met; the accomplishment
of walking 60, 80, 100 kms is
exhilarating. You become at-
tuned to everything around
you: animals, plants, flowers,
the roar of the water rushing
everywhere in water-blessed
Galicia. Time seems to slow;
energy seems boundless even
in the constant drizzle expe-
rienced on day five. The glow
stays with you after you re-
32 anglicandigest.org
ceive your Compostella from
the office next to the Cathe-
dral, upon traveling and arriv-
ing home, and in the months
following as you experience
the “return from Camino”
and all that the journey is still
saying to you.
JAMES METHE can be
reached at jamethe@msn.
com. The entire article can be
read at Colorado Episcopa-
lian, Lent/Easter|Vol.82|No.1
“We never know whom
we marry, we just think
we do. Or even if we mar-
ry the right person, just
give it awhile and he or
she will change. For mar-
riage, being the enormous
thing it is, means we are
not the same person after
we have entered into it.
The primary problem is
learning how to love and
care for the stranger to
whom you find yourself
married.”
‒ Stanley Hauerwas
via Apple Seeds
gathering telling

As The Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love—a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek—
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.
For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.
C.S. Lewis
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

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sisters striving to proclaim the Good News of Christ through
penance and prayer. Our brothers and sisters minister in the
communities in which they live. For further information please
contact:
Br. Glen Weeks, OSF,
228 Old Glenwood Rd., West Falls, NY 14170.
e-mail minister-general@fodc.net
or call 716-652-6616
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fall 2020 33
connecting
A Rule of Life
The Rev’d Carla McCook
Rector of St. Margaret of
Scotland Church, Sarasota, FL
Rules are made to give guid-
ance, set boundaries, and mo-
tivate us to what is good for
self and for others. Monastic
Orders have developed a Rule
of Life to govern the Order
and to give life to the monks
and nuns within the Order. In
seminary I was introduced to
creating my own Rule of Life.
It has evolved over the years,
allowing new things, adapting
current practices, or even let-
ting some practices go.
What I do must feed my mind,
body, and soul. My Rule of
Life governs how I live every
day, the choices I make daily,
and the long-term decisions
I make for myself, my family,
and my vocation (priesthood).
Every morning I pray Morn-
ing Prayer. I start my morn-
ing off right, with God. Then I
feed my body a healthy break-
34 anglicandigest.org
fast and do Yoga practice, end-
ing each practice with time for
meditation. I find joy in plan-
ning healthy meals and menus.
The exercise I choose is Dance.
Because I feel better, have less
stress, and receive new energy
from dance it’s easier for me
to say “YES” to exercise when
I’m not “feeling it.” Creating
space for Sabbath every week
is something I must do. Fri-
days are my Sabbath days. I do
no work or chores. I rest, play,
read, craft, and dance.
When I let go of pieces or all
of my Rule of Life, I feel off
balance. I tire more easily, am
foggy in my thoughts, irrita-
ble, and anxious. Why? Be-
cause I’ve let go of spending
time with God, of care for self,
and of living and loving the
important relationships in my
life and ministry.
What is your Rule of Life?
What practices do you use to
guide your life, your choices,
feed your mind and soul?
gathering telling

The Anglican Bookstore

LOOKING FOR THE KING
David C. Downing
It is 1940, and American Tom McCord, a
23-year-old graduate student, is in England
researching the historical evidence for the
legendary King Arthur. There he meets
perky and intuitive Laura Hartman, a fellow
American staying with her aunt in Oxford,
and the two of them team up for an even
more ambitious and dangerous quest.

Aided by the Inklings—that illustrious circle of scholars and

writers made famous by its two most prolific members, C. S.
Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien—Tom and Laura begin to suspect
that the fabled Spear of Destiny, the lance that pierced the side
of Christ on the Cross, is hidden somewhere in England.

According to one reviewer, “From the wild opening to the sur-

prising ending, Looking for the King is the story of a fearless
quest that crosses paths with our most beloved authors. Lewis
and Tolkien both crackle to life with wit and intelligence. I felt
as if I walked into Oxford and then settled into the pub to spy
on the Inklings in action – how grand! A novel you won’t want
to put down, and won’t want to end.” Patti Callahan Henry,
New York Times best-selling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis:
The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis.
ITEM L176 (paperback, 224 pages, $18)

fall 2020 35
connecting

HENRI NOUWEN &

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON:
Gabrielle Earnshaw
The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of
Homecoming is Henri Nouwen’s most pop-
ular book, selling 7 million copies since its
publication in 1992. What accounts for its
ongoing popularity as a spiritual classic?
Drawing from extensive research in Nouwen’s archives, Ga-
brielle Earnshaw provides a detailed account of how the book
came to be written, shedding light on Nouwen’s writing process
and aspects of his life that influenced his insights and ideas.
Earnshaw examines Nouwen’s intellectual formation as well as
the impact of his family and friends on the shape of the book.
Letters, many published here for the first time, give us a priv-
ileged look at Henri’s world during the nine years he took to
complete the book. Earnshaw considers how it compares to
other books published at the same time, to place the work and
its author in a historical, cultural, and religious/spiritual con-
text. Finally, she explores how Nouwen himself was changed by
the book and why 23 years later it continues to touch the hearts
and minds of 21st century readers.
ITEM L177 (Paperback, 176 pages, $17)

WHEN IT FEELS IMPOSSIBLE TO PRAY

Thomas McPherson
When words don’t come easily, there are still
ways to pray.
For those who have experienced a sudden
36 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

and terrible loss, it is important to realize that you don’t have

to do the things one normally associates with prayer actu-
ally to be connecting with God in a way that’s prayer-like.
Just sit still, if you like. Grieving people often find them-
selves doing a lot of sitting still. Stunned. Allow yourself a
time to be quiet, to answer to no one, to accomplish noth-
ing at all. Quietness in itself is where prayerfulness begins.
This little book can be your entry to talking with God — with
and without words — in this most difficult time.
Thomas McPherson is committed to preserving ancient
prayers and sacred spiritual practices from all centuries and
bringing them to readers today. He currently resides in Brew-
ster, MA. ITEM L178 (paperback, 64 pages, $17)

THE END OF SUFFERING

Scott Cairns
With the thoughtfulness of a pilgrim and
the prose of a poet, Scott Cairns takes us
on a soul-baring journey through “the puz-
zlement of our afflictions.” Probing ancient
Christian wisdom for revelation in his own
pain, Cairns challenges us toward a radical revision of the
full meaning and breadth of human suffering. Clear-eyed and
unsparingly honest, this new addition to the literature of suf-
fering is reminiscent of The Year of Magical Thinking as well as
the works of C. S. Lewis. Cairns points us toward hope in the
seasons of our afflictions, because “in those trials in our lives
that we do not choose but press through—a stillness, a calm,
and a hope become available to us.”
ITEM L179 (paperback, 160 pages, $15)
fall 2020 37
connecting

FOR CHILDREN
MY YEAR WITH THE SAINTS
Peter Celano
This book introduces you to a saint every
day—people like you who made the
choice to love Jesus and give their lives to
him. These stories, prayers, and suggest-
ions for becoming holy are designed with
your needs and your life in mind. Once
you get underway toward sainthood, you should go ahead and
reveal these examples and teachings to the adults around you,
too. We all need this!
ITEM L180 (paperback, 160 pages, ages 7 & up, $15)

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE

Margaret McAllister, illustrated by Alida Massari
This elegantly illustrated collection of ten favorite Bible stories
has an interesting twist. McAllister imagi-
natively retells these tales from the point of
view of the women involved: Noah’s wife,
Miriam, Ruth, Mary, mother of Jesus, Pi-
late’s wife, and Mary Magdalene are among
some of the women who put their side of
the story forward. A stylish compilation of
Bible stories with a difference, this is a per-
fect gift for girls.

ITEM L181 (hardcover, 98 pages, ages 7 -11, $17)

38 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

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fall 2020 39
connecting

Oriental Chicken
1/2 cup butter 2 cups diced chicken, large dice
1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup sautéed mushrooms
1 tablespoon salt 1/2 cup blanched almonds
1 cup cream 1 cup sliced water chestnuts
3 cups milk 1/4 cup pimento, cut in strips
2 cups chicken stock 1/4 cup sherry

Melt butter in top of double boiler, add flour and salt and
cook until bubbly; add cream, milk, and chicken stock,
stirring until smooth. Cook over hot water for 30 minutes.
Just before serving add other ingredients and heat thoroughly.

Serve over cheese soufflé or in a pastry shell, over rice – or

what have you; but over soufflé is the most delightful thing
you will ever taste. You may reserve the mushrooms, sauté
whole and top each service with one. Fresh asparagus served
across a grilled tomato completes a beautiful plate.

Mrs. Richard D. Pope

The Cypress Gardens Cookbook
Compiled by Saint Agnes Welfare Guild
Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church
Winter Haven, Florida
1970
Mr. Richard Pope started the famous Cypress Gardens in Flori-
da.
Editor’s note: It seems very heavy on salt to this reader. My
guess is that was a misprint. Salt to taste!
40 anglicandigest.org
gathering
Analog Church
The Rev. Richard Wineland
Christ Church Cathedral,
Nashville, Tennessee
For the first ten years of my
ministry I was an ordained
Mennonite pastor, serving
congregations in Indiana,
Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
I experienced a significant in-
sight during those years that
eventually brought me to the
Episcopal Church; the peo-
ple I ministered among had
a deep yearning for the sac-
raments. Often, I would visit
persons in the hospital and
they would ask me to anoint
them with oil before praying
or ask if I would bring com-
munion to them. Mennonite
theology and worship does
not typically dwell on sacra-
ments, but at some level my
parishioners recognized that
something mystical and sa-
cred occurs when tangible
elements and Spirit come to-
gether, and they literally hun-
gered for that experience.
telling
Every bishop, priest, deacon,
sacristan, and lay eucharistic
minister is aware of some-
thing similar; it occurs at that
moment when one intones,
“The Body of Christ…” or
“The Blood of Christ…” and
eyes lock between server and
communicant. Time stops.
There is a numinous crossing
over of matter and spirit; an
unfolding of the sacramen-
tum, or divine mystery. Celtic
Christianity speaks of “thin
places,” when the veil between
heaven and earth is perme-
able. In the words of the Cate-
chism, these are “outward and
visible signs of inward and
spiritual grace.” There is an
inherent power in the materi-
al and corporeal.
Long before the creeds made
their appearance, our apos-
tolic faith was intensely sacra-
mental. The nascent Church
did not hold evangelism
workshops or issue white pa-
pers on what it meant to fol-
low Jesus. Evangelism was in-
fall 2020 41
connecting
carnational, rooted in simple
yet concrete acts of worship,
compassion, mercy, and com-
munity-building. They “kept
it close to the ground,” as we
say here in Tennessee. “You
want to know more about our
Lord Jesus and his teachings?
A group of us gather at Peter’s
house on the Sabbath. He was
a disciple of the Rabbi Jesus.
We have a meal together, lis-
ten to some of the writings of
the prophets, then we pray,
sing a hymn, and receive the
bread and the cup, recalling
our Lord’s life and sacrificial
death. Why don’t you join
us?” “Epiphany” moments
were created, “and the Holy
Spirit added to their num-
ber…” (Acts 2:47)
Every so often I go online to
attend to some business mat-
ter. These are not my finest
moments, and typically do not
turn out well. A long-forgot-
ten password must be sum-
moned up or needs changing,
some important disclaimer
42 anglicandigest.org
requires my so-called “elec-
tronic signature,” or vital
contact information requires
an update for the umpteenth
time. Occasionally I go in cir-
cles, arguing with a website,
or helplessly get sucked into
the dark matter of a digital
labyrinth from which there
seems to be no escape.
I have had, in more than one
instance, simply to give up
and print out a paper copy of
whatever is vexing me, then
return it via U.S. Mail. I am
not a Luddite, by the way. Al-
though I’m a “late Boomer”
and didn’t purchase my first
computer until I was thir-
ty-five years old, I regularly do
online research for a doctoral
degree, access information on
the apps on my smartphone,
am able to Zoom a meet-
ing, and can Amazon Prime
with the best of them. I have
not one, but three Facebook
pages (don’t ask), a personal
webpage, and own four web
domains. Yet, “digital” is defi-
gathering
nitely not my first language.
I recently had a digital vs. an-
alog epiphany, however. I was
shopping for a birthday pres-
ent for my oldest son, who is
24. Wandering the aisles in
one of those trendy, urban
boutique-style chain clothing
stores, I pondered the rela-
tive gift merits of pre-holed,
distressed skinny jeans vs. a
pre-holed, distressed Fossil
watch. My eyes were drawn
to an endcap display of vinyl
records featuring the latest
alternative, underground mu-
sic. Then I saw it. Something I
hadn’t seen in a retail store in
many years.
It was a cassette tape. Not
a used cassette tape, mind
you; but a brand-new one, all
shrink-wrapped and shiny.
With previously unreleased
music on it. These past few
years I have finally gotten used
to seeing new vinyl records
again for sale, and rejoiced at
the resurgence of bookstores,
telling
classic board games, and Po-
laroid cameras, but a cassette?
There’s something going on
in our culture; people are re-
discovering the value of ex-
periences with tangible ob-
jects. Rock ‘n roll singer and
Nashville vinyl record entre-
preneur Jack White wryly ob-
served: “There’s no romance
in a mouse click.”
For a generation the triumph
of the digital universe has
been loudly and enthusiasti-
cally proclaimed. Few places
have escaped its reach. Dig-
ital, it must be said, is either
on or off. It is binary, discreet,
clean, and precise. In the
digital world, “information”
(Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia,
for example) as recorded on a
microphone is converted into
numbers, or “digits,” and the
“information” is then some-
how displayed.
Analog, on the other hand, is
not precise; analog is messy,
fall 2020 43
connecting
flawed; if a concertgoer in the
third row at Symphony Hall
sneezes you might hear it in
the final recording. Analog
recordings must, of necessity,
accommodate the mishaps,
the surprises, the rough edg-
es. The difference between
digital and analog may be
akin to the difference between
the rigid, exacting arguments
of systematic theology and
the rough texture of a loaf
of fresh-baked communion
bread.
In his 2016 book The Re-
venge of Analog, David Sax
argues that we now may be
on the threshold of a coun-
terrevolution. Young people
are increasingly hungry for
incarnational, tactile, messy
encounters, not binary or dig-
ital ones. They long for some-
thing they can taste, touch,
smell, and feel – witness the
resurgence of vinyl records,
printed books, Polaroid
cameras, neighborhood café “There’s no romance in a
game nights, etc. Sax argues mouse click.” Here’s a message
44 anglicandigest.org
that “the honeymoon with a
particular digital technolo-
gy inevitably ends, and when
it does, we are more readily
able to judge its true merits
and shortcomings. In many
cases, an older analog tool or
approach simply works better.
Its inherent inefficiency grows
coveted; its weakness becomes
a renewed strength.”
The Reformation was a nec-
essary course correction for
the Church. But what an
over-correction! Orthodoxia,
right belief, replaced ortho-
praxis, right practice. Our
faith embraced the rational
(digital?) and lost touch with
its “inefficient” contempla-
tive and sacramental heritage
and sense of the mystical. In
the words of songwriter and
poet Leonard Cohen, in the
Church we now spend most
of our time “living inside our
heads.”
gathering telling

to those who are tempted to A Different Take

write epitaphs for The Epis- on “Living Water”
copal Church: Not so fast.
There is enormous potential by Michael Curley
and hope for our tradition if
we recapture what it means to “Living water” is an inspira-
be a truly sacramental, analog tional phrase. It is the water
church. Anglican theology of the Sacrament of Baptism,
is incarnational and sacra- that brings “life” to the soul.
mental. We do indeed have a I have a different take on the
“hidden treasure” in our un- phrase “living water.” Frankly,
derstanding and confession it gives me the creeps.
that sacraments and a robust
theology of the incarnation In urban slums, even in ma-
are occasions for grace and jor cities like Istanbul and Rio
real connection with God. de Janeiro, and in rural areas
throughout the developing
Complete article in The Living world, you can take a drop
Church Online, January 2018 of local drinking water, put
it under a handheld micro-
scope, and see living water.
vvv There are all kinds of nasty
things swimming there. The
In one of his sermons, the water is very much alive.
Anglican Clergyman, the
Rev’d William Spooner, who There are three great scourges
gave his name to “spooner- among the developing world
isms,” declared: “Work is the poor: malnutrition, anemia,
curse of the drinking classes.” and dysentery. Over 80% of
all disease in the world comes
vvv from contaminated water
fall 2020 45
connecting

and lack of sanitation. Water- in Honduras and other coun-

borne disease kills more peo- tries in Central America, so
ple each year than all forms ofI said I would go to El Hogar
violence combined, including and take a look. I went with a
war. Over 1.8 million chil- retired water engineer from
West Virginia and a “circuit
dren will die this year from it.
That’s one every 17 seconds rider” in New Mexico. Circuit
– 5,000 today. There are over riders are jacks-of-all-trades
nine hundred million people in the water business, whose
on this planet who have no job it is to go around to rural
access to safe drinking water water systems with little or no
within a kilometer of home. staffs and make sure their wa-
These people drink “living ter is running and safe. Our
water.” circuit rider’s job was to keep
the water both running and
There is a wonderful orphan- safe in the 23 northernmost
age in Honduras called “El counties of New Mexico.
Hogar de Amor y Esperan-
za,” “The Home of Love and El Hogar isn’t in some backwa-
Hope.” Several years ago, a ter village; it is in the national
young woman went to El capital of Honduras, Teguci-
Hogar with a diocesan youth galpa. The folks at El Hogar
group. When she came home don’t drink polluted ground-
she said that no one could water or out of contaminated
drink the water there because streams; they drink city water.
it made them sick, and that The piped-in city water was
– kids being kids – the chil- the “living water” that was
dren there would stick their making the children sick.
heads under a tap, drink, and
get sick. I worked then with a What to do? While my col-
group that built water systems leagues, the staff, and I were
46 anglicandigest.org
gathering
scratching our heads, our
circuit rider was figuring out
exactly where the pipes were
that brought the city water to
the orphanage property. After
looking around to no avail,
he found the carpenter shop
and out of some metal coat
hangers fashioned a set of di-
vining rods. It was amazing to
watch him walking back and
forth over the grounds with
the divining rods in front of
him – and then suddenly the
rods crossed! He had found
the water pipes.
Later on we recounted this
story to the chaplain, who had
a skeptical look on his face. So stalled, the number of dysen-
we put the divining rods in
the chaplain’s hands and got
him to start walking the prop-
erty. It was wonderful to see a a month on bottled water.
priest with divining rods! A
minute later the rods crossed
over the exact same piece of
ground. The chaplain became
a believer! The water engi-
neer and I calculated the cost
for the project to be about This is a story that repeats it-
telling
$10,000. I went back to the
U.S., organized a golf outing
with our church that raised
the $10,000, and installed the
new water system. The chil-
dren can now stick their heads
under the taps and drink what
they want.
The upshot is that there
were no longer a half doz-
en to a dozen children each
week who would wind up
in bed for two or three days
with cramps, fever, and diar-
rhea--the symptoms of dysen-
tery. They didn’t have to drink
“living water” anymore. After
the new water system was in-
tery cases each week dropped
to zero. Furthermore, El Ho-
gar had been spending $400
This was no longer necessary.
El Hogar was able to use the
$400 a month to bring in a
medical doctor once a week
to treat the children.
fall 2020 47
connecting

self every day across the globe. each day among the villagers.
In the late 1990’s, the Envi- Her logbook was a vintage
ronmental Protection Agency World War II, canvas covered
in Washington asked me to go notebook. In page after page,
to Kazakhstan to set up a sys- virtually all of the entries said
tem for building safe drinking “dysentery.” Then, there was
water and basic sanitation fa- the page with the date that
cilities in rural villages, and our water system began oper-
build about a dozen of them. ation. No more “living water;”
so no more dysentery. Before
Our first project was in a vil- then, there was almost a page
lage of about 2,000 souls called a day taken up with dysentery
Algabas. About a month after entries. After the water sys-
the christening of our first tem started up, one page last-
project there by the U.S. Am- ed more than a week.
bassador and my young Ka-
zakh team leader, I went over Does this mean that we
to organize the next series of should all get on the next boat
projects. My colleague insist- to Africa, Central America, or
ed that I visit Algabas, because Asia? There are many organi-
the locals wanted to meet the zations that would be delight-
big boss from America. So, ed to have you as a volunteer.
there I went. After dutifully If you can’t get on a boat, you
inspecting the system, we ad- can send a check to any of
journed to the mayor’s house these worthy groups. You can
for lunch. The mayor’s wife also tell your friends about
was the village medical offi- these groups through social
cer. After lunch, she wanted to media. That’s how you can
take me to her office to see the help put an end to the other
logbook where she recorded version of “living water.”
the illnesses that she treated
48 anglicandigest.org
gathering
Michael Curley is a lawyer
and Visiting Scholar at the
Environmental Law Institute.
His new book, Environmen-
tal Finance for the Developing
World was published by Tay-
lor and Francis in May 2020.
vvv
telling
Good versus Evil
The Rev’d Richard R. Losch
St. James’ Church
Livingston, Alabama
We tend to think of good and
evil as being polar opposites,
distinct from one to the oth-
er. Unfortunately, this is rarely
the case. More often than not
it is difficult to distinguish
between good and evil. Take,
for example, a moral dilemma
that has been considered by
philosophers and theologians
for centuries: You see a man
about to murder a small child.
The only possible way you
can save the child is to kill the
man. What do you do? It is
immoral to allow the child to
die when you have the power
to save him, yet it is also im-
moral to take another man’s
life.
A fascinating blend of good
and evil is exemplified in the
life of a man who had ev-
ery bit as much influence on
fall 2020 49
connecting
modern history as Henry
Ford, yet whom most peo-
ple have never heard of. That
man is German chemist Fritz
Haber (1868-1934), who is
responsible not only for sav-
ing millions of lives, but also
for the deaths of millions.
Around the turn of the 20th
century, Haber dedicated his
research to find a way to make
a synthetic nitrate fertilizer in
order to relieve worldwide
famine. Plants need nitrates
to grow, and without fertiliz-
ers the supply of nitrates and
the soil is sparse and unde-
pendable. After that time the
only nitrate fertilizers avail-
able were made from a miner-
al found mainly in Chile, and
were therefore very expen-
sive. Haber, in collaboration
with Carl Bosch, discovered
a way to combine nitrogen
and hydrogen to form syn-
thetic ammonia, which is the
basic source of nitrate fertil-
izers. Because of the Haber
– Bosch process, cheap syn-
thetic nitrates became read-
50 anglicandigest.org
ily available, and food crops
across Europe began flour-
ishing. The threat of famine
was greatly diminished, and
literally millions around the
world were saved from starva-
tion. In 1918 he was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for his discovery.
At that time nitrates were also
essential for the production of
almost all known explosives.
When World War I broke out
in 1914, Germany depended
on Chilean minerals for most
of their nitrates, including
for gunpowder and artillery
shells. Immediately after the
outbreak of the war, Great
Britain blockaded Chile, cut-
ting off Germany’s supply.
Without another source, the
war would have ended in less
than a year. Haber’s process,
however, with further devel-
opments by Haber himself,
made synthetic nitrates read-
ily available for armaments.
While millions were saved
from starvation by Haber’s
gathering telling

synthetic nitrates, millions might have happened if Haber

also died on the battlefield had not become a chemist.
because of them. Haber then It is possible that World War
went on to perpetrate an overt I would have been over by
evil. He developed a series of 1915. Hitler would not have
poison gases to be used on been a battlefield hero, and
the battlefield, bringing about would not have been gassed
thousands of horribly painful and spent a year in the hos-
deaths and lifelong injuries. pital being bombarded by an-
This earned him the epithet, ti-Semitic and pro fascist pro-
the Father of Chemical War- paganda. The opportunities
fare. for the rise of Nazism might
never have presented them-
A serious health threat in selves.
Haber’s time was pest-borne
diseases. He refined a very Good and evil are not sepa-
effective pesticide, saving rate extremes, but are blended
countless lives from fatal dis- throughout our lives. It would
eases by controlling the ver- be easy if they were clearly
min that carried them. It was delineated, but unfortunately
called Zyklon-B. Less than 10 they are not, so it is up to us to
years after Haber’s death, Zyk- discern them and to respond
lon-B was the primary chem- appropriately. I do not believe
ical used in the gas chambers that human intellect and rea-
of the Nazi death camps, and son alone are sufficient for
was responsible for murder- this discernment. We need the
ing millions of Jews. Ironical- guidance of the Holy Spirit,
ly, Haber was a Jew. the teachings of the Church,
and a God-given sensitivity to
Playing “what if ” can be fruit- how important a decision can
less, but we wonder what often be. Fritz Haber started

fall 2020 51
connecting

out intending to do good, then acle of grace and every form

chose to do evil. He did not
live long enough to see one of
his good intentions be twisted
into one of the supreme evils
of modern history. We must
constantly be on the alert to
see the possible consequen-
ces of our decisions, and pray
for the courage, wisdom, and
moral strength to do what is
right and good. It is not easy,
but it is essential to our salva-
tion.
vvv
of newness of life justifies the
question: “What hast thou
that thou hast not received?”
From The Nature and
Destiny of Man
by Reinhold Niebuhr
vvv
There’s a pub in Sioux Falls,
SD, called “Monk’s House of
Ale Repute.”
– via Rev. Dale Schoening-
Madrid, IA
vvv

When the self stands beyond

itself by faith, it is conscious
of the fact that nothing that it
has done or can do is free of
debt to the miracle of grace. It
cannot explain why this tragic
event, or that impulse towards
the life of another, or this
word of truth from the Gos-
pel should have shattered its
old self confidence and made
conversion and reconstruc-
tion possible. From that per-
spective everything is a mir-

52 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

And I Mean to sisters and brothers every day

Be One, Too around the world.

Damian J. Geminder Persecution for one’s faith is

Parishioner a sacred burden, regardless
Saint Mary’s Church of which form it takes, but it
Amityville, New York
is a privilege to say that one’s
We Christians in the devel- slings and arrows are these
oped world are typically as- sorts of scenarios, because
tounded to learn that the for millions of Christians, the
most persecuted religion in slings and arrows are all too
the world is, in fact, our very real. They are Christians who
own. believe like us, who love like
us, who weep like us, who
It shocks the system to learn bleed like us, but in all likeli-
this, because judging by the hood, they do not look like us.
reporting from our secular But they very often look like
media, Christian persecution the first people who followed
consists of little more than Jesus.
bakers and florists being sued
for not serving weddings they Christianity is a religion
disagree with, or Nativity forged in the kiln of martyr-
scenes and cross memorials dom. “Martyr” comes from
being removed from public the Greek for “witness,” and
land, or tax-funded schools much has been written of the
forbidding officially sanc- martyrs, the holy witnesses,
tioned prayer. of the Church’s earliest days.
But will as much be writ-
All of these, to be sure, are ten of our own modern-day
hostilities against our shared martyrs? Or will their stories
faith, but these are not the of- gather dust in the annals of
fenses which most assault our history because they were so
fall 2020 53
connecting

conveniently over “there,” and as obvious as the incessant,

not crying out for mercy over gaudy greening of everything
here? leading up to St. Patrick’s Day,
to the invaluable contribu-
The first martyrs were also tions to the natural sciences
some of the smallest: the Holy and music we today take for
Innocents. Devoted readers of granted from Sts. Albertus
this publication know the sto- Magnus and Hildegard of
ry: King Herod commanded Bingen.
all boys under two be slaugh-
tered — acceptable collateral But those are secular matters.
damage, that the infant Son of Being a saint is more than just
God might be amongst their being a “good person,” what-
ranks. These precious chil- ever that might mean. We ca-
dren’s names were only known sually refer to people as saints
to their grieving families, but all the time: “Your mother
we commemorate them every had to put up with your father
December 28, tucked away in for half a century. She had the
the early days of the liturgi- patience of a saint!” “Oh, you
cal Christmas season, but the stayed up all this time waiting
waning days of the season for for me to come home. You’re a
the secular world, as people saint!” And so on.
denude and dispose of their
trees and stores put up Valen- Again, we are cheapening the
tine’s Day decorations. concept of what just makes
And this is why we have All a “saint,” even if jokingly.
Saints’ Day. The prolific Orthodox (and
formerly Episcopal) author
We all have relationships with Frederica Mathewes-Green
the saints, even outside of the once quipped, in response
practice of our faith. It can be to attempts to strip angels of

54 anglicandigest.org
gathering telling

their Christian character and surpassed by the flagrant dis-

appropriate them for secular
or New Age purposes, that
“there is no such thing as a
freelance angel.” Likewise, the
very nature of a saint is a per-
son whose life is dedicated to
Christ.
respect too often shown Our
Lord’s Mother, has been the
assertion that to venerate the
saints is “praying to dead peo-
ple.” To those who insist upon
this, one must ask: Do you not
believe in the Resurrection?

All Saints’ Day is the Church’s It is a cruel denial of the mira-

answer to the State’s monu- cle of Christ’s defeat of Death
ment, the Tomb of the Un- itself to dismiss our dearly de-
known Soldier. In reality, they parted Christian sisters and
are one and the same: To be a brothers as “dead people.” In-
saint is to be a soldier, a sol- deed, they are more alive now
dier for Jesus in an army of than any of us still walking
innumerable members, both our fallen world.
on Earth and in Heaven. And
every All Saints’ Day, we re- Nor is it truly accurate to say
member not just those great that one prays “to” a saint.
women and men whose in- Rather, we pray with the
spiring stories serve as ex- saints, and all we do is ask
amples for us, but also those them to join us. No Christian
humble people who will never would doubt the efficacy of
have a feast day, nor a festival,
asking for a friend’s prayers —
to their long since forgotten why should the saints be any
names. different? Because that is who
the saints are: our friends. Al-
One of the saddest calumnies though really, they are deeper
to arise out of the Protestant than friends, because they are
Reformation, perhaps only no less our sisters and broth-

fall 2020 55
connecting

ers in Christ than the people We are all called to be saints.

who sit next to us in our pews We are all called to be wit-
at church. nesses. More liberally inter-
preted, All Saints’ Day is not
The Church does not really just about those saints we can
“make” anyone a saint. What name; nor is it just about those
she does do is recognize the we cannot. All Saints’ Day is a
saintly life of a person during call to action for each and ev-
his or her life on Earth. And ery one of us to emulate the
the miracles often inaccurate- saints, both past and present,
ly credited to the saints them- that we might join that great
selves, as if they are heavenly cloud of witnesses before the
magicians, are of course God’s Throne of Grace.
domain.
They really are just folk like
We then circle back to the you and me. Why shouldn’t
concept of martyrdom. Not all of us mean to be one too?
every saint who ever lived was
murdered for trusting in Je-
sus (although many were, and
still are). But all saints, broad-
ly, are martyrs. The Holy In- “It often seems to be
nocents were martyrs in deed, supposed that we
not will. The day before their worship because we
feast, we celebrate St. John believe. The tradition, on
the Apostle, martyr in will, the other hand, suggests
not deed. And the day before that the Church believes
that, we celebrate St. Stephen, because it worships.”
the deacon and protomartyr,
martyr both in will and in George Guiver, CR
deed. in Faith and Momentum

56 anglicandigest.org
gathering
Thank You
I once read an essay by a man
who had formed the habit of
writing “thank you” in the
lower left-hand corner of all
his checks as he paid his bills.
He would write a check to the
electric utility or the phone
company, and as he penned
in the words “thank you” in
the corner, he would think of
all the ways in which his life
was made more comfortable
by the fact that the company
regularly and reliably provid-
ed him with his services. He
would write a check to the
bank for his monthly mort-
gage payment and pause for
a moment to reflect on the
comfort of having a roof over
his head. He would pay his
water bill and as he wrote
“thank you” in the corner, he
would say to himself that the
water wasn’t all that great tast-
ing and probably had some
chemicals in it that were bad
for him, but how long ago
was it that his forebears had
telling
to pump water from the well
in winter and worry about it’s
going dry in summer. Even
when he was not all that hap-
py about writing a check, as
when he paid his income tax
in April, he disciplined him-
self to write “thank you” on
the check, not because he be-
lieved that the IRS computer
would notice it and be grat-
ified, but because it was his
way of reminding himself that
he should feel grateful to be
living in this country and en-
joying the benefits that Amer-
ican democracy provides.
From Harold Kushner’s Who
Needs God?
vvv
Do not waste your time and
money falling into the very
costly psychoanalytical trap
of looking backwards on your
life. Jesus asks all of us not to
look backwards but to look
upwards, and to focus on the
present, joyfully, lovingly, and
eager to be of service to oth-
ers. Author unknown
fall 2020 57
connecting
NECROLOGY
The Rev. Henry Andrews
Penner, 73, Fort Worth, TX.
A graduate of Texas Christian
University, he had a varied ca-
reer – from running a paint
contracting firm founded by
his father to insurance and
risk management – before
graduating from Brite Divini-
ty School and being ordained
to the diaconate in 2012.
During his final years, he
served as a Chaplain at Baylor
Scott & White Medical Center
in Grapevine, TX.
The Rev. Richard Tren-
holm Peterson, 86, in Fol-
som, CA. He joined the U.S.
Air Force after high school
and attended Trinity College
(now Trinity University) in
San Antonio, TX. While in
the Air Force, he served as
a chaplain’s assistant, choir
director, and organist; after
his discharge, he continued
58 anglicandigest.org
working in music, teaching
piano, organ, and percussion
and serving as a church choir
director. He taught music at
San Francisco State Universi-
ty, performed with numerous
musical groups, and for 25
years served as the Assistant
Conductor of the California
Youth Symphony. In 1980, he
was ordained to the diaconate.
The Rev. Susan M. Sco-
field, 75, in Corry, PA. A grad-
uate of Carleton College, she
had a long career as a medi-
cal transcriptionist. She be-
came involved in Education
for Ministry, became an EFM
mentor, and worked with
teenagers in Sunday School
and Happening and New Be-
ginnings youth retreats. She
also worked to assist the vic-
tims of domestic violence. She
was ordained to the priest-
hood in 2007, following which
gathering telling

she served parishes in Corry, the Korean War broke out,

Youngsville, Warren, and only four doctors covered
Sheffield, PA. all services at the 5th Station
Hospital. He was ordered to
The Rev. Dr. Malcolm Japan to receive training as
Franklin Slayter, 98, in Mid- a Physician’s Assistant, then
land, TX. A graduate of the sent to Korea and assigned to
University of Omaha, St. the 17th Tactical Hospital to
Mary’s Seminary in Balti- assist wounded personnel. He
more, and the Graduate Theo- was awarded both the Army
logical Foundation, Notre and Air Force Commendation
Dame, Indiana. After high medals for his service during
school, at the height of the the Korean War. He served as
Great Depression, he enlisted the Executive Officer for the
in the U.S. Army Air Force Johnson-Yokota Airforce Base
and served in Massachusetts, Hospital then, after leaving the
Glasgow (Scotland), Brest and military, as a program analyst,
Cherbourg (France), Antwerp U.S. Civil Service Administra-
(Belgium), and the Ameri- tion of the Ryukyu Islands. He
can Prisoner of War camp in was ordained a Deacon in the
Heilbronn (Germany) treat- Anglican Church of Okinawa
ing POWs. After returning on behalf of the Diocese of
to the States, he was assigned Virginia, and then ordained to
to the Navy Language School the priesthood in the Diocese
to undergo intensive study of of the Central Philippines. He
Portuguese in preparation for served at the Brent School,
service in Brazil. He taught Philippines; St. John’s School,
history and government for Guam; and St. Nicholas Epis-
the University of Maryland copal Church, Midland, TX.
Overseas Program for mili- In retirement, he served on
tary people in Japan. When an interim basis for multiple

fall 2020 59
connecting
parishes and missions in the
Permian Basin.
The Rev. James R. Boc-
chino, 70, in Olmstedville,
New York. He served in Rhode
Island churches in Ports-
mouth, Providence, Bar-
rington, Westerly, and War-
wick; in Maine at a church in
Rockland. A graduate of Epis-
copal Divinity School, he also
served on numerous diocesan
committees and commissions
and was very involved in the
diocesan youth ministry at the
Episcopal Conference Center
in Pascoag, Rhode Island.
The Rev. Andrew Har-
mon Bro, 89, in Freeport, IL.
During his 62 years in active
parish ministry, he served
part time in a dozen parishes
in rural Illinois and Iowa, and
served as interim priest at a
number of parishes. He was
also a playwright, cofound-
er of Timberlake Playhouse
summer stock theater, and a
fundraising executive.
60 anglicandigest.org
The Rev. Jean Dalby Clift,
90, in Olympia, WA. Before
ordination to the priesthood,
she co-founded the C. G. Jung
Society of Colorado and re-
mained a trustee for decades.
In 1975, she became the first
non-Roman Catholic Direc-
tor of the Center for Religious
Meaning at Loretto Heights
College. She also served as
president of the American
Academy of Religion, Rocky
Mountain-Great Plains Re-
gion. She was Canon Pastor
at the Cathedral of St. John
and an adjunct professor of
Anglican studies, first at Saint
Thomas Seminary and then at
Iliff School of Theology. Sep-
arately and with her husband,
she gave lectures and work-
shops throughout the world,
including Australia, Korea,
Japan, Great Britain, and Po-
land.
The Rev. Gary Lamar
Cline, 81, in Raleigh, NC. A
graduate of Virginia Theo-
logical Seminary, he served
gathering telling
churches in White Sulphur tion took place at Claremont
Springs, VA; Paramus, NJ; Ra- School of Theology. In addi-
leigh, NC; and The Plains, WV. tion, he earned a Doctor of
Divinity from Seabury-West-
The Rev. Gordon Bell ern. He served parishes in
Davis, 94, in Richmond, VA. California and Florida and
A graduate of Virginia Theo- was Archdeacon of the Dio-
logical Seminary, he served cese of San Diego.
parishes in Chester, Yorktown,
Richmond, and Gordonsville, The Rt. Rev. Andrew
Virginia. Hedtler Fairfield, 77, in
Shutesbury, MA. After grad-
The Rev. Robert Harrison uating from Seminary at
Dilday, 65, in Richmond, VA. Berkeley, he served parishes
A graduate of Southwestern in Shageluk, Fort Yukon, and
Baptist Theological Seminary, Fairbanks, Alaska. His focus
with a Certificate of Anglican was supporting Alaska’s indig-
Studies from Virginia Theo- enous people as active leaders
logical Seminary, he most in their own communities, and
recently served on the staff representing native people on
at Saint Stephen’s Church in a diocesan and national level,
Richmond. as well as in the wider Angli-
can Communion. In 1989, he
The Rev. William Floyd was elected the 10th Bishop of
Dopp, 78, in Escondido, CA. the Diocese of North Dakota.
Following careers in journal-
ism with the Wall Street Jour- The Rev. Dr. Robert Her-
nal and as an entrepreneur in bert Heighton, 79, in Del-
other adventures, he followed mar, NY. Ordained a deacon
a vocation to the priesthood. in 2003, his passion was the
His basic seminary educa- intersection of biblical study,

fall 2020 61
connecting
archaeology, history, and cul-
ture. He helped found the
local Episcopal Franciscan
Community of the Holy Cross
and participated in many ser-
vice and mission projects. He
also developed methods of
planning and evaluating com-
munity health centers for the
National Institute of Mental
Health.
The Rev. Samuel Odyth
Hosler, 74, in Kearney, AZ. A
graduate of the University of
Arizona and Bexley Hall, he
served parishes in Delaware,
Idaho, Michigan, and Arizo-
na. In retirement, he enjoyed
being mayor of Kearny for a
term and he worked tirelessly
to improve the health of the
town.
The Rev. David Parker
Jones, 70, in Evanston, IL. He
received his MDiv from Phila-
delphia Theological Seminary
and DMin from Fuller Theo-
logical Seminary. He served
parishes in Pennsylvania,
New Hampshire, and Illinois
62 anglicandigest.org
and was appointed for a few
years as Archdeacon of the
Diocese of Pittsburgh. He also
was chaplain for several years
for the New Hampshire State
Senate, the Evanston Fire De-
partment, and the Wilmette
and Winnetka Fire Depart-
ments.
The Rev. Jan Charles
Rudinoff, 78, in Lihue, HI. He
served in the Army Medical
Corps in Vietnam and after-
ward attended Virginia Theo-
logical Seminary. In addition
to being a priest at St. Michael
and All Angels Church from
1974 to 2004, he was a chap-
lain to the Kaua’i Police De-
partment, a Vietnam Veteran
counselor, and founder of the
chaplaincy program at Wilcox
Medical Center.
The Rev. George Frank-
lin Wharton III, 90, in Dec-
orah, IA. He had a Certificate
in Theology from General
Seminary and advanced de-
gree from Queens College,
Oxford. He served parishes in
gathering telling

Louisiana and Iowa, empha- san Department of Steward-

sizing on education and mu- ship, and served four times as
sic. a deputy to General Conven-
tion.
The Rev. Hugh Couch
White III, 82, in Norfolk, VA. May they rest in peace
A graduate of Virginia Theo- and rise in glory.
logical Seminary, he served
Virginia parishes in Fincas-
tle, Buchanan, Eagle Rock, O God, the King of saints, we
Pulaski, Staunton, Norfolk, praise and magnify thy holy
and Kilmarnock. He actively Name for all thy servants who
promoted efforts to combat have finished their course
poverty, founded an ecumen- in thy faith and fear; for the
ical youth center, helped to blessed Virgin Mary; for the
establish a chapter of Alco- holy patriarchs, prophets,
holics Anonymous, founded apostles, and martyrs; and
a Meals on Wheels program, for all other thy righteous
led the effort to host the first servants, known to us and
licensed infant daycare center unknown; and we beseech
in Norfolk, and advocated for thee that, encouraged by
the mentally ill, especially af- their examples, aided by their
ter deinstitutionalization be- prayers, and strengthened by
came the norm. The National their fellowship, we also may
Association for Mental Health be partakers of the inheri-
recognized his efforts with tance of the saints in light;
awards in 1975, 1976, and through the merits of thy Son
1978. He also was a reader for Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
the National Liturgical Com- “The Burial of the Dead,”
mission for the Prayer Book BCP, pg. 489.
revisions, chaired the Dioce-

fall 2020 63
Holy Cross Church in Pittsburgh, PA