The Bishop’s Institute for Ministry and Leadership was established in 2015 in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida to provide opportunities to develop lay and clergy leadership in the Diocese; to prepare candidates for ordination to the vocational diaconate and the local priesthood; to prepare candidates for licensed lay ministries and to be a focus for the continuing education for laity and clergy alike. |
|
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1.1-4
THE LETTER OF JAMES
I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing the letter of James read in church all these Sundays in September. I sometimes think of James as a kind of ‘underdog’ in the New Testament canon, i.e. like a person with more potential than people are willing to recognize.
The letter of James almost did not make it into the New Testament. Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220 AD), a prolific early Christian writer and leader of the African Church, had some 7,000-plus quotations from the New Testament in his writings but not one from James. The earliest Latin manuscript of James dates only to 350 AD. James did not find a place in Greek scripture until after 367 AD. The coming of the early modern period in church history did not advance James either--- Luther felt James puts too much stress on works and too little on faith. He called it a right strawy epistle . . . I do not hold it to be of apostolic authorship.
And yet . . . I cannot sit down and read James without an immediate sense that he is speaking directly to me in my attempt to live a Christian life and that he is speaking directly to the church that I know surrounding me.
I find this particularly so as we continue to struggle with the ‘roller-coaster ride’ of living in the ongoing pandemic. A friend Ed Pratt-Dannals pointed me to an article by Tish Harrison Warren, columnist for Christianity Today entitled: ‘Isn’t this supposed to be over now?’ In it she sums up the fatigue many of us have been feeling this last summer and now fall. She writes:
We can harness the best minds in the world to produce a vaccine in record time, but we still don’t know what our particular lives will look like tomorrow morning at the breakfast table. This uncertainty is, of course, how we have always lived each day — it’s simply part of what it means to be a human being. But COVID continues to throw how little we know, control or can predict into sharp relief.
Harrison Warren goes on to put our present experience in context with some good advice from James in the first chapter of his letter:
Perseverance [endurance] isn’t simply a “grin and bear it” stoicism, much less a call to deny our frustration, disappointment or anxiety about what lies ahead . . .
Instead, the Book of James presents perseverance as an artist, with our own souls as its medium. Perseverance, James writes, must “finish its work in us” that we might become “mature and complete.” It forms and shapes a kind of wholeness in us that comes as a gift: We don’t know what the next hour brings, but God can be trusted because we’ve glimpsed the end of the story. So now, in the present tense, with all its grief and frustrations, we can bear whatever comes to us, even if it lasts longer than we’d hoped.
Her comments on the relevance of James’ teaching to our present concerns reminded me of something William Barclay has written similarly about the encouragement we find in James. Barclay wrote:
It is James’ conviction that trial is meant to produce character (1.2-4). Trial produces steadfastness, which in Greek is hupomone. Hupomone was far more than the patience which sits down and endures. It was the Greek word for ‘a masculine constancy under trial’. It is the Christ-given ability to turn tragedy into triumph, always to see the glory behind the gloom, always to be able to trace the rainbow through the rain.
There is a goal worth praying to realize: by God’s grace to remain steadfast and resolute in faith, in Christ and through all the trials and uncertainties thrown at us.
With every blessing,
Douglas Dupree
|
|
Collect for St. Michael and All Angels |
|
Job’s Gethsemane: Job and the angels by William Blake
ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS
(September 29th)
O EVERLASTING God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order; Mercifully grant that, as thy holy Angels always do thee service in heaven, so, by thy appointment, they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
|
|
Angels in the Sacristy window (maybe Tiffany?),
St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Fernandina Beach, Fl
|
|
Canon Jerry Smith: Confirmation Interview |
|
‘THAT HE MAY CONTINUE THINE FOREVER’:
CONFIRMATION
An interview with Canon Jerry Smith
Rector, Church of the Holy Comforter, Tallahassee
|
|
Not infrequently in our churches classes to prepare young people and adults for the Order of Confirmation will correspond with the start of a new Christian formation program year, i.e. in September or the Fall.
In the Order of Confirmation, the service focuses on God’s action (in bestowing the Holy Spirit) and on the personal commitment being made by the confirmand.
The memory of my own Confirmation, by the then Bishop of Florida, Hamilton West, remains vivid: Defend, O Lord, this [Thy] child with Thy heavenly grace, that he may continue Thine forever; and daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more and more, until he come unto Thy everlasting kingdom. Amen’ (Book of Common Prayer, 1928.) ‘More and more’ . . . those words remain engraved in my spiritual memory more consciously and more deeply than the words spoken over me at my ordination to the diaconate and priesthood.
Douglas Dupree
|
|
The Interview
If you were orientating a newly ordained priest joining your clergy team at Holy Comforter, Tallahassee, what would you share with him or her about the significance and meaning of Confirmation and how you would expect it to be taught in your parish?
The new BCP has almost robbed confirmation of its meaning and place. Consequently, I encourage dispensing with confirming young teenagers who are already wrestling with too many life decisions, and encourage focusing confirmation classes on those a tad older who want to understand the theological foundations of the Christian faith and of our tribe within the tradition.
From your experience in the ministry, what have you come to think of as, in general, an ‘ideal’ age for offering Confirmation preparation? i.e. is there an age, in general, that would be too young? Would you normally have confirmation classes for both youngsters (teenagers) and adults (of any age)?
I look to young adults and those of any age older who are exploring faith seriously.
In teaching Confirmation classes to youngsters, what does the priest or catechist need to have firmly in mind about their students as they approach teaching these classes?
I don’t think I have taught a class of ‘youngsters’ in the past 30 years as my focus has been on older folk… if I have young teens interested I get my youth worker or someone more in tune with the influencers in their lives to lead the class.
What might the core curriculum be for an adult confirmation class? Are there ‘goals’ for the class that are not strictly instructional, academic? What impact do you hope Confirmation preparation will have on adults taking the course?
I make the class Anglicanism 101 with some history, foundational theology and practical implications of what it means to live a Christian life under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit.
Do you use a specific curriculum for confirmation (for youngsters or adults) you would recommend to others? Or, do you discern what needs to be covered and ‘write’ your own course?
I use material I have worked on myself over the years, drawing from the Bible, BCP and other sources such as Life in the Spirit… JI Packer; John Stott etc.
In an Alpha gathering, it is said ‘there are no wrong answers’, i.e. the participants attend knowing they can speak freely about their doubts and weakness of faith. To what degree, in a confirmation class, is discussion and confession of doubt an appropriate factor encouraged in the process?
If the church can’t be a safe place to question and express doubt it is not in a good place. Everyone exploring faith needs the freedom to express doubts and fears without judgement.
As each year rolls round, do you approach confirmation classes with a firm commitment to the offerings, knowing that you have long established good and solid practice, with a full and plentiful assurance that the Church has a clear view on Confirmation, or, do you scramble to think, ‘Oh dear, what will I do this year? I must re-think all this anew?’
Every year I begin enthusiastically and then find myself morphing from the original direction based on those participating. AND never am I completely satisfied when the class is over.
|
|
Preachers on Preaching Video Series |
|
The Rev. Joe Gibbes, Rector of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Mandarin has designed and hosted an online series of interviews with key clergy and laity noted for their gift of preaching. Undaunted by the restrictions COVID threw at us in gathering for an in-person retreat for clergy to be mentored in strengthening their preaching skills, Joe Gibbes took the message and instruction online.
This series is designed for clergy but I think there is a real value in it for discerning lay men and women who take preaching seriously.
If you would like to access these interviews, you may do so by going to one of the following sites:
A special thanks to Fouad Zabaneh for the technical assistance he gave to Joe Gibbes in producing the videos and to Tyler Holder, the Diocese of Florida Director of Communications for putting them up on our Diocesan sites.
|
|
The Parson Preaching By George Herbert (1593-1633) |
|
From A Priest to the Temple
He often tells them that sermons are dangerous things, that none goes out of Church as he came in, but either better or worse; that none is careless before his Judge, and that the Word of God shall judge us. By these and other means the parson procures attention; but the character of his sermon is holiness: he is not witty, or learned, or eloquent, but holy; a character that Hermogenes never dreamed of, and therefore he could give no precept thereof. But it is gained, first, by choosing texts of devotion, not controversy, moving and ravishing texts, whereof the Scriptures are full. Secondly, by dipping and seasoning all our words and sentences in our hearts before they come into our mouths, truly affecting and cordially expressing all that we say, so that the auditors may plainly perceive that every word is heart-deep. Thirdly, by turning often, and making many apostrophes to God, as, “O Lord, bless my people and teach them this point”; or, “O my Master, on whose errand I come, let me hold my peace, and do Thou speak Thyself, for Thou art love, and when Thou teachest all are scholars.”
Hermogenes, a Greek writer on rhetoric, in the age of Marcus Aurelius.
|
|
YOU DON’T SAY!
Just for fun here is a compilation of actual student bloopers collected by teachers from eighth grade through college. Robin Hyde, a member of St John’s Cathedral, shared these with me --- he may have got them many years ago from a column in the Florida Times-Union but he cannot confirm the source. Enjoy.
|
|
Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah dessert and travelled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants had to live elsewhere.
The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked, ‘Am I my brother’s son?’
Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, were they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the 10 Commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.
Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.
|
|
The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn’t have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.
Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.
Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.
Eventually, the Romans conquered the Greeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long.
Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
|
|
Magna Carta provided that no man should be hanged twice for the same offense.
Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking.
Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was called Pilgrim’s Progress.
|
|
San Jose Episcopal School Interview With Katie Bennett |
|
THE SCHOOL YEAR 2021-22:
AN INTERVIEW WITH KATIE BENNETT,
Drama/Kingdom Theatre Teacher
San Jose Episcopal Day School, Jacksonville
|
|
Katie please tell us a little about yourself. How long have you been teaching? How many years have you been on the faculty at San Jose Episcopal School?
I was born and raised in Portsmouth, Hampshire in the south of England. I met and married my husband Scott in Pensacola while visiting my parents after college. They were stationed at NAS Pensacola for a Royal Navy exchange. My husband’s career gave us many opportunities to see much of America and we have lived in many states including Florida, New York, Wyoming, West Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina, and South Florida.
We settled in Jacksonville, Fl. in 1998 where my family had emigrated from England after retiring. I visited Jacksonville often and each time I would drive by San Jose Episcopal day School and see the sweet children in uniform playing on the playground, I knew that this was where I wanted my son Ben (‘04) to go to school. It reminded me of my childhood and my time at St. Jude’s Church of England, primary school in Southsea, Portsmouth.
I have been teaching at San Jose since 2001. I started a Drama Club with my mother Gillian Pearce, a retired School Principal and Educator of 30+ years. Our first show, Wizard of Oz, was a success and the next school year I was teaching 3-6th grade drama in the classroom. In 2009, I helped to create and I have developed Kingdom Theatre, which is our religious education program.
If I was a parent looking for a new school for my children, how would you introduce or characterize San Jose Episcopal School to me? What are its strengths or virtues that makes the school important to you?
I am proud to introduce any new parent to San Jose Episcopal Day School where your child will receive a well-rounded education. They will be loved, challenged with a rigorous curriculum and your child will know the love of God. They will grow in faith as they explore the scriptures and come to know the stories of God’s saving work, love and grace. The heart of this parish and day school is strong. We have an exceptional faculty guided by faith and love of educating and nurturing children. It is clear to me that the Holy Spirit is working here daily, guiding and strengthening each of us in an Episcopal school where the culture and styles that surround the scriptural tradition are also valued.
Tell us about your subject area? Drama and Kingdom Theatre Teacher both sound exciting? What do they involve? What age groups do you teach? How do these subjects fit into the overall curriculum/school offering?
I believe that the working of God in human history is a drama, the great drama of salvation. In Kingdom Theatre we read the scriptures together and using drama techniques as a tool we replay the dramas in the classroom. The stories are expressed and stick inside a child’s mind and imagination. Family discussions and conversation about scripture and God’s plan for us are prompted throughout the week for our upper school students with their Google classroom journals and classwork. Using the Church lectionary and being on the same curriculum calendar, it is our hope to guide the children to worship as they recall and study both at home and at school with the same lessons. I am privileged to teach all of the grade levels from PK, 3rd – 6th grades. Over time each child at the school has read and studied the stories more than once. It is so very rewarding to see how a child has grown in their faith journey and how they are able to safely articulate their feelings and share their deeper beliefs.
What do the kids seem to enjoy most about their experience learning in your classes?
The older students really enjoy improvisations and acting out the stories in their own words and expressing themselves. They take pride in owning their Bible that has followed them through their reading and studies and seeing all of the notations throughout. The lower school students love the costuming and can’t wait to be the role of Jesus each time. Even more fun is when they are hiding and not seen in playing the part of God.
What was the school year 2020-2021 like at San Jose? The challenges due to COVID? What do you feel the school (faculty, children, parents) learned from the experience of 2020-21 not being ‘typical’?
At the start of the 2020 school year we had both virtual and in-person classes. We did our part to make the best of a difficult situation and it was such a blessing to have children in school again. We became creative and looked at things from a different perspective and soon we found blessing after blessing showing up. One big blessing was having the students writing their journals in a slide presentation tool. This made things a little more tangible for both students and parents. It was so wonderful to hear a parent say how impressed they were in reading their child’s thoughts and ideas on the stories we were reading. We all learned firsthand what it meant to improvise and make the best of what we were given.
|
|
ANGEL VOICES EVER SINGING
The Feast of St Michael and All Angels is September 29th. The feast was originally dedicated solely to St Michael, the chief of the archangels but in time our celebration has expanded to include all the angels. Enjoy the quiz—whether you can guess the answers or not! Blessings, Allison+
THE QUIZ
1. The word angel in the Greek means:
a. Messenger
b. Holy one of God
c. Hymn of praise
d. Mighty one
2. There are three named archangels in the Bible but only two of them are named in the canonical books of the Bible and one of them in the Apocrypha. Which of the three is named in the Apocryphal book of Tobit?
a. Michael
b. Raphael
c. Gabriel
3. Where in the Bible are we exhorted to worship the holy angels?
a. Luke 1.26
b. Luke 2.14
c. Mt 4.11
d. None of the above
4. What is the first thing the angel Gabriel says to Mary after greeting her?
5. How many angels are there?
a. 6,600
b. 10 million
c. 100 million
d. Innumerable
6. Are angels male or female?
7. When do the angels minister to Jesus in the Gospels?
a. Heralding his birth to shepherds
b. After he is tempted in the desert
c. During his agony in Gethsemane
d. All of the above
8. Who is the English poet who, as a small boy, saw angels in a tree on Peckham Green?
a. William Blake
b. John Keats
c. Percy Bysshe Shelley
d. William Wordsworth
9. What is the ‘Line of St Michael’?
a. The line in the sand the archangel dared Satan cross
b. The circle drawn around the perimeter of Mt Saint-Michel where the tide stops
c. A ley line connecting monasteries dedicated to Michael from Ireland to Israel
10. In what year did the history of our St Michael and All Angels, Tallahassee parish begin?
a. 1882
b. 1887
c. 1929
d. 1953
|
|
The Archdeacon’s Corner
O God of unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, you chose a captive warrior, David Oakerhater, to be your servant, and sent him to be a missionary to his own people, and to exercise the office of a deacon among them: Liberate us, who commemorate him today, from bondage to self, and empower us for service to you and to the neighbors you have given us; through Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
David Pendleton Oakerhater
Warrior Deacon
Could you imagine that an Indian warrior, would find peace and Christianity, and then become an Episcopal Deacon? Let me introduce you to Oakerhater. Of Cheyenne ancestry, Oakerhater was born in the 1840’s in Western Oklahoma. He was a warrior and was involved in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. Oakerhater may also have participated in the Battle of Washita River and the Sand Creek massacre.
He was also a tribal spiritual leader, and his name means “Medicine Man.” Captured during those Indian Wars he was imprisoned in 1875 at Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos), Florida. The fort’s captain, Richard Henry Pratt, supported assimilation of American Indians into mainstream society. Pratt convinced his superiors to allow the Indians to carry non-operational rifles, perform guard duty, obtain outside employment collecting and selling sea beans and other tourist items, have passes to visit the town on Sundays to attend church, and camp unsupervised on nearby Anastasia Island.
In return, the prisoners educated townspeople and tourists in archery, and made handicrafts and drawings to sell. Through art, Oakerhater gained the attention of Mrs. Alice Key Pendleton, to whose daughter he had given one of his drawing books. She was the wife of US Senator George H. Pendleton. Subsequently, Oakerhater became one of the founding figures of modern Native American art.
In 1877 an Episcopal deaconess, Mary Douglass Burnham, began to make arrangements to sponsor prisoners, including Oakerhater, to serve as church sextons and continue their education. In April 1878, Burnham arranged funding from Alice Key Pendleton and her husband, Senator George H. Pendleton, to bring Oakerhater, as well as his wife Nomee, to St. Paul's Church in Paris Hill, New York where, he received instruction in Scripture.
Oakerhater was baptized about six months later, in early 1878, and adopted the Christian name David, after King David of the Bible, and Pendleton, in honor of his sponsor. He was ordained a deacon in July 1881 and returned to western Oklahoma. He served near Anadarko for Sunday services and spent weekdays visiting and caring for sick members of various tribes.
He began his work at Whirlwind Mission of the Holy Family in 1889, near Fay, Oklahoma, about 17 miles west of Watonga. He remained there until his retirement in 1918. Even in retirement, he continued to preach, and served as a Native American chief and holy man. He died in 1931, at the age of 84. He was named a Holy Person, or saint, in the Episcopal Church in 1985; his feast day is September 1.
A special thanks to Father Donavan Cain for inspiring me to share this with you as Father Cain talked about Deacon David Pendleton Oakerhater on September 1, 2021 in All Saints’ Church, Jacksonville.
Praying that our Lord finds you and yours well
The Ven. Mark Richardson,
Archdeacon
|
|
David Pendleton Oakerhater
|
|
Coming Up: Art Walk Cathedral |
|
St. Johns Cathedral Bookstore & Gift Shop presents: Art Walk New York City
Nov. 30th - Dec. 4th, 2021
For more information contact Cathedral Bookstore: 904.365.5507.
|
|
St. Francis' Day:
Blessing of the Animals Book Selections
|
|
For St. Francis' Day (Monday, Oct. 4), the following books from the Blessing of the Animals selections are on sale at the St. John's Cathedral Bookstore & Gift Shop.
- Ask the Animals
- Blessing the Animals
- Dogspell
- Saint Francis and the Animals
You can purchase them at the bookstore or click here to purchase them online.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
