Volume 54, August 2023

‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church...’

St. Peter the Apostle figures prominently in the Church Lectionary over the last month. He figures in the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6---that fell on a Sunday this year. He figured prominently in the Gospel this last Sunday and again in the Gospel this coming Sunday, September 3.

St. Peter appears such a figure of contradiction. In the story of the Transfiguration, we heard him rightly acclaim Jesus to be 'Christ, the Son of the living God'. In last Sunday’s Gospel, we heard Jesus call Peter the 'rock' on which he is to build his Church; and we hear Jesus promise Peter the keys of the kingdom with the power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven. Jesus is saying, ‘this is my man, this is the chief among all my disciples.’

By contrast, this coming Sunday, September 3, we hear that Peter does not understand that the kingdom of heaven, to which he himself will be given the keys, will come to its fulfillment only after the Lord has suffered torture, humiliation and death. Immediately following the promise of the keys, Peter shows himself quite unworthy of the promises which have been conferred on him. Maybe Peter, the 'rock' on which the Church is to be built, is also a 'stumbling block', a rock not on which to build, not a firm foundation, but a rock that one might trip over, a hindrance.

On other occasions Peter gets things wrong: walking on water ends as a big splash; at the Transfiguration his utterance in immediate response to the vision sounds more like that of a business developer or promoter---- suggesting they might build concession stands for Jesus, Moses and Elijah; and, probably worst of all, when the Lord's passion is approaching he denies him, not once, but three times. Then, much later, Peter has to be rebuked by St Paul for avoiding eating with Gentiles.

So why on earth did the Lord trust him? And entrust so much to him?

Well, on balance, Peter isn’t really a failure. It’s true---- he had his shortcomings, but he was no failure: under his leadership and preaching the Church spread, in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and then to Antioch, and finally, to Rome, where Peter died a martyr's death.

And Peter proved himself a pretty good mediator or navigator—between the radically conservative church folk of his time who wanted to keep to the old laws of circumcision and dietary codes and limit who could join the church---and St. Paul’s liberal, all-embracing vision of a radically open Church. St Peter attempts to navigate through the middle and accept everyone.

But it makes you wonder: If Peter achieved so much, for all his shortcomings, why does the New Testament give such a detailed account of his various failures?

I am not sure of the answer but maybe it could be to show us that Peter’s greatest achievements were his, not by his own efforts, but the gift of God in spite of his faults.

But that answer leaves St. Peter himself out of the equation. And it strikes me as patronizing as well.

I think the picture that emerges of Peter is of a man who, in spite of his great shortcomings, had something more fundamental and stronger going for him: he had an enthusiasm, he had a thirst, he had a love for his Master, for Jesus, that not even his shortcomings could diminish or fault.

Peter’s faults are a reality, but his love is a greater and deeper reality. And God can work with a loving heart and harness that enthusiasm so as to turn it from being a stumbling block into a foundation stone for something great.

Peter had something else going for him: his love for Jesus had in it that remarkable quality of resilience that allows someone to accept rebuke without rancor. He had plenty to criticize in himself; plenty for St. Paul to criticize in him and plenty even for the Lord to chasten in him. But Peter’s wonderful enthusiasm for the Gospel helps him pick himself up after he has been knocked down by his faults: and move on.

Thinking on St. Peter makes me yearn for the gifts of his character: his acceptance of criticism; his resilience; and his abiding enthusiasm and love for the Lord. It leads me also to reflect on how the Lord looks more deeply and sees more clearly our true worth beneath the surface of our lives.

Late summer blessings to you and your loved ones, Douglas.

Saint Mary the Virgin

August 15

O God, who hast taken to thyself the blessed Virgin Mary,

mother of thy incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been

redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of thine

eternal kingdom; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our

Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the

Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Bishop's Institute Interview

with Maryann Braddock

Bishop's Institute Interview with Maryann Braddock, a Long-serving Administrator at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, Crescent City

HDD: Mary Ann, how long have you been the administrator of Holy Comforter Church, Crescent City?

MB: I have been in this position for 25 years. (And in all kinds of volunteer positions before that and since.)

HDD: How did you come to take up this work?

MD: The person before me had to retire for health reasons, and the Priest who was here at the time asked if I would step in.

That week the Board made it permanent.

HDD: Do you do it full-time or part-time? (Is there any ‘part-time’ job in the Church?).

MB: This is not a full-time job by description, but many weeks it is "full-time with overtime", depending on what is going on. (Salary is not commensurate with hours, but you go where God leads you - hmm?) For so many years, we did not have resident/full-time clergy, and so it was important that someone be in the office as much as possible, for the sake of parishioners, as well as for the sake of public perception. We went through a period some years ago when folks thought this church was closed because they seldom saw anyone here!! Not a good

face to present to the public, especially in a retirement city, with lots of non-permanent residents.

HDD: How did you come to Holy Comforter Church?

MB: I grew up at Holy Comforter. Family members, and close family friends, are all a part of the congregation. It was just a "natural" thing.

HDD: How have you seen Holy Comforter grow and change over the years?

MB: Holy Comforter has seen some growth/some decline - cyclical - over the years.

And with some of that growth has come change, just as declines have brought

some change. I'd like to think that here we are more "steadfast" than changing.

We adapt easily. The nearest communities of any size are 25-35 miles away to

the north and south. It's very rural here, with lots of forested acreage and lakes,

sometimes settled by individuals, but not yet intruded upon by developers. A number of small farming/agricultural/horticultural endeavors remain viable here. Cattle are still a significant economic contributor.

We are in a small, retirement community, founded over 100 years ago as a

winter residence and retirement home for the more well-to-do from the industrial

northeast. We are landlocked between two huge lakes, one of them a tributary of the St. Johns River. So, there's not a lot of room for growth within the confines of the city itself. However, since the demise of the citrus industry following severe freezes the unincorporated area between us and the St. Johns River - 8 miles to the west - has seen a lot of growth, as mobile home developments followed the citrus trees.

To continue reading the interview, click here.

Bishop's Institute Interview:

Back to School with the Rev. Christopher Dell

Bishop's Institute Interview with the Rec. Christopher Dell, Associate Chaplain, Theology Instructor, Episcopal School of Jacksonville

Episcopal School of Jacksonville is an independent, coeducational private college preparatory school in Jacksonville founded in 1966 by the Episcopal Diocese of Florida. The school has two lower schools, a middle school and a high school and enrolls about 1,200 students a year. The school has a vibrant chaplaincy program and a commitment to supporting the spiritual growth of students as integral to their overall growth and development.

Douglas Dupree (HDD): Chris, tell us a bit about yourself, i.e., your background (including church background), education, call to the ordained ministry.

Chris Dell (CGD): I was born into a Baptist family but baptized at Christ Episcopal Church in Ponte Vedra as a young child. My dad was the organist at the time, so much of my early years was spent singing in the children’s choir, playing “hide and seek” around the grounds, and bonding with the clergy over such things as a shared appreciation for "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strips. I spent some of my teenage years involved with a Presbyterian congregation but eventually decided that the Episcopal Church was my spiritual home. It was during my high school years, through strong youth ministry programs at both the parish and diocesan levels, that I began to sense a call to the priesthood. While earning my undergraduate degree in Religious Studies and Spanish at Stetson University, I continued to discern quietly, and spent a couple of years after graduation in formal discernment before being sent by our diocese to the School of Theology at Sewanee.

HDD: How were you called to the chaplaincy at Episcopal School of Jacksonville?

CGD: When I first began exploring my vocation, I wondered if God was calling me to youth ministry. After college, I spent some time as an intern for the youth ministry program at Christ Church, and I continued to help out with mission trips and other programs during breaks from my seminary studies. Like many of my peers in seminary, I assumed that I was preparing for parish ministry, for something broader and more multigenerational than youth ministry. To my surprise and delight, the Dean of Spiritual Life at Episcopal School of Jacksonville, the Reverend Teresa Seagle, approached me at Diocesan Convention during my senior year of seminary and asked if I had considered school chaplaincy, and suddenly everything fell into place. I realized that in school chaplaincy I could honor that original passion for youth ministry—to love, nurture, and walk with our young people—while also living into priestly ministry and nurturing my own academic interests as well as those of the young minds entrusted to my care.

To continue reading the article, please click here.

August Quiz

Mary by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

Our August quiz is dedicated to the Lord’s mother. August 15 is the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin in the Episcopal Church. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is called the Feast of the Assumption. In the Orthodox churches, it is called the Dormition of Mary.

You could say that the various names for this Marian feast day suggest something about the nature or temper of each of these church communions. The Roman Catholic Church, more precise (and perhaps more dogmatic) names specifically what happened to Mary when her earthly life was over: she was assumed into Heaven. The Orthodox, to be less precise, simply celebrate the end of Mary’s blessed earthly life with the feast of her ‘falling asleep’ or dormition. Anglicans, closer perhaps to the Orthodox in areas of church dogma that fall outside what the New Testament clearly informs us, simply call the day ‘the Feast of St Mary the Virgin’—but with a nod, perhaps to both the Assumption and the Dormition in the Prayer Book collect for the feast that opens with an ascription that reads: ‘O God, who hast taken to thyself the blessed Virgin Mary...’

The Quiz

1. By which century did the tradition of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven take a firm hold in Christian teaching in the West?

   a. 3^rd century

   b. 5^th century

   c. 7^th century

   d. 12^th century

2. In what year did the Assumption of Mary into Heaven become official teaching in the Roman Catholic Church?

   a.  325

   b. 1563

   c. 1950

   d. 1962

3. What is the one thing that the gospel of Luke emphasizes about Mary?

   a. Mary is highly favored.

   b. Mary is an obedient servant.

   c. Mary is a faithful disciple.

   d. Mary is a miracle worker.

4. After Jesus is born, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to consecrate him to the Lord. What offering do they make?

   a. A newborn lamb.

   b. A turtle dove.

   c. Two turtle doves.

   d. A kid (young goat).

5. What are the four canticles in Luke’s Gospel and what is the name of the one ascribed to Mary?

6. Of the principal holy days associated with Mary, which ones does the Book of Common Prayer, 1979 observe? How many can you name?

Click here to view the answers.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430):

Feast Day August 28

‘Lord give me chastity and self-control- but not yet.'

“I was sure that it was better for me to give myself up to your love than to give in to my own desires. However, although the one way appealed to me and was gaining mastery, the other still afforded me pleasure and kept me victim. I had no answer to give to you when you said to me, ‘Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.’ When on all sides you showed me that your words were true, and I was overcome by your truth, I had no answer whatsoever to make, but only those slow and drowsy words, ‘Right away. Yes, right away.’ ‘Let me be for a little while.’ But ‘Right away—right away’ was never right now, and ‘Let me be for a little while’ stretched out for a long time.”

Confessions, Book VIII.

It's in the Bible (Or Shakespeare!)

Robin Hyde, a former lawyer at Rogers Towers, P.A., now retired, and a communicant of St John’s Cathedral, Jacksonville, loves the English language and English literature. In a talk he gave recently on the origins of the English language, he reminded his audience of this lovely quotation from the journalist Bernard Levin (1928-2004). In it Levin reminds us of our debt to Shakespeare for the many phrases we frequently use unaware that they come from the bard:

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me,'' you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O, Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Archdeacon's Corner

This article by the Archdeacon was featured in an earlier issue of the Bishop’s Institute Newsletter. Since its first appearance, he has had many requests for a copy of it or notes from readers entering into conversation with him about their pets in regard to Christian belief and practice. Here it is again for those who might have missed it.

HEAVENLY PETS

As I travel about the diocese with Bishop Howard, I am sometimes asked “Will I see my pet in Heaven?" This is usually asked by someone who has recently lost a beloved pet--- a pet who was more a friend or family member than mere property.

Over the years Diane and I have lost many such four-legged family members. We still remember and love them all. I always try to answer that question with one that gives hope and an answer that is based on Richard Hookers, the principle of the “three-legged stool,” which involves our traditions, the Bible, and reason.

Tradition would say that the purpose of heaven is to reunite us (the Children of God) to God, in a new Eden. The Apostle John reminds us of Jesus’s words on paradise in verse 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Of course, this passage doesn’t exclude animals, it only assures us that Jesus, has prepared a place for us and that we are wanted and loved.

But Matthew (18:13) is more specific “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Because animals cannot be converted, they cannot repent of their sins or accept Christ as their Savior, but does that exclude them from Heaven, or is that only us (who have a choice), that Jesus is talking about?

Spires in the Sun Book Launch

and Upcoming Diocesan Event

Spires in the Sun: The Carpenter Gothic Episcopal Churches of Florida, written by Jonathan Rich and photographed by Phil Eschbach, will be published by Frederic C. Beil, Savannah, GA on October 24, 2023.

The book is available at the St. John's Cathedral Bookstore for pre-order. Order before Oct. 24 and you'll receive 10% off your order!

About the book

A work of nonfiction, Spires in the Sun celebrates the Upjohn-style rural wooden churches raised by the Episcopal Church in Florida in the 1800s. Given the era involved, the book is also a history of the germinal years of the Diocese of Florida.

Upcoming Event

There will be a joint book talk and signing Diocesan event with the St. John's Cathedral Bookstore and the Jacksonville Historical Society on Thursday, Nov. 9 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.! The event will take place in Taliaferro Hall at 256 E Church St, Jacksonville FL, 32202.

Episcopal churches in the Jacksonville area and others from the diocese are warmly invited to attend.