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But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.
(2 Cor. 2.14)
Artists and writers have found in the St. Johns River an ideal frame for putting into words and images the sub-tropical life and landscape of north Florida. I think of the series of watercolors of Winslow Homer, (b. 1836) depicting various Florida scenes including a delightful one of the St. Johns River. His favorite Florida locations included Jacksonville and Enterprise (also located on the St. Johns).
Harriet Beecher Stowe published in 1883 a wonderful memoir of her winters spent in Mandarin called ‘Palmetto Leaves’. The St. Johns features prominently in it with evocative stories of sailing expeditions on the river. She loved the river, aware of its challenges in navigating:
The river is about five miles from shore to shore, and we have known it of old for a most enticing and tricksy customer. It gently woos and seduces you; it starts you out with all manner of zephyrs, until you get into the very middle, two miles from land on either side, when down goes your limp sail, and the breeze is off on some other errand, and you are left to your reflections.
But it is the human history associated with the river I am perpetually drawn to. As Wikipedia tells us:
Humans arrived on the Florida Peninsula about 12,000 years ago when the ocean was about 350 feet lower than today, and the peninsula was double its current size. These earliest people are called Paleo-Indians. They were primarily hunter–gatherers who followed large game, such as mastodons, horses, camels, and bison.
From these archaic people a great roll call of others followed, making their home on or near the St. Johns: Timucua, Mocama, Mayacas, Ais, and European settlers: French, Spanish and British colonists, Seminoles, and African Americans and, by today, a melting pot of over 4 million people on or near its banks.
The river and her silent witnesses came strongly to mind this month while reading a wonderful meditation by the Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr on the role of our forbearers in shaping our lives. With the feasts of All Saints and All Souls (November 1 and 2) in mind, Rohr writes:
Deep time, along with the communion of saints. . . means that our goodness is not just our own, nor is our badness just our own. We are intrinsically social animals. We carry the lived and the unlived (and unhealed) lives of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents as far back as DNA and genomes can trace them—which is pretty far back. It does take a village to create a person. We are the very first generation to know that this is literally and genetically true. . .. No wonder so many are intrigued today by genealogy searches and ancestry test kits.
He concludes his meditation with a strong blessing of hope—one I would like to end on as well:
Living in the communion of saints means that we can take ourselves very seriously (we are part of a Great Whole) and not take ourselves too seriously at all (we are just a part of the Great Whole) at the very same time. I hope this frees us from any unnecessary individual guilt—and, more importantly, frees us to be full “partners in God’s triumphant parade” through time and history (2 Corinthians 2:14). We are in on the deal and, yes, the really Big Deal. We are all a very small part of a very Big Thing!
V. The Lord is glorious in his saints.
R. O come, let us adore him.
Sincerely yours,
Douglas Dupree
| | All Saints Day: When It All Began | | |
Celebrating the Feast of All Saints began in the fourth century. At first, it was observed on the Sunday after the Feast of Pentecost, linking the celebration of the disciples who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the very foundation of the Church, with the martyrs, who gave their lives as witnesses to the faith. Indeed, the word ‘martyr’ comes from the ancient Greek word martys, meaning ‘witness’.
In the original Greek use of the word, a martyr or witness carried a legal connotation. The word’s meaning evolved directly from the early Church’s experience of the persecutions and deaths of Christians refusing to renounce their faith.
The poet (and Christian apologist) W.H. Auden wrote "The Martyr as Dramatic Hero" as a lecture in 1967 as part of the 1968 collection of his essays Secondary Worlds. There Auden reiterates that if the world identifies, now or at any time in history, the word martyr with suffering death for one’s faith, it is largely Christianity that is responsible. He then goes on to claim:
I would go further and say that, if any man, whatever his beliefs, were told the story of two martyrs and asked to say which was the noblest or purist example of martyrdom, his standard of comparison would be based, consciously or unconsciously, upon the story of the crucifixion.
Auden elaborates by arguing that, for martyrdom in its purest form:
one condition is that the martyr dies absolutely alone and forsaken, surrounded only by official executioners, enemies, and sadistic or idly curious spectators. So it was with Christ.
To this he adds a second condition that the martyr’s death must be one of extreme agony and physical humiliation in which all self-respect is lost:
As Charles Williams has written: “our crucifixes exhibit the pain, but they vail, perhaps necessarily, the obscenity: but the death of the God man was both”.
Lastly, Auden argues, to those who witnessed the Lord’s death, he must have seemed to have died in vain:
Nothing happens to vindicate beyond all doubt the cause for which he has died. Christ did not convert the whole world in an instant by appearing in glory on the first Easter Sunday. He appeared in private to his disciples and trusted them with the task of converting the world; they were to preach to the world that he had risen from the dead, an event for which they could offer no proofs.
I think I first read Auden’s essay while in seminary in the mid-1970s, and it has remained with me ever since.
| | Collect for All Saints Day | | |
O ALMIGHTY God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord; Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Contemporary Christian Martyrs:
Unity From the Cross of Christ
| | “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14). | | |
In a special service on Holy Cross Day, September 14th of this year, Pope Leo linked the witness of Christian martyrs to the Cross of Christ. He addressed an ecumenical gathering of Christian leaders from the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches, gathered to commemorate "the martyrs and witnesses of the faith of the 21st century." The Anglican representative present was Bishop Anthony Ball, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See.
The Pope referred most specifically to a list of over 1600 contemporary martyrs a Vatican commission had painstakingly drawn up over several years—martyrs who had been killed for their Christian faith since 2000. The list deliberately included Christians from all denominations, including a goodly number of Anglicans. Of the total from the list, 643 were killed in Sub-Saharan Africa, 357 in Asia and Oceania, 304 in the Americas, 277 in the Middle East and the Maghreb, and 43 in Europe. It was decidedly not a ‘closed’ list, as numbering people, especially in the remotest areas, is far from precise.
The compilers were cautious not to publicize the names of all who are on it although some are explicitly named such as the seven Anglican religious from the Melanesian Brotherhood, who were tortured and killed by the head of a militia while they were trying to mediate a local conflict in the Solomon Islands in 2003 and the 21 Coptic martyrs who were murdered in February 2015 on the coast of Libya.
Drawing attention to both the ecumenical scope of the list and those assembled, the Pope noted:
. . . the ecumenism of blood unites "Christians of different backgrounds who together give their lives for faith in Jesus Christ. The witness of their martyrdom is more eloquent than any word: unity comes from the Cross of the Lord. May the blood of so many witnesses hasten the arrival of the blessed day when we will drink from the same cup of salvation!"
| | Rector's November Book List | | |
Robert Ellsberg. Blessed Among Us: Day by Day with Saintly Witnesses Hardcover – August 17, 2016.
"Robert Ellsberg is way up there in my pantheon of spiritual writers. . . These very human stories of the holy ones among us have a special knack of enlivening my spirit." – Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking.
| | Robert Ellsberg. Blessed Among Us: Day by Day with Saintly Witnesses; Volume 2 Hardcover – October 6, 2025. | | |
Andrew O’Hagan. On Friendship Hardcover – October 9, 2025.
"If we are lucky in our lives, our friendships will be rich and varied. They will be shared with those with two legs, with four legs, with whiskers or clean faces; they will come dressed in the simplicity of childhood or the professional attire of adult life; some will span decades, and some will be only fleeting. But the thing they will all have in common is that life is not only unimaginable—but unimagined—without them." – Amazon review
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Brian D McLaren (Author). Samuel Lee (Photographer). Unconscious Bias: a journey of learning to see Paperback – May 1, 2021.
Brian D McLaren is an author, theologian and a colleague of Fr. Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation.
"The idea for this book is simple: As you reflect on each of the thirteen biases we'll cover, you'll find a photograph to savor. Let its composition and colors still you and then move you and then start writing. You might write a prayer or a poem. You might tell a story. You might jot down some spontaneous reactions, or even a list of questions for further consideration." – Brian McLaren.
| | Harriet Beecher Stowe. Palmetto-Leaves: 1873 Florida Travel Memoir (Paperback—October 2023). | | |
Guli Francis-Dehqani. Listening to the Music of the Soul: The Archbishop of York's Advent Book 2025 Paperback – November 4, 2025.
Bishop Francis-Dehqani is the Bishop of Chelmsford in the Church of England. Her father was the Anglican Bishop of Iran. She is one of the most highly regarded bishops in the Anglican Communion.
"Bishop Guli's forced exile from her homeland has echoes of the flight into Egypt, the murder of her brother Bahram during the Iranian Revolution of the slaughter of the innocents. She writes intriguingly of how angels continue speaking to us today; how fear can prevent us from living well in the present; how pain and loss can be transformed by the power of beauty.
Deepening its resonance, each chapter is linked to a piece of music, prompting us to consider: what are the enduring melodies that sustain us as the vibrant stories of our lives unfold?" – Amazon review
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Stanley Hauerwas. Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible (Plough Spiritual Guides) Paperback – March 11, 2025.
Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian and Christian ethicist, is professor emeritus of theological ethics and of law at Duke University and the author or editor of more than fifty books.
"Hauerwas' appeal stretches across denominations and church traditions, and believers often welcome his bold invitations to rethink cherished assumptions in the light of Scripture. That boldness is on full display in Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible, which gathers a representative sampling of writings from Hauerwas’s classic books." – Christianity Today
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Timothy Keller. Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life's Biggest Questions Paperback – March 3, 2015.
Billy Graham said of Keller: “Tim Keller's ministry in New York City is leading a generation of seekers and skeptics toward belief in God. I thank God for him."
Encounters with Jesus grew out of Keller’s presentation of the Gospel to two groups of inquiring people, among whom were skeptics, i.e. in a mission to students at Oxford University and a regular breakfast gathering at the Harvard Club in NYC. The Introduction alone is well worth the price of the book—where he shares how he learned to read the Bible for himself and how to more effectively lead a Bible study for others.
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Stephen Poxon. With Dickens at Christmas: 52 Daily Readings for this festive season of year Hardcover – September 30, 2025.
"Each reading is presented for reflective reading alongside an appropriate passage from the Bible, a prayer, and a verse from a traditional Christmas carol. The collection as a whole is the perfect Christmas gift for fans of Dickens, and an inspirational armchair companion for all non-Scrooges at 'this kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time' of year." – Amazon review
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William Temple. Readings in St John's Gospel: First and Second Series (Christian Classics) Paperback – January 15, 2018.
William Temple (1881-1944), wartime Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote this of his love for St. John’s Gospel:
“As long as I can remember I have had more love for St. John’s Gospel than for any other book. Bishop Gore once said to me that he paid visits to St. John as to a fascinating foreign country, but he came home to St. Paul. With me the precise opposite is true. St. Paul is the exciting, and also rather bewildering, adventure; with St. John I am at home.”
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N.T. Wright. The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God Hardcover – November 11, 2025.
"Ephesians presents a wide-ranging panorama of the Christian gospel and its implications. It looks backwards toward the creation of the world, and it looks forward to the time when God will be 'all in all.' It foregrounds the work of Jesus the Messiah and the work of the spirit, and it positions the church as central to the purposes of God—a small, working model of new creation. This understanding of the church is central to the New Testament, but nowhere is it clearer than in Ephesians. Paul's view of salvation is not about being rescued from the world, but about the coming together of heaven and earth in Jesus the Messiah." – Amazon review.
| | A Review by Owene Courtney | | of Donn Mitchell's book, Eleanor Roosevelt's Nightly Prayer | | |
Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of the World
The Violet Butterfly (Hedgehog or Fox?)
As I made my way through Donn Mitchell’s book Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer which is mostly about Eleanor Roosevelt’s spiritual formation and the influence it had on her life and through her on the world, I was reminded of the intriguing story of the fox and the hedgehog.
This essay by Isaiah Berlin distinguishes between two types of thinkers: those who see the world through one single idea (hedgehogs) and those who see it through many diverse ones (foxes). Berlin's essay, entitled "The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History," uses the ancient Greek saying, "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Which one was Eleanor Roosevelt?
Mitchell expertly documents Eleanor Roosevelt’s life, her upbringing, the tragedies she faced with the deaths of her parents, a brother and most importantly the depth of spiritual formation to which she was exposed. Though sometimes strict and oppressive, her spiritual formation clearly gave her stability in chaos and freedom from fear, both of which hovered over her throughout her life.
As a young teenager, during a period in her life she referred to as “miserable,” Eleanor wrote an essay entitled “The Flowers’ Discussion.” According to Mitchell, it featured:
“Eleanor awaking from a nap in a conservatory where there were orchids, camellias, and other flowers growing. As she awoke, she heard the flowers discussing who among them was the most beautiful. She pretended to still be asleep so she could hear the conversation. Different flowers made the case for why they were the most beautiful.
For some it was color. For some it was graceful movement. For others it was fragrance. They try to use the choices made by visitors to the conservatory as proof, but in the end, the violet said that none of them was the most beautiful.
'We are all beautiful in our own way. Some are beautifully colored. Others smell sweetly & again others are graceful. We were all made well. From this day we are all equal,' the violet said."
The other flowers then agreed from that day on they were equal. Eleanor concludes the essay on a personal note: "But I always have and always will love the violet best."
Perhaps one of my favorite stories in the book, this essay indicates the depth of Eleanor’s sense of being a beloved child of God. Mitchell suggests that the essay is an allusion to the disciples arguing among themselves about who was the greatest among them, and Jesus telling them the greatest among you is the servant of all. As a homely child, whose mother called her such, and whose mother, sisters, and aunts were well known for their physical beauty, Eleanor’s love of the violet indicates a deep and abiding understanding of the beauty of being a beloved of God.
The other story which touched my heart was about the extraordinary teacher Marie Souvestre who biographer Harold Ivan Smith suggests “helped emancipate Eleanor spiritually,” despite Mlle. Souvestre’s agnosticism. All her biographers agreed, Souvestre was “responsible for Eleanor’s emergence from the cocoon.”
A review of this book would not be complete without a copy of Mrs. Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer which had been part of a service in 1940 at St. John’s Church. This prayer clearly indicates the strength and peace she gleaned from her relationship with God in the myriad struggles of her life. The prayer is shared in the next section.
Donn Mitchell. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer: The Religious Life of the First Lady of the World Hardcover – November 4, 2025 is available for purchase from the Cathedral Bookstore.
| | Eleanor Roosevelt's Nightly Prayer | | |
Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new. May the spirit of peace and illumination so enlighten our minds that all life shall glow with new meaning and new purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
| | Interview with Elizabeth Fox Towers | | |
As a continuation of her book review in this Newsletter, Owene Courtney (OWC), above left, interviews Elizabeth Fox Towers (EFT), above right, on Eleanor Roosevelt (ER):
My lifelong friend Elizabeth Towers wrote her undergraduate thesis at Vassar College on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency which included a deep dive into his relationship/partnership with Eleanor.
Betsy said, “In my research more than 50 years ago, the historians and scholars I read did not give attention to Eleanor’s spiritual life other than church attendance. Knowing the tragedies in her life, I now understand how she was able to overcome the many disappointments including her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer (Rutherford) which began in 1916 and continued until his death in 1945.”
I thought it might be wise to include Betsy in this review, and thus below you will find parts of an interview I did with her. I think her responses are an excellent addition to any review of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer.
OWC: ER said, “I have the memory of an elephant. I can forgive but never forget.”
EFT: This quote is a great example of how complicated her personality was, and for me, Mitchell didn’t develop the depth of her pain adequately.
OWC: In his book, Mitchell asks the reader, “Can the passage of time, coupled with an understanding of how Eleanor Roosevelt’s life story intersected with the story of the Christian community, help us to see her more fully?” How well do you think Mitchell developed ER’s life story?
EFT: I think Mitchell failed to develop the severity of ER’s complicated life including his omission of the ultimate betrayal of her husband with Lucy Mercer (Rutherford). Without her deep faith, she surely would not have been able to carry on.
OWC: What do you think was the “one big thing” that Eleanor Roosevelt knew which inspired her to be one of the “most important and beloved First Ladies and female leaders of the twentieth century” as Donn Mitchell suggests?
EFT: Her authenticity and transparency in her public life (however, not private), despite her aristocratic upbringing. She was able to engage comfortably with the workers on the docks and the mothers/prostitutes in the tenement houses. That is quite a gift!
OWC: What image of Eleanor Roosevelt do you think readers will take away from this book?
EFT: I remember an interview with Dr. Catherine Meeks, an astute writer and theologian, who was discussing her experience as a child and young adult. When asked how did she survive, she said, “I accepted grace instead of fear in my life and gained strength from not running.” My take is that ER certainly lived by that credo.
Considering the story of the Fox and the Hedgehog, Betsy wisely said
“Eleanor was really both…she was focused on the one vision of social justice for all and yet she knew many ways to make headway toward that equality.”
I am inclined to believe that Eleanor was the hedgehog…and the one great thing which she knew was exactly what Jesus said to the disciples, “The greatest among you is the servant of all.”
I encourage readers of this review to a) read Mitchell’s book b) answer Betsy’s questions for yourself and c) determine whether Eleanor Roosevelt was a fox or a hedgehog—and what about you?
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Here is a reflection for Thanksgiving Day found by James Pierce who shared it with the Friday morning St. Philip’s Church prayer service he offered with Linda Baker:
As we prepare for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a message from Maya Angelou rings clear. "We need much less than we think we need."
We have the love of God and the redemptive power of Jesus. We are surrounded by the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength. We need family, friends, and our community to give and receive a sense of belonging. We need basic shelter, food, and the warmth of a place to rest. We need purpose in our lives. Did we include the love of God? Although your list might be longer, those things are all we need.
You can want much or little, but God provides all we really need. So, eat the food of Thanksgiving with the hopes that you can also nourish a neighbor. You can also participate in Black Friday knowing that it is more blessed to give than to receive. But more importantly remember that God gives you all you will ever need. LOVE!
| | From St. John's Cathedral, Jacksonville | | | | |
