Episcopal Church | dual personalities

November 12, 2018

“He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat”*

by chuckofish

It is chilly here in flyover country and there was snow on Friday! Daughter #1 drove home buffeted by a wintery wind in time to accompany Carla and me to a 90th birthday party for a church friend–oh boy! Then the three of us went to dinner afterwards and Carla regaled us with the saga of getting rid of a 20 lb. raccoon that had died behind her closet wall. And you thought you had a bad week.

After estate sale-ing on Saturday I dropped daughter #1 off at her football game watch party (Monon Bell) and I caught up on some housework. The wee babes came over that night for tacos and ran us ragged. I cannot imagine anymore how calm and placid it must be with just one toddler!

They love our old-school toys.

Clearly Lottie understands what a rotary phone is for.

Those antennae are endlessly fascinating.

They can now sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat complete with hand movements, although they do have trouble with the “merrily, merrily, merrily” part. Life is but a dream.

After they left, we managed to watch Murder on the Orient Express (1974) without passing out.

I was glad to see that our church made (sort of) a big deal out of Veterans Day for a change. We had two uniformed veterans and an active Air Corpsman participating in the service. We sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The rector talked about the 100th anniversary of the armistice in his sermon and announced that the three memorial plaques, which had been taken down several years ago during a renovation, had been re-hung last week. I was glad to hear it, since I had just been thinking it was time to nag him about it again.

Two young men from Grace Church died in the Argonne Forest and one died of wounds suffered there a month later in the U.S. Eight men from Grace died in WWII. I was very happy to see the plaques back in a prominent place where they belong. Lest we forget.

After church daughter #1 headed back to mid-MO and the OM and I went to see our friend Eleanor in the matinee (i.e. senior citizen show) of the Kirkwood Theatre Guild production of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, a “delightful satire” which promised to “keep us laughing.” Guess what? Well, I didn’t fall asleep.

I have a Big Week coming up with 2 big events, multiple meetings, and Marilynne Robinson is visiting my flyover university. Yikes. Take a deep breath. Have a good one.

*Battle Hymn of the Republic

5 Comments

September 18, 2018

Under the surface

by chuckofish

“That’s the strangest thing about this life, about being in the ministry. People change the subject when they see you coming. And then sometimes those very same people come into your study and tell you the most remarkable things. There’s a lot under the surface of life, everyone knows that. A lot of malice and dread and guilt, and so much loneliness, where you wouldn’t really expect to find it, either.”

–Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Screen Shot 2018-09-17 at 9.18.57 AM.png

Good luck and vaya con dios, Michael.

“Had he, during the course of his ministry, changed a single life? He recalled the words of a woman overheard when he was leaving his last parish. ‘Father Martin is a priest of whom no one ever speaks ill.’ It seemed to him now the most damning of indictments.”

–P.D. James, Death in Holy Orders

“Let the preacher tell the truth. Let him make audible the silence of the news of the world with the sound turned off so that in the silence we can hear the tragic truth of the Gospel, which is that the world where God is absent is a dark and echoing emptiness; and the comic truth of the Gospel, which is that it is into the depths of his absence that God makes himself present in such unlikely ways and to such unlikely people that old Sarah and Abraham and maybe when the time comes even Pilate and Job and Lear and Henry Ward Beecher and you and I laugh till the tears run down our cheeks. And finally let him preach this overwhelming of tragedy by comedy, of darkness by light, of the ordinary by the extraordinary, as the tale that is too good not to be true because to dismiss it as untrue is to dismiss along with it that catch of the breath, that beat and lifting of the heart near to or even accompanied by tears, which I believe is the deepest intuition of truth that we have.”

― Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale

2 Comments

September 14, 2018

Can I get a witness?

by chuckofish

Another stressful week in the books. Phew. The month of September is zooming by, isn’t it?

This weekend our young friend Michael (the boy’s BFF and godfather to the wee laddie) is being ordained at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC.

Screen Shot 2017-08-25 at 9.31.11 AM.png

(with his godson last year)

We wish we could be there with his family to support him. He’s come a long way from those days in the junior choir…

1_536_medium

…and as a Sports Marketing major (!) at Indiana University. Now he’ll be savin’ souls in Babylon (aka New York state).

Screen Shot 2018-09-13 at 1.06.10 PM.png

May he exalt you, O Lord, in the midst of your people; offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you; boldly proclaim the gospel of salvation; and rightly administer the sacraments of the New Covenant. Make him a faithful pastor, a patient teacher, and a wise councilor. Grant that in all things he may serve without reproach, so that your people may be strengthened and your Name glorified in all the world. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

In other news, I’m sure you heard that Gump’s is going out of business.

Screen Shot 2018-09-13 at 10.15.37 AM.png

A purveyor of luxury home furnishings and home décor, Gump’s was founded in 1861 in San Francisco, CA. There was only one Gump’s. It was a favorite of our mother and a favorite of mine. It makes me very sad to see it close. First Country Curtains, now Gump’s… what’s next? The Vermont Country Store? L.L. Bean?!

Screen Shot 2018-09-13 at 11.59.30 AM.png

Well, time marches on.

This weekend is the Greentree Parade in our flyover town. We hope the wee babes are able to join us as they did last year. We haven’t seen them in two weeks! Besides that I am hoping for a quiet, restorative weekend. How about you?

4 Comments

August 22, 2018

Men and angels sing

by chuckofish

Today is the 170th wedding anniversary of Julia Dent and Ulysses Grant, who were married on a hot evening in her father’s townhouse at Fourth and Cerre streets in St. Louis in 1848. Anticipating the extreme heat, Julia had planned to wear a simple, cool muslin gown for the ceremony, but Mrs. John J. O’Fallon, a family friend, brought her a watered-silk gown with a tulle veil. Another friend, Mrs. Henry Shurlds, provided fresh jessamine blossoms. [No photo available, darn it.]

Screen Shot 2018-08-21 at 10.25.58 AM.png

Since Col. Frederick Dent’s house was relatively small, the guest list was held to the Dents’ oldest and closest St. Louis friends. Julia’s attendants were her sister Nellie, her cousin Julia Boggs, and Sarah Walker. Among Grant’s groomsmen were Lt. Cadmus Wilcox and Bernard Pratte III, both of whom were later to surrender to Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox.

Here are some pictures of the Dent home as it aged through the years…

Screen Shot 2018-08-21 at 9.34.56 AM.png Screen Shot 2018-08-21 at 10.25.11 AM.png and the street as it looks today…

Sigh. Well, the least we can do is toast old Julia and Lyss on their anniversary. They were, by all accounts, a happy couple, deeply committed to each other and their family.

Side note from the Small World Department: one of my DP’s best friends growing up was a descendant of the aforementioned O’Fallons. According to Wikipedia, John J. O’Fallon (1791 – December 17, 1865) was a businessman, philanthropist, and military officer. During the 19th century he rose to become the wealthiest person in St. Louis. He is the namesake of O’Fallon, Illinois (incorporated in 1874) as well as O’Fallon, Missouri, and the nephew of William Clark (of Lewis and Clark). O’Fallon and Frederick Dent were both founders of the Episcopal Church in St. Louis. Nice to know that there are still O’Fallons in town.

Speaking of childhood friends, yesterday I went to the funeral of the mother of one of mine. She was 98, so it was sparsely attended, but there was a dedicated phalanx of very old, very thin, very erect, well-coiffed women in St. John suits. I felt underdressed and under-coiffed in my work attire, but c’est la vie. The service, held at the church I attended as a child, was the Episcopal short-version, Beverly having stipulated that her service run no longer than 25 minutes. Indeed, Beverly was still Beverly up until the end: the minister said that in the emergency room the night before she died, Beverly had taken umbrage with the nurses for messing up her hair. I had to chuckle picturing that. By the way, this is the lady who was the originator of the “Smell the pine in your nostrils” trope, so beloved in my family.

Well, I tried my best to speak the prayers loudly and sing audibly, since hardly anyone else was able to, but the singing was a challenge. By the fifth verse of Onward Christian Soldiers, I was very ready to throw in the towel. I was glad I went, however, as it was a pleasure to sit in this light-filled sanctuary and remember back to my youth when I giggled my way through Sunday School with this particular friend.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Beverly. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints of light.

I heard this old song on the radio going to work the other day and thought I’d share it.

(BTW, that is not DN playing the drums, although I did do a double-take when I was watching this video.)

(Information regarding Julia Dent’s wedding from Frances Hurd Stadler, St. Louis Day By Day)

3 Comments

August 13, 2018

Postcards from Colorado

by chuckofish

The OM and I had a wonderful time in Colorado at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel. Granted there was a huge hail storm while we were there. You might have read about it or watched a video about it.

Screen Shot 2018-08-07 at 6.51.44 AM.png Pretty intense.

The view out our window before…

the view out our window after (note geraniums)…

Millions of dollars worth of roof damage

Flash flooding

It was the talk of the week, that’s for sure. We had fun nonetheless and visited the Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls and the art museum at Colorado College. We got lost going to the Airforce Academy and had to go back to the hotel and drink rosé on the patio, but c’est la vie.

Back in church on Sunday I read the first lesson from First Kings, but the second lesson was a better one from Ephesians, which we should all take to heart every day:

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 5 ¹Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (4:25-5:2)

The rector gave a good sermon on the gospel lesson (John 6:35, 41-51). Helen Feesh was back as the substitute organist, although she played the piano for some reason and the Voluntary was Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1!

Screen Shot 2018-08-12 at 11.37.34 AM.png

She brought her son with her, who was visiting. A professional baritone, he sang two great solos, which I enjoyed, especially Watchful’s Song from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress.

When I was leaving the rector made a joke about being glad to see me back before Labor Day, but he wasn’t being snarky. He understands why I don’t go in the summer and doesn’t hold it against me. So, all in all, it was a very pleasant experience, although I got a little misty-eyed when the congregation bid adieu to Brenda, our wonderful soloist/cantor, who is moving to Colorado with her family. Sunrise, sunset.

I’ll have a few more postcards tomorrow. Until then,

Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

3 Comments

July 24, 2018

A wretch like me

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of the great John Newton (1725–1807), the English Anglican clergyman who once served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and later as the captain of slave ships.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.05.40 AM.png

Eventually he was “saved” and he became ordained as an evangelical Anglican cleric, serving Olney, Buckinghamshire for two decades. He opposed the slave trade, allying with William Wilberforce, leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish it. He lived to see the British passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.43.37 AM.png

He is perhaps most famous for writing hymns, including the ever-popular Amazing Grace and Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. Let’s all take a moment.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.02.55 AM.png

I must note that Newton is not honored with a feast or fast on the Episcopal Church calendar. All I can say is, quelle typical.

3 Comments

July 20, 2018

Back in the saddle again (and a little Friday vent)

by chuckofish

Today on the Episcopal calendar of saints, four American women who were pioneers in the struggle for black emancipation and for women’s rights are honored: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. The date chosen for commemorating them is the anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, July 19-20, 1848. These new additions are a result of the church’s work on the Lesser Feasts and Fasts revision, which includes an effort to increase the diversity of people held up as models. All very well and good.

My question is why choose Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who attempted to re-write the Bible as her own ‘Women’s Bible’–blasphemy to many–and Ms. Bloomer, who designed the pants that were named after her. Great.

Where is Susan B. Anthony? A Quaker by birth, she became over time more of a Unitarian, but she was no blasphemer. I would much rather recognize her today as a true saint than either Stanton or Bloomer. I would love to know what the thinking was behind these choices, but, then again, maybe I don’t want to know. My denomination disappoints me on a daily basis.

O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth and makes us free: Strengthen and sustain us as you did your servants Elizabeth, Amelia, Sojourner, and Harriet. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Anyway… it is Friday at last. I have a fun outing planned for Saturday with my BFFs. We’re driving to Mt. Vernon, IL to check out the antique malls there, which we noted as we drove south to Nashville, TN in June. We’re always on the lookout for new junk!

Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 8.47.58 AM.png

I mean, wow, downtown Mt. Vernon sounds like an exciting place (a kitchen store!):

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 11.08.45 AM.png

(From the “Illinois: Are You Up For Amazing?” website)

Well, we’ll find out for ourselves on Saturday. I know Lottie can’t wait until she is old enough to go antiquing!

I wanna go too!

Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

Also a toast and a happy anniversary to my DP and her DH! Twenty-nine years! We won’t watch Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf (1966) in your honor…

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 11.44.55 AM.png

…but maybe The Thin Man (1934) or one of its sequels…

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 11.59.32 AM.png

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 12.11.17 PM.png

Have a good weekend!

3 Comments

July 10, 2018

A penny for your thoughts

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-07-09 at 5.13.47 PM.png

This is what I wish I was doing but I’m not.

Yesterday was a jam-packed day at work and I was dead tired after and I had no inclination to work on a post.

So here’s a photo of Kate Middleton and Prince Louis.

Screen Shot 2018-07-09 at 5.22.35 PM.png

Let us now pray for him who is to receive the
Sacrament of new birth.

We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.

What d’ya think of that?

Have a good day!

2 Comments

June 11, 2018

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.”*

by chuckofish

I was feted this weekend (belatedly for my birthday back in April) with a trip to and a tour of Bellefontaine Cemetery on the northern edge of our fair city. As you know, I do like a historically-significant cemetery. Bellefontaine (pronounced “Belle-fountain” by the locals), established in 1849, when the Rural Cemetery Association purchased the former Hempstead family farm located five miles northwest of the city, is such a cemetery.

: A mini Gothic cathedral fit for a beer baron

A storm was brewing in the southwest and came crashing in as we finished the tour. We got a little wet running to our car, but that was preferable to spending one more minute with the tedious docent who had triggered me almost immediately with her irreverent, “amusing” stories of the famous/infamous residents of the cemetery. I hate the attitude that reduces everything in history to an anecdote for simple minds. Sorry for the rant. I love Bellefontaine cemetery, but clearly a self-guided tour is the way I should go in the future!

After our tour the plan was to go to the Crown Candy Kitchen for lunch.

Screen Shot 2018-06-10 at 9.19.58 AM.png I have never been to this local landmark, which like the cemetery is in a most disreputable and run-down part of town, and I was really looking forward to it. When we got there, however, there was a line of people waiting outside (under the awning) in the rain! We decided to pass and moved on to our favorite Cafe Osage in the CWE. The drive there was like something out of Escape from New York (1981)…

Screen Shot 2018-06-10 at 9.34.42 AM.png …but we got there and had a lovely lunch.

All in all, it was a terrific outing with my creative (and flexible) BFFs…there were even presents!

On Sunday the OM and I went out to breakfast with the wee babes and their parents, because they are headed to Florida today and didn’t want to come over for their usual Sunday night visit.

Joe Cool says 8:00 am is way early in the morning for socializing, dude

The rest of the weekend was spent puttering in the house and gabbing on the phone with my daughters. I also planted some more geraniums in pots and puttered around in my yard.

Unfortunately, it was too hot to linger on the patio and the Florida room is only habitable in the early morning or evening hours.

Don’t forget that today is the feast day of Barnabas on the Episcopal calendar of saints. I always liked old Barnabas.

Those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”

At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

(Acts 11:19-30;13:1-3)

Barnabas is a great role model for us all, although he did get fed up with Paul and bail on him. That happens; we are only human.

*Ben Quick in The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

4 Comments

May 17, 2018

Hi-diddly-ho

by chuckofish

Today in the Episcopal Church we honor William Hobart Hare (May 17, 1838 – October 23, 1909) who was an American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, back when that’s what it was called.

Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 11.05.44 AM.png

One of the leading missionaries in America, Hare earned the title “the Apostle of the West” for his dedicated work in the rural Dakotas among pioneers and Native Americans. He was also known as the “Apostle to the Sioux.”

Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 11.36.09 AM.png

Bishop William Hobart Hare and traveling equipment(

The house of bishops elected him bishop in 1872 and his territory originally included everything north of the Niobrara River in Nebraska and west of the Missouri River as far as the Rocky Mountains. It was not an easy assignment.

He wrote from Cheyenne Reserve to his sister: “I have been on a trip now for ten days or more, a fairly comfortable one, though a heavy storm of wind and rain blew my tent down over my head last Tuesday night and gave me hours of work and much wretchedness, and my horse balked in the middle of the Cheyenne River on Friday last as I was fording it, broke the single-tree loose and left me in the middle of the rapidly running stream with the water running into my wagon-box. But such ills are the concomitants of travel out here, and I am used to them.” (You can read more about his experiences here.)

The wilderness assigned to the young bishop seemed an almost unmanageable field, but he betook himself to tent life and traveled over the wild country and, having thus made himself familiar with it, he gradually divided it into ten departments and placed a clergyman of ability and fidelity in charge of each of these departments and the missionary work soon fell into shape and was carried on with comparative ease.

The development of South Dakota and its final admission to statehood led to a slight change in the territory assigned to his jurisdiction, and in 1883 his title was changed to missionary bishop of South Dakota, and he chose Sioux Falls as the see city of his missionary diocese. He has labored with all of zeal and earnestness and has infused vitality into all departments of church work in his diocese, while he has been aided and encouraged by the hearty and faithful co-operation of his clergy and his people. It has been his to watch the progress of the church in South Dakota from its inception, ever keeping pace with the onward march of the years as they have fallen into the abyss of time. He has guided the destinies of his church with a hand made strong by power from on high, and with the power which came to steady the hand has also come the divine light to illume the way… He has witnessed the rise of the state, where he has served as bishop for thirty-two years, is loyal to it and its people and has the sincere respect and affectionate regard of all with whom he has come in contact as a church man and as a citizen. (Doane Robinson 1904)

The Calvary Church was the first church built in Sioux Falls.

Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 11.43.56 AM.png As Hare’s congregation grew, he saw the need for a building, “as solid and unmoving as his faith, to stand as the cornerstone for his congregation in the area’s biggest city.” Hobart enlisted the aid of John Jacob Astor III to help raise money for a cathedral. Astor’s contributions were in memory of his late wife, Charlotte Augusta Astor — a patron of Hare’s missions and of All Saint’s School, another Hare creation. Astor’s contributions came to $20,000. The cornerstone was laid Dec. 5, 1888, and Hare’s cathedral was finished a year later. The building itself was constructed of Sioux quartzite.

Bishop Hare, although he died in New Jersey, was buried in Sioux City next to the church under the large cross (below).

Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 11.47.11 AM.png

Holy God, you called your servant William Hobart Hare to proclaim the means of grace and the hope of glory to the peoples of the Great Plains: We give you thanks for the devotion of those who received the Good News gladly, and for the faithfulness of the generations who have succeeded them. Strengthen us with your Holy Spirit, that we may walk in their footsteps and lead many to faith in Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Oh and by the way, today is also Bob Saget’s birthday.

ned 1.jpeg