St. Ed Said

  Damien Priest, 1889 and Marianne Cope Monastic, 1918 of Hawai‘i Lessons and Psalm Isaiah 57:14-19 Psalm 32:7-12 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 Matthew 11:1-6 The Collect Bind up the wounds of your children, O God, and help us to be bold and loving in service to all who are shunned for the diseases they suffer, following the example of your servants Damien and Marianne, that your grace may be poured forth upon all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Their Story Fr. Damien was born Joseph de Veuster in 1840 in Belgium, the son of a farmer. At the age of 18, he joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He made his first vows in 1859 and took the name Damien, after the ancient physician and martyr. When his older brother became ill and was unable to join the mission endeavor in Hawai‘i, Damien volunteered to take his place. As Father Damien began his ministry in Hawai‘i, leprosy was spreading...

Lead Article for Happenings April 14, 2026 The Rev. Chip Whitacre, Deacon Several years ago, while traveling in Japan, I read an article in one of the local English language newspapers about a word some Japanese say before a meal, itadakimasu. It’s a sort of blessing that is not overtly religious, but certainly has spiritual implications. The article explained that it literally meant, I am going to eat, but that the meaning was so much fuller than that. The author went on the explain that it was really acknowledging that a person was going to eat because someone purchased the seed and planted it and nurtured it and harvested what grew from it. And someone else had delivered the harvested product to the market. And someone had purchased it and took it to be washed and prepared into the meal that was about to be eaten. It was, in short, acknowledging the many hands that made the meal possible; the many connections between people that we all depend on for a thing so simple as a meal. I a...

The Rev. Aron Kramer 2 Easter April 12, 2026 I used to do a fair amount of premarital counseling, and there is always a moment early in those conversations I quietly looked forward to. We would get to talking about love, what it is, what it will ask of them, and I would tell couples something that almost never landed the way I intend it. I tell them that love is not a destination you arrive at and then simply maintain. It is not something you frame and hang on the wall. Love is alive. It grows and fades, brightens and dims, breaks open places in us we never asked to have broken open. It will cause them, at some point, to question each other in ways they cannot yet imagine. That's usually when I would get the looks. Because early on, of course, nothing could possibly cause them to question their love for this person they are about to marry. And I smile, one of the few moments I allowed myself a quiet I know something you don't yet kind of feeling. Because it's true, isn'...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lessons and Psalm Judges 7:1-8a Psalm 119:81-88 Romans 6:3-11 Matthew 13:47-52 The Collect Embolden our lives, O Lord, and inspire our faiths, that we, following the example of your servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer, might embrace your call with undivided hearts; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. From Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2024 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), on February 4, 1906. He studied theology at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen, and his doctoral thesis was published in 1930 as Communio Sanctorum.  Still canonically too young to be ordained at the age of 24, he undertook postdoctoral study and teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. From the first days of the Nazi accession to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer was involved in protests against the regime. From 1933 to 1935 he was the pastor of two small congregations in Lon...

The Rev. Aron Kramer Easter Sunday April 5, 2026 The Angel said to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, “He is not here. He has been raised.” And then, almost as an afterthought, almost too simple after everything that has just happened, an earthquake, angels, tomb stones being rolled away, the angel gives the women their instructions: Go quickly, and tell his disciples. He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him. This year Holy Week has been filled with epiphanies, like the seismic language found only three times in Matthew. Like when Chip mentioned something spectacularly new and fresh to my ears and mind in his sermon on Maundy Thursday, Jesus must have washed Judas’ feet knowing that Judas was the one who would betray him. The other epiphany, almost as if I have never read the Gospel of Matthew before, is this idea of heading home to Galilee. Not Jerusalem. Not the Temple. Not any seat of power, not even towards the center of history, the place where the week's e...

Most years, I come to Good Friday having spent hours with different texts, having planned out services with Tami and Chip. We sit with our options, with the days of the Triduum, we turn it over and over, and look for a theme to push. This year has been different. The projects have piled up. My health has asked things of me I wasn't expecting, we’ve spent more time in the Urgency or Emergency Room than last year combined, I think. And if I'm honest, some of the things I was most looking forward to this Lenten season, our Labyrinth Stations of the Cross, Fish Fries at the Legion, didn't land the way I had hoped. I have been busy in a way that has left me less able to think, imagine and plan, less able to sit with things, less able to find the quiet I rely on. I tell you this not because my schedule is interesting, or for you to feel sorry for me, but because I suspect I am not alone in that experience. These last three months have been exhausting in ways that are hard to full...