St. Ed Said

Here is a saint I was a bit unfamiliar with. His day is today, October 29th. This comes directly from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2022. Not so sure its the best use of sainthood in our calendar. The infomration seems a little suspect.  INFORMATION: James Hannington was born in Sussex on September 3, 1847, and was educated at Temple School in Brighton. For six years, he assisted his father in the warehouse business. The family became members of the Church of England in 1867, and the following year, Hannington entered St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he obtained his B.A. and M.A. degrees.  Following his ordination at Exeter, Hannington served as a curate in his native town until, in 1882, he offered himself to the Church Missionary Society for its mission in Victoria, Nyanza, Africa. Serious illness soon required his return to England, but he went out again to Africa in 1884, as Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa.  Hannington’s mission field was on the shores of Lake Victoria. He...

HAPPENINGS LEAD ARTICLE FOR 10/21/2025 My brother recommended a book called Nonviolent Communication. I haven’t read it yet, I still need to get it from his home in Duluth. But this past week I have heard the word nonviolent in many different ways and I am realizing I need to listen more intently. The book, Nonviolent Communication, written by Marshall Rosenberg, seeks to teach us how to foster empathy, understanding and cooperation. How do we express ourselves honestly and listen with compassion therefore reducing conflict and raising up personal connection in our networks of relationships. The book works to create a mindset of compassion in its readers, a mindset that shifts how we speak, how we think and how we act. I am often torn when I see all that is going on around us. It seems the only reaction we can truly have is a similar judgemental, violent reaction to the actions that demean and belittle our neighbors. During the protests on Saturday I watched people walking down streets...

I had the opportunity to meet with two very different people who are fairly new to the St. Edward's Community. One person is very much on the edges and is considering coming to Church more often, while the other is about ready to jump feet first into the place. In both meetings I found myself talking with gradual acceleration about the vision we have worked on here at St. Ed's and the possible ministry opportunities that face us. I realized, as I sit in my office reflecting, I haven't expressed the same kind of enthusiasm and energy to most of you as I have to these new faces, eyes and ears. I haven't gotten red in the face from not breathing because I don't want to take a breath and stop my stream of consciousness.  So, get ready, because it is past time I start channelling the Holy Spirit and here is the thing.  What I have come to understand is that St. Edward's is a thin place. The barrier between the Kingdom breaking into the world and our world itself is e...

I am not preaching at all in October. I say that not to gloat, but to let people know, all one half of the people who see this blog, that I haven't disappeared, I just haven't had the content floating in my head I usually have. My next sermon will be the first Sunday in November when we celebrate All Saints, not the actual day, but rather the Sunday after All Saints. The Gospel for the day is the Beatitudes from the Gospel of Luke. Luke is particularly different from Matthew in that he simply says: Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the hungry. Blessed are the so and so. And Luke complicates slightly by also adding "now". Matthew seems to add the caveat, "poor in spirit". Today, that is not where I am going to go, but know that as is the case every All Saints Day, this difference is alive in my thoughts and prayers as I reflect on the Scripture. I was reading an old article about All Saints Day written by a fellow clergy type talking about All Saints Day and ...

When someone says the word mission, what do you think about? What is the first thing that comes to mind when you say the word, mission? I asked this question in a sermon in 2001, and the overwhelming response was, the Mormons who go around door to door selling Jesus. The young men in white shirts and blue or black pants and a tie, knocking on your door. That was an overwhelming understanding of the word mission about 24 years ago. Some other responses I heard to that question were the arrival of the pilgrims and the immediate exploitation and subversion of the indigenous population residing here. The Poisonwood Bible was released right around that time and had become popular, it depicted a certain style of mission work as well. The other image I often recall is the movie Mission with Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. Erin received a letter from a woman who lives around the corner. We never met her, so we spent a few minutes trying to figure out where the address was, just a few blocks aw...

This past Saturday I found myself walking around the Church property and explaining to a rapt crowd the plans for the pet memorial garden and the rainbow bridge. Most people were amazed and very excited about the opportunity. I talked about the walking path I envision for the church around the outside of the property, with the couple of meditation spots as well. Most of the folks gathered this past weekend had never been to St. Edward’s, and were impressed with the property and the solitude it has the potential to provide. It was a moment where I was reminded that we have something special, and even though I haven’t carried out the “One Thing” plan to perfection, it is still a ministry that catches the attention of people who hear about it. It catches the imagination of folks and the uniqueness of the ministry to pets and their owners energizes the imagination. So I thought I would revisit with you all, where we are at, and what it looks like will happen by October 5, when we will cele...

FROM YOUR RECTOR I was reminded while writing the sermon about Enmegahbowh and doing the research about his life, how the government has been in the business of breaking promises since the beginning of this country’s creation. On paper we have processes and promises that give the citizenry great power, but in the end, if the people decide to remain silent, those rights slowly dissipate and go away. Could the government, after it decided the Indigenous population were all savages, be convinced they were wrong? Could the men who signed into law ideas such as the Indian Removal Act forcing the Native Americans further west been shown a different way to govern? What does it take to see a clearly human shaped and formed person as a savage who is not at all human? Our country offers great freedoms and amazing rights, but we have also found ways to oppress and keep silent vast segments of our society. Women, Black people, Indigenous peoples of all sorts, Irish, Hispanic and so many other peop...