St. Ed Said

RICHARD HOOKER, ANGLICAN PRIEST & THEOLOGIAN In any list of Anglican theologians, Richard Hooker’s name would stand high, if not first.  He was born in 1553 near Exeter, and was admitted in 1567 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow ten years later. After ordination and marriage in 1581, he held a living in Buckinghamshire. In 1586, he became Master of the Temple in London. Later, he served country parishes in Boscombe, Salisbury, and Bishopsbourne near Canterbury. A controversy with a noted Puritan led Hooker to prepare a comprehensive defense of the Reformation settlement under Queen Elizabeth I. This work, his masterpiece, was entitled The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Its philosophical base is Aristotelian, with a strong emphasis upon the natural law eternally plante by God in creation.  On this foundation, all positive laws of church and state are grounded—upon Scriptural revelation, tradition, and reason. Book Five of the Laws is a massive d...

The Rev. Aron Kramer  All Saints Sunday  November 2, 2025 Daniel 7:1-3,15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31 The Kingdom of God has always been found in the cracks. The broken places where tears and weeping, fear and despair are more poignant than the joy of being found. In the scriptures the stories are simple, widows sharing their last bit of financial security, Mary pouring the last of the oil on Jesus, disciples gathering loaves and fish, a woman challenging Jesus for crossing cultural boundaries. We find the Kingdom of God at St. Edward’s in a Garden restored and a bridge built. Medians filled with rocks, dirt, mulch and the hope of new plant life. Laughter and conversation after church. We find it in the songs that give us memories of time with our loved ones, those who are still here and those who have died. We hear it in the stories shared at Bible study about how the mysticism of the Gospel has impacted us. The Kingdom's inbreaking can be found in our hist...

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...