Hey, y’all! As the clerk of the Vestry, I have the distinct responsibility of recording the minutes of the meetings of our Vestry. When I type up my own version of handwritten shorthand, I live again the thoughtful conversation amongst our Vestry folk. I enjoy the duty very much so! However, this is not solely just me talking about this key role of my serving Resurrection.
I wanted to share with y’all that I had quite the wonderful weekend at a place which is a treasured place in the heart of so many Southern Episcopalians. On Sunday, 26 January 2025, I had the privilege of hearing our Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Sean Rowe, give a wonderful homily at the 11:00 Mass in All Saints Chapel at The University of the South! I have a dear friend of mine from the Diocese of West Virginia in seminary there at the School of Theology with whom I enjoyed a lovely visit, and I was unaware until just a few days prior that we would be joined by quite the celebrity.
Donning my Sewanee purple tie against a white pressed dress shirt, I was simply in awe of the former bishop of the Episcopal Dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York and was mere feet from him three times that day: the first during communion (he was serving the side opposite of me in the nave), the second during coffee hour (all you diet soda drinkers in our parish will be happy to know that Bishop Rowe enjoys a Diet Coke), and third in the McClurg Dining Hall (whilst he was perusing the salad bar, I was too star-struck to even fathom taking any time away from his presumably tight schedule to thank him for his being there and for the words of encouragement he had spoken not even a half-hour prior)!
The weekend served as a sort of renewal of my faith and commitment to the values to which we cling. Though I am not a prophet by any stretch of the imagination, I say this, dear parishioners: the future of our church (our parish, our diocese, and the entirety of our sect of the Anglican Communion) is what we will make of it. I, for one, choose to fight for the camaraderie, the space granted us for political and theological questioning, and the respect of differences that we Episcopalians have. I maintain that I can ask five Episcopalians five random questions concerning church minutiae and receive seven different answers, and I would not have it any other way. Whether you view our times as a fight for reform or for protecting what has been (in whichever form that may take), I would like to humbly suggest that we all remember the words of a beautiful hymn:
“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love,
By our love,
Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love…”
Here is the livestream from All Saints in case you would like to see the magnificent time we had down on The Domain (Sewanee Media Services)! I hope that we all have had a pleasant week, and my prayer is this: that we may all grow in the comfort of the deep love which Christ has for the entirety of the mosaic of humanity.
Yours always,
~Dawson Hope