The "Fond du lac Circus"

At the consecration of R.H. Weller,

Bishop Coadjutor of Fond du Lac, 1900

I was in need of some light Anglo-Catholic humour. Interestingly enough, St. Tikhon of Russian later adapted the 1928 Book of Common Prayer to "Orthodox standards" and ushered in the Western Rite for the Orthodox Church.

From the Diocese of Fond du lac's Website:

"In 1900, Bishop Grafton found himself at the center of controversy when he presided at the consecration of R.H. Weller as Bishop Coadjutor of Fond du Lac. A number of bishops from neighboring dioceses took part in the service. Also in attendance, at Grafton’s invitation, was Tikhon, the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. After the service, the bishops went outside to pose for a picture. For the first time ever, bishops of the Episcopal Church were photographed wearing copes and mitres. The picture, which became known as "the Fond du Lac Circus," and was widely published in church publications and became a heated controversy.

"There were a number of controversies associated with this photo. First, the Episcopal Church had always had high, low, and broad factions that emphasized different aspects of the faith. The low church faction typically identified itself as Protestant. Contrast this with the high church faction which has identified itself with other "catholic" churches, such as the Roman, Old Catholic and Orthodox Churches. This photo was the first public photo, showing Episcopal bishops dressed in catholic vestments (as opposed to the more Protestant rochet, chimere, and tippet) and was an outrage to low church members of the Episcopal Church.

"Bishop Grafton had invited St. Tikhon and his Orthodox entourage and Bishop Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church to come to the service, not merely to observe, but to participate. Ultimately, they did not, but they did vest and sit with the other bishops present. Even this was scandalous to the low church members of the Episcopal Church who held that Episcopalians had more in common with the other Protestant denominations than with the Old Catholics or "Greek Catholics" (i.e., Orthodox)."

Font of Blessing

"O font, font, font..."

++Michael Ramsey upon seeing his baptismal font.

Here at Saint Peter's Episcopal Church, located in the west end of Huntington, West Virginia, I was buried with Christ in the Spring of 1980. It was here at this old wooden font, complete with eight sides, that I rose up out of the waters of baptism to become a member of the Body of Christ.

St. Peter's is a very special church for me and my family. My brother and I were baptized there, my mother was baptized there, my parents and grandparents were married there, my grandmother was buried there, and I was married there. St. Peter's holds much of my family history--it's sort of like an ancestral church for us. It was there that I learned what church was and to appreciate the mystery and beauty of the sacraments. Since becoming a seminarian, I have preached there a number of times and have even read the Gospel at the Christmas eve Mass. Desmond Tutu allegedly preached from the pulpit here during an American tour many, many years ago.

I am a product of this parish. My whole life has been formed by the people there--past and present. As I move forward in the process towards priestly ordination, I cannot help but reflect on the foundation that was created there at St. Peter's.

St. Peter's has the first free-standing altar in the Diocese of West Virginia. I cannot tell you how many years of my life were fed from that altar. My heart will always be there.

Below is the Children's Chapel located in the Nursery. It was here that I learned to say the Lord's Prayer. I remember sitting in these miniature pews. I can still smell the wax candles burning. . .

Subversive Bread

10th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
Onancock, Virginia

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

John 6: 37-51

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.”

We Southerners are very particular people. We’re particular about our traditions, we’re particular about our Ice Tea, and we’re especially particular about our food. You know exactly what I’m talking about. There’s only the proper way to make potato salad, devil an egg, or even fried chicken. Food here in the South is more than just sustaining life, it’s a way of life. It’s a way that we show hospitality and share with one another the fruits of our labor. Now living in England for seven weeks showed me a different side of food. The English are not exactly known for their cuisine, you can only live for so long on fish and chips! Before long, Mary and I were reminiscing about food. Ah, comfort food, the stuff that reminds you of home, of something familiar, of family. Hers was chicken and dumplings and mine was pecan pie and fresh tomatoes! Everywhere we went, we would somehow say to one another, “don’t you miss having such-and-such…” We were in West Yorkshire talking about Southern food. We didn’t go over there for the cuisine, but somehow that follows you. Inevitably, it seems, that you miss the comfort of things you can have easily only once they have disappeared.

Bread is the food that is woven throughout our readings this morning. In the Old Testament lesson we learn from Moses why Israel spent forty years wandering in thedesert. Forty years! Moses tells them that this was in order to humble them, and that in all that time the LORD was there leading them---never allowing the clothes on their backs to wear out or even their tired feet to swell up. They were given manna to eat, a strange new food, in order to teach Israel that they could not live on solely, “in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Israel lacked the comfort of a home and the comfort of familiar food. And only by God’s grace did Israel survive the long ordeal. Their reward, however, was great. The land God was setting aside for was filled with olive trees, honey, figs, wheat, barley. The land was so rich that the flowing streams of waters were fed by deep wells—wellsprings that will not dry up. This place, this land is where Israel will lack nothing, where they can eat bread without scarcity. This is the gift and promise of God, so long as the commandments are kept.

Bread takes on an even deeper philosophical meaning in John’s Gospel reading. Jesus boldly proclaims, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven. Surely this is not the comfortable food that the disciples,much less even today, we can stomach reasonably. What an astonishing statement. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Consider this familiar statement heard every Sunday: “take eat, this is my body which is given up for you.” I wish the disciples’ reaction to this statement was recorded, probably more eyebrows were raised in the Upper Room than we can imagine. And yet we listen to all this as though we have heard many times before. Nothing seems odd to us about claiming one’s body as food. Yes, intellectually, we know that Jesus is clearly talking about something beyond the daily need of food; perhaps he’s clever at metaphor. But, if we cannot live by bread alone and at the same time we’re to eat the living bread from heaven, then what are we supposed to be eating?

It’s no coincidence that the language of food is used to help us understand in the most basic of ways our need for sustaining life. Feeding the stomach is important; feeding the soul is critical. Bread is one of the most staple items in just about every diet. Christ as the living bread from heaven is the gift from God to the world—just as the promised land was a foretaste of heaven on earth for Israel. All this, however, presupposes our complete and total dependency on God, or as the psalmist writes, “taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are they who trust in him.” You cannot simply feed your stomach and ignore your soul. You’ll surely die. And yet this heavenly bread is not comfort food—it’s not intended to satisfy our sense of building a comfort zone. It is to feed our souls and to spur us to action for the Kingdom. I am afraid that we hear those words so many times, “take eat,” or “give us today our daily bread,” that we use them as a sense of comfort rather than a call to action for Kingdom. The reality is that the Christian life is not a life of comfort. Even here, in this house of worship, there is no safe side of the altar or even a safe pew to hide from the call of Christ to work for the Kingdom. To eat this living bread, to partake in the life of Christ is dangerous work. And yet the rewards, the joy, the freedom of love which this life offers is truly awesome.

The words of Jesus are radical indeed. This bread is subversive to the established powers and principalities of this world. It subverts all the things in this world that are fleeting and flawed, things like power and greed. This bread is celebrated more times than we recite the pledge of allegiance, more times than we pay our taxes, and more times than we vote. The power of Christ is threatening to the powers because they live on bread alone. When we gather to break this bread and celebrate Jesus as the living bread taken, blessed, broken, and given to us and to the world, we are putting our trust in his Kingship and sharing in the powerful nourishment needed for body, mind, and soul. It’s easy to think that we eat Christ in the sacrament, but really it is Christ who consumes us. Hear again the words from this morning’s Collect, “Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will.”

Our joy and our comfort comes from knowing that Christ has made a complete and total claim on our lives, and that we cannot exist otherwise. Our hope is that by sharing in the bread of life, we can be partakers of the Kingdom and serve as Christ’s hands in the world today. We live dangerously as Christians, but we live protected by God’s love and grace which is sustained every time we gather as the Body of Christ. Our comfort comes from trusting God, trusting in God’s ability to nourish us with exactly what we need, never going hungry. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.” Amen.

Transfiguring Motion

Climb! Climb! Climb!

The Feast of the Transfiguration is a feast of motion and movement. Our Lord takes his chosen disciples up on the mountain to reveal His glory; and the response is quite simply this, get down the mountain and walk on the via crucis to Jerusalem. Up and down, the motion that transfigures us to be disciples and to become bread to others for the Kingdom.

Up to ascend to the heavens is our response of love to God, upwards towards God who calls us into a life of divine consumption. Flowing down from heaven is God descending into our lives, into our souls, stirring us to become what we were created to be.

Once we have climbed the heights and been blinded by the radiance of brilliant grace, we are forever changed--we are transfigured into love. All we can do, then, is feel our way down to the bottom where we must live. We cannot stay on the mountaintop forever! The motion of transfiguration is ongoing and a permanent reality in our lives. Ours is the decision to climb and to follow the call of Our Lord to the summit where we can be consumed into His heart. And so the descent is an obvious one, stay and die or get down and live and work for the Kingdom of Christ.

From the Office of Matins, Monastic Breviary.

An Ancient Hymn of Transfiguration:

Quincumque Christum

All ye who yearn the Christ to see,

Uplift your eyes exultingly,

Eternal glory's symbol there

To your astonished glaze lies bare.

Exceeding bright the mystery

To us revealed, that knows no end,

Celestial, everlasting, high,

And older far than heaven or hell.

We there the Gentiles' King behold,

And King of his own Israel;

To Abraham once promised,

And all his seed, whilst ages run.

To him, fortold by prophets old,

Again by prophets witnessed here,

The Father's greater witness bids

Us listen and with faith adore.

To thee, O Lord, be glory given,

Revealing thus thyself to-day,

With Father and with Spirit one,

For ever and for evermore. Amen.