The "Say A Prayer For All Those In Need!" Story

It was a ordinary day.  Just received my online mailing from my church, St. James Episcopal, in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The mailing that arrived covers just about everything going on at St. James from the time of services offered to information about speakers who will give presentations during the month on important church issues.  

The newsletter is titled "Headlines and Happenings" and always includes an article from our rector, Fr. David Peck.  The latest issue's "A Letter From Fr. David", dated March 13, 2020, is somewhat different than most letters he sends to the parishioners of the church.  He began the letter with "Dear People of God, Again I begin my letter to you with the words of Jesus: "I am the vine, you are the branches." (John 15:5) Please memorize this verse and make it a common prayer with me.   He then added that his letter handed to the congregation last weekend needs to be amended, since the Bishop has issued a directive to close churches beginning this weekend.  So he writes: I HAVE MADE THE DECISION THAT, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, WE WILL WORSHIP TOGETHER ONLINE ONLY because of the size of congregations at Saint James.  PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND SERVICES AT CHRUCH UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.  

Fr. David Peck, St. James Minister

He then continued saying: As far as technology and staffing allow, Saint James will put as much of its ministry online through Livestream as possible.  Beginning this weekend Saint James will provide a choice of two beautiful livestreamed liturgies, a contemporary one Saturday night at 5 PM and a traditional liturgy Sunday at 10:30 AM.  We will also Livestream some midweek programs such as our Tuesday night teaching series, the urban Well's Mercy Seminar and the March 23d 275th Anniversary Lecture, among others.  In addition, we well support CYF ministries by ensuring that families, children and youth have access to formational material.  He also talked about the Coronavirus and said: Most generations in human history have had to deal with times of epidemic.  That we also have an easy means of accessing times of worship, meditation and study that bind us together in a great blessing.  He pointed out that Lent is exactly the season we need in which to meditate on where our treasure is; what we value most; and to free ourselves from anxiety by remembering the reality of Ash Wednesday that we are dust and dust shall return.  From here, we look with joy all the more to an Easter that will more surely come and for which we must more surely long.  He ends with, Thanks be to God!  Yours in faith, hope and love.  It seems that worldwide Coronavirus has affected all of us in our lives, with schools closing, sports being canceled and now church services being called off.  But, We Will Overcome!  So be it!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Vida Dutton Scudder: Woman, Author & Saint" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the weekly email that I get from my church, St. James Episcopal, in Lancaster, PA.   A portion of the email is to present a weekly "Saint in the Spotlight" that will be celebrated at Wednesday's Evening Prayer.  Many of the saints I have never heard of before while others bring back memories of past Bible readings or sermons given in the church.  Today's saint is a woman by the name of Vida Dutton Scudder who was born in India on December 15, 1861.  Her parents were Congregationalist missionaries David and Harriet Scudder.  A year after her birth her father accidentally drowned so she and her mother returned to Boston where her mother's home was located.  Sometime in the 1870s she and her mother were confirmed as Episcopalians.  

Photograph of Vida Dutton Scudder

Vida entered Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts where she studied English Literature.  She was one of the first American women admitted to the graduate program at Oxford University and she eventually taught English Literature at Wellesley College in Massachusetts; becoming an associate professor in 1892 and a full professor in 1910.  She became involved in social activism and was one of the founders of the College Settlements Association and a member of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross which was a group of Episcopal women dedicated to intercessory prayer and social reconciliation.  While teaching she helped establish the Church of the Carpenter in Boston.  This church sought to promote the cause of economic justice in the labor movement.  In 1911 she co-founded the Episcopal Church League and joined the Socialist Party.  The following year she supported striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  The following was part of a well-known speech she gave that year:  I would rather never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known past the shadow of a doubt to have existed in this town....If the wages are of necessity below the standard to maintain man and women in decency and in health, then the woolen industry has not a present right to exist in Massachusetts.  Vida Dutton Scudder was a supporter of World War I and eventually joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1923 and became a pacifist in the 1930s.  She was said to have been at the epicenter of advanced thought in the church and society.  Upon retirement she began authoring books and became the first woman published in the Anglican Theological Review.  A few of her most famous quotes are: 

• It is through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed.
• Luxury, like a minimum wage, is a relationship; it changes as we change.
• The worst danger of the mystic is as always a quest of spiritual privilege leading to aloofness from the common lot.
• The suppression of war is not the equivalent of peace.
• War to win peace is at best a dangerous illogical method.
• Reality, like beauty, is in relationship and there only.
• An element of abstention, of restraint, must enter into all finer joys.

Vida Dutton Scudder died October 9, 1954.  She was thought of enough that she made the list of "Saint in the Spotlight" at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  She is one amongst many great people who have gone down in history as gaining enough passion and sisterhood to be called a saint!  I would have loved to have met her and heard her speak about her passions and feelings.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Wednesday With The Saints" Story

St. James Episcopal in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania

It was an ordinary day.  Checking out the St. James Episcopal Church email that I receive every week that tells of the services that are offered this week as well as any special events being held and a feature that I enjoy called "Wednesdays with the Saints".  

Bishop William White

Today's Saint was Bishop William White who played a big part in the consecration of our rebuilt church in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Bishop White was a key figure in the establishment of the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA.  Shortly after the American Revolution, when peace had been restored in our new country, life began to return to normal in everyday life, work and worship.  At St. James Episcopal the boards that had covered the windows of the church were removed.  

St. James' original church in Lancaster.

They had been placed over the windows when the church had been closed due to the rector, The Rev. Thomas Barton, being a loyalist to England and being forced to leave Lancaster.  To keep the church safe it was boarded up and church was not held until after the war had ended.  St. James appointed the Rev. Joseph Hutchins to resume and renew parish life.  

The "new" St. James at Duke and Orange Streets.

At the same time the Rev. William White, who was  the Rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia, called a meeting to discuss how the American congregations of the Church of England should move forward.  Representing St. James of Lancaster were William Parr, Edward Hand and George Ross, Jr.  On September 14, 1786 the Diocese of Pennsylvania was established and the Rev. William White, D.D. was elected the first Bishop of the Diocese.  Five years later he returned to England to be consecrated in Lambeth Chapel by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, assisted by the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the Bishop of Peterborough.  

The Rev. Thomas Barton who was loyal
to the Church of England and had to leave.

Rev. White's consecration as a bishop was the first one outside England that didn't require allegiance to England.  On Sunday, October 15, 1820, seventy-six years after the founding of St. James Episcopal in Lancaster, the Rt. Rev. William White consecrated our "new building."  He said, "I here consecrate and set apart for divine worship the rebuilt Church of St. James in the City of Lancaster, agreeably to the form of consecration of a church or chapel ordained and of one in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America."  So, this week our church was celebrating the life of William White, first Bishop of Pennsylvania.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

One of my altered Polaroid prints of the archway at St. James.

A photograph I took of the courtyard from the belltower.

The interior of the historic church at the corner of North Duke and East Orange Streets.

The "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the weekly email sent from my church, historical St. James Episcopal in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  For the past several weeks a small paragraph or two has been devoted to a weekly story about a Saint.  A recent email featured St. Nicholas telling how he evolved into Santa Claus.  

Saint Nicholas

The historical Saint Nicholas was born at Patara, Lycia in Asia Minor which is now Turkey.  In his youth he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and the Palestine area.  After his return to his home country, he became Bishop of Myra and was later thrown into prison during the persecution of Diocletian.  He eventually was released after the accession of Constantine and was present at the Council of Nicaea.  Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker.  His reputation evolved among the faithful and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus or Sinterklaas.  It is also said that St. Nicholas knew a man with three unmarried daughters and not enough money to provide suitable dowries for them to be married.  In those days this meant the daughters were destined to becoming spinsters.  St. Nicholas walked by the man's house for three consecutive nights; each night, he threw a bag of gold through the window, into the home.  The daughters were able to get married, and all lived happily ever after.  The tradition continues of St. Nicholas leaving gifts through windows, or in colder climates, down a chimney.  Today the feast of Sinterklaas celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas on December 6.  The feast is celebrated in certain provinces of the Netherlands as well as Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France.  The tradition is also celebrated in territories of the former Dutch Empire which includes Indonesia, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and Suriname.  During the Reformation in the 16th and 17th century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer from Sinterklaas to Kris Kringle and the date was changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve.  And then the American short-story writer, Washington Irving, featured a story about the legend of the early Dutch settlers, St. Nicholas, and this brought about the revival of the folklore.  In Irving's 1812 revision of A History Of New York, he inserted a dream sequence featuring St. Nicholas soaring over treetops in a flying wagon.  

The 21st century rendition of St. Nicholas or Santa Claus.

This creation eventually led to a dressed up Santa Claus.  But, as time went on the legend somehow grew to what we know it today as Santa Claus sweeping into town on his sleigh and heading down the chimney to leave gifts for children.  His legendary habit of secret gift-giving and performing miracles has been lost in the commercialization of Christmas and all that goes with it.  Not sure the original Sinterklass would be so jolly with today's red dressed and white bearded representation of him.  But, that's just my opinion.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.