The Bishop’s Institute for Ministry and Leadership was established in 2015 in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida to provide opportunities to develop lay and clergy leadership in the Diocese; to prepare candidates for ordination to the vocational diaconate and the local priesthood; to prepare candidates for licensed lay ministries and to be a focus for the continuing education for laity and clergy alike.
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THESE THREE
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13.13
As I write we are well into the pre-Lenten season (the last three Sundays in Epiphany-tide) and approaching Ash Wednesday. Back ‘in the day’ these last three Sundays before Ash Wednesday and Lent were called Septua-, Sexa- and Quinqua-gesima—or, translated, seventy, sixty and fifty days before Easter. A popular preaching device for the ‘Gesima’ Sundays was to encourage people to reflect on the three ‘theological’ virtues of faith, hope and charity as ‘food’ for the Lenten trek.
As St Paul so eloquently tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, of faith, hope and charity—‘the greatest of these is charity’.
I think it was a stroke of genius—intentional or otherwise, that in older versions of our Prayer Book the Collect for the Next Sunday Before Lent—or ‘The Sunday called Quinquagesima’ was Cranmer’s masterful collect based on 1 Corinthians 13:
O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
The epistle to follow that Collect was none other than 1 Corinthians 13. The Gospel always struck me as a bit strange in the context of the Collect and Epistle--- it was the story of the healing of the blind beggar on the wayside in Jericho as Jesus and His disciples journeyed up to Jerusalem (Luke 18.31-43). But then I read a brief commentary on the Quinquagesima collect, epistle and gospel that brought it into context as a very appropriate focus on the door-step Sunday to Lent.
The commentary was by Sister Sylvia Mary, CSMV, in her Introduction to Lenten Prayers for Everyman by Marion J. Hatchett (longtime Professor of Liturgics at the School of Theology, Sewanee).
Sr. Sylvia Mary writes:
The keynote for this solemn period in the Church’s year is given us in the collect, epistle and gospel for the Sunday before Lent--- Quinquagesima Sunday—when we have put before us very clearly the end towards which we are to look in the ‘dear feast of Lent’.
The collect speaks of the charity without which, in God’s sight, ‘we are nothing worth.’ For the epistle we read St Paul’s great chapter on Christian charity in 1 Corinthians 13. The gospel . . . tells of the blind man by the wayside, crying out, when told that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’. When Jesus asked him what he wished him to do, the blind man gave the simple answer: ‘Lord, that I may receive my sight.’
As we set forth each year to keep this Lenten feast--- a feast in the spiritual sense of the word---we should therefore come with this thought in mind: that we may grow in charity and that we may receive sight to see, not only our sins, but also our deep need of God’s saving grace. Thus we shall enter more fully... into the understanding of all that our heavenly Father did for us in giving his only Son to be born for us, to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification.
Good words to set out on our Lenten journey.
Every blessing to you, and your loved ones, this ‘dear feast of Lent’.
Douglas
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St. Mary's Window: Faith, Hope and Charity |
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Window above the east end above the altar in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Green Cove Springs
Certainly as far back as far as the Renaissance, the theological virtues have been pictured in the form of three women: Faith carrying a sword or cross or holding a chalice; Hope holding a ship’s anchor and Charity as a mother holding close her children in her arms or about her skirts.
While still a college chaplain, a dozen years ago, I had the privilege to spend my sabbatical looking after St. Mary’s, Green Cove Springs, while then Rector Celeste Tisdelle, looked after my students in Oxford. Funny what we see and don’t see: for months I served at the St. Mary’s altar and was vaguely aware of the beautiful East Window---thinking it held three different images of St. Mary. Only after leaving the church did it dawn on me that I had in fact been gazing at the popular Victorian portrayal of the theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity! Well worth a visit to St. Mary’s to see the windows in this beautiful Carpenter Gothic church on the banks of the St Johns River.
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Interview with Leigh Howton Philips |
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Leigh Philips, a much loved and appreciated member of the Diocesan staff retired at the end of January 2022. Leigh served as Assistant to the Canon to the Ordinary, Allison DeFoor. Bishop Howard awarded Leigh the Bishop’s Cross at Diocesan Convention last month. |
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1. Leigh, tell us a bit about yourself: where you were born and grew up; education; early life; marriage; children.
I was born in Shreveport, LA but spent my early years in Hattiesburg, MS. We moved to Jacksonville in 1971 as I was entering 5th grade. I have wonderful siblings, a brother and sister, 9 and 10 years younger, respectfully. I graduated from Lee High School, Valdosta State College and The National Center for Paralegal Training in Atlanta. I married Michael Philips, a guy I'd known since middle school, in 2000. We were both 40, late bloomers! We welcomed our one and only daughter, Peyton, in 2001. She is perfect.
2. What is your church and faith background and story?
I am a cradle Episcopalian, having been baptized by the Rev. Gladstone Rogers at All Saints in Jacksonville (we had a brief stint here when I was an infant). My family attended St. Mark's from the time we moved back to Jacksonville. Mike and I were married there and attended until we left to follow our daughter to Ortega Methodist when she was plugged in to their youth group.
3. What was your work before coming to the Diocese?
Prior to working at the Diocese, I was a paralegal with the Coker Law firm, where I spent 28 wonderful years. Those are some fine people.
4. How did you receive a call to come work for the Diocese? Did the job turn out to be what you originally accepted it to be? How long did you work for the Diocese?
That's funny the way it started out. I needed a break from trial work and reached out to Randy (then Shoemaker) DeFoor, an attorney with Fidelity to see if she knew of any openings there. She insisted that I talk to her beau, Allison DeFoor, about employment. "It would be a perfect fit." When I asked what he did for a living she refused to tell me, only that I should meet him and so I did. As it turned out, we shared much in common and instantly clicked. I started work as his assistant at the Diocese very shortly thereafter. What a wonderful mentor and friend he has become.
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Hymns Into Prose: A Spiritual Exercise, Example One |
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Robert (Robin) Todd Hyde, Jr is a eucharistic minister and member of St John’s Cathedral, Jacksonville. Robin is a former lawyer (Rogers Tower, P.A.) and prior to that a U.S. naval officer. He was educated at Duke University and the University of Florida College of Law.
In addition to a daily prayer routine that includes a number of prayers and canticles he has committed to memory, Robin has developed a most interesting spiritual exercise of rendering hymns and carols into prose. We are grateful to Robin for sharing this exercise with us.
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As a nerdy English major and lawyer, I have always taken an interest in words: their meaning, and how they fit with other words to create new meaning. As a lifelong Episcopalian/Anglican, I am also steeped in our wonderful tradition of hymnody and carols. Over the years as I have contemplated the words to some of my favorite hymns and carols, it has occurred to me that it might be interesting, and indeed a good spiritual exercise, to take a stab at seeing how a couple of familiar hymns would come out if I converted them into, or rendered them, in prose. This turned out, for me, at least, to be quite a challenge, but one that was eminently satisfying and meaningful.
Let me give you two examples—one here and another found later in this newsletter.
The first is "The King of Love my Shepherd is" which is Hymn number 645 in the Episcopal Hymnal 1984. It especially lends itself to our endeavor because it is a paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm.
The first verse goes:
The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never; I nothing lack if I am his, and he is mine forever.
The corresponding language of the psalm are: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
Now the psalm is a song, so to merely parrot the words of it is not to render it into prose. Going back to the poet/hymnodist, notice how in poetry normal English locutions are disregarded. Normal English syntax is not followed. Hence "my shepherd is," instead of "is my shepherd,' and "I nothing lack" instead of "I lack nothing." And those are fine for the poem and are the creative exercise of the poetic license. So, when we render these words into pure prose, in a way we are reverse engineering the poetic license to formulate a prose expression of the same idea. So, in prose this line might sound something like:
My Shepherd is the King of Love and his goodness to me never fails; because I am his I lack nothing, and he will be my shepherd now and forever.
To continue reading to the second verse of the hymn, click here.
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For this month’s quiz we invited Fr. Les+ Singleton, retired from his most recent posting at Church of the Mediator-Micanopy, to suggest questions focused upon the long ministry of Fr. Fred Yerkes of Jacksonville. Fr. Les+ led a posse that advanced to the most recent Diocesan Convention the recognition of Fr. Yerkes in an annual feast day in the Diocese and commending the idea of a national recognition of Yerkes in a feast day in all The Episcopal Church.
Fr. Yerkes was an indefatigable pastor to the small churches in our Diocese for over fifty years. At one time his responsibilities included Starke, Melrose, Hawthorne, Micanopy, Brooksville, Mayo, MacClenny, Hibernia, Chiefland, Williston, Cedar Key, and numerous stops between at turbine camps and the like. He was truly a saint, and Fr. Les has been similarly indefatigable in his small church service, and remains so, so we are delighted to share this space with him, recognizing both great priests.
Allison+
Father Fred Yerkes Quiz
1.Fred Yerkes said he could not serve at his boyhood church. “I have stolen their plums and broken their windows." Which of these was his boyhood church?
(A) St. John’s Cathedral (B) Church of our Saviour, Mandarin. (C) Church of the Good Shepherd, Jacksonville (D) Canterbury Cathedral
2. As a teenager, Fred Yerkes used his father’s company boat to take Father Thomas Brayshaw to 18 missions on what river?
(A) Suwanee River (B) Amazon River (C) St. Johns River (D) Santa Fe River
3. Fred Yerkes was a page in the:
(A) British Parliament (B) Florida Legislature (C) US Senate (D) US House of Representatives
4. At Miss Tabeaus School in Gainesville, he taught:
(A) Spanish (B) French (C) Hebrew (D) Sanskrit
5. Fred Yerkes taught at which African American school?
(A) Bethune-Cookman, Daytona Beach (B) St. Philip’s, Jacksonville (C) St. Augustine, Gainesville (D) St. Cyprians, St. Augustine.
6. In 1935 Fred Yerkes baptized a man soon to be celebrating sixty years of ordination:
(A) John Howard (B) Michael Curry (C) Jack Watson (D) Jim Cooper
7. Fred Yerkes had his ordination date in mind when he organized:
(A) St Matthew’s, Mayo (B) St. James’, Perry (C) St Barnabas’, Williston. (D) Trinity, St. Augustine.
8. Fred Yerkes vehicle of choice was:
(A) VW (B) Cadillac (C) Oldsmobile (D) Sherman Tank
9. Every place he could, he organized:
(A) Fire and police departments (B) Paid choirs and ladies tea parties (C) Boys choirs and Boy Scouts (D) 4 H and FFA.
10. Fred Yerkes served 52 years at:
(A) Christ Church, Cedar Key (B) Emmanuel, Welaka (C) St Paul’s, Waldo (D) St Paul’s, Key West.
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A poem by Robert Herrick (1591-1674) |
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Is this a fast, to keep
The larder lean ?
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep ?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish ?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour ?
No ; ‘tis a fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate ;
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent ;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin ;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.
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Hymns Into Prose: Example Two
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For a second exercise, we are going to shift from the Old Testament Psalter to the New Testament Gospel and an old English carol that celebrates it.
"God Rest Ye [You] Merry, Gentlemen", Hymn number 105 (The Hymnal, 1982), is perhaps the oldest Christmas carol still being sung. Its author is unknown to us, but he or she knew their Gospel. The poem is ‘spot on’ all the particulars of the Gospel that it addresses, as we will soon see.
An introductory note will hopefully be of use here. The old English Christmas greeting "God rest ye merry" is so old that two key words have different meanings now than they did to English ears hundreds of years ago. "Rest" back then had the meaning "make;" and "merry" meant not jolly or cheerful, but "strong" or "mighty." So, the greeting means "God make you strong [mighty], gentlemen." With that in mind, let's dig into the first verse.
Just as in the previous hymn, the author here takes poetic license to invert the locution; so "let nothing dismay you" becomes "let nothing you dismay." And although the greeting addresses "Gentlemen," surely the author was well aware that the Gospel was--and is--for everyone, so was using "Gentlemen" in the royal or editorial "we" sense. So, when we look to render the first line in the modern idiom, we start with
God rest ye merry, Gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
which in prose comes out something like
Ladies and Gentlemen may God make you strong and let nothing disturb you or frighten you.
The next line can easily pass muster for today's prose as is:
Remember Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day.
But let's take a shot at reworking this phrase anyway:
Because you must remember that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was born on this Christmas Day---
And now the third line:
To save us all from Satan's power as we were gone astray.
Not much needed here, but the prose rendering is still a bit different:
To save us all from the terrible power of the Devil when we had fallen into sin and error and strayed from God's holy ways.
The familiar refrain is: O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy.
Since prose isn't sung, repetition is unnecessary, so the prose version of the refrain might come out:
What wonderful, joyous, comforting news!
As we did with the last hymn, let's now look at the next three verses, followed by their prose renderings.
To continue reading to the second verse of the hymn, click here.
You can try this with any hymn or carol you like, and my hope is that you will find it enriching and rewarding. Blessings!
Robin Hyde
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Raphael (1507)
Baglioni Retable. Theological Virtues by Raphael (1483-1520).1507. Pinacoteca, Vatican Museums, Vatican State.
Here in the order from top to bottom: Hope, Charity, Faith.
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The Archdeacon's Corner:
Deacon Quodvultdeus
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Portrait of Quodvultdeus, 5th-century mosaic, Catacombs of San Gennaro, Naples Italy |
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Deacon Quodvultdeus
Student of St. Augustine, Bishop of Carthage
Quodvultdeus was living in the North African city Carthage when he became a deacon in 421 AD. His strange-sounding name means “What God wills,” and we don’t know if that was his birth name, or he changed his name at his conversion to Christianity.
It is believed that he grew up in the lost city of Avaritana (believed to be south of modern-day Morocco), which was at the time a city given to pagan worship. Quodvultdeus wrote of his hometown “I also saw myself in a corner of the Avaritana province, drawing from caves and in caves ancient idols that had been hidden there, so that this whole city with its clergy was under sacrilegious perjury.”
Regardless of whether Quodvultdeus’ birthplace was the center of Roman Africa or its periphery, we find him as a young man in Carthage in 407 AD. It was in Carthage that Quodvultdeus began corresponding with Augustine of Hippo (Saint Augustine), who was to serve as Quodvultdeus' spiritual teacher. Subsequently, Augustine dedicated some of his writings to Quodvultdeus and these still exist. Because of the association with Saint Augustine, Quodvultdeus’ name would be passed done through history. Quodvultdeus would become a leader in the church in Carthage and be elected bishop of Carthage in the years after the death of Saint Augustine in 421 AD.
In 431 AD, the Vandal King Genseric and his numerous hordes who were Arians (a heresy that denied the divinity and co-equality of Jesus with God the Father) invaded north Africa from southern Spain and unleashed severe persecution, especially against the orthodox clergy. Quodvultdeus worked to protect his church against both the Vandals and their heresy. In advance of the Vandals many of the church’s members fled into the countryside or accepted Arianism (the Council of Nicea, deemed Arianism a heresy in 325 AD).
The city of Carthage fell in 439 AD with huge casualties which Quodvultdeus regarded as God's punishment on them. Quodvultdeus was captured along with several of his clergy and banished. They were put on board leaky ships without oars or sails as a means of a slow death. However, against the odds Quodvultdeus and his companions ended up at Naples, Italy.
At Naples, Quodvultdeus would go on to convert dozens of Arian Goths to the Catholic Faith. Quodvultdeus continued his ministry fighting the Pelagian heresy from spreading in the region around Naples. Quodvultdeus never made it back to North Africa, and died in Naples, where he is still revered, and in Naples his feast is celebrated on 19 February.
One of Quodvultdeus' sermons is traditionally used for the Office of Readings in the Divine Office on the Feast of the Innocents, Dec 28th:
"Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this, you are disturbed and, in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children."
Praying that our Lord finds you and yours well,
The Ven. Mark Richardson,
Archdeacon
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Upcoming Lenten Poetry Class |
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The Library, Diocesan Office,
325 N. Market Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
Mondays -March 7, 14, 21, 28, and April 4
12-1p.m.
Come join Douglas Dupree, Rector of the Bishop's Institute, on Mondays during Lent for noon-day prayers, lunch and a discussion of some of the poems and commentaries provided by Richard Harries in his new Lent book for 2022.
This is a great opportunity to take some time apart during Lent for thoughtful reflection and fellowship in a relaxed atmosphere!
For more information and to RSVP, email Sue Engemann:
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Calling for Volunteers for
Camp Weed Summer Camp Deck
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Summer Camp Deck
Renewal Project
March 4-6
Don’t miss out on this special volunteer opportunity to work with friends, create new memories and enjoy the beauty of Camp Weed and Cerveny Conference Center!
Camp Weed is seeking anyone who is interested in being a part of the Summer Camp Deck Renewal Project. Those who wish to contribute can do so physically or financially. Meals, social and cabin lodging will be provided by Camp Weed and Cerveny Conference Center. There will be a bonfire with s'mores at the Cross on Saturday night, March 5.
To register, visit the Camp Weed website by clicking the button below
or contact Gina Hoover, Administrator:
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