From the Daily Chronicle:
"Don’t let this be your next ride to church."
A bumper sticker displaying a hearse, and those words, is one that the Rev. Dave Hedges remembers a fellow seminarian having on his car when they both attended seminary.
The flip side of that message, Hedges said, is that priests and other church ministers need to do their part in inviting people back more often, so that the Sunday morning ride to church isn’t their only contact with ministry.
A week ago, Hedges affirmed this clerical duty. He was instituted – meaning permanently placed – as rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Sycamore [Illinois].
The handsome young dude in the picture is the son of our own Susan S, who is bustin' her buttons with pride. After serving as a curate in Crystal Lake, Fr. Dave served as "priest-in-charge" at St. Peter's for 18 months. Now he is rector of the 150 year old church.
When serving as a curate at a Crystal Lake church, Hedges assisted a priest who had been there for 31 years. The priest acted as Hedge’s mentor, and made Hedges realize the value of visiting members outside of the once-a-week sermon.
“There’s a lot of people in the congregation; their contact comes on Sunday morning and that’s pretty much it,” Hedges said. “But you have to be a presence in people’s lives. He taught me to value that and to strive for it.”
Congratulations to Fr. Dave, the parishioners of St. Peter's Church, and last, but not least, to Susan S.
Let us pray for Fr. Dave and the members of St. Peter's:
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant them all things necessary for their common life, and bring them all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer), p. 817
I would like to send my best wishes to susan s who occasionally is kind enough to comment on my blog but I do not think has a blog of her own. My prayers for Fr Dave and his parish but I do hope he does not use the car sticker, a bit 'in your face':-)
ReplyDeleteA priest who believes in visiting? I thought we were a dying breed...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mimi for posting this. We arrived from sunny California the day that the high in Sycamore was 1 above Zero! Thankfully, the church is a warm place both physically and spiritually. I get the feeling that they really love Dave, and I know he loves them back.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brian. No I don't have a blog, just a faux one so I can comment on blogspots.
Yes, Tim, he visits parishioners at least twice a week. They are not as old as the church, but many members are seniors.
Yes, Renz, even when it's cold, it's lovely. The snow was 6 or 8 inches deep in the yards around town. The pumpkin festival is still going on. St. Peter's sells Brats and Pumpkin Squares(these are famous, apparently) to make money for certain projects.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
That is wonderful - and Fr. Dave sounds like a truly good man. God bless him in his work and blessings to his lovely mom Susan S., who I know from these pages!
ReplyDeleteThe radical difference in church cultures. Apparently visitation in some Episcopal traditions is not strong. At least, I get that from this.
ReplyDeleteIn the E&R tradition, visitation is so strong it can be suffocating. I knew a pastor who took a church after a long ministry by another pastor, both good men. The "new" pastor reported a church member calling him to report her doctor's visit and the results (a routine visit, not a hospital visit). His predecessor was so in touch with his congregation he was almost a family member to every family.
That's not uncommon in old E&R congregations. OTOH, I'm told of Catholic families who assume the priest is far too busy to visit them in the hospital.
Not a comment on the cultures, just noticing how radically different expectations can be. Most UCC Conference Ministers get complaints about UCC pastors not visiting enough.
I'm guessing that's not what most Episcopal bishops hear about vis a vis their priests.
Rmj, E&R = Evangelical & Reformed?
ReplyDeleteBlesssings all around!
ReplyDeleteSusan--yeah, sorry for the brevity. E&R = Evangelical and Reformed, one of the "ancestor" churches to the present-day UCC, in which I hold my standing and ordination.
ReplyDeleteRmj, your comment calls for a story. When my mother was in the nursing home here, a RC priest came around once a week to say mass, but often my mother didn't feel like going. Visits to the rooms of the residents by the priest were quite rare. Once, I asked for the sacrament of the sick for my mother because the recent teaching in the RCC was that it was not only for the dying, but for the sick.
ReplyDeleteThe priest came, but I was made aware that this was a very special occasion, and personal visits to the rooms were rare. My mother loved having him come, but I never asked again, and he never returned.
My rector would have been glad to visit her, but it would not have been the same as a RC priest, because they were, after all, the only real priests - at least to her.
When she was in the hospital on the day she died, I did not think to call a priest, because priests had not been a presence in her life for quite some time.
After she died, I was rather horrified at my omission, but I just didn't think of calling a priest when she actually was in extremis. She was conscious to the end, and she didn't ask either.
I know. The RCC suffers from a severe priest shortage.
Well, Dave considers it a very important part of his ministry. The congregation is smallish and has a lot of older parishioners. He has baptized some babies and has another one coming up at Easter Vigil this year, and his confirmation class last year was larger than one would expect in a congregation that size. As he said, they are a good fit. I met a young man(a teenager, very mature for his years) at the institution service who told me they had just returned to St. Peter's. His grandfather had been ill unto death and the family had spent their weekends for sometime being with him for quite a while. He had recently died and they had returned to church. He was glad to be back in the routine and was planning on becoming an acolyte. He also feels called to the priesthood.
ReplyDeleteSusan, our rectors have always considered visitations an important part of their ministry, too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a young man, our rector was not known for visiting (to be fair he had a terrible disease of the legs which finally resulted in amputation of both).
ReplyDeleteMy father was not a regular church goer despite his wife and son being regular and his son being a bit overboard in that department in his opinion. Dad had a heart attack and the rector visited him in hospital right across the city. Dad was amazed ("He visited me") and began to go to church every sunday for what turned out to be the last 6 months of his life.
Brian R,
ReplyDeleteMust have been a good visit for you father.
Where I grew up people were scared stiff expecting howlers if a Priest showed up in the Hospital.
The staff wanted to bann them altogether (if not upon request)...
Too little too late, but I realized belatedly I didn't explain myself clearly enough here.
ReplyDelete"Visiting" covers about three different "realms" for me, and I didn't clarify that. The first is hospital: absolutely required, not even a question about doing it. Second is visits to "shut ins," those members who haven't been to church in years, and won't ever be again.
Third is home visits. In my parishes, I was expected to visit every member at their home about once a year, or at least make the whole circuit within two consecutive years. My impression from the post is this is what Fr. Dave will be doing, but it also represents something new for his parish.
It's a very good thing, but it's interesting to me to see how different church cultures are.
There are visitations and visitations. You may gather from my story that I thought the response of the RC priests was somewhat lacking during my mother's time in the nursing home.
ReplyDeleteWell, Rmj, I have only heard about visiting in the hospitals and taking Eucharist to people who can't get out to church. It is very cold in the winter and snow falls often. Dave made visits to the hospital when he first got there and some people were surprised. Evidently at least one priest never made home visits to shut-ins because it was 'depressing.' I do not know how much visiting to homes 'just because' Dave will do.
ReplyDeleteOh, and thanks to you all for the warm wishes! Dave will not comment here, but he did say "Sweet!" when I sent him the link. I think he might be a little embarrassed... :-)
ReplyDeleteSusan, be sure to tell him that he gave me a good belly laugh with "Sweet"! I love it. That will, I'm sure, embarrass him even more, but what are mothers and their crazy friends for?
ReplyDelete