On being a Parson



My good Rector Ted Copeland at St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key FL retired on May 15th 2011 after 20 years of fabulous ministry.

In these summer months the equally fabulous Assistant Minister, Andrea (Andi) Taylor, is in charge, pending the arrival of an interim Rector.

Andrea has been away from SRQ in recent weeks. She has been leading youth group missions in Honduras, and in New Hampshire.

In her absences, the retired clerics, of whom I am one, have been minding the shop.

It’s fallen to my lot to be the “Priest on Call” this week.  

That role led me to take the Holy Communion to two parishioners who are in the Hospital, 

That’s “fairly routine” stuff.

Late this afternoon I received an emergency call to visit an older parishioner who is resident in a local Hospice, as she prepares for death.

It was a tough visit, for she did not know me, and I did not know her.

Nonetheless I tried to listen to her fears, and I prayed Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer with her.  Who knows if it helped!

But I was privileged to be the *Parson who prayed with dying woman.

(* In former days in England the C of E Minister in a local parish was known as “The Parson”.  In other words he (and it was always a “he”) was the Person who could be counted upon to baptise children, solemnise marriages, and prayerfully bury the dead.)

This Parson requests your prayers for Sue (the woman I visited) as she moves towards death.

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