Povey Prattle

It was a pleasure to visit Sewanee, a place about which I’ve heard for many years.  Should you go to the website of the University of the South you’d be able to read some of the history of this fascinating place which was planned to be the “Oxford of the South” . The University owns some10,000 acres of mountain land, known as “The Domain”. At the heart of this are some very fine and handsome buildings, including the All Saints Chapel -  which is more like a Cathedral.  The School of Theology is a quasi-independent school within the University, and it was at this school that I visited my friends. Karen Meridith from Cambridge days (yes that is the correct spelling of her last name)  arranged a simple dinner party at which I got “caught up” with her, with Tracy Wells Miller (Cambridge) and her husband Thomasjohn, and with Wayne Farrell (Sarasota).  Wayne’s wife Trish was sadly unable to join us. I was able to attend two seminary services and to participate in a seminar for “middler” s

The two days I spent in Tennessee this week were mostly devoted to visiting four friends who happen to be at the School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. I’ll write some more about this visit tomorrow. In the meantime you can view the unsorted and unedited photo’s of my trip at my flickr page     www.flickr.com/photos/hugapoveytoday FYI.  Regarding the photo’s 1.Wayne (Farrell) is a senior seminarian from St. Boniface on Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL.  His wife Trish was sadly unable to join us for dinner. 2. Karen (Meridith) was a parishioner when I was Rector of St. James’s, Cambridge, MA.  She is now the Director of the Sewanee based programme, “Education for Ministry”. 3. Tracy (Wells Miller) was also a Cambridge parishioner. She is now a middler seminarian at Sewanee.  Her husband Thomasjohn is in one of the dinner part pictures. 4. Ben (King) is the Associate Professor of Church History. He and I were good colleagues when he was first a Curate at the Ch

There’s the Suwannee River in south Georgia and north Florida.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suwannee_River Stephen Foster wrote a famous song about this river -   it is called   " (Way Down Upon the) Swanee River ". “Swanee” is the way he abbreviated   “Suwannee” so that his song would scan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster And there is Sewanee in Tennessee.   I’ll be there for a couple of days to visit four friends (Tracy Wells Miller, Karen Meridith, Wayne Farrell and Ben King) who are part of the School of Theology at the University of the South. http://www.sewanee.edu/ I’ll be in touch again later in the week.

Sermon for March 20 th 2011 The Revd. J. Michael Povey at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Punta Gorda, FL Genesis 12:1-4a;   Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17;   John 3 1:17. George Crane, Esq. came pedalling his bike up to me one Sunday afternoon as I was getting into my car on Allen Street in Pittsfield, MA. He greeted me and then asked “what did you think of this morning’s sermon?” .   The sermon had been given by a Congregational minister in a Methodist Church. It was one of those January “week of prayer for Christian unity” services. To be truthful the sermon had been dreadful -   it was filled with half hearted pabulum.   But there is honour among thieves, so I was cautious in my judgement on my Congregational colleague. “Let me tell you something” , said George. “You preachers are always telling us that God loves us, but when are you going to tell us what we are supposed to do about it? ” “Point well taken George!” .   His words freed me from the fear that I would offend someone or an