Povey Prattle

Some of you will remember that earlier this year I spent a great weekend with my neighbours Ed Green and Eddie Palmer at their second home in Hendersonville, N.C. The two Eds  told me that they planned to spend two weeks in October at a time share in Hancock MA. -  in Berkshire County. I gave them a list of  "must sees" including the Clark Art Museum in Williamstown, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, the Hancock Shaker Village, Tanglewood in Lenox  ( grounds worth walking even when the Boston Symphony Orchestra is not in residence), Chesterwood in Stockbridge (home of Daniel Chester French - sculptor (amongst many things) of the Abraham Lincoln statue in Washington D.C.) I also suggested a visit to St. Stephen's Parish in Pittsfield (where I was Rector from 1984 - 2000) perhaps merely to see the fabulous windows by Tiffany and by Mary Tillinghast, but maybe also to be present for the Sunday Eucharist. They took up my suggestion and were present ...

Of all the services in our American Book of Common Prayer, “The Great Litany” is one of my favourites. A Litany is a prayer consisting of a series of invocations and supplications by the leader with alternate responses by the congregation. The “Great Litany” as used in the Episcopal Church is more or less a direct descendant of the one compiled by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer in 1544.  Thus Christians in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition have prayed in the same words for over 450 years. There were days when the Litany was a regular part of Sunday morning fare. These days it is used only in Lent - if at all.  (The parish I attend these days never uses it). More’s the pity, for the Great Litany forces us to have a concern for God’s world and God’s church which is much wider and broader than “normal Sunday prayer”. For instance it causes us to pray for: All prisoners and captives All who are desolate and oppressed All women in childbirth (still a dangerous experi...

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...

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...

Ted Copland, the Rector of my parish (St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key here in Florida) was away today.   He is at a well deserved retreat. The Assistant Rector, Andrea Taylor was up-front for the 8:00 and 10:00 Eucharists.   I offered my services to lead the 9:00 a.m. Bible Study - so that Andrea (Andie) would not be over-burdened.   Ted and Andie gladly accepted that offer. It made good sense to me to attend the earlier (8:00 a.m.) service before facilitating the 9:00 a.m. Bible Study. At the early service “T.M”, a “forty-something” lawyer, spoke at the “Minute for Ministry” spot which is a regular feature of life at the services at St. B’s.    It’s a time at which a lay-leader gives a pep-talk about some up-coming parish activity. “T.M” related that he had initially been dragged into Church by his wife.   He went on to speak about his involvement in a parish sponsored event at which some 20 or so Boniface Teens helped to fix up homes in a Roches...

Episcopalians live in a very small Church. For example:   Reg, the Senior Warden of my home parish (St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key, FL) recently took a trip to New Orleans, where he took a tour of some of the glorious Victorian Homes in that City. At one of the houses he “happened” to mention that our current  South West Florida Bishop, (Dabney Smith), had lived a door or two away when he served a parish in “NOLA” (New Orleans, Louisiana). Upon the mention of the Diocese of South West Florida, another tourist pricked up his ears and asked Reg:  “Do you know an Episcopal Priest named Michael Povey who has retired to Sarasota?” Reg admitted that he knew me. The other tourist identified himself as John S.  He further related that he is the partner of David, a Priest in the Diocese of Newark. Gosh-and-be-golly -   David and I were colleagues in the Diocese of Western Mass.  In fact he served with me at St. Stephen’s, Pittsfield, MA, and he became the i...

We’ve just come to the end of what pretentious clerics and pious lay Christians call the Triduum. That’s a fancy word for the time between the evening of Maundy Thursday and the morning of Easter Day. (By the way - there is no such thing as “Easter Sunday”. Easter is by definition a feast of the first day of the week - so the day should be called either “Easter” , or “Easter Day” ) Having thus revealed my Anglican and linguistic snobber y, I return to the Triduum! Ted Copland, the Rector at St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key was good enough to ask me to preach at the Maundy Thursday Eucharist. See my earlier post today if you wish to read my sermon. After the sermon I washed the feet of the Revd. Andrea Taylor, and she washed mine. As my sermon says, I truly believe that the foot-washing of Maundy Thursday is the quintessential expression of what it means to be a priest. Good Friday saw me back at St. Boniface’s for the 10:30 a.m. Liturgy. I was assigned the role of “na...

After the Eucharist this morning at St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key, FL one of the priests asked me if I’d be willing and able to take holy communion to a parishioner in one of our local hospitals. Of course I was happy to be asked, and happy to be available to serve. The parishioner had just had major surgery. He was having a tough time. His wife told me of other family “issues”. She is an in-between woman, caring for an elderly mother, a very sick husband, and an errant teenaged step child. After while it seemed to be the right time to share in the holy communion. This I did. The sick parishioner got to be very teary eyed. Communion ended, I announced that I had a profound theological comment about the man’s health. I said:   “this is so shitty” . Neither husband nor wife disagreed.

It was with great joy that I greeted yesterday’s election of The Revd. Dr. Ian Douglas, as the 15th Bishop of Connecticut. Ian and I have known each other since 1976 when I was the Rector at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fitchburg, MA. He was then a senior in High School and with his parents, Duncan and Gladys, and his brother Craig, was a member of Christ Church, Fitchburg. Sadly his Mom, Dad and brother have been taken from us by death. Ian and I were always aware of each others’ career trajectories, and we were both tickled pink when in 2000 I became Rector of St. James’s, Cambridge, MA where he was already ensconced as a Priest Associate. Ian and his wife Kristin became the fountains of much rich grace to me in my six years at St. James’s. BUT Ian’s election has a much more profound meaning than that of our personal friendship . This is because he is more aware of all the meanings of the Anglican Communion than any other Priest in the Episcopal Church. Ian i...

Sermon for August 9th 2009: The Revd. J. Michael Povey at St. Boniface, Siesta Key FL. Footnote (1) Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2 25So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil. 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 5Therefore be imitators of G...

Just in case you thought that all Episcopalians were do nothing more than searching the musty closets in our Churches and Parish Halls, to drag out gay and lesbian people and force them to become Priests - it ain’t so! You won’t read it in the press or see it on fundamentalist blogs/websites - but here is what we are doing these days. We are praying. We are studying the Bible. We are rejoicing when folks who join us, turn to Christ and confess him and Lord and Saviour. (That’s in our Prayer Book you know). We are trusting God: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" as the ancient creeds have expressed this. We are feeding the hungry. We are working to build houses, clinics, schools in many lands. We are enabling care, medication, and healing to thousands upon thousands of men, women and children who are HIV + (particularly in Africa). We are working for racial equality and reconciliation. We are visiting prisoners and working for their educational and spiritual welfare. We are helpi...