We had the pleasure of welcoming  Bishop Frank Griswold, the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, to St. Saviour’s on August 28, 2011. He delivered the homily at our joint service with The Parish of St. Andrew and St. John.

The bishop discussed the interior voices of spirituality.  “Everything is sacramental, everything is revelatory.”

Bishop Griswold reflected on the determinant experiences of Jesus, who was in “deep communion with the interior voice, which was the voice of Abba. … He was able to relinquish his own self-concern out of a sense of that larger mystery in which he finds himself, not knowing what the end point would be…. He accepted the uncertainty, the incomprehension of what lay ahead, and of course took it through death and resurrection. So it is too, often with us, when we accept an response to the deep mystery than encounters us and demands that what is before us is very costly. We don’t know where it is going to take us. And yet so often on the other side there is blessing that we would only know by having gone through that narrow door. That is the heart of our Christian experience…. May we be faithful to the mystery.”

Frank Griswold was elected to a nine-year term as Presiding Bishop at the 1997 General Convention and invested in January 1998. He serves as Primate and chief pastor of the Episcopal Church, president of the House of Bishops, president and chief executive officer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, and president or chair of numerous Episcopal Church boards and agencies.

Jonathan’s last homily as Rector of St. Saviour’s (Click to listen)

Our rector, Father Jonathan B. Appleyard, and his wife, Ruth, served our parish well for the past nine years. On October 16, 2011, Jonathan+ delivered his final sermon as Rector of St. Saviour’s: “Keep me, oh Lord, as the apple of the eye.”

“As I contemplate going for this call… my sense is that there is more mystery at work here than understanding…. At some level, it is each one of us, seeing the reflection of our shadow in the intimate relationships that we are blessed with, that becomes part of us forever and transforms the whole world.  For nine years we have shared that mystery… and we can’t stop it. It’s going to be part of us forever. How it gets expressed is up to each one of us. The barn doors are open.  We are free to go and come as we need. And nothing could hold us back.”

We are grateful that Jonathan+ and Ruth made St. Saviour’s their home. They helped us serve human need and explore the mystery of the joyful now.