Piety Hill Musings

The ramblings of the Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church of Detroit. Piety Hill refers to the old name for our neighborhood. The neighborhood has changed a great deal in the over 160 years we have been on this corner (but not our traditional biblical theology) and it is now known for the neighboring theatres, the professional baseball and football stadiums and new hockey/basketball arena.

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Location: Detroit, Michigan, United States

Monday, April 16, 2007

Dr. Reginald Fuller

One of my professors at Nashotah House, Dr. Reginald Fuller, died recently. He taught me two semesters at The House, filling in in a pinch between faculty appointments in the 1990's. What a great gift it was to have him as a professor! It is interesting to note that despite his help in translating the NRSV version of the bible, he had us use the RSV when I was at the House due to some issues he had with parts of the translation that he had no part in. He also wrote one of the chapters of the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, my most frequent one book biblical reference.
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BY ELLEN ROBERTSON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Apr 6, 2007
Thousands of Christians worldwide knew the Rev. Reginald H. Fuller, a retired Episcopal priest and internationally known New Testament scholar, for three accomplishments:

Writing one of the most significant and widely used commentaries on the lectionary, the schedule for reading scripture used every Sunday in most mainline Christian churches.
Being an early translatorsof the writings of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a central figure in the Protestant churchs struggle against Nazism during World War II.
Helping translate the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
Mr. Fuller, 92, taught on the Resurrection at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, where he was longtime priest-in-residence, on Sunday, March 25. He fell shortly thereafter, broke his hip and died of ensuing complications Wednesday at his Westminster-Canterbury residence in Richmond.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 1214 Wilmer Ave.
Another memorial service will be held Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the commons at Westminster-Canterbury retirement facility, 1600 Westbrook Ave.
A graveside service will be held April 20 at 11 a.m. at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, where he retired in 1985.
"I have never known a priest who more embraced the faith 24 hours a day," said the Rev. Ray Inscoe, director of pastoral care at Westminster-Canterbury. "It wasn't a role. It was who he was."
For all his training and knowledge of German, Latin, Hebrew, Greek and French, Mr. Fuller "was just as gracious and willing to help a seminary intern with his first sermon," Inscoe said.
"He cared about all people. . . . He was one you could call if last rites were needed in the middle of the night."
Mr. Fuller presided for many years at a weekly Eucharist service at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond.
Much respected in ecumenical circles, "he had such a great sense of the wider church. He could always find a common bond where people could unite," said the Right Rev. Peter James Lee, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
The Horsham, Sussex, England native, who was always inviting new clergy or seminary students for tea, graduated from Peterhouse College at Cambridge University. He studied theology in England and Germany and was ordained a priest in the Church of England.
He came to the United States in 1955 and taught in an Episcopal seminary in Evanston, Ill., and Union Theological Seminary in New York before becoming professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary.
Mr. Fuller and his wife moved to Richmond after he retired to be near family.
Survivors include his wife, Ilse Fuller; two daughters, Caroline Sloat of Pomfret, Conn., and Sally Fuller of Northampton, Mass.; a sister, Jean Hall of South Africa; and four grandchildren and five great-grandsons.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173350603405