25th Anniversary - Rector's Rambling for November 24, 2019

What a wonderful occasion today is – thank you all for being here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.  I am quite humbled that people wanted to put on a special luncheon for the occasion, and that Bishop Ackerman could be here to preach.

In some ways it seems like just yesterday that I was lying on the cold tile floor of the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, as the congregation sang the litany for ordinations.  Later in the liturgy, a group of priests surrounded me and put their hands in as the Bishop laid hands on me and invoked the Holy Spirit to make me a priest.  As I look back at that video now, I realize that of the 15 priests present that day, seven are deceased, and four are retired.  Time is moving on.

Of the 25 years of priestly ministry God has graced me with, almost 19 of them have been here at St. John’s.  My first two years I learned day-to-day priestly ministry as a curate (assistant) at Good Shepherd under Fr. David Moyer, before moving on for the next 4.5 years at St. Mary’s Church in Charleroi, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  There I learned how to be a rector among a wonderful group of people who had learned the faith from such dedicated priests as the late Canon Joseph Wittkofski, and Bishop (then Father) Keith L. Ackerman!

I never thought I would return to Metro Detroit where I had grown up.  But when it was time for St. John’s to start interviewing, then God worked out the timing just right!  And I am so very grateful.

On the day of my ordination, Fr. John Scott gave me a remarkable gift – the chalice that he received in 1953 at his ordination.  He told me he knew that when I used it I would remember him at the altar, which I do at all our weekday Masses, and Sundays at 8:00 AM.  And today I am wearing the cassock and alb I wore on that day in 1994 (I am pretty nostalgic that way).  May God grant me the opportunity to continue to minister in His Name for many more years to come.