Happy 97th Birthday Fr. Bedford - Rector's Rambling for April 26, 2026

In addition to our continuing celebration of The Resurrection of Jesus Christ during this 40 day season we call Eastertide, we have a special celebration today.  Today we celebrate the 97th birthday of our beloved Fr. Michael Bedford!

1929 will most likely be remembered for the great stock market crash on  October 29th.  At that momentus time in our history Fr. Mike was 6 months old!  He spent time in his childhood in England, we we have been privy to his wonderful presentation on living there during the bombing during World War II, including being evacuated to the countryside along with his schoolmates for their safety.

Returning to the United States, he met Mary and married her in 1951.  He made his way to Metro Detroit where he had secular employment, and he and Mary raised seven children.  In 1976, Fr. Mike was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church, and in 1982 was ordained a priest.  He served as the Rector of St. Elizabeth’s Church in Redford until 1996.  After his retirement there, he and Mary began attending St. John’s and helping at the altar.  After the retirement of Fr. Kim, Fr. Mike served in various roles assisting the interim priest and also being the supply priest before and after Fr. Leovy’s time here.

My first ‘encounter with Fr. Mike was when I was in seminary at Nashotah House and his parish sent money to my bishop to support seminarians, of which I was one of the recipients.  Afterwards we met as fellow members of the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC).

When I arrived in 2001 at St. John’s , Fr. Mike called to ask if I thought it was okay for he and Mary to continue attending St. John’s.  It is customary for interim or supply clergy to step back when the new priest arrives.  Not only was it okay with me, but I asked him to vest and help at the altar, which he did for many years!  He retired again several times, but we are so happy that he has continued with us throughout!

Mary passed away in 2014 at the age of 91, and she is deeply missed.  Shortly before Mass I always do a quick check to make sure my vestments aren’t discombobulated in the back, something Mary always did for Fr. Mike and I on our way into church for Mass.

Happiest of birthdays to Fr. Mike!  Be sure to join us downstairs for a luncheon celebration!

 
 

A week of saints - Rector's Rambling for April 19, 2026

     Although we are primarily focusing on the Resurrection this Eastertide, we also have the opportunity to look at a variety of Saints this month particularly some notable ones this week.

Today, if it weren’t Sunday in Eastertide, we could be commemorating the Feast of St. Alphege.  An Archbishop of Canterbury during the time of the viking invasions in the 10th and 11th centuries, he negotiated a peace treaty between King Aethelred and the Norse King Olaf Tryggavon in 994.  In 1011 he was captured by the invading Danes.  According to the Episcopal Church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts, St. Alphage refuse to allow the people to college money to ransom him.  The Danes beat him to death, eventually dispatching his soul to heaven with a blow to the head with an axe-iron in 1012.

April 21 is the Feast of St. Anselm, another Archbishop of Canterbury about about a century later.  Italian by birth, he became a monk in France (Normandy) and eventually Archbishop of Canterbury.  He is best known for his disagreements with the King over the rights of the Church in England, and for what is known as the Ontological Argument for the existence of God.  In a nutshell, “God is that than which nothing greater can be thought.” and that God can be said to exist in reality as well as in the intellect, but not dependent upon the material world for verification.” (LFF, p. 224).  He is also known for the phrase “faith seeking understanding”  “I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand. For this , too, I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand” (LFF . 224). 

On Thursday the 23rd we celebrate the Feast of St. George, the Holy Protector of England (Edward the Confessor being the Patron Saint of England).  Little is known historically about St. George other than his martyrdom in Palesine about the year 303.  to him was deeply held in the East as a patron protector of soldiers, and the knights from the west brought that cultus back to the west as a result of the crusades. 

The Flag of St. George, a white field with a red cross, is the flag of England, and the basis of the heraldry of our denomination. One flies this week on the flagpole behind the ministry center. 

Saturday if the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.  Author of the Gospel in his name, it is attributed as the teaching of St. Peter.  Mark appears in several places in the New Testament, including Acts of the Apostles and St. Pauls letter to the Colossians and St. Peter’s 1st Epistle.

He is believed to have been the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt and there was martyred for the faith. 

 

10 year anniversary of our Prayer Wall - Rector's Rambling for April 12, 2026

 Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!

We continue our celebration of Easter today, and throughout the remainder of the 40 days of the Easter Season.  It seems only fair that if we spent 40 days of fasting and penitence for Lent, then the celebration should be at least as long!  The Easter Seasons ends with the Feast of the Ascension, which falls on May 14th this year.  We then add 10 more days of special prayer and intention in preparation of the gift of God the Holy Ghost on the Feast of Whitsunday, also known as Pentecost. 

Thank you to the many people who pitched in last week for our grand celebration of the Feast of the Resurrection.  The music was sublime, the liturgy transcendent, coffee hour delicious and plentiful, and the congregation joyful and exuberant.  It was a wonderful day and I am thankful to God for the Feast Day and to the many people of St. John’s who participated in making it such a wonderful day.

Today marks an interesting milestone.  It was on the First Sunday after Easter in 2016 that we dedicated The Prayer Wall on Montcalm Aveue. 

Joe Alff, who with his wife Marge now live the Chicago area, had a great idea that we needed a place were people could offer their prayers in a tangible way 24 hours a day, without having to come inside the church.  The design is based on the idea of the Western Wall of the former Temple in Jerusalem where people write their prayers on slips of paper and insert it in the slots between stones of the foundation of a place were God dwelt in a special way, until it became redundant because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Joe approached his neighbor Gene Pluhar with an idea for the design, and from there was born the the prayer wall we now have located on Montcalm Street on the side of the parish parking lot.  People walking by for events at the stadiums, arena, and, as well as those  just passing by, stop to put a prayer in the wall.  On Sunday a team of parishioners spend a few minutes out there reaffirming their prayers, asking God to grant them as may be most expedient for them.   I have personally witnessed people stopping to pray very late at night, and very early in the morning.

 

He is risen indeed! - Rector's Rambling for April 5, 2026

     
    Alleluia!

Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed!

Alleluia!

 

This is our Easter Proclamation as we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death.  What a wonderful statement of faith, which is absolutely essential and central to who we are as members of the Body of Christ, the Church.  His Resurrection is an absolute basic requirement for belief, along with our statement that Jesus Christ is Lord!

This past week we have had a glorious journey, starting with Palm Sunday.  There we celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, being welcomed with cries of  “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  Surely this would be the great king who would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression.  But his kingship was not to be of this world.  On Thursday he had his Passover celebration with the apostles where he took that meal and with it instituted the Blessed Sacrament of His own Body and Blood.  From there he is arrested, tried, and as we commemorated on Good Friday, was put to death.

Today we celebrate His Resurrection!

Welcome to St. John’s Church.  We give thanks for the many people who make St. John’s their High Holy Day destination, and for those worshipping with us for the first time.  Easter is a grand day, especially with the brass accompanying the choir.  The flowers are glorious, and it is always wonderful to see the Easter joy on each other’s faces!

The other 51 Sundays a year are also a celebration of the Resurrection—the reason we worship on Sundays!  Although we won’t have the brass each week, the choir leads us in sublime worship as we work our way through the Liturgical Year.  We work our way through Eastertide, Trinitytide, Advent, Christmastide, Epiphanytide and then back to pre-Lent and Lent!   Each season and each week has a different emphasis, teaching us about Our Lord and His Will for us.

He is Risen!  Let us rejoice today, and each week of this year!

 

Holy Week - Rector's Rambling for March 29, 2026

     This is the most important week of the year!  Holy Week begins today, and between now and next Sunday you will have 14 opportunities to be at St. John’s for the public worship of the Church.

Three of those worship opportunities actually happen most weeks of the year here at St. John’s: Holy Communion on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 12:15 PM and Evening Prayer will be prayed in the Ministry Center Monday through Thursday.

For Holy Week we add several important opportunities for worship and devotion.  On Wednesday evening we have a service of psalms and lessons at 7:00 PM called Tenebræ.  On Maundy Thursday the one celebration of the Holy Communion will be at 7:00 PM (no 10:30 AM Mass this day), which is followed by the stripping of the altar and an opportunity to spend time at the Garden Watch in the chapel.

Good Friday starts with the opportunity to spend time at the Garden Watch (beginning at 9:00 AM) before the Good Friday Liturgy, which takes place from Noon to 3:00 PM.

On Holy Saturday [Easter Eve] the great Vigil Service of Easter begins at 6:00 PM, which includes the first Communion service of the Easter Feast, and on Sunday we will have the grand celebration of the Resurrection at 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM (Brass Prelude at 9:30 AM).

Information about these various services can be found in the insert in today’s Order of Service called Holy Week Explained.

More importantly, I cannot stress more strongly that we need you to attend these services!  This is the most important week of the year, and I would love to see a larger percentage of parishioners avail themselves of one or more of these services that lead up to Easter Day.

I understand that we are a busy people, and that many of us live very far away from the church facility.  But it is important for your spiritual life to participate in this holiest of weeks, and your presence will also be an encouragement to those others who have taken time and distance to be here, especially our visitors.

God willing, see you in Church!

 

Veiling for Passiontide - Rector's Rambling for March 22, 2026

       As you may have noticed, the crosses on the altars and around the church are now veiled.  Although most Episcopal churches follow the modern Roman Catholic form for veiling the crosses on all the Sundays of Lent, we keep to the old tradition of doing so from Passion Sunday onwards.  Dr. Taylor Marshall, a former Episcopal priest writes on his blog Canterbury Tales,

“In the old days, Passion Sunday (5th Sunday) ‘ramped up’ the Lenten season.  Passion Sunday (also called Judica Sunday from the opening Introit) is the traditional day for veiling the crucifixes and statues in the churches.  The practice allegedly derives from Bavaria (though I’d love for someone more knowledgeable to shed light on the origin of this custom).  The crosses and images remain veiled and add to the dramatic effect of the Paschal Vigil when they are unveiled for the glory and wonder of our Lord’s resurrection.  The famous medieval triptychs that opened and closed were constructed for the purpose of closing them for this season.”

Additionally, starting today we no longer use the “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and every shall be, world without end.” to the end of psalms and canticles, as well as the opening of Morning and Evening Prayer.    Removing this Doxology is another liturgical reminder that we are another step closer to Good Friday, and then Easter Day!

Wednesday, March 25, is the Feast of the Annunciation.  That day marks nine months until the celebration of the birth of Jesus, so that day the Church remembers the day that the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son by the Holy Ghost.  This can be found in St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 1, verses 26 to 38.

We will celebrate this Feast within our Lenten Fast on Wednesday, March 25, at the 12:15 Holy Communion Service.

 

Laetare! And Covid shutdown anniversary - Rector's Rambling for March 15, 2026

     Today we take the opportunity to ‘lighten up’ a bit with the celebration of Laetare Sunday, also known as Rose Sunday because of the rose colored vestments used at today’s Masses. After six weeks of the heavy purple of the three pre-Lenten gesimas and first three Sundays in Lent, we get to lighten up just a bit before going headlong into the much deeper next two weeks of Passiontide and Holy Week!

To help with lightening things up, we will be having a Corned Beef luncheon downstairs following the 10 AM Service.  I hope you can join us!

Recently a friend noted on social media that he was having the “Lentiest of Lents" he could possibly be having.  I immediately thought back to the last time I heard someone say that!  It was this week, six years ago, that the Covid Shutdowns began!  As I wrote in the Chronicle for that Sunday in 2020 (which was only published online for people to see since we couldn’t actually be here in Church)

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“On Tuesday, March 17, (2020) the bishops of the four Episcopal Church dioceses in Michigan issued a Pastoral Directive, stating,

In addition to continuing to forgo all public, in-person worship services, we direct you to cease all other Sunday, Saturday and weekday in-person gatherings, including weddings, funerals, memorial services, bible studies, prayer meetings, and non-emergency baptisms, and place all of the groups that gather at your congregation on hiatus for the CDC’s recommended eight weeks, or until May 10th, including both Holy Week and Easter.”

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Those eight weeks of mandated shutdown were extended into over fifteen weeks as we went from trying to slow the spread to trying to stop the spread.  Reopening happened July 1 with all sorts of restrictions over the next year.  St. John’s was the only parish of the diocese in the city of Detroit to open for an entire year, and did so without a single outbreak in the parish.

In some ways is seems like ages ago, and other times the pain of it quite fresh.  Some parishioners never returned from the shut down, and the addition of regular livestreaming and the morning meditations allowed for others to join us electronically.  Just last week I got an email from another person in England thanking us for our YouTube channel.

I am so grateful for the faithfulness of this parish, for the many people who wanted to get back to worship, to being with each other, and to receive The Blessed Sacrament.  May we never find ourselves in this situation again!.