Tiger Baseball Sunday 2026 - Rector's Rambling for June 21, 2026

     Another exciting Sunday at St. John’s.  This is our 26th Tiger Baseball Outing Sunday, something we started the year after Comerica Park opened next door!  My first few months here one of our then parishioners who worked in the Tigers front office suggested I should throw out a first pitch, and that we should have all the parishioners and friends come over to see it!  The next year the choir began singing the National Anthem (and I got to lead Take me out the ballgame that year) and the choir continued to do so for many years, until the Tigers (and all of Major League Baseball) converted Sunday games into Kids Day and reserved the anthem that day for kid-related groups.

Welcome to our guests who are joining us today for worship and to go over to the game .  Be sure to come downstairs for lunch after worship.  We will be cooking up hot dogs for the occasion so we can fill up beforehand.

Today of course is also the secular holiday Fathers Day, and we give thanks for all the dads in our congregation, and for our fathers absent today or who have gone on to eternal life.  Although this holiday doesn’t seem to get the traction that Mothers Day does (perhaps rightfully so) we are grateful for the gift of fatherhood.

We do have a busy next couple of weeks ahead, including an induction of Deb Bush into the Order of the Daughters of the King next week, and a celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary of declaring independence from Great Britain.  We will have some patriotic hymns to sing, and after the 10 AM Service will have Strawberry Shortcake as a treat at Coffee Hour.

The St. Michael’s Conference for Youth, Midwest begins that same afternoon, July 5th, at Manresa Retreat Center, and your prayers and financial support are greatly appreciated. 

In addition to the organizations that St. John’s supports through our Outreach Committee, the St. Catherine’s Guild reached out to our former parishioner, now a priest, Fr. Cam Walker, for a recommendation of who we could support at Nashotah House Theological Seminary.  For three years the parish, and several members of it, supported Fr. Cam as he was studying there in preparation for his ordination, and the St. Catherine’s Guild wanted to continue that support.  Father recommended Jason Flack of the Diocese of Florida. 

He graduated last month from Nashotah House,   has been ordained a transitional deacon and God willing will be ordained a priest in August.  He is serving as the curate at The Church of Our Saviour in Jacksonville, Florida. A curate is generally a new priest in his first assignment, working with a rector.

 

The long green season - Rector's Rambling for June 14, 2026

     The long Church season known as Trinitytide is now upon us and the neighborhood will be as busy as ever.  On any given Tigers home game day, the neighborhood around us is bustling, as well as for shows at the Fox Theatre and concerts at the Little Caesars Arena.  Add to that the uptick in new housing available and occupied in the neighborhood, and this Piety Hill area (the old name for this neighborhood) has certainly come back to life with joggers, walkers with strollers and pets, and those coming and going on their bikes.  It is a big change from 25  years ago when I arrived as rector.

Here at St. John’s, I used to say that things slowed down for the summer.  But, in fact, the busyness just changes.  Instead of Sunday School and Guilds/Organizations meeting regularly, we have summer projects and programs.  Until this Sunday we have had something ’special’ nearly every Sunday since Easter; Canon Bedford’s birthday luncheon , 3 baptisms, 2 baby showers, outreach recognition Sunday, and the Malawi Ingathering, 

Next week we have our Tiger baseball outing and the following Sunday the institution of a new member of the Daughters of the King   In July we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, send students and staff to the St. Michael’s Conference for Youth, and end the month with a day in celebration of our parish founders.  And with the exception of the week that I am at St. Michael’s Conference for Youth we should be having our regularly scheduled weekday Masses and Evening Prayer. 

Summer is a time for travel and recreation.  I hope you will take the opportunity to visit a church or two if you are away on holiday, and be sure to bring back a worship bulletin or other information about the church so we can see what others are doing in Jesus’ name.

But if Sunday morning finds you in the area, then I hope that you will make the effort to come down to Church to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.  Although the choir is only at quartet strength, the music is still wonderful, the Gospel powerful, the Sacrament Grace-filled, and the fellowship welcoming and encouraging.

And I hope that while home, or while traveling, you will keep current on your pledge to the parish.  Although the parish income is never considered “straight line”, expecting the same amount each week, the bills expect to be paid regularly throughout the summer months.  In addition to dropping it in the collection plate on Sunday or using the QR code to give electronically, you can always put a stamp on your giving envelope and drop it in a mailbox, and it will get to us that way.

 

Corpus Christi Sunday - Rector's Rambling for June 7, 2026

     

    Today is one last great hurrah before we enter fully into the long season of green vestments known as Trinitytide. 

Today we celebrate Corpus Christi.  The actual Feast Day was Thursday, but it is important enough, like All Saints Day, that we also keep it on the Sunday following.

In the summer of 1990 I experienced my first Solemn High Mass for Corpus Christi.  It was at S. Clement’s Church in Philadelphia.  Three things that I remember most poignantly 36 years later is 1)that it was so hot and humid I felt like I was melting into a puddle, 2) that I had never heard a Mass setting performed at a Mass (it was Shubert’s Mass in G), and  3) that I had never experienced something so sublimely beautiful as the Mass and procession of the Blessed Sacrament that day.   It was a glorious day that deepened my own faith and devotion in a way that continues to this day.

The Sacrament of our Lord’s own Body and Blood is such an important part of the life of Christians.  Jesus said that unless we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood we have no life in us, and he has provided that under the species of bread and wine. (See John Chapter 6 and all the Last Supper narratives in the other three Gospels).

Back in Holy Week we celebrated the institution of this Sacrament at the Last Supper, the night before Jesus died for our sins.  In all the focus on the cross of that week, this very important aspect of our Faith seems to get lost in the shuffle.  The Church, in her wisdom, celebrates this day outside of Lent and Eastertide so that we can kick off the new season with the important reminder of this powerful assurance of Grace!  May we take advantage of if this gift by receiving often...at least once a week if not more! 

 

Creed of St. Athanasius - Rector's Rambling for May 31, 2026

    Today we get to recite one of the great statements of belief.  In addition to the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed, there is the Athanasian Creed, also known as the Quicunque Vult (the opening phrase in Latin).

Ultimately, the great mystery of God is unknowable on this side of heaven.  We will only fully understand Him in eternal life.  But God has revealed what we need to know about Himself to us through the Scriptures, particularly in the teachings of Jesus (second person of the Trinity).  By the guidance of the Holy Ghost (third person of the Trinity) the scriptures were written and compiled for us, and the Church, meeting in Councils, have “separated the wheat from the chaff” when it comes to the teachings of who God is in Trinity.

We have three creeds because each successive one (Apostles, then Nicene, then Athanasian) were compiled to answer questions arising from previous creeds, or from honest inquiry by the Church.  While the Apostles Creed (also known as the Baptismal Creed) is recited during Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Nicene Creed during celebrations of The Holy Communion, the Athanasian Creed has generally been reserved for public recitation on major Holy Days.

Interestingly, the Episcopal Church is the only branch of our world-wide Anglican Communion that has not included the Athanasian Creed in our locally adapted version of the 39 Articles of Religion or Prayer Books until 1979.  But as members of the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church” in Communion with Anglicans worldwide, we recite it today with thanksgiving for the gift of this knowledge of God in Trinity. 

          Reprinted from 5/26/24

 

Whitsunday - Rector's Rambling for May 24, 2026

        I had the opportunity in seminary to get to know the then Archbishop of Canterbury’s special advisor on evangelism, Bishop Michael Marshall.  When consecrated, he was the youngest bishop in England, who then subsequently spent some time in the United States at the Anglican Institute before returning to England to serve under the Archbishop.  He was adjunct faculty at Nashotah House and came to lecture us periodically.

One of the lectures that has stuck with me was when he spoke about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in particular how we often begin to exercise them without realizing it.  In fact, Bishop Marshall said, it is other people who begin to recognize how these gifts are being made manifest through our faithfulness and desire to serve.

He harkened this observation back to the day of Pentecost itself.  The disciples, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, would not have seen or recognized at first in themselves what was going on, but they would recognize it in others.  As the bishop described the scene in his proper English accent, “excuse me love, but you seem to have a bit of flame up on your head.”

We should certainly be praying and asking God to make manifest in us the gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (as we have been praying for in our Novena the last nine days).  And we should also pray that we may begin to manifest the fruits of the Spirit as well: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.  (Some ancient translations of Galatians 5:22–23 break down “temperance” into self-control, modesty and chastity, which are all aspects of it).

The world wants to reject much of this, or try to redefine the terms into it’s distorted own image, but God’s plan for us is to live in these gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.  It often takes a loving word from a fellow member of the church for us to realize that these things are in fact beginning to be made manifest in us even if we don’t see it.  And we should press on in faith and hope, relying on God’s grace, to continue to grow in all these attributes.

It is only by His most gracious favor that the world will be changed.  And it starts with our cooperation with Him!

 

Sunday after Ascension - Rector's Rambling for May 17, 2026

     As you’ve noticed by now I am away this week with some of the family and extended family, and God willing will be back on Saturday.  Thank you to everyone who pitched in to make sure worship is happening today here at St. John’s while I am away.

Eastertide has now come and gone, and in a few weeks we will be back in the “green” of ordinary time, also known as Trinitytide.

Easter is certainly the primary feast of the Church calendar.  It is by Jesus’ death and resurrection that we have the price of our sins paid, and death conquered by Jesus himself.

Ascension Day, which was last Thursday, is the culmination of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Jesus takes his human body, resurrected, with Him back into the Godhead to intercede for us.

Today we are between times.  Like the disciples, we are preparing for the promise of the coming of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.  We have been praying since Friday a novena for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, just as the disciples spent those nine days between Ascension and Pentecost in prayer.  You are most welcome to join this novena – there are forms for it at the back of the church, and it is being sent daily to the St. John’s email list.

Sunday, May 24, is Whitsunday, also known as Pentecost.  On this day we celebrate the birthday of the Church, by the coming of the Holy Ghost to empower the followers of Jesus to continue His work and propagate the Gospel.

The following week we have Trinity Sunday, when the Rector feebly tries to explain this vital dogma about God being one God in three persons.

The following Thursday, June 7, we have our celebration of Corpus Christi – the Body of Christ – at our 10:30 AM Mass.  We rejoice and give thanks that Jesus feeds us with his own body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  We will also keep the Feast of Corpus Christi as the external Solemnity on Sunday, June 6.

After that we are in green vestments, with the exception of two Sundays in October and one in November, for the remainer of the liturgical year known as Trinitytide.  The liturgical new year resets and begins again with the First Sunday in Advent on November 29th

Rogation Sunday - Rector's Rambling for May 3, 2026

     As I write this column it is once again raining.  Back in 2020 at this time lake/river levels were at unprecedented high water marks, with flooding on area creeks leading to the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair.  Last fall they dropped pretty low and thankfully this wet spring is helping to restore the levels.  As a rower I keep an eye of these things, fearful to scrap my boat on not-so-deeply submerged rocks!.

Why do I write this?  Because today, in addition to being the 5th Sunday after Easter, is known as Rogation Sunday.  Today, at the 10:00 AM service (weather permitting), we will process around the perimeter of the building, singing the litany hymn in a symbolic “beating of the boundaries” of the parish.  It is an opportunity for us to implore God’s mercy upon us and our community as we begin the planting season.  Our common welfare is tied up with the ability for crops to be planted, grow, and be harvested so that we can be nourished.  The Church this weekend acknowledges that all things are a part of God’s providence, including the temperate weather and the ability for us to grow and harvest.

Today is also the secular celebration of Mother’s Day.  Although not a part of our liturgical calendar, we do honor our mothers, past and present, with the singing of our Mother’s Day Hymn.  We thank God for the moms in our congregation and all the moms in our own lives who give of themselves for the good of those they raise.

And a reminder that this Thursday is the 40th Day of Eastertide and a major feast day!  We celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.  Holy Communion will be celebrated on Thursday morning at 10:30 AM to keep the Feast.

On Friday we begin our preparation for Whitsunday (May 24) with our daily Holy Ghost Novena.

 

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!