February 26, 2025
Bill Harkins
In February the Episcopal Church has traditionally celebrated the lives of two people dear to me, and to many. Eric Henry Liddell (16 January 1902 – 21 February 1945, was a Scottish athlete, rugby union international and missionary. Liddell was the winner of the Men’s 400 meters at the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris. He was portrayed in the wonderful film Chariots of Fire. Born in China, Liddell returned there as a Protestant missionary in later life.
Often called the “Flying Scotsman”, Liddell was born in Tianjin (formerly transliterated as Tientsin) in North China, second son of the Rev & Mrs James Dunlop Liddell who were Scottish missionaries with the London Missionary Society. He became well known for being the fastest runner in Scotland while at Eltham College. He withdrew from the 100-meter race in the 1924 Olympics in Paris as he refused to run on a Sunday. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 meters, an event in which he had previously excelled. Even so, his success in the 400m was largely unexpected. He not only won the race but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. To put this in perspective, my best 400m time was 48.2 at the D-III championships my senior year in college, some 50 years later!
Liddell returned to Northern China where he served as a missionary, like his parents, from 1925 to 1943 – first in Tianjin and later in the town of Xiaozhang. Liddell’s first job as a missionary was as a teacher at an Anglo-Chinese College (grades 1-12) for wealthy Chinese students. It was believed that by teaching the children of the wealthy that they themselves would later become influential figures in China and promote Christian values. During his first furlough in 1932, he was ordained as a minister. On his return to China, he married Florence Mackenzie of Canadian missionary parentage in Tianjin in 1934.
In 1941 life in China was becoming so dangerous that the British Government advised British nationals to leave. Florence and the children left for Canada to stay with her family when Liddell accepted a new position at a rural mission station in Shaochang, which gave service to the poor. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the Japanese were at war. When the fighting reached Shaochang the Japanese took over the mission station. In 1943, Liddell was interned at the Weihsien Internment Camp with the members of the China Inland Mission Chefoo School. He died there of a brain tumor on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation.
Among my favorite moments in the film “Chariots of Fire” is this one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCKNqIjdu8o
“Chariots Of Fire”. Such an amazing, iconic movie. It is a timeless classic. The fact that it is based on historical events makes it even more compelling. It is also one that I have a personal connection to. I have already done one post of a scene from the movie featuring Harold Abrahams, one of the 2 main characters in the movie. A man whose …
Now, I am an old and slow trail runner, but this scene never fails to put a spring in my step, and hope in my heart, and a reminder to remain steadfast, and resilient!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us… (Hebrews 12: 1-2)
Another saint whose life we celebrate this month is the poet George Herbert, many of whose poems have been put to music and can be found in our hymnal.
George Herbert | The Poetry Foundation
George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633)[1] was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as “one of the foremost British devotional lyricists.” He was born in Wales into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University’s Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He sat in the Parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625
After the death of King James, Herbert renewed his interest in ordination. He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as the rector of the rural parish of Fugglestone, St. Peter, just outside Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill and providing food and clothing for those in need. Henry Vaughan called him “a most glorious saint and seer”.He was never a healthy man and died of consumption at age 39.
More than ninety of Herbert’s poems have been set for singing over the centuries, some of them multiple times. In his own century, there were settings of “Longing” by Henry Purcell and “And art thou grieved” by John Blow. Some forty were adapted for the Methodist hymnal by the Wesley brothers, among them “Teach me my God and King”, which found its place in one version or another in 223 hymnals. Another poem, “Let all the world in every corner sing”, was published in 103 hymnals, of which one is a French version. Other languages into which his work has been translated for musical settings include Spanish, Catalan and German.
In the 20th century, “Vertue” alone achieved ten settings, one of them in French. Among leading modern composers who set his work were Rubbra, who set “Easter” as the first of his Two songs for voice and string trio (op. 2, 1921); Ralph Vaughan Williams, who used four by Herbert in Five Mystical Songs, of which “Easter” was the first and “Antiphon II” the last; Robin Milford, who used the original Fitzwilliam manuscript’s setting of the second part of “Easter” for his cantata Easter Morning (1932), set in two parts for soprano soloist and choir of children’s or women’s voices; Benjamen Britton, and William Walton, both of whom set “Antiphon” too; Ned Rorem who included one in his “10 poems for voice, oboe and strings” (1982); and Judith Wier, whose 2005 choral work Vertue includes three poems by Herbert.
This is among my favorites of Herbert’s poems set to music and found in our hymnal. It was sung at the Cathedral when my ordination brother Dr. Thee Smith and I were ordained years ago. Members of our own Holy Family were there as well:
King of Glory, King of Peace with Lyrics
This past week in our “Walk in Love” Adult Education class we discussed the chapter “Marking Time,” and explored how immersion in the Daily Office and other prayers can cultivate “Kairos” time and deepen and enrich our spiritual lives. This lovely prayer by Herbert is a perfect example:
Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee;
in my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
to enrol thee:
e’en eternity’s too short
to extol thee.
This coming Sunday will be our final class, and it has been such a joy to journey with you. Your faithful attendance has been such a joy for me! We won’t be able to complete the entire book, but please keep reading and exploring how our spiritual disciplines shape us. Remember Augustine’s words, when writing about that moment in the liturgy when the consecrated elements are held up before the faithful, who said ‘Behold what you are, become what you receive. ‘ Just think about those words for a moment ‘Behold what you are, become what you receive.’ They are words that work on so many levels. What we care for, we will grow to resemble. And what we resemble will hold us, when we are us no longer.
I’ll catch you later down the trail, and I hope to see you in church.
Blessings, Bill+
February 19, 2025
Bill Harkins
In one of my favorites of his songs, Van Morrison sings:
I’m a dweller on the threshold
And I’m waiting at the door
And I’m standing in the darkness
I don’t want to wait no more
I’m a dweller on the threshold
And I cross some burning ground
And I’ll go down to the water
Let the great illusion drown
This song speaks to those liminal spaces we find on the journey and the invitation to explore them implicit in Morrison’s “I don’t want to wait no more.” The etymology of “threshold” is from the Latin, “Limen.” It describes states, times, spaces, etc., that exist at a point of transition or change—a metaphorical threshold—as in “the liminal zone between sleep and wakefulness.”
When we walk through that doorway, as Morrison’s song suggests, something addresses us, prompts us, calls us, pushes us, pulls us into a relationship with itself. Transitional, liminal space is where we experience life in a lively way that feels real to us and where we discover and create ourselves as fully alive. I would suggest that this includes those aspects of our lives that are dissonant and where we are in conflict. It is from and within this space that we encounter each other, in our common finitude,
February 12, 2025
Bill Harkins
The Reverend Absalom Jones, 1746-1818
This famous image of Jones was rendered by Philadelphia artist Raphaelle Peale in 1810.
In our “Walk in Love” adult education class, we are learning about how Episcopal beliefs and practices shape our actions. We’ve learned the phrase Lex orandi, lex credenda, from the Latin, meaning “the law of prayer is the law of belief.” This describes the idea that habits of prayer shape Christian belief. It’s a reminder that prayer and belief are integral to each other, and that liturgy is not distinct from theology. In other words, our beliefs and actions are informed by our spiritual disciplines. This belief is shared by most faith traditions in one way or another and has to do with “meaning making” and spirituality as we live out our day to day lives. When I was a sophomore at Sandy Springs High School, I was unexpectedly promoted to the varsity football team due to the injury of a senior whose position I shared in our Power-I option offense. Truth be told, I was scared, and unprepared. When the team manager asked me to pick a number for my jersey, I chose #21 because Roberto Clemente was among my athletic heroes. While known primarily for his years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Clemente’s first love was track and field, and he was an Olympic hopeful in his youth before deciding to turn his full attention to baseball.
February 5, 2025
Among my favorite passages from the Hebrew Bible is Joshua 3: 1-5. The NRSV version reads like this:
3 Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over. 2 At the end of three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place. Follow it, 4 so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this way before. Then Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
In this reading from Joshua, we find people in transition and a leader, in Moses, also in transition or, perhaps in a process of transformation. In our liturgical year we are moving through Epiphany toward Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday on March 5th. We are also in a transitional season after a polarizing and difficult election season. Many are anxious and at times, the truth seems elusive. And of course, we are in transition as we seek our next rector in this season of profound changes in the Episcopal Church and in mainline Protestantism, hence, our “Lay led, clergy supported” mantra. In our “Walk in Love” class at Holy Family (40+ souls last Sunday…thank you!) we are making our way through disciplines and practices found in the Book of Common Prayer.