Today on the Episcopal calendar, meet Sarah Hale, 1788–1879, editor and prophetic witness.

                               Matthew 7:13 

       

       Enter 

       though 

       the 

       narrow 

       gate, 

       for 

       the 

       gate

       is 

       wide 

       and 

       the 

       road 

       easy 

       that 

       leads 

       to 

       destruction

 This amazing woman, who was left widowed just before the  birth of her fifth child, was an author  who the first woman to have an American novel published, and editor. She also wrote poetry, including  “Mary had a little lamb.” She was a champion of education for both he sexes: she helped found Vassar College. She  “dedicated mush energy to causes which could unite North and South across party lines” And it is thanks to her that Thanksgiving is a national holiday, proclaimed so by Abraham Lincoln.

                               There are a plethora of new people celebrated in the Episcopal book Holy Women, Holy Men and, as is high time, many of them are lay people living out their lives in the world. But I find it disappointing- and worrying - that there is oftentimes no explicit or  implicit reference to their faith. If we are going to celebrate them as examples of the Christian life, are we just celebrating that works? Do these works not spring from the Spring? And as we seek to remake, renew/reimagine/rethink the church in our own day, how do squeeze through that narrow gate between clericalism/authoritarianism/ churchiness and ... this new thing that is springing forth? We hope.