Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton

Today the Episcopal Church remembers and celebrates the life and ministry of Charles Chapman Grafton who was born on 12 April 1830 in Boston, Massachusetts, and died on this day in 1912.  He served as the second Bishop of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, and was a supporter of the Oxford Movement, an affiliation of Anglicans that led sought to revive the Church’s connection to the Patristic period (the first 400 or so years of the Church) and the Anglican Church’s universal (that is what the word “catholic” means) roots.

 

Grafton was consecrated by William E. McLaren of Chicago, Alexander Burgess of Quincy, and George F. Seymour of Springfield on 15 December 1875 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Fond du Lac. Grafton founded the Anglican religious order Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity and was a founding member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican religious order for men wherein the members live under a rule of life and, at profession, make monastic vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience. SSJE was founded in 1866 at Cowley, Oxford, England.

 

Let us pray:  Loving God, you called Charles Chapman Grafton to be a bishop in your Church and endowed him with a burning zeal for souls: Grant that, following his example, we may ever live for the extension of your kingdom, that your glory may be the chief end of our lives, your will the law of our conduct, your love the motive of our actions, and Christ’s life the model and mold of our own; through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, throughout all ages. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Adult Christian Education every Sunday at 11:00 a.m.: Contemporary Moral Issues.

  

Sunday, 8 September we will: (1) begin Sunday School for the children, and (2) bless all of those participating in EFM which is being facilitated by Tammie Taylor.

 

Sunday, 15 September 2013: Invite Someone to Church Sunday.  The Anglican Communion will be doing this all over the world.  Be a part of it!

  

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List especially Jim Reagan, Robert, all of those who are starting college and will be away from home for the first time, and for all of those who are suffering from addictions.  Let us pray: O blessed Lord, you ministered to all who came to you: Look with compassion upon all who through addiction have lost their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of your unfailing mercy; remove from them the fears that beset them; strengthen them in the work of their recovery; and to those who care for them, give patient understanding and persevering love. Amen.

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550