[Magdalen] Retired clergy (was Re: Epiphany)

[Jim Guthrie]

On 1/26/2016 3:33 PM, Raewynne Whiteley wrote:
> Hmmm...that explains even more about this place (St James, St James).  One
> of the previous rectors here, after moving to a new parish out of state,
> continued to function as the personal chaplain to many wealthier (now
> former) parishioners.  Ans so they departed the parish - why bother to stay
> involved, pledge, etc, when you can just call your personal chaplain. And
> he continued to be pastorally involved with a number of other families, who
> have never really connected with clergy since.
Well there was a Rector (MB) who took no little pride in getting rid of 
that bunch (the north of 25A crowd),so I don't think you can trace it 
all to a departing Rector.

Then there was the Alpha Course project -- we even had a priest from St 
Bart's (which developed its own highly successful version aimed at 
attracting people to the liberal church) to explain how it worked and to 
get people fired up. where the newly fired-up leaders seemed to decide 
that inviting strangers who then might join the parish would ruin 
everything, so they dined mostly by themselves. .

And then there was the consternation in 1995 when an Arcadia Book of 
local history included photos of the Ku Klus Klan lined up in front of 
the church (to be fair(?) it should be noted that at least four of the 
North Shore LI parishes had their own KKK groups in the 1920s) and 
holding a funeral in the churchyard.

It also sports a memorial window  to the Warden who went down on the 
Titanic.

It's an interesting place with an interesting history.

Cheers,
Jim