Michael Durning's BlogSpot: Remembering Aunt Peg Hoffman

Michael Durning's BlogSpot: Remembering Aunt Peg Hoffman: Some of our best stories are told when two women bond in order to face tough times—think of Lucy and Ethel, Thelma and Louise, or Two Broke ...

Remembering Aunt Peg Hoffman

Some of our best stories are told when two women bond in order to face tough times—think of Lucy and Ethel, Thelma and Louise, or Two Broke Girls for example.

But the theme goes much deeper than anything our current time and culture has to offer.  The Old Testament offers the story of Ruth and Naomi.  In moving devotion to her late husband’s mother, Ruth tells Naomi “Wherever you go, I will go-- your people will be my people and your God will be my God”. The New Testament offers the story of Martha and Mary, known to Jesus as personal friends. 

When women find a sense of direction and progress by teaming up with one another, they find a life-giving grace that is the font of epic stories-- a gift from God.

In that time of almost naïve optimism following the Great Depression, two young women met at a gathering of the Girl’s Friendly Society held in Valley Forge, PA.  Mary Alice Smith was from Philadelphia.  Her reddish hair prompted the nickname “Pat”. She was a member of St. George’s Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia.  Margaret Young was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Advent of Baltimore, MD.  They shared all of life’s mileposts.  Each married.  Their husbands served their country in the Second World War.  The pain of the military wife was shared pain.  When Pat’s husband was missing in action, six weeks of agony was shared as well.  Children were born, houses were made into homes.  The bonds that were once shared between two people led to the formation of an extended family born together of love as well as blood. Thousands of trips were made between Baltimore and Philadelphia.  These trips witnessed the Sacramental Life of weddings, baptisms, first communions, ordinations and funerals.  In between there were cookouts, visits, and vacations that wove a fabric of life, a life that now extends to a large family, many of whom would be strangers except for the love that two young Episcopal women had for their families, their respective parishes, and one another.

To me, the sad news of Aunt Peggy’s death signals much more than an occasion to grieve.  In an age where social-media friendships can be terminated with the push of a button, Pat and Margaret stand together as witnesses to another way of relating, a way that requires work, discipline, sacrifice and selflessness.  It gives life to love.  It is close to the heart to Jesus. 

Aunt Peggy, I will always remember the nights at the dining room table, playing cards for pennies, crab dinners on the picnic bench and Dee dropping a fully-cooked pan of lasagna on the kitchen floor.  Your life could fill a book, or maybe it already has, if I am reading my Bible correctly.

Your family sends our love and prayers as you enter into the fullness of life in Jesus.

The Rev. Canon Michael P. Durning, Canon to the Ordinary, Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida

Want a New Rector? Ask a New Question!

Today was a great day to visit a parish and drop off a list of candidates for the Search Committee. The OT reading 1 Samuel 16:1-13 was especially helpful. Poor Samuel just could not get over Saul's bankrupt leadership. The Lord "compels" him to get going to Bethlehem. Jesse and sons await the visit where an anointing is to take place and a new kingship begun. Samuel goes from son to son without success. Seven of them.

Had Samuel acted like the typical Search Committee at this point, there would be trouble. It is not easy to be a Search Committee. There is pressure to get the job done right and quickly. People are watching. What a temptation to rationalize! Many a Call gets botched by assuming that all the candidates are in the room. This in turn leads to the cardinal error of comparing the candidates to one another, a practice unwarranted in Scripture, whether we talk about David, Stephen, Matthias or anyone else in the Bible. Having seen the seventh son and having heard seven times to withhold the anointing, Samuel asks a question:

"Are all your sons here?"

Good question! The seven sons of Jesse simply did not compare to God's criteria-- the right heart.

I hope this particular Search Committee is able to do its work without having to go outside the room. But should they come up short, my prayer for them is for the courage to ask God the same question that Samuel put to Jesse.