St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

At St. Paul’s Parish This Week:

In Church News:

The 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church concluded yesterday. Several participants kept blogs during the proceedings and reading their daily entries can provide a good overview of the Convention. Read those of Ohio’s deputies here. Among those who kept blogs were several bishops who partnered on a single blog site, here.

Find other news of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion at Episcopal Life Online.

The July issue of St. Paul’s Epistle, our monthly newsletter, is available on line as a .PDF file readable with Abobe Reader by PC users and with Preview by Mac users.

On the Calendar of Saints –
Deaconess Elizabeth Ferard:

Today is a feria on the calendar of the Episcopal Church. On the Church of England’s calendar we find the commemoration of Elizabeth Ferard, first Deaconess of the Church of England and founder of the Community of St Andrew. Her biography in Exciting Holiness – 2007 tells us:

Elizabeth Catherine Ferard was encouraged by Bishop Tait of London to visit deaconess institutions in Germany and, in November 1861, she and a group of women dedicated themselves ‘to minister to the necessities of the Church’ as servants in the Church. On this day in 1862, Elizabeth Ferard received the first deaconess licence from Bishop Tait. She went on to found a community of deaconesses within a religious sisterhood, working first in a poor parish in the King’s Cross area of London and then moving to Notting Hill in 1873. When her health failed, she passed on the leadership to others and died on Easter Day 1883.

A prayer for today:

The following is the prayer suggested for Deaconess Ferard’s commemoration in Exciting Holiness:

Almighty God, by whose grace Elizabeth Ferard, kindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in the Church: inflame us with the same spirit of discipline and love, that we may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.