Blow That Trumpet

Episcopal News Service has posted the text of the Presiding Bishop’s sermon in New Orleans this morning. It is well worth reading, and available here.

The PB drew her inspiration from two unlikely sources: Bishop Philander Chase—who in the early 19th century founded several congregations, as well as Kenyon College, ruffling many feathers along the way—and the jazz trumpet that was dedicated during the service. She noted that Chase was frequently “ahead of the curve,” founding Bexley Hall Seminary at a time when most felt that one seminary was enough, thank you, and getting himself elected bishop of Illinois, but before that diocese was formally recognized.

She concluded the sermon with the metaphor of the trumpet and the New Orleans funeral procession, saying, “This procession is going down to the grave, and it's going to dance away on the other side, but only when we join the traveling throng. None of us is going home until all of us have a place to lay our heads, and music for our grieving hearts, and a feast for the belly and for the soul. When the saints go marching in, it's going to be with every last one of us.”