Notes to a Young Man (1)
When my family moved to Kenilworth in the summer of 1960, when all the world was young, we joined The Church of the Holy Comforter and became Episcopalians. Father Hanner had arrived on the scene as Rector in 1956, and he and his wife Rose became frequent visitors at 241 Melrose Avenue. He retired in 1971, a year after my family had moved to San Marino.
In 1972 I graduated from College, and after training in Hartford began working in Richmond as a Home Office Representative for the Aetna. After a startling encounter while reading The Sermon on the Mount, I began a correspondence with Father Hanner about whether God might be calling me to be a priest.
As I struggled with the possibility, he sent a series of short, typed letters to me, occasionally illustrated with a clever cartoon. I don't have my letters, but I saved the relevant portions of his letters, typing them out on index cards. Here's his first response as I recorded it:
All the importance of the priesthood today seems to center on doing good, the "social gospel." That is fine, that is the fruit of religion, but Christians witness to an "invasion of life by God." The early Christians took care of each other and the widows, etc. They were "social gospelers" but they were primarily witnessing to a new life: HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD. WE SAW HIM. He has pervaded -- invaded -- the now with the eternal.
W.O.H. 10/21/72
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