Jun 26 2019 Nicene Creed - Commemoration of Isabel Florence Hapgood

I believe in one God

Here’s another name I’ve never heard. It’s one of the many things I really enjoy from this prayer practice – coming across names and stories of people through history from whom I can learn much.

Hapgood was known for translating many great French and Russian works into English, including Les Miserables, and the Brothers Karamazov. She also admired Russian orthodox liturgy and music, and worked to translate those rich resources for American audiences. She brought Russian Orthodox choral singing to American audiences.

There is something very beautiful, haunting, and holy about orthodoxy. I’ve been involved in a Russian Orthodox baptism, and wedding, both of which were beautiful, and included a reverence to holy mysteries that we post-modern Americans find difficult to allow to remain a mystery.

My home parish outside Seattle shared our space with a Greek Orthodox Mission, until they were able to find their own space. That allowed us to share worship space, write icons together, share Holy Week liturgies.

I’m not Orthodox, and there are parts of that faith I neither understand nor can entirely endorse. But I loved the opportunity to experience those rich liturgies and faith practices.

At the other end of the religious spectrum, I was invite to participate in a monthly prayer gathering of evangelical clergy. I went when I was available. And it provided amazing exposure to a rich, emotional, fully-American, prayer practice. There were parts of that that I neither understand nor can entirely endorse. But I loved the opportunity to experience those rich prayer practices.

The collect that was written to commemorate Hapgood reads:

Teach your divided church, O God, to look upon one another with a holy envy, to see what is good and right in our separate traditions, and to continually seek the unity that you desire for all your people.

This morning, I’m thinking about my faith tradition and practices. It suits me, partly because of my constitution, and partly because it’s what I know. I’m thinking about the traditions and practices that surround me that seem foreign, that are foreign. I’m wondering about how to seek them out and learn from them, both to infuse my faith practices, and to seek unity with God’s children who are following a different path. It is after all, One God.