Charles Chapman Grafton was an early member of the Society of Saint
John the Evangelist, with a missional heart and soul for the Gospel
nourished in the Anglo-Catholic spirit of Edward Bouverie Pusey: which
is to say, one who understood both the beauty of holiness and the
holiness of beauty. He served at Boston’s Church of the Advent, and
later as Bishop of Fond du Lac. He was an active supporter of the
revival of religious life in The Episcopal Church, and assisted in the
foundation of the Sisters of the Holy Nativity. He also sought
rapprochement with the Orthodox and Old Catholic church leaders of his
day.
It would be a great mistake to reduce such a
legacy to the “Fond of Lace” school of prettified and petrified worship
of the means of worship. For people like Grafton, the smells and bells
were not an end in themselves, but a mark of the singular dignity evoked
by a lively awareness of the presence of God in our midst, and in our
persons, a deeply incarnational faith.
May he and all
who seek the glimmers of God's presence — in art and music and the human
person — here on earth rejoice unto the ages of ages in the
imperishable halls of heaven.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
icon in wash and ink 2013
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