NOTE: the High Churchmen of Oxford and Rome will not like this simple truth demonstrated in this poem:

 THE PREACHER'S MISTAKE

by William Croswell Doane

 

The parish priest

Of austerity,

Climbed up in a high church steeple

To be nearer God, 

So that he might hand

His word down to His people.

 

When the sun was high,

When the sun was low,

The good man sat unheeding

Sublunary things.

From transcendency

Was he forever reading.

 

And now and again 

When he heard a creak

Of the weather vane a-turning,

He closed his eyes

And said, "Of a truth

From God I now am learning."

 

And in sermon script

He daily wrote

What he thought was sent from heaven, 

And he dropped this down

On his people's heads

Two times one day in seven.

 

In his old age God said,

"Come down and die!"

And he cried out from the steeple,

"Where art Thou, Lord?" 

And the Lord replied,

"Down here among My people."

      -Logos of St Andrew Spring 98

 

 

-- 

submitted by Jerry L. Ogles

Presiding Bishop and Chairman, Standing Committee 

Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide