Body bag

This Sunday is my last as a full time Priest in the Episcopal Church. I am retiring and will be part time at another church in the area. I have been at St. Simon’s on the Sound in Ft. Walton Beach, FL for ten years and it has been a great ride. What a privilege to serve this beautiful people.

Today I was packing up my vestments into a long, black vestment garment bag. As I zipped up the very full bag, memories of other long, black bags and the sound of those zippers came flooding back. I’ve been pretty weepy this week so I am not surprised too much, but the memory was of zipping up body bags after Hurricane Katrina. My church was destroyed by the storm and a few weeks after I got a call from a couple of mortuary assistants who had volunteered to help with identifying bodies. They had setup a temporary morgue in a trailer and asked me to come see them, they had a check from a church in their home town for the recovery efforts. When I got there, these two fellows were over worked and very stressed. What a hard but important job they had to take care of the bodies of the dead until they could be identified.

They asked me if I would bless the dozen or so bodies they had in their morgue, and I did so. We unzipped each bag far enough for me to sprinkle holy water on the body and say a prayer. It was such a holy and horrible time! I will never forget those two amazing volunteers (among so many who came to our aid) and the offering of their gifts in such a challenging situation. I prayed with them after the blessings were done and we spent some time processing.

Zipping up my garment bag is of course no where near as tragic as what we did together that day, but it reminded me of the vocation I have been called to and the ways so many people who crossed my path have answered God’s call on their lives to help others. If interested, below is my farewell letter to the parish:

One last time from this Rector's Desk

My office is pretty bare because Jennifer and I have packed up my books and pictures and the other detritus from 10 years at our beloved St. Simon's on the Sound. I have spent much of the last two weeks counting things - baptisms, burials, Eucharists, sermons. They all have a story and I have spent much of this time remembering, reminiscing, and praying through them all.

I have always been a numbers guy. I think it's important to track things like attendance and giving totals. They are one aspect of our life together, reflecting the ups and downs of a parish and the impact of things like storms, pandemics, and bad sermons. I hope there have been few of the latter. But of course numbers are just a way to compare things, the numbers I've been tabulating mean much more than that.

Every time I Celebrated Holy Eucharist with you (1030 times), Jesus was there. Every time I preached (558 unique sermons), I asked the Holy Spirit to give me the words and open your ears to what God needed to be heard. Every time I spent hours prepping for Bible study (we did 10 unique, year long studies), I prayed for everyone to use their minds and hearts to hear God's word and to develop a passion for studying it. Every pastoral visit (too many to count), every anointing with oil (ditto), every baptism (68), every wedding (10), and every burial (90) has its own unique story involving people I love and people who entrusted me in those moments. There is no greater gift than that and I have been so blessed to receive those gifts of time, love, hope, and faith.

Thank you for an amazing ten years. I have no doubt St. Simon's will continue to shine the light of Jesus into a world which needs that light more than ever. You have all you need and so you have a bright future in which to grow more in discipleship and love. I am grateful beyond words for all of you.

God bless and Godspeed!

Father David