The Very Rev. Ted Clarkson testifies to the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music in favor of adding Deaconess Alexander to the calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts through inclusion in the next edition of Holy Women, Holy Men.
Today at 11:15 a.m., the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music held a hearing on the resolutions concerning the calendar of observances in the book Holy Women, Holy Men the trial-use possible successor to Lesser Feasts and Fasts. As a part of this hearing, four priests from the Diocese of Georgia testified to the committee and the large body of visitors present in support of Resolution C112 Add Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander HWHM. They spoke to the committee on the life, ministry and Christian witness of Deaconess A.E.B. Alexander.
Canon Frank Logue testified to three Bishops of the Diocese speaking of her as a prime example of a Christ-like life during her life and shortly after she died. He also told of the widespread acceptance of her feast day since she was named a Saint of Georgua by Bishop Louttit in 1999. The Very Rev. Ted Clarkson spoke as a priest in a church where the Deaconess served and the living testimony he has seen to her life and work. The Rev. Jason Haddox spoke to the process he went through to write the proposed Collect for the observance and how it spoke to her as an example of one way of doing Christian work, but actually speaks to her saintly life. Finally, the Rev. Cheryl Parris spoke passionately about the importance of the Deaconess image in icon and stained glass around the Docese and how it has inspired her as a black female rector in the Diocese of Georgia. These brief outlines don’t quite do justice to the testimony in the meeting by the four priests as they endorsed passage of the resolution by the committee and this convention. We will keep readers posted on the progress of that resolution, which was unanimously passed by the Diocese of Georgia Convention in 2011 The Rev. Jason Haddox is shown testifying to the SCLM.
O God, you called Anna Alexander as a deaconess in your Church, and sent her as teacher and evangelist to the people of Georgia: Grant us the humility to go wherever you send, and the wisdom to teach the word of Christ to whoever we meet, that all may come to the enlightenment which you intend for your people; through Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Savior. Amen.
The Rev. Cheryl Parris closes out the testimony heard today by the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music in favor of adding Deaconess Alexander to the calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts through inclusion in the next edition of Holy Women, Holy Men.
