G - Past Witnesses
- Johann Gerhard - Ruth Bell Graham - FW Grant - Michael Green - Frank T Griswold III - William Gurnall -
johann gerhard
Johann Gerhard
Now, the purpose of teaching that it is impossible to fulfill the Law is not to encourage or excuse carelessness, sloth, and intentional negligence...rather, it is so that
(1) we, confessing the powerlessness of our abilities and the imperfection of our own righteousness, may flee for refuge to Christ, “who has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having been made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13); “through [Him] God has done what was impossible for the Law” (Rom. 8:3), “that He might be the end of the Law for righteousness for all who believe” (Rom. 10:4). The glory of having perfect righteousness must be reserved for Christ alone, who is “holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners” (Heb. 7:26). Those who ignore and reject His righteousness “seeking to establish their own, are not under the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). Therefore the first use of this teaching lies in the article of justification, namely, that we not set before God’s judgment our imperfect and variously stained obedience to the Law but that we may learn that we are justified by faith in Christ.
(2) The second use of this teaching lies in the article on good works, that we may learn that by the natural powers of our own free choice we cannot begin the sincere and true obedience we owe the Law, but the Law of God “must be written on our hearts” through the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:33), so that we may begin to show not merely an external obedience but also an inner one with a spontaneous spirit and from the heart. On the other hand, because this inchoate obedience is still very far from the perfection the Law requires, we cannot boast about it before the judgment of God but are forced to confess that “all our righteousnesses are as menstrual rags” (Isa. 64:6) and that, “when we have done everything, we are still but unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10).
(3) Lastly, it serves to teach us that the inchoate obedience of the regenerate is pleasing to God, not because it satisfies the law perfectly but because it proceeds from faith in Christ; through such faith its imperfection and remaining fault is covered.
-Johann Gerhard; Excerpt from On the Law (pre-publication), Concordia Publishing House 2015. All rights reserved. Used with permission of Concordia Publishing House. www.cph.org.
(1) we, confessing the powerlessness of our abilities and the imperfection of our own righteousness, may flee for refuge to Christ, “who has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having been made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13); “through [Him] God has done what was impossible for the Law” (Rom. 8:3), “that He might be the end of the Law for righteousness for all who believe” (Rom. 10:4). The glory of having perfect righteousness must be reserved for Christ alone, who is “holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners” (Heb. 7:26). Those who ignore and reject His righteousness “seeking to establish their own, are not under the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). Therefore the first use of this teaching lies in the article of justification, namely, that we not set before God’s judgment our imperfect and variously stained obedience to the Law but that we may learn that we are justified by faith in Christ.
(2) The second use of this teaching lies in the article on good works, that we may learn that by the natural powers of our own free choice we cannot begin the sincere and true obedience we owe the Law, but the Law of God “must be written on our hearts” through the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:33), so that we may begin to show not merely an external obedience but also an inner one with a spontaneous spirit and from the heart. On the other hand, because this inchoate obedience is still very far from the perfection the Law requires, we cannot boast about it before the judgment of God but are forced to confess that “all our righteousnesses are as menstrual rags” (Isa. 64:6) and that, “when we have done everything, we are still but unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10).
(3) Lastly, it serves to teach us that the inchoate obedience of the regenerate is pleasing to God, not because it satisfies the law perfectly but because it proceeds from faith in Christ; through such faith its imperfection and remaining fault is covered.
-Johann Gerhard; Excerpt from On the Law (pre-publication), Concordia Publishing House 2015. All rights reserved. Used with permission of Concordia Publishing House. www.cph.org.
ruth bell graham
HARDCOVER; Published: 10/13/2022
ISBN: 978-0-8028-7581-5
Ruth Bell Graham’s legacy is closely associated with that of her husband, whose career placed her in the public eye throughout her life. But, while it’s true that her identity was significantly shaped by her role in supporting Billy Graham’s ministry, Ruth carried a strong sense of her own agency and was widely influential in her own right, especially in the image she projected of conservative evangelical womanhood—defined by a faith that was deep, private, and nonpolitical.
Beginning prior to Ruth and Billy’s meeting at Wheaton College, Anne Blue Wills chronicles the many formative experiences of Ruth’s life—especially the first decade of her childhood living in a community of American medical missionaries in China. Throughout the biography, Wills focuses not on Ruth’s role in Billy’s life, but on her own interests, ambitions, and fears—as a devoted mother of five, as the fastidious manager of a household, as a devout and well-read Christian, and as a beloved writer and poet.
Dealing honestly with a life of contradictory responsibilities that Ruth Bell Graham herself called “an odd kind of cross to bear,” Wills draws from nearly a decade of original research and presents a nuanced portrait of Graham apart from the reverential awe of her admirers and the oversimplified caricatures put forth by her detractors. In telling Graham’s story, Wills indirectly tells the story of millions of women who emulated Graham as a role model—women who spurned second-wave feminism and willingly submitted to patriarchy while maintaining an undeniable sense of independence and strength of conviction.
Table of Contents
Introduction: What Language Shall I Borrow?
1. Missionary Daughter (1920–1937)
2. College and a Calling (1937–1943)
3. Marrying the Ministry (1943–1954)
4. Creating a Log Home in the Age of Levittown (1950s)
5. A Christian Mother on the Cusp of a Feminist Era (1958–1969)
6. Poems and Prodigals (1970–1975)
7. Poetry and Politics (1976–1987)
8. Prodigals (1989–2007)
A Note on the Sources
Index
Beginning prior to Ruth and Billy’s meeting at Wheaton College, Anne Blue Wills chronicles the many formative experiences of Ruth’s life—especially the first decade of her childhood living in a community of American medical missionaries in China. Throughout the biography, Wills focuses not on Ruth’s role in Billy’s life, but on her own interests, ambitions, and fears—as a devoted mother of five, as the fastidious manager of a household, as a devout and well-read Christian, and as a beloved writer and poet.
Dealing honestly with a life of contradictory responsibilities that Ruth Bell Graham herself called “an odd kind of cross to bear,” Wills draws from nearly a decade of original research and presents a nuanced portrait of Graham apart from the reverential awe of her admirers and the oversimplified caricatures put forth by her detractors. In telling Graham’s story, Wills indirectly tells the story of millions of women who emulated Graham as a role model—women who spurned second-wave feminism and willingly submitted to patriarchy while maintaining an undeniable sense of independence and strength of conviction.
Table of Contents
Introduction: What Language Shall I Borrow?
1. Missionary Daughter (1920–1937)
2. College and a Calling (1937–1943)
3. Marrying the Ministry (1943–1954)
4. Creating a Log Home in the Age of Levittown (1950s)
5. A Christian Mother on the Cusp of a Feminist Era (1958–1969)
6. Poems and Prodigals (1970–1975)
7. Poetry and Politics (1976–1987)
8. Prodigals (1989–2007)
A Note on the Sources
Index
fw grant |
Frederick William Grant (1834–1902) was a Brethren biblical scholar, renowned for his studies in the structural and numerical form and content.
FW Grant
God's Twofold Witness by FW Grant (1891)
"The testimony of two men is true," says the " Faithful Witness." He appeals to the law for this, and the law speaks as follows "One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, of all that one sinneth : at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall a matter be established." (Deut. 19:15) The apostle also cites this law of witness, to which God has very plainly conformed His manifestation of Himself to man. For nature and Scripture are just this twofold testimony in its full breadth ; while yet He has so constructed His Word as to be itself twofold, and so sufficient. The Old Testament thus unites with the New, and who that has considered it in the least but must appreciate the power of this for conviction ? For such power in twofold witness proceeds largely from the diversity of character and interest that they present. They are otherwise different,—contrasted ; yet here they agree : different in such sort that you realize there is no collusion between them, —no treachery ; nothing but the necessary unity of truth could made them one. And how will this be strengthened in proportion as the contrast is manifold, and yet the unity pervasive : and this in the two Testaments is what so demonstrates them to be of God.
The Old Testament is in Hebrew, the language of a special people, with whose history it has grown up, and to whom it addresses itself. It is the religion of a nation, one of the families of the earth, its horizon earthly, its sanctuary a worldly one, its services ritualistic, ornate, elaborate, intrusted to a special priesthood. God is here behind a vail which none can penetrate ; man—all men—are shut out ; none can see Him and live ; for merciful as He is, He cannot clear the guilty, and who (let him do his best) is not guilty?
This legal, sacerdotal, exclusive system, the incarnation of conscience, but a bad conscience, in what utter contrast is it to the free, spiritual, all-embracing spirit of Christianity! "The Lord hath said that He would dwell in thick darkness," says Solomon on the day of the dedication of the temple. (1 Ki. viii. 12.) "We walk in the light, as God is in the light," answers the apostle. (1 Jno. i. 7.) "Who can by no means clear the guilty," says the Old Testament voice. (Ex. xxxiv. 7.) "That justifieth the ungodly," says again the New Testament. (Rom. iv. 5.) " No man can see Me and live," is the elder utterance. (Ex. xxxiii. 20.) " He that hathseen Me hath seen the Father," are His words whois Himself the spirit incarnate of the New. (Jno. xiv. 9.) Here are two witnesses how diverse : can it bethat after all under these statements, so seeminglyconflicting, there is nevertheless a perfect unity ? can there be a fullness of truth which embraces andharmonizes all ? Yes, surely : admit what the NewTestament so abundantly affirms and illustrates, theessential opposition between law and grace, and yetthat the first is handmaid to the other ; —then, onthe basis of law, all the Old-Testament utterancesare but the sentence of God upon the self-right- eousness of man ; while the New Testament re- veals the heart of God in grace, upon the basisof a righteousness by which the law also is magnified and made honorable, and able to forego its penal claim.
Thus they can be reconciled ; but is this reconciliation an after-thought ? Is it perhaps a human,though wonderfully wise, contrivance for adjustingmatters between them ? Are there perhaps yet twoauthors instead of one ; and these still human, notdivine ? This question, so necessary to be an-swered, receives from the Old and New Testamentstogether its full and entire satisfaction in the consideration of that typical system which pervades everywhere the former, while it anticipates and prophesies the latter.
This typical system is, all through the Old Testament, the complement and corollary of the strictly legal part If a soul stricken with the conviction of sin sought for relief and acceptance from God, it was shut up to sacrifice, the ordained way of approach for every one who would draw near to Him; and here he found what, except in its typical teaching, contained no ray of light. Why should the blood of an animal shed by the hand of the offerer avail before God for the sin of him who shed it ? You must illumine that with the light of the gospel before you can understand it. Understood, it is then the illumination of all else: it is the establishment of law ; it is the vindication of grace ; it is the heart of God bursting out over all the barriers that man's sin could oppose to it, —God who is light, now in the light, revealed.
Yes, the witnesses are one ; their testimony is one ; they have one Author ; grace is no after- thought The later word, addressed in his own lan- guage to the Gentile, is but the necessary development and issue of the earlier one. The earlier is interpreted by the later : the typical communication by the plain speech now.
Thus, then, as to the testimony of the written Word. But now if there be another testimony to God, and the book of nature be also His book,—andScripture itself affirms this, yea, who that believes in God could deny it ?—then these two witnesses mustalso agree in one, and that which is enigmaticaland obscure be interpreted by the clearer,—the earlier, therefore, once more by the later, and notthe reverse. Notice, too, that there is no groundfor wonder, if the two should seem not only diversein character, as they are, but contradictory even, which they are not. We might expect this ; while, by the analogy of Scripture, we may expect also that this apparent contradiction will end in clearer agreement at last, and in greater breadth and full- ness of testimony.
Even as we consider this now, the reality of theanalogy between the book of Nature and the OldTestament comes into fuller light, and gains assur- ance. If the Old Testament be the proclamationof law, and this be its supreme characteristic, howeasy it is to see that Nature is even more emphatically in some sense the kingdom of Law. This is, in the eyes of more than Prof. Drummond, what givesto it order and solidity. Grace here assuredlyseems, at first sight, to have no place, nay, to be in contradiction, until we are reminded that in theelder book of Revelation it is in symbol and type that we find the teaching of this, and are led to realize that Nature itself, more entirely even than the Old Testament, is an object lesson, a divine hieroglyph, a type-teaching. This it surely is; and although as a whole we may not as yet have the full key, yet in all ages nevertheless its lessons have been taught and learnt,—in the earliest perhaps most simply. As we grow older we lose the unsuspecting faith of childhood, which in many respects is the truest wisdom ; our very language, which was at first pictorial, becomes hard and abstract, its symbols merely arbitrary and algebraic, divested of the heart and pathos which men drank in first from nature's breast, and now have learnt to be ashamed of as the babble of the nursery.
But we are coming back to Nature ! perhaps : yea, to such extreme faith in it that now our one knowledge is to be that of natural science, and beyond it we are agnostics—know-nothings, If that were so, it would be but the surest proof that the old faith in nature nevertheless is dead. I may use the words, but scarcely realize the thingy when I speak of faith in laws, or faith in a machine. Here, too, "the law is not of faith." The factory-rattle reason may interpret perhaps ; but faith is of the heart, and there is no heart. We have got back to the old mythology, and understand how Chronos (Time) produces and devours again his children ; but do not ask me, then, to confide in Chronos.
No: vanity of vanities, all is vanity. -Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
Yet here a hint from that old Jewish law in whichwe have already found the character of a true witness may appeal to us. It was when man found himself as it might seem, in the grip of the law, and without hope from it, —when, though with the consciousness of sin upon him, he sought in his distress to God,—- the law itself referred him to that typical system, in which the heart he sought in God was found. Is it not so again, that when we turn to Himit is, and only so, that nature reveals her really illuminated side, and warms and kindles as with a summer breath ? Assuredly, it is so : and reason itself cannot rest satisfied short of that which satisfies heart, conscience, mind alike—not a part only, but the whole of man.
"The testimony of two men is true," says the " Faithful Witness." He appeals to the law for this, and the law speaks as follows "One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, of all that one sinneth : at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall a matter be established." (Deut. 19:15) The apostle also cites this law of witness, to which God has very plainly conformed His manifestation of Himself to man. For nature and Scripture are just this twofold testimony in its full breadth ; while yet He has so constructed His Word as to be itself twofold, and so sufficient. The Old Testament thus unites with the New, and who that has considered it in the least but must appreciate the power of this for conviction ? For such power in twofold witness proceeds largely from the diversity of character and interest that they present. They are otherwise different,—contrasted ; yet here they agree : different in such sort that you realize there is no collusion between them, —no treachery ; nothing but the necessary unity of truth could made them one. And how will this be strengthened in proportion as the contrast is manifold, and yet the unity pervasive : and this in the two Testaments is what so demonstrates them to be of God.
The Old Testament is in Hebrew, the language of a special people, with whose history it has grown up, and to whom it addresses itself. It is the religion of a nation, one of the families of the earth, its horizon earthly, its sanctuary a worldly one, its services ritualistic, ornate, elaborate, intrusted to a special priesthood. God is here behind a vail which none can penetrate ; man—all men—are shut out ; none can see Him and live ; for merciful as He is, He cannot clear the guilty, and who (let him do his best) is not guilty?
This legal, sacerdotal, exclusive system, the incarnation of conscience, but a bad conscience, in what utter contrast is it to the free, spiritual, all-embracing spirit of Christianity! "The Lord hath said that He would dwell in thick darkness," says Solomon on the day of the dedication of the temple. (1 Ki. viii. 12.) "We walk in the light, as God is in the light," answers the apostle. (1 Jno. i. 7.) "Who can by no means clear the guilty," says the Old Testament voice. (Ex. xxxiv. 7.) "That justifieth the ungodly," says again the New Testament. (Rom. iv. 5.) " No man can see Me and live," is the elder utterance. (Ex. xxxiii. 20.) " He that hathseen Me hath seen the Father," are His words whois Himself the spirit incarnate of the New. (Jno. xiv. 9.) Here are two witnesses how diverse : can it bethat after all under these statements, so seeminglyconflicting, there is nevertheless a perfect unity ? can there be a fullness of truth which embraces andharmonizes all ? Yes, surely : admit what the NewTestament so abundantly affirms and illustrates, theessential opposition between law and grace, and yetthat the first is handmaid to the other ; —then, onthe basis of law, all the Old-Testament utterancesare but the sentence of God upon the self-right- eousness of man ; while the New Testament re- veals the heart of God in grace, upon the basisof a righteousness by which the law also is magnified and made honorable, and able to forego its penal claim.
Thus they can be reconciled ; but is this reconciliation an after-thought ? Is it perhaps a human,though wonderfully wise, contrivance for adjustingmatters between them ? Are there perhaps yet twoauthors instead of one ; and these still human, notdivine ? This question, so necessary to be an-swered, receives from the Old and New Testamentstogether its full and entire satisfaction in the consideration of that typical system which pervades everywhere the former, while it anticipates and prophesies the latter.
This typical system is, all through the Old Testament, the complement and corollary of the strictly legal part If a soul stricken with the conviction of sin sought for relief and acceptance from God, it was shut up to sacrifice, the ordained way of approach for every one who would draw near to Him; and here he found what, except in its typical teaching, contained no ray of light. Why should the blood of an animal shed by the hand of the offerer avail before God for the sin of him who shed it ? You must illumine that with the light of the gospel before you can understand it. Understood, it is then the illumination of all else: it is the establishment of law ; it is the vindication of grace ; it is the heart of God bursting out over all the barriers that man's sin could oppose to it, —God who is light, now in the light, revealed.
Yes, the witnesses are one ; their testimony is one ; they have one Author ; grace is no after- thought The later word, addressed in his own lan- guage to the Gentile, is but the necessary development and issue of the earlier one. The earlier is interpreted by the later : the typical communication by the plain speech now.
Thus, then, as to the testimony of the written Word. But now if there be another testimony to God, and the book of nature be also His book,—andScripture itself affirms this, yea, who that believes in God could deny it ?—then these two witnesses mustalso agree in one, and that which is enigmaticaland obscure be interpreted by the clearer,—the earlier, therefore, once more by the later, and notthe reverse. Notice, too, that there is no groundfor wonder, if the two should seem not only diversein character, as they are, but contradictory even, which they are not. We might expect this ; while, by the analogy of Scripture, we may expect also that this apparent contradiction will end in clearer agreement at last, and in greater breadth and full- ness of testimony.
Even as we consider this now, the reality of theanalogy between the book of Nature and the OldTestament comes into fuller light, and gains assur- ance. If the Old Testament be the proclamationof law, and this be its supreme characteristic, howeasy it is to see that Nature is even more emphatically in some sense the kingdom of Law. This is, in the eyes of more than Prof. Drummond, what givesto it order and solidity. Grace here assuredlyseems, at first sight, to have no place, nay, to be in contradiction, until we are reminded that in theelder book of Revelation it is in symbol and type that we find the teaching of this, and are led to realize that Nature itself, more entirely even than the Old Testament, is an object lesson, a divine hieroglyph, a type-teaching. This it surely is; and although as a whole we may not as yet have the full key, yet in all ages nevertheless its lessons have been taught and learnt,—in the earliest perhaps most simply. As we grow older we lose the unsuspecting faith of childhood, which in many respects is the truest wisdom ; our very language, which was at first pictorial, becomes hard and abstract, its symbols merely arbitrary and algebraic, divested of the heart and pathos which men drank in first from nature's breast, and now have learnt to be ashamed of as the babble of the nursery.
But we are coming back to Nature ! perhaps : yea, to such extreme faith in it that now our one knowledge is to be that of natural science, and beyond it we are agnostics—know-nothings, If that were so, it would be but the surest proof that the old faith in nature nevertheless is dead. I may use the words, but scarcely realize the thingy when I speak of faith in laws, or faith in a machine. Here, too, "the law is not of faith." The factory-rattle reason may interpret perhaps ; but faith is of the heart, and there is no heart. We have got back to the old mythology, and understand how Chronos (Time) produces and devours again his children ; but do not ask me, then, to confide in Chronos.
No: vanity of vanities, all is vanity. -Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
Yet here a hint from that old Jewish law in whichwe have already found the character of a true witness may appeal to us. It was when man found himself as it might seem, in the grip of the law, and without hope from it, —when, though with the consciousness of sin upon him, he sought in his distress to God,—- the law itself referred him to that typical system, in which the heart he sought in God was found. Is it not so again, that when we turn to Himit is, and only so, that nature reveals her really illuminated side, and warms and kindles as with a summer breath ? Assuredly, it is so : and reason itself cannot rest satisfied short of that which satisfies heart, conscience, mind alike—not a part only, but the whole of man.
michael green
Michael Green
“We are not called to constant success. We are not called to instant glory now. We live between the ages; heirs to all the failure and frailty and fallenness of this age, heirs too to the power and life and love of the age to come. We live at the cross roads. The Master suffered . . . and rose. So will his apostolic church . . .” ~ Michael Green; Author of To Corinth with Love
frank t griswold iii
Frank T Griswold III was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1937, Griswold was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1963 and was elected to serve as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago in 1987.
At the 72nd Episcopal Church General Convention in Philadelphia in July 1997, Griswold was elected the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, replacing Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning.
Officially taking office on Jan. 10, 1998, he served as presiding bishop until Nov. 1, 2006, when he was succeeded by the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts-Schori, the first female head of the denomination.
Griswold is credited with helping establish the full communion relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which was formalized in 2001, according to Episcopal News Service.
At the 72nd Episcopal Church General Convention in Philadelphia in July 1997, Griswold was elected the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, replacing Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning.
Officially taking office on Jan. 10, 1998, he served as presiding bishop until Nov. 1, 2006, when he was succeeded by the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts-Schori, the first female head of the denomination.
Griswold is credited with helping establish the full communion relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which was formalized in 2001, according to Episcopal News Service.
The Rt. Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III, who served as the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church from 1998-2006, died Sunday, March 5, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 85.
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry offered the following statement:
“Please join me in prayer for Bishop Griswold’s family and for all of us who give thanks for a remarkable and faithful servant of God who served among us as the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. May the soul of Bishop Griswold, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercies of God, rest in peace and rise in glory.”
Arrangements will be published when they are finalized.
Bishop Griswold’s family provided the following obituary:
The Rt. Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III died Sunday, March 5, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A renowned preacher known for his warmth and wit, Griswold served as the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, leading the Protestant denomination from 1998 to 2006. Griswold also co-chaired the Roman Catholic-Anglican Commission from 1998 to 2003 and made significant contributions to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and to its practical use in the liturgical life of the church. Griswold’s private spiritual practice was deeply informed by the early mothers and fathers of the church, and he championed Eastern traditions of the open-hearted and healing power of God’s love.
Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1937, Griswold earned a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College and a Master of Arts from Oriel College at the University of Oxford. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1963. He married his beloved wife, Phoebe Wetzel, in 1965, and they raised two daughters in Philadelphia and Chicago, where Griswold was elected as Episcopal bishop in 1987. Griswold practiced a wide ministry of teaching, writing, lecturing, and leading retreats, nationally and internationally. After completing his term as presiding bishop, he served as a visiting professor at seminaries and universities in South Korea, Cuba, and Japan, as well as at the Episcopal Divinity School, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Virginia Theological Seminary and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He also served as bishop visitor to the Society of St. John the Evangelist. His books include “Going Home” (Cowley Publications Cloister Book), “Praying our Days: A guide and companion” (Church Publishing Group),“Tracking Down the Holy Ghost: reflections on love and longing” (Church Publishing Group), and, co-authored with the Rev. Mark McIntosh, “Seeds and Faith” and “Harvest of Hope” (Eerdmans).
He is survived by his widow, Phoebe, his two daughters, Hannah and Eliza, and three grandchildren.
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry offered the following statement:
“Please join me in prayer for Bishop Griswold’s family and for all of us who give thanks for a remarkable and faithful servant of God who served among us as the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. May the soul of Bishop Griswold, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercies of God, rest in peace and rise in glory.”
Arrangements will be published when they are finalized.
Bishop Griswold’s family provided the following obituary:
The Rt. Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III died Sunday, March 5, 2023, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A renowned preacher known for his warmth and wit, Griswold served as the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, leading the Protestant denomination from 1998 to 2006. Griswold also co-chaired the Roman Catholic-Anglican Commission from 1998 to 2003 and made significant contributions to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and to its practical use in the liturgical life of the church. Griswold’s private spiritual practice was deeply informed by the early mothers and fathers of the church, and he championed Eastern traditions of the open-hearted and healing power of God’s love.
Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1937, Griswold earned a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College and a Master of Arts from Oriel College at the University of Oxford. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1963. He married his beloved wife, Phoebe Wetzel, in 1965, and they raised two daughters in Philadelphia and Chicago, where Griswold was elected as Episcopal bishop in 1987. Griswold practiced a wide ministry of teaching, writing, lecturing, and leading retreats, nationally and internationally. After completing his term as presiding bishop, he served as a visiting professor at seminaries and universities in South Korea, Cuba, and Japan, as well as at the Episcopal Divinity School, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Virginia Theological Seminary and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He also served as bishop visitor to the Society of St. John the Evangelist. His books include “Going Home” (Cowley Publications Cloister Book), “Praying our Days: A guide and companion” (Church Publishing Group),“Tracking Down the Holy Ghost: reflections on love and longing” (Church Publishing Group), and, co-authored with the Rev. Mark McIntosh, “Seeds and Faith” and “Harvest of Hope” (Eerdmans).
He is survived by his widow, Phoebe, his two daughters, Hannah and Eliza, and three grandchildren.
"It is a question of maturity. You must grasp that in our life, nothing is achieved by fits and starts and by violent efforts. Life in its entirety, the moral life, the supernatural life, consists of continuous sincerity, continuous honesty, continuous flexibility and docility. We are not to believe that a fruit attains to perfect maturity by a sudden violent growth, but simply when it has received all its succulence from its root, which is faith, and all its savour from the sun. For that, it has to turn its face to the sun.
Above all, love the Lord and have the firm assurance that nothing in us will resist the almighty power of his love. Take up every day, gently and courageously, the work begun the day before. Nothing hot-headed. A continuous and gentle strength. Never speak shrilly." —Dom Prosper Guéranger, Letter to a young girl, 20 March 1905, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 59.
Above all, love the Lord and have the firm assurance that nothing in us will resist the almighty power of his love. Take up every day, gently and courageously, the work begun the day before. Nothing hot-headed. A continuous and gentle strength. Never speak shrilly." —Dom Prosper Guéranger, Letter to a young girl, 20 March 1905, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 59.
william gurnall
William Gurnall
“We fear men so much, because we fear God so little.”
― William Gurnall