So, are there unique Episcopal saints or not?




Is that right? Do Episcopalians have their own saints?


The lede sentence of the story entitled “Pauli Murray celebrated as saint at annual service” states:


The article recounts the sermon given at the service. The details of her life show Murray to have been an exemplary, worthy individual — perhaps even a saint in colloquial language. But the article asserts that she was not that sort of saint but an individual “made a saint” by the Episcopal Church in 2012.

I understand what the reporter is trying to say, but her infelicitous language will confuse all but the most devoted Anglican observer. The Episcopal Church has no power to make her, or anyone a saint. Nor do the Catholics or Orthodox “make” saints — they recognize them, canonize them, but God alone makes them.

Is Pauli Murray a saint? Yes and No.



What is the difference between a hero of the church and a saint? The answer is theological. Blame Calvin for this. The lyrics of the hymn “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” spells out the Episcopal/Reformed view. Thus, worshippers sing:

I sing a song of the saints of God,
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green;
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right for Jesus’ sake
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
And there’s not any reason, no, not the least,
Why I shouldn’t be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus’ will.
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.

Written by Lesbia Scott in 1929 and set to the tune “Grand Isle” composed by the Rev. John H. Hopkins, Jr., “I Sing a Song” has long been a favorite within my denomination — Episcopalians and Anglicans can turn to #293 in the 1982 Hymnal — while Methodists, Presbyterians and the U.S. Army hymnals sing along too.

Scott’s hymn teaches the Reformed view that saints were those both of the past and the present — those with God, and those on their way to God through pilgrimage on earth. Calvin drew particular attention to this phrase of the Apostles Creed in Book IV of his Institutes.


Or as Scott’s hymn puts it:

For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.



This foray into the theology of the communion of saints, Jean Calvin and 20th Century hymnody could have been avoided by using a less loaded word than saint. Pauli Murray is a saint as are all believing Christians — but she is commemorated as a hero of the faith, which is something “folk like me” are not.

Can a laundromat replace the traditional church?
Are Catholics about to loosen Communion rules?
Members mourn Atlanta church; why don’t they talk?
About geoconger