In Fr Kirby\u2019s reminiscing about a favorite Bishop, I thought of my own, Metropolitan PHILIP: <\/p>\n
It is inspiring to be in touch with a man of power, imagination, inflexible determination \u2014 one who uses these gifts, not to bend other men, but to serve and enrich them, to fire them with one\u2019s own selfless enthusiasm for a greater effort of intelligence and faith. One breathes a long breath of relief that human nature has capacities in it other than predatory and idiotic \u2026<\/p>\n
Father Yates, the Chaplain of General Seminary, said once in a sermon: \u201cGod, in His goodness, reveals Himself variously \u2014 breaking up the great splendor into flashes which our littleness can catch, in a poem, in the vivid phrasing of an idea, in someone\u2019s way of believing, or hoping, or loving, or enduring. In some perfection of achievement each one of us knows the insight, the inspiration, if only for a brief hour that shakes our lethargic aims and interests into vibrancy, changing, through enrichment, our very own concept of what life might be. These insights we gather and hold and cherish, for we can not want beauty until we see its concrete constituents and weave them into the pattern of our longing \u2026 until we can say, \u2018This thing or this has quickened me. And this I want by God\u2019s help to be, though the way thereto is by fire and a cross and ashes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, from what I\u2019ve said, you can discern that he was not \u201claid back\u201d. People use the phrase, \u201claid back\u201d, today, as if it were a compliment. I often wonder, were the Apostles \u201claid back\u201d? Do you think so? Is that how the Christian Church was built, by being \u201claid back\u201d? I think it\u2019s an excuse for not doing much or not trying very hard. Some people are so \u201claid back\u201d that they\u2019re laid out!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After receiving his Master\u2019s at Yale, Fr Kirby decided to enter the priesthood \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nI went to my father\u2019s office to tell him about it, and he said, \u201cI don\u2019t give a damn what you do with your life, now get out of here, I\u2019m busy.\u201d Well, the moment had come, it had happened at last. What I had hoped for, longed for, prayed for would happen. I was on my way!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here, he relates a story about Fortescue \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nA story I have always enjoyed \u2026 tells of Fortescue one day at Solemn Mass in St Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in New York. He was standing near the rear of the church when an usher came up and said, \u201cYou are supposed to kneel down here, sir.\u201d Fortescue turned to him and said, \u201cWould you get the hell out of here.\u201d And the usher replied, \u201cExcuse me, sir, I didn\u2019t know you were Catholic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On churchmanship, greatness, etc \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nHe said that he was a moderate churchman. I often wonder what that means \u2014 like the moderately clean or the moderately honest or the moderately truthful.<\/p>\n
I think of Gladstone. Once he turned to his wife, after he had received an honorary degree describing him as a very great man, and he asked his wife, \u201cI wonder how many great men there are?\u201d And she replied, \u201cThere\u2019s one less than you think there are\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On the retirement of a fellow priest and the question of how much does the clergy depend on the warmth and adulation of the laity:<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nHow much do we depend on it? Don said, \u201cI sure as hell am going to find out! I\u2019ll find out what people do on Saturday evening instead of having sweating palms, tossing and turning, and being unable to sleep.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On struggles with the hierarchy \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nHe first told me that story of a bishop who was speaking and there was something wrong with the microphone. The bishop said, \u201cThere\u2019s something wrong with this thing.\u201d To which everybody shouted back, \u201cAnd also with you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Comments from his pal, Don Henning \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nSpeaking of a mutual acquaintance, he said, \u201cHe rose rapidly in his own esteem. He\u2019s everything he says he is and a great deal more.\u201d<\/p>\n
And to me when I asked if I looked seventy, Bob said, \u201cNot any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
And to the comment: \u201cI\u2019d rather commit adultery than have a martini,\u201d he remarked, \u201cI didn\u2019t know there was a choice; hostess, cancel that order.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From his pal, Bob Robinson, et al \u2026<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\nFollowing a social gathering, I remarked to him, \u201cEveryone thought you were almost as charming and amusing as I was.\u201d He replied, \u201cHow unperceptive some people are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRape,\u201d he said, \u201cis a technical term which covers a multitude of acquiescence. And, a summer on the beach makes the Darwinian theory utterly convincing.\u201d He said, \u201cWhen you go to the beach, you learn two of the great verities of life: the most perfect work of art is the human body; and secondly, there aren\u2019t any!\u201d<\/p>\n
He once said that \u201c\u2026 after struggling with reality for forty years, I\u2019m glad to say that I have finally won out.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he was teaching at Brown University, Paul Thompson, priest and Rector at St Stephen\u2019s, Providence, became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. After this happened, Paul Thompson said to Bob Casey, \u201cIt\u2019s sad \u2014 since I made this step and had this conversion, so many people don\u2019t pay any attention to me; they don\u2019t speak to me, they just don\u2019t seem to like me any more.\u201d Bob Casey replied, \u201cNonsense, Paul, there are lots of people who never liked you in the first place.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On our modern dilemma, Orthodox take note:<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nThe main thrust if this: once Christians were tortured, burnt, and crucified, but the more the Church was persecuted, the stronger it grew. The enemy\u2019s latest weapon is much more effective. Don\u2019t destroy Christians, isolate them. Keep them busy talking to each other, so they have no time to speak to the unbelieving world outside. The keener the Christian, the more he or she should be loaded with committees. \u201cIf you cannot burn them with fire, burn them with meetings,\u201d says the Devil. Perhaps this is the Devil\u2019s latest weapon for disarming the church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On his buddy, \u201cAunt Alice\u201d \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nSpeaking of a mutual acquaintance, I once told her that Martha Anderson had died, and Aunt Alice replied, \u201cWhat a blessing. At least I hope it is for her; it certainly is for everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
After one of our Wardens had died, she inquired, \u201cHow is Mrs Peters bearing up?\u201d I replied, \u201cOh, very well.\u201d To which Aunt Alice responded, \u201cWell, she\u2019s had lots of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
After her marriage to Hewlett Scudder, she became an Episcopalian. She used to say it was very important to keep the word \u201cProtestant\u201d on the title page of the Prayer Book, because it got so many people in under false pretenses. Suddenly you wake up one day and find you are part of the Catholic Church. She gave away Hewlett\u2019s wine cellar after his death, and, after meeting so many High Churchmen and being around so many clergy, she realized what a terrible mistake she had made!<\/p>\n
On the subject of drinking (as a matter of fact she drank very little), she commented once, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll have another drink since we\u2019re all going to drink ourselves to death.\u201d I observed to her that I had read that people who become alcoholics usually suffer from a sense of inadequacy and have a very low self-esteem. To which she replied, \u201cYou must have found this very reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire Green, a neighbor, had a stroke. I told Aunt Alice, who said, \u201cWhat a relief, I thought she was losing her mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
On one occasion she asked me to explain what Our Lord meant when he said, \u201cMy yoke is easy and my burden is light.\u201d I tried to explain it as best I could, that for the joy that was set before him, because he was going to redeem the world, and so on. She didn\u2019t think much of any of these explanations. She concluded by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think he ever said it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On the ministry to the sick, et al \u2026<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\nWe all have our great moments in this area. I remember Paul Elmen going to a hospital, and some nurse rushed up and asked if anyone could speak Greek. His wife volunteered Father Elmen for this purpose, but all he could think of in Greek when he got to the patient, who was screaming loudly, was to quote the lines from the Iliad<\/em> about \u201crosy-fingered dawn on the mountain top\u201d. She then screamed louder than ever!<\/p>\nOne individual I visited in the psychiatric section said to me that he only had three problems: money, religion and sex. As I left, I wondered what else there is.<\/p>\n
In our dealing with people we are often inclined to think that, at least on certain occasions, we are not appreciated. It\u2019s good to remember the old saw that ten per cent over-estimate you, ten per cent under-estimate you, and eighty per cent never think of you at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On coping with parish ministry, antagonists, etc \u2026
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nAnyone could make many random remarks on running the operation, and, here and there, may provoke an insight or a wry smile. We are all sailing and swimming through the same waters. We are all endeavoring to \u201ccope\u201d and to keep the \u201cshow on the road\u201d and to \u201cmuddle through\u201d. And we are all building the New Jerusalem. It is also true that many an ass has entered Jerusalem!<\/p>\n
There are a number of people who may best be described by that old phrase: \u201cLay Popes.\u201d Those are the ones who would like to call the shots and run the parish. And, of course, the only rule you can follow is \u2014 \u201cDon\u2019t let the bastards get you down.\u201d Usually the person who is so gaited is one who has not been fully happy in his career or his family, and uses the Church as an arena in which to exert authority he could not wield elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Such is our fallen nature that we sometimes think that Antichrist is very near. We can usually find three or four candidates alive today. We\u2019ve all met a number of cads. A cad is nature\u2019s failure to produce a gorilla. I am talking about our relation with individuals and not with groups of people, such as the House of Bishops.<\/p>\n
Speaking personally, I do not consider people with different opinions from mine as congenital idiots. I do not take it as a personal affront, or consider that they are feeble in intellect or inferior in character \u2014 at least not necessarily. It is true that now and then you run into \u201ca second rate second-rater\u201d \u2014 individuals who like to manipulate others to do their bidding. These are the persons who do not want leadership in their priests. They do not want things to be great. They wish to bring a parish down to a lesser dimension so that they will feel more comfortable and not threatened by excellence.<\/p>\n
Don Henning\u2019s formula was, \u201cDon\u2019t speak ill of the dead, just knock the hell out of them while they\u2019re still living.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Madame de Stael, I think, who said that \u201c\u2026 if we knew all, we would forgive all.\u201d If we could understand everything about another person \u2014 his background and his life \u2014 we would forgive him and understand and gradually come to like him. I\u2019m sure that this is the road to take. Sometimes at night, when I am saying my prayers, I end by saying \u2014 \u201cGod bless all the people that I don\u2019t like and all the people who don\u2019t like me.\u201d And that covers a mighty multitude.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Amen.<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the great characters in Anglican (or any) church life has died. The Rev\u2019d Darwin Kirby, Jr, passed away yesterday in North Carolina. I received a call this morning from a lady in Houston \u2014 of all places \u2014 who was searching for info about Fr Kirby and came across my blog thanks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1691,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Darwin Kirby: Memory Eternal!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the great characters in Anglican (or any) church life has died. The Rev'd Darwin Kirby, Jr, passed away yesterday in North Carolina. I received a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2006\/03\/darwin-kirby-memory-eternal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Darwin Kirby: Memory Eternal!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the great characters in Anglican (or any) church life has died. The Rev'd Darwin Kirby, Jr, passed away yesterday in North Carolina. 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A<\/span> dear friend from Pawleys Island, from a long line of Episcopalians, once commented: \u201cFor years I\u2019d wondered where all the colorful characters had gone. After becoming Orthodox, I found them.\u201d<\/p>\n