Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Today the Church commemorates Hannah More, a poet, playwright, founder of schools where there were no schools for girls in rural England, abolitionist, and in the 18th and 19th century, an evangelical Anglican. She sounds like a fascinating woman, with layers to her life as we all have, if we are fortunate enough to know change and growth. What's more about Hannah More is the kind of conversation she starts, "oh yeah, wasn't she the one who wrote many letters, but never on Sundays, and when she did she apologized readily because she was a strict sabbatarian?" She lived a life of faith throughout the phases of her life, and because she was in literary circles, we have record of her and her work, her tracts, and know a bit about her relationships with other people doing the same kind of work. It's charming to look at another era, and wonder how someone accomplished all that they did within the confines of their life, and always begs the question, "for what would we be remembered?" As biographies and hagiographies like this one show, it's not about one great pithy quote, not one perfect post or book or letter, but a pattern of life that, we pray will be a pattern that has its face and heart turned toward the Lord of Love. This Lord who guides us is one who beckons growth and change and persists in presence even in our most stuck times. Even if there's not a library of letters and record of us, the patterns we live in here in this life and leave their mark. Let us give thanks for friends across time who remind us to face toward the Cross and toward Love.

In Christ,
Mtr. Taylor