Mark Berner
The Great Oak growing on a rock, birthing a forest
I found myself thinking about Peter today, All Saints Day, and giving thanks for his life and ministry, and for his indelible influence on me.
Peter was a member, along with Alden Hathaway, Fitz Allison, Jim Hampson, and a few others of the Episcopal Church’s “Greatest Generation”, those who in the first wave “took the beach.” They were the models and heroes for me and my generation, and made it possible for us to carry the battle forward, in the Episcopal Church, in FOCUS, and beyond.
I first met Peter while a Yale undergraduate. I was among a tiny minority of Christian students at the time, struggling to make sense of faith in a deeply secular and intellectually hostile environment. Peter spoke to the Christian fellowship my sophomore year. I vividly recall hearing him that first time in Dwight Chapel. I decided then and there that this was the kind of Christianity I could inhabit: learned, humble, confident, relaxed and amusing, but also passionate, thoughtful and committed. I followed Peter to his old college at Oxford to study theology, and then into FOCUS. Young people need heroes and role models, and Peter was one of mine.
On the afternoon in May when Peter passed in glory, I took a long walk in a nature preserve. I went there to be quiet and to pray for him as he lay near death. As I was giving thanks for his life and enduring influence on me and so many others, I happened to glance to my left and saw this amazing old white oak built on a rock outcropping, surrounded by younger and now mature trees it birthed as seedlings. I stood before the old tree, thinking of Peter - which of course means rock in Greek - and recalled those memorable verses that conclude Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25 NRSV). And I knelt and cried, and gave thanks for Peter, that great old oak, who built his house on a rock and birthed a forest.
Below is a picture of the tree that I took that afternoon.
I miss Peter, but was comforted and consoled today by thinking of him while singing Bp. How’s great All Saints Day hymn, “For All the Saints”, especially the following verses:
7. O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
9. The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
10. But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
11. From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
