The first presiding bishop I ever heard of when I first started attending Episcopal churches over twenty years ago was Bishop Frank Griswold. Wherever you were in the United States (or beyond in some cases), countless parishes were praying for Frank, our presiding bishop. Little could I have imagined at the time that one day Bishop Griswold would be connected with a parish of mine. From Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut, to the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, New York City, Bishop Griswold’s paths kept peripherally crossing mine, although I really did not know him at all.
But when I came here to Good Shepherd, I realized that he had been associated with this parish since his earliest years as a priest. He was born right here in Bryn Mawr, and when serving his first position as curate at our neighboring parish, the Church of the Redeemer, he would regularly say one of the daily Masses here at Good Shepherd back in Father Cupit’s tenure as rector. Bishop Griswold was presiding bishop during the deepest throes of Good Shepherd’s former troubles. And it was a lovely closure to a life well-lived that saw Bishop Griswold supporting the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, as it rebounded from difficult times, a parish he knew and loved from so many years back.
I was deeply saddened to learn of Bishop Griswold’s death on Sunday at age 85. As someone has already noted, he was a “gentle giant” in the Church. He did not lead through boisterous speech but through a quiet depth of holiness. I feel enormously privileged to have known him and listened to him share the wisdom of his deep spirituality with younger priests. Just last November, he led one of our program retreats here at the Rosemont Community Retreat House, “To Charm and Attract,” which was intended for clergy and musicians working together in parish ministry. It was a marvelous retreat.
Some of you may remember that Bishop Griswold was the celebrant and preacher for the Great Vigil of Easter here at Good Shepherd not quite two years ago, and he also led our Lenten adult formation series that Lent of 2021. He has always been tremendously supportive of this parish getting back on its feet again. I think this was a real testimony to his humility and character. Even this small, struggling parish was worthy of his attention and support.
But I also suspect that if Bishop Griswold were reading this message, he would not wish me to go on and on about him. So, I’d like to draw our attention to something that I think he taught the Church, if not directly then indirectly, in his service as a bishop. Bishop Griswold was a catholic Anglican, and to me, that meant embodying a spirit of generosity. He served as co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission for five years, and he was deeply involved in ecumenical work. But he did not get caught up in “issues.” His ecumenical spirit never caused him to shrink from moving forward when the Gospel called for it. He served as presiding bishop during one of the most tumultuous times in recent history in the Episcopal Church—the debates over human sexuality prompted by the ordination of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Griswold shepherded the Episcopal Church through a perilous time in the life of the wider Anglican Communion with grace and compassion.
What we have to learn from this example is that our Anglo-Catholicism and commitment to tradition is never an excuse to be exclusive or spiritually parsimonious. It is never an excuse to judge others within the Church, to behave as if God withholds grace from some, or to ignore the Gospel’s power to reach all people. My prayer is that Anglo-Catholicism will move forward and thrive as wide-armed and generous. I like to think we are aiming for that at Good Shepherd. Catholic means “whole” (more accurately than “universal”). It is ironic that some who most profess to be “Catholic” are deeply provincial in mindset.
This all makes me think of another holy person from the Church’s recent memory, the late Archbishop Michael Ramsey (1904-1988), who embodied his catholicity in his theological generosity and lack of pretension. Archbishop Ramsey always cautioned against making God smaller than he is. This is about some of the wisest advice we can heed as Christians.
As the Church mourns the death of Bishop Griswold, we can celebrate his enormous contributions to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, as well as his commitment to being a truly catholic Anglican, which always envisioned a God much larger than our frail human images and restrictions. There is a power in the catholic strand of Anglicanism that the Church needs today, and it is nothing less than an incarnational witness to such generosity. Even now, Bishop Griswold, Archbishop Ramsey, and others like Archbishop Desmond Tutu—all of whom lived generously as catholic-minded Anglicans—can pray for us in our earthly journeys. May we aspire to know and love a God who is more generous than we can ever imagine. And may the soul of Bishop Griswold, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle