With all the technology I am surrounded with, you would have thought that I could remember to post on this blog everyday, or at least have something electronic “ping” me and tell me to post.  Of course that would require remembering to find some sort of electronic reminder and set it up, so I hope you are getting, or catching, my drift (I have no idea what that really means or where it comes from, I just know it is appropriate to say here.)

But tonight then becomes a good night to kick this off, particularly as my last post was about my 24th year anniversary as a priest. (yes, it was MONDAY)  But I have thought about doing a “series” of posts on priests who particularly have had an influence upon me, and when I say that I do not mean those about whom books are written, but instead guys who I have walked with who have shaped me and “helped” to form me.  (I use the term helped loosely as these guys would all probably confess that I was really a helpless cause)  But nonetheless, I will here sully their reputations as they at one time or another walked with me in my ministry, and some still do.

Now the reason why this first guy is appropriate on a day that I am complaining and confused about technology, is because he was clearly the least technological priest I have ever known, Father Bill Knapp.  His picture was sent to me by his daughter Liz, and it made me laugh as it is of him in a time far before I knew him……I used to ask him about how it was to go to high school with Jesus, so when he and I were together he was over 1900 years old.  Well not really, but we always joked together, so he would appreciate that one

But Bill was a “surprise” friend.  I first learned about him shortly after I had accepted the call to become the Rector of St. Andrew’s in Barberton, Ohio. I had been a priest maybe 15 minutes.  Bill’s daughter (Liz) had a phone conversation and shared that her dad (Bill) had served as the priest there for MANY years, and he and his wife retired there in Barberton.  He loved that town, and he loved that church, and there had been a priest who came and served after Bill retired who didn’t want him around.  Granted, it is very rare that priests retire in the same place they have worked, but if you knew Bill you would have known this would have never been a problem.  But for a few years after he retired he was really kind of set aside by this guy.

But Liz wanted to tell me about him and ask if I would be okay with him attending.  I was an assistant at a large church in Florida at the time (Florida = God’s waiting room as my boss called it) and I was not just used to hanging with retired priests, I thought it was the greatest thing ever.  I learned more from those guys than I ever did at seminary, which is incidentally 3 years of grad school in our denomination.  So I told her to have and come meet with me after I arrived, which he did.

And Bill was a delight.  He was just really an older version of me but with much worse jokes…..I mean groaners too.  He had (at least) a million of them and it never mattered what subject we were dealing with, he had one that met it head on.  He became my good friend and unintentional mentor, and although neither of us was looking for a thing, we both found something profound in each other.

Bill sermons were TYPED OUT, and when I say typed out I mean by a typewriter, not by a computer.  He could not cut and paste, nor could he search the Internet for illustrations and answers, he was “old school,” and he READ and thought it out before he wrote it.  I never once heard him complain about it, as he really considered it a privilege to be called to the priesthood.

Bill also was a long suffering Cleveland Indians fan too, and early in my time there he made me an offer I could not refuse.  He said if I would drive him up to games, he would buy the tickets.  His eyesight was not the best and he didn’t like to drive in all of the traffic, and I thought it was a great deal as I am a Cubs fan, and really they are the same exact team generally, just in a different league.  And we would sit CLOSE to the field, as the stadium then seated about a million people, but most of the time there were about 15 fans there.  It was a blast.  He was a baseball savant too, and although definitely an Indians fan to the very end, he was not just fluent in Cubs baseball, he was fluent in ALL baseball.  We had a blast.

What I can say is that we did a lot of ministry together too.  We grew that church together, with me never worrying about him taking over, and him never wanting to.  We were just two guys from different generations blessed to be priests together serving the same people and the same church.  So this is to say, yes, we did work, a lot…..and we loved it.

We also together attended every funeral fro all the priests that had served in the diocese, but who had retired and had been forgotten.  Generally we found ourselves there with the Suffragan (assistant) Bishop, as these men usually weren’t know to the big cheese.  Bill knew most of them personally though, and would always be gracious and comforting to the families and always told them that “Mimi sends her love as well “(that was Bill’s wife)  But he would tell me all about these saints and I took it all in.  We both always shared how we hoped that people would remember us, not for our egos, but for our families.  He was just as dedicated to them as well.

Bill moved to a retirement home in Pennsylvania near one of his daughters and we lost touch.  I had the high honor however of stepping into the pulpit of our old church and speaking at his funeral a few years back.  I had left the Episcopal Church by then, and despite leaving they had still charged me as not having the “character to be a priest,” and defrocked me.  But there at St. Andrew’s Barberton, the Suffragan Bishop of Ohio allowed me, a priest of many years, into the pulpit to speak about my mentor and friend.  Later his family gave me his white chasuble that I have worn every Christmas and Easter season since, and at every funeral I have presided over as well.  It means more to me than I could ever explain.

But the bigger mystery is how to explain what lives on of Bill in me.  Truly I am a far better priest from knowing him, and quite honestly a far better man.  And I imagine he now sits up in heaven among those very men of whom he can name their every stat, and that his seats there are great in a place where the Indians finally win.  But I miss him.  He’d never pump himself up, but he was a giant to me.  Paper and pencil, books and hard work, he taught me a lot…….more than I could ever learn on this stupid computer.

Rest in peace my brother, and I hope to see you, although not too soon.

And goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+