Today a good friend of mine was laid to rest….Bill Drake. I have known Bill since the early 1980’s and he, I can easily say, was one of a kind. He has had a bad heart for as long as I have known him, and that heart finally gave out just prior to Christmas. But I am sure that if you looked at it you would see it was great big and made of gold.

Bill was buried in the Episcopal Church in Plainfield, and though I know a lot of people out there, Sadly I felt it best not for me to go. I have been so demonized by people within the Episcopal Church for retiring and becoming a Church Planter for the Orthodox Anglican Church that I felt my being there would distract what everyone was there for. Deacon Tony was one of Bill’s best friends and Bill had even asked him to be in the service before he died. But get this……the Episcopal Bishop of Indianapolis told the priest doing the funeral that Tony couldn’t, because “he was not really ordained.” How tragic and shameful. Of course she considers me in that very same light. Yet if Tony were a Methodist or a Lutheran, it would have never been an issue. It is a shame that vindictiveness is placed above pastoral concern. Please pray for her. Tony and Bill were devoted friends. Bill came to Tony’s ordination. We laughed and rejoiced as always. And I even gave him communion……imagine that. All people deserve dignity. It amazes me that I am always portrayed as intolerant and exclusive. I think the evidence suggests the converse.

Anyway, before bed I will raise a glass to my dear friend Bill. His wife and family are in my prayers and I hope in yours. I was blessed to have known him, and I know so many others who would say the same. But more than anything, thanks be to God, I will be blessed again to walk with him in the life to come! (And beat him at euchre!)

May Bill’s soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Fr. Tom+