Epiphany Mission Sherwood, Tennessee Photo by Dan Hardison

Coincidence?

Several years ago, I was doing research on Tennessee painter Philip Perkins (1907-1970). One of the key events in his life was when he painted a triptych for Epiphany Mission – a small Episcopal church in Sherwood, Tennessee, twelve miles from The University of the South in Sewanee. Painted as a gift to the church, the painting brought new recognition to Perkins including a fellowship to live and work in Spain. Six years after the painting was installed in 1954, the church burned to the ground. I did not know if the church was rebuilt and if so, did it still exist today?

I found that the church did rebuild and was still active. While gathering information on the history of Epiphany Mission, I learned that the priest who served at the church when it was visited by Perkins and the triptych installed, now lived in West Tennessee. The Rev. Joseph S. Huske was elderly and dying of cancer, but I was able to arrange a meeting with him. During our conversation, I mentioned that I lived in Wilmington, North Carolina. He said that he knew Wilmington well. He was a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina (about two hours from Wilmington), and that a relative of his had served as Rector at St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington, as bishop of North Carolina, and was buried there. Although I knew of St. James, I had never visited the church, so this tidbit of information was filed away in some corner of my mind.

About two years later, I was at St. James Church for a story on the 18^th century Spanish painting, Ecce Homo, at the church. The Parish Administrator and I were standing before the altar as he was explaining some of the history of the church. He said that three Episcopal Bishops were buried beneath St. James including Bishop Robert Strange who was buried in front of the altar. I looked down and at my feet was the bronze Maltese cross of Bishop Strange, as in the middle initial of The Rev. Joseph S. Huske. Coincidence?

For the “Mystery, Muse and Ministry” conference at Kanuga in Hendersonville, North Carolina, (June 2005) I was asked to create a visual presentation using art images for the Tuesday night worship service. It would be a collaboration with Jeannine Otis, the musical director, and the Very Rev. Harry Pritchett former Dean of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York and now living in Atlanta, Georgia. The day following the service, I was having a conversation with Harry and he asked how I got involved with the visual arts in the Episcopal Church. I explained that I did not even attend the Episcopal Church until after my involvement with Epiphany Mission, in Sherwood, Tennessee. Their extraordinary history, the wonderful essays and poems of Father George W. Jones (their first priest), and the influence of the church members and their current Rector, Sister Lucy Shetters, brought me into the church. He said, oh I remember visiting Epiphany Mission when I taught at Sewanee and I know Lucy. I remember when she was one of the first women ordained into the church. Coincidence?

After learning about two fresco paintings Ben Long created for St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, I contacted the church about doing a story on the church and their frescos. The Rector at St. Paul's Church, the Rev. Thomas Morris, explained that he had been at St. Paul's only about six months. He had come there from Spruce Pine also in Western North Carolina. I said that I had friends in Spruce Pine, basketmaker Billie Ruth Sudduth and her husband Doug. He replied that he knew Billie Ruth and Doug. They attended his church in Spruce Pine and they gave him one of Billie Ruth's baskets as a going away present. Coincidence?

Life is full of little interesting things that seem to just happen – that come out-of-the-blue and unexpected. Architect Louis Kahn once said, “How accidental our lives are really, and how filled with influence by circumstance”. Or could there be a purpose to these circumstances? Since being involved with Epiphany Mission and working with ECVA, there have been many of these “coincidences”. Could it be that we are guided in life and some things happen that are meant to influence and direct us – even if it is not apparent at the time. Spiritual guidance?

Writer/musician Jim Clark has said, “I find I hardly begin to incorporate a new influence before I see its myriad relationships to old influences with which it is unexpectedly congruent”. Such is the Episcopal Church and such is ECVA.

Dan Hardison
Editor, The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts
editor@ecva.org