The Bishop’s Letter
The Official Publication of the Diocese of Kentucky

Address all communications to:
The Bishop’s Letter, 421 Second Street
Louisville 2, Kentucky
Phone: JAckson 1012

Veni, Creator Spiritus

St. Luke 6:11 and our Prayer Book page 553 tell us that before our Lord Jesus Christ chose His Apostles, “He continued all night in prayer to God.”

It is also written that before the Apostles chose St. Matthias, they “followed the example of the Lord.” Let us of the Diocese of Kentucky, therefore, “following the example of our Saviour Christ, and His Apostles, offer up our prayers to Almighty God, before we admit and send forth” any candidate “presented unto us, to the work whereunto . . . the Holy Ghost hath called” a Bishop.

The time has come for us all in this Diocese to ask God’s guidance in the choice of possible candidates for the good office of Bishop. The time has come for us to beseech God to "save us from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice.

and . . . to direct, sanctify, and govern us” in this most important task “by the mighty power

of the Holy Ghost; that the comfortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preache:! . . . in all places”; and that he who is finally chosen shall "think iipoiz the things contained in” the Sacred Book, shall "be diligent in them," shall “be to the flock of Christ a shepherd,” and shall “hold up the weak., heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring again the outcast, seek the lost,” and “so minister discipline, that you forget not mercy; that when the Chief Shepherd shall appear,” He shall not find His own unworthy of the never-fading crown.

0 God, the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of the faithful, pour down upon us the abundance of Thy grace at this time of election of a Bishop of this Diocese. Keep us, we beseech Thee, from all pride and prejudice. Make Us all to be of one heart and mind in love toward Thee. Especially, we pray, that Thou would enlighten those who are entrusted with the solemn task of choosing a chief Shepherd for this portion of the flock of Christ, that Thy Church may be strengthened and the work of the Kingdom advanced to the glory of Thy holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The picture cover of this issue of The Bishop’s Letter shows the interesting treatment of the interior of the new Saint Matthew’s church with the pierced-wood screen separating the organist and choir from the congregation, the arch-beamed ceiling, the altar separated to enable the priest to celebrate Holy Communion facing the congregation, and other details.

The staff of The Bishop’s Letter was in a quandary over use of the cover of this issue. We had three choices: 1) the presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, who had just accepted an invitation to celebrate the festival of Whit- sunday in Louisville; 2) the new Grace Church, and 3) the new Saint Matthew’s Church.

The staff decided on Saint Matthew’s because it is the third church by that name in this diocese and dates back to 1838, although it burned once and was closed in 1892. Incidentally, those of us who have been referring to the “vestibule” of the church are now officially corrected (liturgically). It is the “narthex.” Bishop Clingman, with Crozier Bearer Dwight Smith, are pictured on a succeeding page in the narthex of Saint Matthew’s with the Bishop’s hand on the door handle leading into the nave. Also, the interesting designs on the north wall of the narthex that resemble three omegas are “moneybags.” Saint Matthew was a collector of tolls when Jesus called him to “follow me.”