One of the difficulties of living so far away from the places you’ve lived in the past is that you miss the life events of people you’ve known before. I just discovered from the Brotherhood of St. Gregory site that the Rev’d Ed Riley, Rector of All Saints Ravenswood, in Chicago, up to 1992, died in 2005.
I came to All Saints after moving to Chicago in 1991. It was recommended by others on the board of Integrity/Chicago, and was relatively close to me (just within walking distance). The church was in poor condition: if you look at the History section of All Saints’ website, you’ll see what I mean. It’s a historic building (more than 120 years old now, and one of the last wooden structures of any size in Chicago) and thus difficult to keep up.
The members of the parish were struggling to make ends meet, and didn’t have much of an outreach to the community. Ed was a lovable bear of a guy, given to using champagne for Eucharist on the Great Feasts of the church and popping the cork toward the rafters at the Offertory. However, the parish had been in receipt of aid from the diocese for several years, and was therefore reduced to mission status (dependent totally on the diocese) and Ed at first became Vicar, and then left and was replaced by Bonnie Perry. Under her leadership the parish has grown manyfold, and is one of the most vibrant and certainly the fastest growing Episcopal church in the diocese of Chicago. It became a parish again in 2000 and Bonnie was one of the candidates for Bishop of California in the election held last year.
Ed became a pastoral counselor, and was attached to the Church of the Atonement. He died in September 2005 as a result of a fall in his home, after enduring a period of ill health. RIP, Ed.