Jeremy Taylor [1613-1667] - In the years between 1633 and the ascendancy of the Puritans in 1645, Taylor was a Fellow of two Cambridge colleges and chaplain to Archbishop Laud and to King Charles. Under Puritan rule, he was imprisoned three times, and forced into retirement as a family chaplain in Wales. After the Restoration, in 1661, he became Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland.
Taylor wrote many works of theology, but they can be best summarized by this quotation he once offered to one of his students: "A religion without mystery must be a religion without God."
O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, like your servant Jeremy Taylor, deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
August 14:
Jonathan Myrick Daniels [1939-1965] - Daniels was a seminarian at Episcopal Theological School [now known as Episcopal Divinity School] in Cambridge, Massachusetts. More of his compelling story may be read here, including links to more sources. Suffice it to say, he went to Selma, Alabama to witness for civil rights and was martyred by government authority. It's an old story, isn't it?
The good that came from his martyrdom is that the Episcopal Church did have a renewed sense of mission to the marginalized. What is often missed is that Daniel's is a story of moral and physical courage, without which no social change may be engaged. Too many of our contemporary leaders wish to question authority, but not in a way that really endangers them or their way of life.
O God of justice and compassion, you put down the proud and mighty from their place, and lift up the poor and the afflicted: we give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ the just one, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
August 15:
Feast of St. Mary the Virgin [formerly known as The Feast of the Assumption], of which more will be offered on the day itself.
August 18:
William Porcher Dubose [1836-1918] - One of the Episcopal Church's premier theologians from the latter portion of the 19th century. If you haven't heard of him, it's because Yankee difficulty with the Confederate States of America, the army of which Dubose served as a chaplain during the War Between The States, prevents him from being too dramatically acknowledged lest his early service distract from the preferred historical narrative of our tradition.
However, some of his books are still around. As is a well-received biography.
Even his Collect is , as my Scottish grandmother would say, a little "tupenny/ha'penny".
Almighty God, you gave to your servant William Porcher DuBose special gifts of grace to understand the Scriptures and to teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.