I spent the early afternoon reading the autobiography of the Rt. Rev. Anson Graves: The Farmer Boy Who Became Bishop *Fascinating*stuff.

Let me tell you a little bit about Bishop Graves, a thread:

[1/x]

Then Fr. Graves was elected a deputy from the Diocese of Minnesota to the General Convention of 1889 in New York City. He was then the Rector of Gethsemane Church in Minneapolis, the largest church west of Chicago. [2/x]

While at General Convention, he was summoned out of the House of Deputies and informed that he'd be elected Bishop of the new Missionary District of the Platte and was excused from the House of Deputies while they confirmed the election (unanimously, as it turns out.) [3/x]

The bishop-elect then returned to Minneapolis where, only a couple months later on January 1, 1890, he was consecrated at Gethsemane Church. Interestingly he points out the President and the faculty of the University of Minnesota attended. [4/x]

While en-route to his missionary diocese, Bishop Graves stopped in my hometown of Montevideo, MN and confirmed ten people. When I started reading this book, I had no clue there was a Montevideo connection. [5/x]

One of those ten confirmands was "a physician who, before [Graves] held [his] first mission there, had been a pronounced infidel."

Growing up in Montevideo, I didn't know we had any infidels, much less pronounced ones. But there it is. [6/x]

Incidentally, the Episcopal Church in Montevideo closed sometime before I grew up. It was called Grace Church and was located across from the old High School and down the block from about six other churches. [7/x]

When Bishop Graves got to Nebraska, his first act as bishop was to tend to the parish in Broken Bow, whose "pastor, after getting drunk, had just left." Graves talks about how he engaged w/ the parish, but doesn't say anything more about the priest. [8/x]

Standard missionary bishop activities followed during his episcopate. His end-of-career stats:

Ordained 14 deacons & 13 priests
Built 26 churches & 14 rectory
Baptized 456
Confirmed 4,013
Married 24 couples
Built the diocesan budget from $0 to $62,852.62 [9/x]

Also of interest: the Missionary Bishop of Northern California had a stroke and was paralyzed, but apparently refused to vacate his diocese. So Bishop Graves was appointed to tend to both missionary districts: Northern California and Western Nebraska. [10/x]

That's an awful long distance between northern California and western Nebraska. I'm surprised that NOBODY else could be found between there. Just sayin'.

[11/x]

Also Bishop Graves' diocese changed names four times during his tenure: Missionary District of the Platte (1889); Missionary District of Laramie (1898); Missionary District of Kearny (1907); and finally Missionary District of Western Nebraska (1913.) [12/x]

It took the name of the Missionary District of Laramie when the eastern half of Wyoming was added to the western half of Nebraska by the General Convention 1898 which was in Washington, DC that year. [13/x]

Laramie became the see city because it had a cathedral, although Graves was disappointed in the cathedral when he arrived to find it only half finished and barely furnished. The furnace wouldn't get above forty degrees. Makes one appreciate all those vestments, I guess. [14/x]

All-in-all, Bishop Graves and his accounting of his history were fascinating. (And I didn't even tweet about his pre-bishopric days.) This makes me wonder about how future generations will receive and interpret the history of clergy and lay leaders today. [15/x]

I wonder if we, who are in ordained and lay leadership in the Church, should be more intentional about telling the story of our ministry for posterity. Anyway, a good read and thought exercise for a day off in Coronatide.

Fin. [16/x]