Dear People of St. David’s,
I have been playing a little game of “Six Degrees of Churchy Separation” ever since the new Pope (and Villanova ’77 graduate) Leo XIV was elected. Surely at some point in his time on the Main Line, we were in the same place at the same time! I want that point of connection because I want to look up to the new Pope (even though he is only two years older than I am.) I am hoping for the same kind of moral leadership I saw in his predecessor, even though we are members of different churches!
This is an old game for me, and I don’t have to look outside of The Episcopal Church to play it, either. Every May 13th The Episcopal Church celebrates the life of Frances Perkins, who went to Mount Holyoke College, my mother’s alma mater, located right next door to All Saints’ Episcopal Church, whose current rector is one of my best friends. Those points of connection are enough for me to be intrigued.
At the age of 23, Frances Perkins was confirmed in The Episcopal Church, attracted by the beautiful liturgy and ritual, and by the preaching of the social Gospel—the notion that God’s grace compels us to care for God’s people. She began her adult life as a science teacher in the early years of the 20th century. In her free time, she volunteered in settlement houses, which were the chief providers of social services a century and a half ago. She also discovered how the church could feed her need for beauty and grace and her desire to reform society to include the poor and the marginalized. Drawn to worship by God’s grace; she was empowered to love God’s people.
In 1911, while working as a lobbyist for the National Consumers League, Frances Perkins witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, where 146 died—mostly young women factory workers who couldn’t escape the fire because the doors had been chained shut to keep them in and labor organizers out. A few years later, the Governor of New York (and Episcopal Church Vestryman) Franklin Roosevelt named Frances Perkins the state’s Commissioner of Labor. When he was elected President, he named her as the first female Cabinet Secretary, appointing her Secretary of Labor. “I came to Washington to serve God, FDR, and millions of forgotten, plain, common workingmen,” she said. As Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins established the Social Security Administration.
Frances Perkins and FDR capture my imagination, because my mother went to Mount Holyoke like Frances Perkins and my father was on the Vestry of his church like FDR. I look up to them because, like me, they were drawn to beautiful worship and longed to love and serve God’s people. For Frances and Franklin, using the political process to make social change was the way to serve. They did not have to live out their faith that way, you know. They did not have to be so bold—so committed to change. Like us, they faithfully worshipped, and like us, they heard proclaimed the lesson we will hear this Sunday:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God…. And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” ~ Revelation 21:1-6
They heard the promises of Holy Scripture and then they set out to see them come true, bringing new life to their fellow citizens. How’s that for something to look up to?
Faithfully,
Nancy+
The Rev. Nancy Webb Stroud
Priest Associate
Photo: Roosevelt Signs The Social Security Act: President Roosevelt signs Social Security Act, at approximately 3:30 pm EST on 14 August 1935. Standing with Roosevelt are Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); unknown person in shadow; Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell (D-MI); Rep. Joshua Twing Brooks (D-PA); the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins; Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD). This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c23278. Public Domain. FIlter added.
Published on May 15, 2025