The Rev. Jerry Kramer, the Episcopal priest who threw his church into the recovery of Broadmoor after Hurricane Katrina, has left the church for a more conservative Anglican community.
Kramer, the former rector of the Free Church of the Annunciation, said by e-mail he now is affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America.
That community is composed of former Episcopalians who split with the U.S. church in 2008 over deep theological differences.
Fr Kramer is one of a number of priests and laity who really gave everything to ministry and helping people during and after Katrina. His story, which I have followed for a few years, is here in an ATV interview.
He gave everything, including his health, for the people of his parish. He is an inspiration and an encouraging picture of the very best that our church has. I am glad he is better. Thank you for your example, Fr. Kramer.
He did not “leave” the Church. Fr Kramer merely changed jurisdictions for one which is more credible, may the Lord bless him.
God bless Fr Kramer and his family. Thanks be to God for faithful priests like him.
One note from the [i]Times-Picayune[/i] story:
[blockquote]Kramer’s gifts fit the moment. Hyperactive and inventive, he spun off ministries and blew up established conventions in pursuing the work, almost erasing the distinctions between the church and the surrounding community.
In other ways, however, he was deeply orthodox. [/blockquote]
Alas that such selfless ministry isn’t considered by the world – or at least, by the press – to be a mark of orthodox Christian faith. Faithful conservative Anglicans are heirs to a heritage of service to humanity as living out the justice and righteousness of God: the early Church (read the Epistle to Diognetus, for example); the monastic movements of the Middle Ages; the Evangelical Anglicans who worked for the abolition of slavery, prison reform, and labor reform; the Tractarians and other Anglo-Catholics who worked for social reform, often situating themselves in the very places where grinding poverty and social oppression were destroying the God-created dignity of those whom they served; modern Christians who work to end sex-trafficking, abortion, and other social evils; to say nothing of the countless individual Christians through the ages who were moved by their faith to care for the poor and the destitute, and to speak up for the voiceless.
Let us emulate Fr Kramer and claim that heritage, so that reporters will not write sentences with that “however” in them:
[blockquote]In other ways, too, he was deeply orthodox.[/blockquote]
As one who continues to abide and minister in The Episcopal Church, it saddens me deeply to hear that Fr. Kramer has left. The loss is profound because of the great good he has done in his ministry. I wish him all the best and I will pray for him in his new endeavor.