Fr. Samuel L. Edwards is a native of Waynesville, North Carolina and recently has returned there. A graduate of Brevard College, The American University (Washington, DC), and Nashotah House Seminary (Wisconsin), he has served churches in north central Texas, southern Maryland and central Alabama. He also served for seven years as the Executive Director of Forward in Faith, North America, then the largest organization of traditional Anglicans in The Episcopal Church, during which he traveled and spoke widely, both in the United States and abroad.
After 29 years in The Episcopal Church (23 of them as a member of the clergy), he became part of the Continuing Anglican movement in 2002. Presently he is a member of the Anglican Church in America’s Diocese of the Eastern United States and serves as Vicar of Saint Peter’s Church in Waynesville.
Fr. Edwards’ ministry has a strong focus on teaching. He is the author of numerous articles on religious, social, historical and political topics, both in church publications and secular newspapers. He has also written two books (neither published as yet) – Constitution and Institution on the renewal of ecclesiology (the doctrine about the Church) and The Pondering Heart: A Rosary for all Christians. He is also engaged in a long and intermittent project of organizing his instructional material into another book with the working title, Faith and Life: Basics of Christian Teaching and Practice.
At this writing, Fr. Edwards is a contender for a seat in the North Carolina General Assembly’s House of Representatives in the General Election of 2010.
Fr. Edwards and his wife, Kay, have been married for over 30 years. They have two adopted children. David, the elder, is a Private in the North Carolina Army National Guard, currently serving in Iraq. Rachel, the younger, lives with her husband in Waynesville.
I am pleased to announce that Fr. Edwards has accepted our invitation to join the staff of The Anglo-Catholic. Kindly join me in welcoming him to the team.
Be sure to follow our Moderator at Eccentric Bliss, his personal blog!
Welcome Fr. Edwards and I wish you all the best in your run for office!
Up here in Canada, we had a priest who won a federal seat in the separatist Bloc Quebecois party, which is pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage, and pretty much pro-euthanasia to boot. The priest generally voted the way his party voted and became a popular go-to source for media looking for a dissident view on the hot topics from a Catholic priest. For exampe, he would say he was against abortion but also against criminalizing it. Well, not long ago, he was given an ultimatum–it is either politics or the priesthood. So he resigned his political seat.
He is still a popular voice in Quebec for a kind of contrary Catholicism to that of Cardinal Ouellet, representing a view that can still be part of the Catholic tribe but modern and secular at the same time.
Generally the Church does not like having priests in politics, though there have been times when extraordinary circumstances will permit it. Maybe we have reached that kind of pass in the United States, with the slide away from Judeo-Christian morality towards something relativist and even pagan, so that a priest in politics will be welcome rather than the scandal it has sometimes been.
Deborah
Welcome, Father.
"Doc"+
An excellent addition to the blog — welcome, Fr. Edwards.
Welcome, Father. Your decision to leave the Episcopal Church set far more people thinking than you probably even realize.
Gee, Father, I've never seen you without whiskers!
Welcome, Fr. (—bit of a shock though, don't you know, as, like Fr. Winfrey, I have never seen you with a "clean countenance". )
Well, well! We meet once again, Father. We seem to have ended up in the same place quite often over the last 20 years.
Father;
I've been keeping up with you and Kay, lately … through Jim Hough.
Good to see you … though I'd never recognized you otherwise ..
St. Tim's sadly, is in the distant past…but still, warmly considered home.
Don & Sandy
Welcome, Father.