A Celebration of Life – The Rev’d Peter W. Bridgford Sr., Rector of St. John’s-Grace 1974-2000

a coincidence is a miracle in disguise

It was a fitting coincidence or miracle that The Rev’d Peter Bridgford, Sr., brought us together on Saturday, March 14th to Break Bread one last time before the COVID-19 shut-down.

Mrs. Bridgford, a.k.a. Bemer came up from Florida, and Pete Jr. and family came from Maine to Celebrate Fr. Pete’s life. It was a joyful reunion and worship service at a time of loss and grief for the family and many in the Parish. That’s the way Fr Pete wanted it to be.

The Stelters made a beautiful picture board and we hung old parish pics in the Walter Lord Room. Take a look at the bottom of this page. The Rev’d Canon Cathy Demspey-Sims celebrated the Holy Eucharist and Rev’d Pat Guinn served as deacon. Yours truly preached and as I ascended the pulpit, in honor of Fr, Pete, I touched the carvings of the children’s heads for a blessing. Pete Jr. told me way back in 1979 that was Fr. Pete’s custom – and it was the one thing I remembered about the Parish when I became rector in 2018.

Here follows the sermon from Fr. Pete’s Celebration of Life. Most of it comes from Fr. Pete himself.

Every Blessing, Jon

March 14, 2020 St. John’s-Grace Episcopal Church, Buffalo, NY

Many people in the Parish have told me that Reverend Bridgford and the entire Bridgford family made a big impression on many people. I went to middle school with Pete Jr. and when I met father Pete he made a big impression on me. I was about 12 years old and father Pete and I had the following discussion:

Fr. Pete: Oh … we had a burial yesterday. We could not find any living family members of the man who had died.

Jon: What was his name?

Fr. Pete: His name is Edward Carr.

Jon: Edward Carr? That’s my grandfather!

There was a long uncomfortable silence and Father Pete had a look of shock and horror on his face.
Jon: But my grandfather Edward Carr is still alive… I just saw him yesterday.

Fr. Pete just kind of shook his head and laughed. I would have wrung my own neck for being such a smart-alek. But Fr. Pete was very kind and generous and that of course made a big impression on me.

Father Pete left fantastic instructions for his funeral. He said the following:

· The service should not be a eulogy. It should be a joyful worship of God to serve the needs of the people.

· We should not look to the past. We should look to the future.

· The service should focus not on original sin. It should focus on original blessing.

What a beautiful message!

So in keeping with father Pete’s wishes, I’m going to share with you from one of his sermons which he delivered here at Saint John’s Grace in 1976 when I was about 10 years old.

Fr. Pete and his Heavenly Spoon at the SJG Pulpit Again

I wonder if any of you in the congregation know what this is. Yes… it looks like a pole with a spoon connected to the end. I’m going to call it, Fr. Pete’s heavenly spoon. Why? Listen to find out.

In his sermon he says the following:

There is a story that tells us something about the difference between Heaven and Hell... Where there is a banquet table filled with all sorts of good and wonderful things to eat and the people are seated at the table with a fork and spoon, which is not unusual, except that the fork and spoon are 3 feet long.

The people in hell are sitting there before all these good things and are going hungry. The people in Heaven are well fed because, you see, they discovered that they couldn’t feed themselves but they could feed each other and be satisfied.

This is the very scene that has taken place upstairs with our young people. Each was given a 3 foot stick with a spoon attached ... and on the table was a beautifully decorated vanilla pudding.

We hope that through the experience, they will discover that we cannot exist alone and we hope they will come to have a new understanding about community and communion.

Faith is not a noun-it is A verb. The church is not something that just is... We don’t know a community of Christ by what it is but by what it does. Doing is at the heart of Christianity. In Scripture, Jesus never says: just be. He said: come … come unto me. Surrender your life to me or you will lose it. Take up your cross. Pray. Go. Heal. Go ... Share the gospel. Repent. Forgive.

The young people and we are focusing on that particular work of the community which our Lord instituted on the night he was handed over to suffering and death the holy Eucharist. This is the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord‘s day.

And what we do in our worship reveals who we are. If we look at a Sunday bulletin we can see the various steps of our worship in the liturgy. The liturgy is truly the work of the people and the priest: gather-proclaim and respond-pray, which includes asking for forgiveness and receiving the assurance of forgiveness-exchange the peace-prepare-make Eucharist - break the bread-eat and drink together-give thanks-and finally process out into the world.

Every step is a verb.... our worship is anything but static. It is an ongoing movement of giving and receiving. Of offering and blessing. The community together communicating. .. In communion with God and with one another with the hopeful and joyful conclusion and expectation that God may dwell in us and we in him. Our worship is not passive. It is very personal.

On the road to Emmaus, two people do not recognize the resurrected Christ until they sit and break bread together. Jesus cannot be contained. We cannot possess him. He must be recalled. .. Experienced... Shared.

That is what we do when we do this in remembrance of him. We remember. We recall all that Jesus has done for us: his blessed passion, his precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension...That our means of grace and of our salvation – that make right our relationships with God and one another. We also remember and recall all our future in the moment ... to eternity. It is recalling into our time of that upper room with Jesus and his friends – it is the recalling into our time of the future when we shall be face-to-face with our Lord at the heavenly banquet.

And in the work of the people ... the liturgy ... of worship – we have a glimpse .... a vision ... of the union of the community of the children of God with our Lord and our God sacramentally.

But, like the people of Emmaeus, we cannot contain and possess Jesus here. We have to go out ... as they had to go to tell the disciples. We have to go out into the marketplace-back into our place of business-to our homes – to our schools-and live our worship.

The community of God is called-do this in remembrance of me-receive the assurance of God’s presence, mercy and goodness, receive his forgiveness, experience his love – and then process out into the world to do the works he has given us to do –the faithful witness of Christ our Lord. Love one another as I have loved you – as I love you-and as I will always love you.

Let us pray.

God we thank you for the life and witness of the Reverend Peter Bridgford. We thank you for the life and love he has given to the parish of Saint John’s-Grace and all the people ... the many lives he has touched. We thank you that he has taught us and continues to teach us how to feast .... how to feed one another at that heavenly banquet in the presence of God and one another. We thank you that Fr Pete always spoke of original blessing... the assurance of God’s love for us. Amen

Rev’d John Russell and Fr. Pete who loved fishing