There is a book written in 1965 by Episcopal priest Malcolm Boyd (1923-2015) entitled Are You
Runing With Me Jesus? and the title is an apt description of my path to the priesthood. As soon
as I graduated college, members of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Greencastle, Indiana
where I was received into the Episcopal Church and confirmed by the bishop of Indianapolis,
were saying to me “you should be a priest. Don’t you want to be a priest?” I always responded,
“I don’t think I’d make a very good priest.” I thought that God was calling me to the university
professorate. After earning degrees from Boston University School of Theology (and taking
classes at Episcopal Divinity School and Boston College) and earning another degree from the
University of Notre Dame, I did spend time as a college instructor. I later enrolled in Duquesne
University in the PhD program in Systematic Theology, and while I was a student there, I also
taught many undergraduate classes. Eventually, I left Duquesne without finishing my PhD, a
decision that was entirely my own. Later I was ordained to the transitional deaconate and
ultimately the priesthood. This surprised many people…but my wife Cindy told everyone she
always knew this is how it would turn out, she just hadn’t been sure when.
My wife Dr. Cindy Sutton and I have been married for 40 years this year. We have an adopted
son, Chris (John Christopher Sutton Wise) who just turned 19 (We took him home from the
hospital when he was born. The years pass so quickly.) We are owned by 5 cats, one of whom is
called Bishop Purrfoot (a suggestion by a colleague, a riff on Bishop John Kerfoot, the first
bishop of Pittsburgh when the diocese was newly founded in 1865).
My undergraduate degree is from DePauw University where I earned a Bachelor of Music
degree with a double major in music and religion. For those of you who are curious, Cindy’s PhD
is in Sociology, with studies in sex and gender and marriage and the family. My degrees all
emphasize the theology and practice of liturgy and liturgical studies. In my free time (what’s
that?) I like cooking very much, having discovered Julia Child in my teens.
If you were to ask me why I like the Episcopal Church, I would have to say it’s sense of radical
inclusivity. As former presiding bishop Michael Curry has said, we Episcopalians are not liberal
just because we are well educated (though we tend to be). We are liberal because the Gospel
of Jesus Christ is liberal. Current Presiding Bishop Rowe has written about our Church’s
relationship with politics and political figures:
We did not seek this predicament, but God calls us to place the most vulnerable
and marginalized at the center of our common life, and we must follow that
command regardless of the dictates of any political party or earthly power. We
are now being faced with a series of choices between the demands of the federal
government and the teachings of Jesus, and that is no choice at all.
Christianity is about finding a place at the table for everyone, not about building walls, fences,
and divisions.