By Night

About the Book

Saint Paul’s Church in Philadelphia where most of these sermons were given is reminiscent in architecture to those old pilgrimage churches of France, with its rose window and gargoyles, flying buttress and flêche that pierces the horizon of Chestnut Hill. At one time the cross at the top of the flêche was the highest point in Philadelphia. Coming to Saint Paul’s brings one to “a place of peace for me,” as one parishioner described it that “helps me to try and work toward peace in the world.” “An omen of peace for the parish” is how our third rector described a gathering of clergy from North and South at Saint Paul’s only six months after Lincoln’s assassination. Enemies just months prior, they now stood before God at the altar of Saint Paul’s. A hundred years later in May of 1962, the parish established a memorial and planted a Red Oak on Rogation Day to honor Dag Hammarskjöld and all who died for world peace. In a night of disunity and polarization that marks the opening of a third millennium, the sermons and meditations in this book describe what is taking place beyond—a flaring together that holds the brilliant prospect of peace. This is the pilgrimage that is worth taking.

About the Author

The Reverend E. Clifford Cutler is Rector of Saint Paul’s Church, Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, PA. He serves on the Board of Directors of Episcopal Community Services and the Widows Corporation. His ministry has included the inner-city neighborhood of Kensington and the northwest Philadelphia community of Chestnut Hill. Linking the two is the eight and a half mile corridor Germantown Avenue and a persistent Christian faith, and that is itself quite a pilgrimage.