Father Cole

Jim Cole is a priest.  He is a priest in the Reformed Episcopal Church and serves as assistant priest at the Chapel of the Cross in Dallas, Texas.  He serves with me, a curate, in the same parish.

Jim and I both grew up in Gainesville, Texas, and maybe that is where our bond began...though unknown to us.  Our greater bond is in our faith and union in Christ and in the ministry of the Church.

For Jim is, above all else, a minister in the Church of Christ.  He has all the marks of this ministry:  Love for God and His Word, love for the people of God, and love for the Liturgy of the Ancient and Historic Church.  This is where he shines- like a beacon on a desolate shore.

Like me, like all of Christ's ministers, Jim has his weaknesses- "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power might be of God, and not of ourselves."  He and I are bound by our remaining sins, our innate weaknesses and ignorances, our inability to reach beyond ourselves in all of these things.  But, Christ, who alone is Holy, is pleased to use our pitiable weakness for his glory.  "That no flesh should glory in his presence."

The thing that overshadows and covers all of this in Father Jim (and I hope in myself) is that he LOVES.  He loves God and he loves people- all people and especially the people of God.

Vance Havner (an old Southern Baptist friend of mine from years ago) used to tell this story.  He went to pastor a small rural church in North Carolina as a young man.  He had not been there for long until he began to hear people talk about "Brother Brown," a former pastor.  "Brother Brown" this and "Brother Brown" that.  One day, Havner (not a little intimidated by this long-gone pastor) visited one of his parishioners in a field where the man was plowing.  After sharing small talk for a while, Havner ventured the question,  "What was so special about Brother Brown?"  After pausing for a moment, the man said,  "Wall, I expect he jist loved us."

That, that, is Jim Cole.