Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Faye laundered money. Literally.

At the small, rural church, she collected the offering at the end of the service and hid it in her clothes hamper until she could make it to the bank.

We discovered the occasions when she washed the purse with the rest of her laundry. The ink would run off the checks, and she'd call, asking how much we had given.

Today, on All Saints Day, we remember the guardians and martyrs of the faith, the Saints of The Church.

I also like to remember the saints in my churches.

Faye was nearly 90 years old -- and widowed for half a century, but she turned up at the church nearly every time the doors opened. Her shoulders hunched over and her knuckles looked like walnuts, but she never failed to clean up after potluck dinners or to give a pat to the child who hugged her leg.

She didn't offer herself to the lions or spark a reformation, but Faye and so many others seem to fit the definition of a saint -- a person of exceptional holiness.

Give a shout out to the saints in your churches, in your lives. Post their first names here. Add a sentence or two about how they have been extraordinary examples of the living Christ. And then give thanks for their witness and saint-likeness.

Amen.