In yesterday's Faithful Four matchup, Maria Skobtsova defeated Esther 73% to 27% to make it to the Championship Round. Who will compete with Maria to vie for the Golden Halo? That's the question to be decided over the next 24 hours as Anna Alexander, the Georgia Deaconess, faces Richard Hooker, the Anglican theologian.
To get this deep into the Saintly Smackdown, Anna defeated Peter Claver, Edith Cavell, and Eglantyne Jebb, while Richard got past Mary of Egypt, Margaret of Scotland, and Phocas the Gardener.
Anna continues to be shepherded through the bracket by her namesake Anna Fitch Courie. Richard's advocate is Marcus Halley, who...shares a last name initial with Mr. Hooker.
Finally, did you watch the final in-season episode of Monday Madness? Of course you did. But here's the link nonetheless. You know, to share with your friends and family and Facebook friends you've never actually met.
Anna Alexander
Anna sighed as she began her walk between Darian and Brunswick. The day was already stifling hot and the sun had not yet reached its peak. The mosquitoes were already out in full force and the dust from the road was turning her habit from black to brown. She prayed for a breeze to cut the air that was so thick you could swim through it. Although the day was already shaping into a typical southern day, Anna couldn’t help but smile as she heard the sweet chirping of cicadas in the trees. The birds were greeting her with their morning chatter and the magnolias were in bloom. There were signs of God everywhere on her daily journey and these comforted her with her mission ahead.
With each step, Anna prayed for each of her students by name and prayed God would bless them with skills to change the world. She worried that the world would never see her children as equal in God’s sight. She worried that they didn’t see themselves as equal either. Anna’s shoulders dipped with the weight of worry and love she felt for these boys and girls. She worried that she had the skills to show them why reading, writing, learning, and God were so important. She wanted them to know the Bible tells us that God made all men and women in God’s image. Anna wanted her students to know that the most important lesson is that we love each other.
Mostly, Anna prayed that her students would learn that even when the world tells them otherwise, that Jesus tells us to treat each other the way
we want to be treated. Maybe if Anna’s students treat others the way they wanted to be treated that soon the world would treat them that way as well. Anna knew that following God was far more important than the noise of the world. After all, she had been told for years that she couldn’t make a difference being black and a woman. She hoped that with her firm persistence, following the love of Jesus, and the passage of time that she was showing that each of us makes a difference in our own way just because we are children of God.
As Anna neared her destination, she gave thanks to God for this time in prayer on her journey. Each step was a prayer that reaffirmed her faith and relationship with God. She felt strengthened by this time to serve her community. Her walks each day gave her that time to pray and reflect on where she was called to go. As she headed off to deliver the clothes, food, and books she gathered for her flock, she smiled. Today was going to be a good day.
Richard Hooker
Dr. James Cone, father of Black Liberation Theology, suggests that “theology is loving God with the mind.” It is easy to dismiss Richard Hooker’s theologizing as aloof, ivory-tower naval-gazing; but, it is important to note that loving God with our hearts, souls, and minds is a command straight out of the Gospels. The practice of theological scholarship is important to the life of the Church and, while its importance can be taken to the extreme (as with all things), it provides the necessary framework to wrestle with incredibly challenging questions. His commitment to the field of theology impressed King James (of the King James Bible fame), who said of Hooker, “I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected language; but a grave, comprehensive, clear manifestation of reason, and that backed with the authority of the Scriptures, the fathers and schoolmen, and with all law both sacred and civil.”
Richard Hooker did Anglican theology in a time of fierce religious division. Using the scriptures and Christian tradition, Hooker was able to weave together a system of faith that graciously navigated the Via Media between the excesses of Roman Catholicism and the austerity of continental Reformation Christianity. He allowed the Sacraments, the Church Mothers and Fathers, and Christian tradition to speak to a new age of Christians who were asking incredibly deep questions about how their age-old faith was going to interact with a world exploding in knowledge and size and scope. His Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie has a reach beyond Anglicanism into the field of English prose and political theory. Here is a real, flesh-and-blood man dedicated to a theology that improves the world.
Episcopalians are who we are, people who weave the richness of the Christian tradition into conversation with the real world around us, in no 
small part due to Richard Hooker. His system of scripture, tradition, and reason creates a framework of faith that is solid at its core and soft at its edges. Our faith is firm enough to affirm the ancient, Trinitarian faith, but soft enough to invite, include, celebrate, and be transformed by the presence of those of us formally closed out of the life of the Church – people of color, women, queer, and trans people, native and immigrant people. While we may not have been on his mind, his system of faith provided the framework that allowed many of us to experience true freedom in Jesus Christ.
Richard Hooker might not be remembered for feeding and housing people on the margins, but his system of faith nourishes and provides spiritual shelter for many, with the potential to add many more, for there is “plenty good room” in the Kingdom.
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421 comments on “Anna Alexander vs. Richard Hooker”
Good morning from Lincoln, Nebraska, as I read the impressive number of comments already posted today. My heart is with Anna - yet, as a former RC who lives in one of the most stifling Catholic dioceses in the country, and who went "churchless and faithless" for several decades, the soft edges of Episcopalianism welcomed me. My own church has welcomed so many souls who would have been deemed "misfits" elsewhere, and "home" is the phrase people in our congregation use most when telling the story of how they joined our congregation. So...I love Anna, but must vote for Hooker.
Some Methodists from Lyons Kansas are tuning in to these discussions and the 2018 bracket as part of a bible study we did this year. So fun for us. And very educational!
Welcome!
Anna had me at mosquitos. Okay, and her selfless, relelentless dedication to education and equality.
-Houston, TX
A very tough choice today but I voted for Richard Hooker.
Rhymney Valley, South Wales, UK
Seattle WA via Sitka AK
Hi Sitka, from Juneau!
As a cradle Episcopalian, I probably take Richard Hooker's teaching for granted and doubt I knew before Lent Madness where or how the standards of my faith were founded but I had to go with Anna. Thank you to all for your sharing and to our bloggers who have outdone themselves! Crossville, TN by way of Epiphany, East Providence, RI, Christ Church, Somerset, MA, and St Mark's, New Milford, PA where I was baptized, confirmed, and married.
Bensalem, PA right outside of Philly, the World Champions 🙂
I voted for Hooker, but it was a tough choice. I can't imagine what Anglicanism would be without Hooker's contributions.
I'm from Humble, Texas, just north of Houston.
So difficult a choice...I'm not saying where I finally came down. I just want to weigh in with one more voice from the Mountain time zone. LM reaches into New Mexico and even Wyoming! I'm sure hundreds of Coloradoans are also here with us. I'm from Lakewood, suburban Denver
I voted for Hooker. In a world where people are so busy following their hearts, we need more reason. Also, as a historian of early modern Europe, I understand how much Hooker served as a beacon in a time of great religious strife and violence. As deserving of honor as Anna Alexander is, Hooker gets my vote.
Anna Alexander all the way to the Golden Halo!
Lausanne, Switzerland
BTW, I'm curious to know how much of the piece on Anna Alexander was creative imagining, and how much came from her own communications. I'm a bit leery of the creative narration in this context.
That's cruel. Navvies are very important for building roads and canals. He might want some day to sail his destroyer down a canal, and he wouldn't be able to.
And oranges are delectable.
This is a good read.
http://deaconessalexander.georgiaepiscopal.org/?page_id=42
Thank you for sharing.
The creative imagining feel didn’t seem fair to me either.
Greetings from Charlestown, RI. Thanks to all the Lent Madness team for their joy and hard work!
Burlington, Vermont - Tough,tough choices today! Anna is an awesome choice but in the end I had to go with Hooker, I mean 'comon he's represents Anglican-ism.
From Flagstaff, AZ (7,000 feet elevation and still experiencing winter)
Anna for the Halo!!!
Nothing scientific, but I think we set a world record for thoughtful, reasoned comments in Lent Madness, right?
Reading everyone’s faith journey traveling across the various traditions/expressions is quite remarkable. As I prepare to close out LM for another year, I am immensely grateful to have met 16 great saints and had an opportunity to think deeply about how they lived their faith and calling no matter the circumstance. I’ve learned new stories (Anna, Maria, Phocus...") and new concepts (kenosis and via media) but in these crazy times, I’m looking for a saint who exemplifies how to live as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ in a sinful, fallen world. Especially when it seems that most of Christ’s followers have utterly divorced themselves from every social justice issue that they once championed in previous generations.
Back to today’s choice: Richard Hooker appeals for his new reason injection system applied to his faith engine and I voted for him. However, upon reconsideration, I think it’s about Anna and Maria. We’ve got our theology and now we need examples for how to live it.
Forgot! I’m a Presbyterian and lifelong Alaskan, now wintering in the Coachella Valley in sunny Cali where I enjoy mixing it up in a small Assembly of God church. But my deviotional practices are all Anglican!
I was deeply impacted by the expansive ecumenicsm I experienced during a short term study in the Holy Land at Tantur Ecumenical Retreat Center in Jerusalem. I strive to keep my faith practices spiced up!
Coming to you from beautiful Edmonds, Washington..."the gem of Puget Sound". I got ready to meet a friend to take a walk around town and had a few moments to relax into the day so I checked my Lent Madness email. How very 'spot on' is the write up on Anna Alexander! So...while we are making our way around town, I ,too, will be praying with my heart as well as with me feet! Oh yes, Anna has my vote today.
A Lent Madness first-timer from Wilmington, NC. Enjoyed learning about these saints in a fun way. Thanks!
Beautiful spring morning from Memphis, Tennessee. Richard Hooker for the Gold! Where would we be without him?
Falmouth MA (10 feet elevation and the snow has pretty much melted)
Scripture, tradition and reason. I'm for Hooker in this round.
Thanks to all for an enlightening Lenten season.
Hunlock Creek, PA. Baptised Luthern, convert to RC at 11 (I liked the altar boys). Former student of theology. Now lapsed, maybe even agnostic. Bible by my side, basically uncracked.
Voted for Anna. Faith in action. That is my prayer for this country.
Voting from Parker, Colorado.
Sausalito California. Grateful for my Baptist upbringing and my adulthood in the Episcopal Church. Anna Alexander was a profound theologian, teaching the theology of love. Frankly, I don’t care how many legs the stool has! Voted for St. Anna.
A priest friend and mentor of mine, who was raised Baptist, used to say, "The Baptists saved me from hell and the Episcopalians saved me from the Baptists!" She was proud of her roots and her place in both traditions. I'm glad you are too.
Ha!! Thats hilarious!! and pretty close to home for me, too
Thanks for a hearty laugh!!
Anna. An African-American woman walking in the footsteps of Jesus, caring for and about God's children. California.
Anna, a teacher walking in that Georgia heat, thinking of her students! Many teachers last weekend joined a March for our Lives thinking of their students. Bremerton, WA
Hooker! Lewistown, Montana
It definitely is challenging. Enjoy and look forward to this every morning. Will miss it when it is finished.
I hail from Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada.
God's blessings for Easter Sunday and the rest of the year.
Hooray for Alberta!
Kudos to the request to post our hailing points. Its such fun hearing from all the compass points. Currently Millstone Twp. NJ formerly Freehold, NJ, before that New Hampshire, Kansas, Massachusetts.
Granby, CO
"They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still,
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus' will."
I grew up singing Hymn 293, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God". I was also a teacher for 36 years. Anna struggled for the children under circumstances that I cannot imagine. I will vote for her today. It was a difficult choice.
Trinity Anderson, Diocese of Indianapolis