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”
Trinity Cathedral, Trenton, NJ What a great cloud of witnesses to cheer us on! Many thanks.
Full court press from Lake Jackson, TX--Deaconess Anna Alexander
Forgot to give location: Arlington, VT, St. James' Episcopal, founded in 1764. Born and raised in NYC. Received into the Episcopal Church at St. Luke's in Kalamazoo, Mi by Bishop Bennison; The Very Rev. Canon James Holt, Rector. One of the happiest days of my life. I'll always be grateful.
I voted for Richard Hooker. It was a difficult choice, and I expect that Anna will prevail; however, Richard's theological writings have made the three-legged stool a stable platform on which to stand and have laid the groundwork for a bright and exhilarating Episcopal movement. Eugene, OR
Anna’s work is possible because of Richard Hooker’s. What a tough choice. (Bend, Oregon)
Brentwood, CA (East Bay of SF Bay Area)
Toronto, ON Anglican (ACC) since birth
Richard Hooker may have had some great thoughts and contributed to Anglicanism, but my vote is Anna. She was a trailblazer who believed in more than anyone thought she should.
Tampa, FL born & raised (with a 5 year period in Sarasota where my family found the Episcopal church)
A vote for the esteemed Richard Hooker from beautiful downtown Buffalo, NY!
I had to vote for Richard Hooker - scripture, tradition and reason are so important to me.
San Marcos, Texas
Boston VA. Go Anna
It was a hard decision to make but I went with Ana in the end
Antigua, Guatemala
Tunkhannock , Pennsylvania
Richard Hooker, for providing an explication of faith and belief that reaches out to "all sorts and conditions of [people], even (as several people note above) people he could not possibly have known about or foreseen. As for me: born 1941 in Huntington, NY, baptized in the parsonage of the Methodist church there, raised in New York, Vermont, and Connecticut, took the part of outsiders wherever I was (e. g. in Canton Center, CT was confirmed by the pastor who was being attacked by parishoners for having German books in his library--as a person secretly taking German lessons at the high school, I thought that anyone should know how much the Germans had contributed to theology over the last few centuries! The summer after my high school graduation (with 1/2 hour credit in German, thanks to lunchtime lessons from the Superintendent of Schools, the son of a German baron who had fled the Nazis an emigrated to Canada), I attended a summer school in Wallingford, CT with a curriculum in Russian studies. Two takeaways: the school's chapel used a watered-down version of Evening Prayer, and as I heard and *participated in* the versicles and responses, I thought to myself, "This is what true worship sounds and feels like, a dialogue between clergy and people. Summer school led to a month's journey through the Soviet Empire, where I saw the faith of the Orthodox church under persecution, and came home more of a Slavophile than ever (this runs deep in my family--we've been traveling to Russia for over a century). My mother had been raised an Episcopalian, and in my first year at Harvard I sought out the Episcopal chaplaincy and was prepared for confirmation, which took place in May, 1960 during the visitation of the Rt. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, eleventh bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts. There followed a tumultuous decade (you may have heard of the 60's), ending with my move to Dallas, TX, where I had been offered gainful employment by Southern Methodist University. My relations with the Church were conflicted, and I was not a regular communicant for some time. I'd illustrate what this meant with something a homeless woman in Austin, TX told me when I was there visiting friends a few years ago. The two of us were sitting on a bench waiting for a bus, and she said, "I am *not* homeless, I've just been living outside for ten years." She went on to explain that living outside was her best course of action, because certain alien enemies with that ability to control minds were sending people to assassinate her. Anyway, in 2000 a friend of mine complained that she had no one to accompany her to church, and I volunteered, quite eagerly since it was a TEC church, the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Dallas. I was amazed at how much TEC had "evolved" during my absense, and after sporadic attendance for 8 years, I received instruction and prepared for a renewal of vows, administered on the Feast of the Ascension (May 21, 2009) by the R. Rev. James M. Stanton, sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Coincidentally (?), May 21 is my birthday, so the date is very resonant with me. So it happens that I am a member of a parish that's an outlier in a diocese that's an outlier in TEC, which is an outlier in the Anglican Communion, which is regarded by most other Christian communities as an outlier if not an outsider. Clearly, I am exactly where I belong!
Hooker's ideas saved many lives in England during the time of religious hatred in Europe and has been a voice of reason for many generations across the entire Anglican communion. I voted for him.
You never make it easy. I love Anna, and I am glad she made it this far. But I owe so much to Richard for laying the groundwork for our church. I found a home and family i the Episcopal Church, and I am grateful for all who have contributed to this wonderful faith foundation.
First timer here for Lent Madness and I started mid season. I have greatly enjoyed reading about all the saints and reading the comments as well! This was the hardest choice for me so far. So much so, I read many of the comments before voting. Ultimately, I went with Hooker. As many have said, Anna has my heart. She took the foundation of what Richard Hooker built and used it to welcome many more into the love of Christ. However, I decided on Hooker because that foundation, the three legged stool of tradition, scripture, and reason, has paved, and will continue to pave, the way for others, like Anna, to do the same. But, I hate voting against her. ~Iowa City, IA
A close race - just like some of the matchups in the other bracket!
Fairly new to Lentmadness ....love getting to know our saints better and equally enjoy the comments!
Thanks to all those who contributed to this wonderful experience...
Brooks......St. Gregory’s Episcopal, Dio. of SE Florida
Cumberland, Rhode Island
Please vote for Anna Alexander. She has roots in our parish. The picture in today's post is actually the stained glass window from our chapel. Her ministry was incredibly important in these parts and we are so proud of her witness. It still inspires us today. Go Anna!
Camarillo, California. Today is a can't-lose scenario: I can vote for Anna Alexander, who represents heart and hands in ministry or I can vote for Richard Hooker, who represents heart and head in theology. His 3-legged stool has been of very good service to me over the years... I've only recently learned of Anna, but her example is much needed as well. So whichever way I vote, I'm voting for a winner -- and that makes me smile on this warm spring day when I can almost feel summer in the air!
Oilville, Virginia.
Hooker gazed at ships from his ivory tower, did he?
West Columbia Texas
Such a difficult choice today. Both of these saints exemplify the best of Christianity: the thoughtful reasoning of Mr. Hooker, and the hands-on, Christ in this world Deacon Anna. We have been blessed and uplifted by them both.
Linda from Green Bay, WI - attending St. Anne's Episcopal in De Pere WI
I was originally going to vote for Hooker and he is who I had picked for the Golden Halo but I am persuaded that women and POC need be raise up. I was especially moved by the write up about Anna and the difficulties she faced and how she wouldn't let that keep her down. I too have heard Bishop Curry mention her, most recently at the Evangelism Conference in Cleveland (Thank you St Paul's and all who put that conference on)...so while this vote will be against my brackets I vote for Anna and all who work for the Gospel despite the barriers put before them. Go Anna!
Ouch! Come on, Richard Hooker fans. It's too close. Get out and vote!
Anna. But I do love Eglantyne. I will honor her by buying her rose. Assume Knoxville, Tennessee, warms up. Chilly wi ter, but my heart is tender with losing Eglantyne.
Winter.