Remembering a 17th Century, Out-of-the-way Pastor

When he was 37, George Herbert’s career went bunk. He had begun brilliantly as a scholar, rising to the post of university orator at Cambridge. He had taken holy orders. He had hopes for a career as a courtier and diplomat. But in 17th century England, where advancement came through preference rather than performance, he knew the wrong people. His connections were out of favor. As a result, King James I had no place for him in the government. All the King had to offer so gifted a man was a modest living as rector of the parish of Fugglestone and Bemerton in rural Wiltshire, not far from Salisbury Cathedral, but out of the way and far from palaces or power.

A few years ago I was in Salisbury and remembered I had a connection. I made an impromptu call on Archdeacon Alan Jeans, MBE, whom I had met briefly in California. I hoped he might have time to greet me. After I mentioned Herbert, he insisted on driving me to Bemerton. There he showed me Herbert’s house, and his pasture which sloped down to a tree-lined river, and a tiny church. In this bucolic, out of the way place, amid a few small farms, a brilliant man made a small career.

Herbert wrote, “Nothing is small in God’s service.” He made an ideal parish priest by all accounts, who brought cheer to the local farming families. With time on his hands, he wrote poems. He expected his poetry might be burned after his death.

Herbert died in 1633, after only three years of his remote pastorate. And his poems weren’t burned. They were published and have been read ever since. They inspired other poets like S. T. Coleridge and T. S. Eliot. The 20th century French philosopher Simon Weil considered his poems a revelation. And they drew me halfway around the world to his tiny church.
Emmanuel Church will mark George Herbert’s day on the Anglican calendar a day early, on Thursday, February 26th at 10 am. Those who attend will remember: “Nothing is small in God’s service.” – Guest Post by Gage McKinney