With the others in the earthly chorus, I salute and am quite saddened about Ed’s death. I had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Ed for something like thirty years. We were in the same clergy club for years while I was Rector of Christ Church and St. Michaels and during the time I worked for Bishop Ogilby (too, of blessed memory). I am glad that I got to visit with Ed a few years ago face to face after being gone from Philadelphia for some time. Ed was the most self renewing priest I have known. He always seemed fresh and always enquiring, what a gift to him and us all! I wonder if he is already wiping out an essay for the Heavenly Times! He’ll certainly have a wise and witty perspective, as always.

Ron and Catherine Reed

The Rules Pay Attention to All Relationships Be Grateful In All Things Give it away!

Friends,

I am sorry to inform you that our father, and your friend, Dr. Edward Chinn passed away this evening April 22, 2003 at 11:20 pm. His words and wisdom have always inspired all of us. We would like you all to remember his words on “People Don’t Die; Bodies Do”. We have not yet made the arrangements for the funeral, but will pass on information in a follow-up email. Thank you for your continued support and prayers during our father’s illness.

Sincerely,

The Chinn Family

People Don’t Die; Bodies Do

by Edward Chinn

Let me sum up my belief in five words: people don’t die; bodies do. Jesus told a man who hung beside him on a cross that people don’t die. Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). For Jews in Jesus’ day, the word “paradise” did not signify heaven, but the world of the departed. Jesus himself confirms this meaning of Paradise. On Easter morning, he said to Mary Magdalene, “I have not yet gone to the Father” (John 20:17).

Where then did his soul go? One might say, “Nobody knows.” This is not correct. In the church’s earliest days, people knew Jesus did not die totally. His soul visited Hades, the Unseen world of the departed. St. Peter wrote (1 Peter 3:19): “[Christ’s] body was put to death and his spirit was made alive. Christ then preached to the spirits that were in prison” [behind the gates of Hades]. Peter repeated the thought: “The good news was even preached to the dead” (1 Peter 4:6). Jesus’ apostle, Paul, wrote: “Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live.” The time of physical death is like the day we move from one house and go to live in another. A century before Jesus lived, an Alexandrian Jew wrote these words: “The souls of the just are in God’s hand . . . In the eyes of foolish men they seemed to be dead, their departure was reckoned as defeat, and their going from us disaster. But they are at peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3).

People don’t die; bodies do.