Of your charity, we ask you to pray for the repose of the soul of our brother and Son of this House, the Rev. John-Julian Swanson OJN, Class of 1957.

The Burial Office and Requiem Mass for Fr. John-Julian will be Saturday, August 21, 2021 11 a.m. (CST) at the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, Nashotah House.

We received word of his death on July 15, 2021. Nashotah House was the place where he worshiped for almost 15 years. The following is a tribute written by senior student, Sam Cripps.

Born in 1932, Fr. John-Julian graduated from Nashotah House in 1957 and went on to serve the Lord in Connecticut as the rector of a small church.

He became very active in the anti-Vietnam War protests and was involved in the Mass for Peace performed at the Pentagon, where he and the other participants were subsequently arrested. Fr. John-Julian was friends with Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian from Episcopal Divinity School who was shot and killed during the civil rights movement in 1965. During this time Fr. John-Julian also headed up Connecticut Child Services, where he worked to remove children from abusive or dangerous homes and place them in foster homes. 

He was later invited by the former Bishop of New York and the rector of Trinity Wall Street to found the "Seminary of the Streets" in New York City. This ministry focused on bringing the gospel outside the walls of the classroom and the parish and to the people. They focused on addressing poverty and addiction and advocated for radical love and peace during the turbulent times of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Fr. John-Julian was an early advocate of gay rights and became deeply moved by the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, whose picture he kept in his stall at Nashotah House.

Later, he founded a small religious community in New England called the Order of Julian of Norwich, a contemplative society of men and women. Later they were invited by the then-Bishop of Milwaukee to take up residence in the former Racine College and later moved north to White Lake, Wisconsin. 

Fr. John-Julian wrote many books, including some that we use in our studies here at the House: Stars in a Dark Sky; Loves Trinity; A Lesson of Love; several liturgical books,and a book of poetry titled Eyes Have I That See. Julian also wrote the foreword and commentary to several other books: Divine Revelation, Introduction to the Devout Life, and The Imitation of Christ. 

Fr. John-Julian has been an important voice during my formation here at the House and had become a dear friend, confidant, and mentor. I was blessed to share many meals with him, serve as his chauffeur, deliver his groceries, listen to his poetry, and be his friend. I'm sure all of the seniors here have stories about his gruff demeanor, and he had his flaws and failings, as all of us do. But he was a good man to me, and he prayed for all of us daily and for the health and success of Nashotah House. I cared for him deeply, and I will miss him terribly. 

Let us pray for our brother and our fellow Son of the House, Fr. John-Julian. 

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;

In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you; 

In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you; 

In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. 

May your rest be this day in peace, 

and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.

The following is from the Rev. Harry Allagree, a retired Episcopal parish priest and regional missioner. Fr. Allagree is a professed Oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich.

On December 30, 1985, a simple house in Norwich, Connecticut, became a "monastery" for an experimental beginning of a new community in the Episcopal Church called The Order of Julian of Norwich. On this day The Rt. Rev. W. Bradford Hastings, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut and Episcopal Visitor of the Order, heard the solemn profession of Life Vows of the Order's founder, Fr. John D. Swanson, known in religion as Fr. John-Julian. 

Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Fr. John attended Carleton College and earned a Master of Divinity degree from Nashotah House in 1957. Ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Fond du Lac in August, 1957, he served in various parishes for the next three years. After 10 years as a rector in New Hampshire, Fr. John's widely varied career involved him as dean of the Seminary of the Streets in New York City; consultant in humanistic education in Rhode Island; drug abuse prevention project director; in private practice in psychotherapy; director of the Connecticut Foster Parent Training Program; director of Connecticut's Social Service Institute, training social workers; and supply priest in local Episcopal parishes.

In June, 1982, while rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Norwich, Connecticut, Fr. John traveled as a pilgrim to the Julian Shrine in Norwich, England. At the time he began the pilgrimage he had no intention of founding a monastic order, nor of becoming a contemplative monk. In fact, at age 48, he would probably not have been accepted into a monastic order! During a prayerful time in Norwich, however, he came to the realization that, in his words, “This isn’t enough! There must be something more!” Midway over the Atlantic, as he was returning to the US, he conceived the idea of restoring the medieval practice of a mixed monastery of men and women devoted to Julian of Norwich.

Predating the founding of the Order, as early as 1973, groups of people in England had formed ecumenical gatherings - “Julian Meetings,” as they were called - of devotees of Julian, mainly to support one another in a life of still prayer. Ten years later, similar but separate groups called “Julian Gatherings” began to be formed here in the US and continue to the present. 

Fr. John had begun living the Rule which he wrote in 1982. Fr. Bill Melnyk became the first Oblate on January 19, 1984. Several associates were also admitted, and Sister Scholastica Marie Burton, later the beloved second Guardian of the Order, became the first postulant seeking to become a Member Regular. Within six years Sister Scholastica Marie and Fr. Luke Radtke, both now deceased, had taken Life Vows. Two years later Sister Cornelia and Brother Gregory Fruehwirth (later Father Gregory, current Guardian of the Order) took Life Vows.

Fr. John-Julian, founder and first Guardian, retired in August 1995, and several years ago was granted permission to live as a solitary. He has continued a vigorous ministry as a writer, producing A Lesson of Love: The Revelations of Julian of Norwich, 1988; Stars In A Dark World, 2009; and The Complete Julian of Norwich, 2009. Sister Scholastica Marie was elected, then installed as the second Guardian in September 1995. Suffering from cancer, she resigned in April 2003. Her successor, Fr. Gregory Fruehwirth, became the third Guardian on April 22, 2003. Sister Scholastica Marie died six months later, on October 18, 2003.

The Order of Julian of Norwich is a contemplative monastic order of monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church. "Following the most venerable practices of contemplative Christian monasticism," says the Oblate manual, "we aim to renew the spiritual life of the Church." Besides the Members Regular (OJN) there are professed Oblates (ObJN), as well as Associates (AOJN), married or single, clergy or lay, who affiliate themselves with the Order by prayer and financial support as they live the contemplative life in the world. The Order’s four-fold vows are poverty, chastity, obedience, and prayer. The members regular live in semi-enclosed communities and fully observe the traditional vows. The Oblates, seriously committed to a spiritual and contemplative life in the world, make a profession to live under an adaptation of the regular vows after a significant period of probation. The associates, desiring a spiritual bond with the community in its prayer and work, follow a less stringent Rule of Life. The affiliates seek to live into the same contemplative depth and unceasing prayer as do the members regular, and their rule of life is moderated only in degree in order to meet the needs of living in the world. 

The Order looks first to the worship of God, secondly, to the support and strength of the wider community of the Order - its Oblates and Associates - and thirdly, to service within the whole church and the world. A significant part of the Order's ministry is the spiritual renewal of clergy, parishes, and individuals in the classical Christian traditions of contemplative spirituality and mysticism, and the revival of those traditions in the life of the contemporary church and of the contemporary Christian. 

Almighty God, all times are in your hand,

and all occasions serve your will:

Accept our prayers of thanksgiving and hope

which we offer here today and in all

days to come, that our community may ever

continue in your mercy and grace

and never falter in our gratitude to you;

through Jesus Christ, our only

Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

For Fr. John-Julian Swanson’s obituary, please visit this link.