The Rev. Edward Hanson, rector at three eastside suburban Episcopal churches over a 20-year span, was in his element delivering a sermon.
Not one to mount the pulpit, he would stand on the steps of the chancel and speak conversationally without notes to his parishioners, skillfully weaving the day's scriptural lessons into his comments about the good and bad aspects of modern life.
"He gave you the impression he was speaking directly to you," said his sister, Adelaide Hanson of Tucker.
"Edward believed in short sermons," she said. "He used to say, ‘If you can't finish a sermon in 12 minutes, you've lost your audience.'"
"Father Hanson was a deep thinker -- no boilerplate sermons from him," said Charlie King of Covington.
Carolyn Penland of Social Circle can even remember the first sermon the Rev. Hanson delivered fresh out of seminary 30 years ago when he filled in for the priest at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in his hometown of Monroe.
"He talked about the book ‘I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can,' and about how people turn to drugs rather than God," she said. "He made such an impression on me that I went out and bought the darned book."
"His sermons were always well researched and full of interesting tidbits. I looked forward to the monthly Good Shepherd newsletters he wrote for the same reason," she said.
The Rev. Hanson also believed in performing the church's healing ritual each Sunday during Communion, anointing those parishioners who requested it before giving them bread and wine. "Edward didn't want people to feel they had to be at the point of dying before they could get that blessing," Adelaide Hanson said.
"Once each year Edward would conduct a special church service from the Book of Common Prayer written in 1549. He always felt his parishioners enjoyed the richness of the Elizabethan-era language," his sister said.
The Rev. Edward Berry deRastrick Hanson, 61, of Sandy Springs died Wednesday at Hospice Atlanta of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Alban's Episcopal Church. Metro Embalming & Crematory is in charge of arrangements.
The Rev. Hanson was ordained after receiving his master's of divinity degree from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He was rector at St. Michael and All the Angels Church in Stone Mountain, St. Matthew's Church in Snellville and Church of the Good Shepherd in Covington before chronic cluster headaches forced his early retirement.
The Right Rev. Frank K. Allan of Atlanta, former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, said the Rev. Hanson was an exuberant priest, full of life, and an extrovert who communicated well with people. He added, "Edward had an Old South quality to him, very gentlemanly."
The Rev. Hanson also had a strong commitment to helping the poor and promoting racial and social justice, Bishop Allan said.
"Edward was a wonderful, caring person. He would put people seeking help at ease and never made them feel that they were begging," said Dan Marineau of Covington, the Rev. Hanson's director of music at all three churches that he served.
"People came to Father Edward looking for food, clothing, money for utility bills, that sort of thing -- and whether they were members of Good Shepherd or not, he would find a way to help them. It was like he supplemented the United Way," said Dr. Bill Dobbs of Covington.
"I know that when I was mayor of Covington, whenever I looked to Father Edward for advice or for a special prayer, I could count on him," Dr. Dobbs said.
Survivors also include his wife, Barbara Russell; two daughters, Colleen Horner and Grace Allstrom, both of Austin, Texas; and one grandchild.
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