Reverend Edward Harrison grew up all over the United States – including Florida, Ohio, and Mississippi. “My dad was an Episcopal priest, and growing up as a clergy kid I swore I would never work in the church.” Throughout his early life, Rev. Harrison wanted to be a lawyer. “If I wasn’t serving in the church, I probably would have gone to law school.” During his senior year at Yale University, he started thinking about going to seminary to get his own questions about God answered. It was there that he started to think that he might want to serve in the church.

     Harrison’s Coronado Story begins over fifteen years ago when he was living in Jacksonville, Florida. “I also was a Navy Reserve Chaplain, so back in 1995 I spent two weeks at the Amphibious Base doing my summer training. I fell in love with Coronado -- I remember driving by the church here and thinking ‘whoever has that job has really sweet place.’” He went back home and forgot all about Coronado. About three years ago an opportunity in Coronado arose, and he started an interview process with the church here.

     Fast forward to 2012. Harrison got the job and has now been at Christ Episcopal for three years. The characteristic of Coronado that he likes best (other than the weather) is small village feel of the town, where people genuinely care about each other. “Coronado’s very unique and rare in that way.”

     “I’ve served in the church for thirty years total,” says Edward Harrison. The reverend has an extremely busy work week. On Sundays, his day starts at five am, and ends after he works with the youth group in the afternoon. Monday and Wednesdays include office work. On Tuesday mornings, Rev. Harrison runs the men’s bible study, speaks to the day school students, and makes calls to sick parishioners. On Thursday, the church runs a healing service and a ladies’ bible study. Fridays and Saturdays are his days off, except when there is a wedding or funeral. All week, he visits people at their homes, which he says is his favorite part of his job.

     The congregation of Christ Episcopal Church includes all sorts of people. “Because of the day school, we have several young families. We also have a good mix of civilians and retired military.” said Harrison. His favorite bible verse is John 21:17, where Jesus asks Peter is he loves Jesus. When Peter says yes, Jesus replies ‘then feed my sheep.’ “I like it because I think that’s what the church is all about – we support, feed, nurture and strengthen each other, and we can do that in a lot of ways.”

     When he’s not busy at church, Reverend Edward Harrison loves to be outside. “My wife and I are avid outdoors people. We play a lot of tennis and love backpacking. We have backpacked 500 miles of the Appalachian trail!” He also enjoys traveling and gardening. “When you work with people, you don’t always get to see the results of your labors. Planting a tree or mowing a yard is different because you can see what happens.” 

Christ Episcopal Church

1114 Ninth Street

Coronado CA 92118

http://www.christchurchcoronado.org/

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Sophia Zaller

Online Editorial Intern

eCoronado.com

Do you have a story or news event that you would like to share with Coronado? Feel free to email me at sophiazaller@yahoo.com. I look forward to hearing from you!