The Rev. Canon Stephen Charles Casey

January 19, 2021

The Reverend Canon Stephen Charles Casey, of Landisville, PA died on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. Born in Hull, England, he was the son of the late James and Hilda Casey of Hull. He is survived by his wife of thirty-seven years, Rayelenn Sparks Casey, and his two daughters, Emily Clare Casey and Elizabeth Casey Stauffer. A priest of the Episcopal Church, Stephen served in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania for twenty-six years. In Lancaster, he was rector at St. Edward the Confessor Episcopal Church from 1998 until his retirement in 2018. He was also a leader in the church, active on diocesan committees and representing the church at General Convention twice. He was a member of the Confraternity of the Episcopal monastic community of St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, MI. Among the clergy and laity of the diocese, he will be missed as a counselor, teacher, mentor, and friend. Stephen was a man of many parts. Born in England at the end of the Second World War, he grew up in the northeast port city of Hull, in Yorkshire. The youngest of three children, he is predeceased by his sisters, Olga Margaret Engle and Christine Cunningham. As a boy, he was a violinist, a member of the Air Training Corps—Britain’s youth organization for those interested in careers in the Royal Air Force—and an avid airplane spotter. With his love of airplanes, he had hoped to become a pilot; however, his life-long migraine condition prevented the fulfillment of that dream. So, like many children of his social class in the 1950s, he left school at fifteen to enter a trade, undertaking a seven-year apprenticeship as a painter/decorator and sign-writer, achieving the status of master painter. In Hull and the surrounding area, one can still spot his handiwork on buildings and signs that he worked on nearly sixty years ago. Throughout the rest of his life, Stephen painted out homes of friends and colleagues, but he was most happy when turning his house-painting skills toward his family, painting and decorating his own and his daughters’ homes. At the age of 23, he left his work as a painter sign-writer to enter the airline industry, selling tickets. Eighteen months later he was a station manager, and from that time to 1987, Stephen rose in management ranks to become one of the highest-ranking managers at Dan-Air, Britain’s second-largest airline at that time. Respected for his leadership, judgment, empathy, and spirit of collaboration, Stephen was particularly valued for his ability to improve the management of airports that were struggling with finances and logistics. Later, he would bring these skills to bear on advising many churches of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania in their administration and finance. Stephen and Rayelenn met in 1982, through a fascinating and complex family connection. In a transatlantic whirlwind romance, conducted before the age of email and texting, they courted by letter, phone, and telegram between the US and Britain. They were married in 1983 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. They moved to England, where their elder daughter Emily was born, living in the town of Alnwick, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, where they were committed and active members of the parish church of St. Michael and St. Paul. Stephen was a true auto-didact, and had a lifelong love of learning, reading, and culture. Despite having left school as a teenager, he read widely in history and literature, with a particular love for English writers such as Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis; and for English history and church history, especially of the Northern saints. Despite the demands of his airline career, his personal aspirations continued to draw him toward education and an ever-deepening spiritual life. With his call to the priesthood in 1985, Stephen finally had an opportunity to devote himself to both. He and Rayelenn moved to the United States, where at the age of forty-four Stephen graduated magna cum laude from Gettysburg College with a dual degree in Philosophy and Religion and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. For Stephen, the rolling green hills of the Gettysburg battlefields recalled beloved landscapes of England, and he would often walk them, puffing on the signature pipes he smoked in those days. Their second daughter, Elizabeth, was born in the Gettysburg years, just before the family moved to Alexandria, Virginia, for the continuation of Stephen’s training for the ministry. He earned a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1995 and was ordained to the priesthood at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania in 1996, where he served for three years. He was subsequently the beloved rector of St. Edward’s, Lancaster, for 20 years. During his tenure as rector, Stephen served not only the people of the parish and the diocese, but also the wider Lancaster community through his civic engagement. With his retirement from active ministry in 2018, although Stephen continued to serve the Church as an assistant and interim priest, he was also eager to devote himself to those interests and pastimes that were always at the edges of his busy professional life. This included conducting genealogical research on his and Rayelenn’s intertwined family trees, turning to his always long and diverse list of books to read, exploring more of the United States and Canada with Rayelenn, and birdwatching—either at the feeders he devotedly kept filled at home, or at Middle Creek Wildlife Management. As he eased into retirement, Stephen could often be found at home, always in a shirt and tie and well-polished shoes, usually with a cup of tea nearby, as he tended the garden, kept up with the BBC news or weather forecast, and followed the fortunes of the England cricket team. In the past year, a great blessing added to Stephen’s days was the love and care of his new grandchildren, Elizabeth and her husband Kevin’s twins Sadie Raye and Emma Michele. A gentle man of faith and humor, he will be dearly missed by all those who knew and loved him. We are grateful that we had him in our lives, and that he formed such an important part of ours. “... that best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered, acts Of kindness and of love.” from “Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth Adhering to the guidelines of the CDC and safety for all, a private family service will be held at St. Edward’s Episcopal Church, 2453 Harrisburg Pike, Lancaster, PA 17601 on Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. The public is welcome to view the service on Youtube. Please go to St. Edwards website at sainteds.org and click on the Youtube channel to view. A private family interment will take place at Hope Episcopal Church Cemetery in Mount Hope, PA. In lieu of flowers, the family would be pleased if donations in his name be made to St. Gregory’s Abbey, 56500 Abbey Road, Three Rivers, MI 49093.