Edgar L. Sanford

Who was Edgar L. Sanford?

Edgar L. "Ted" Sanford was an American Episcopal priest and the author of God's Healing Power.

Sanford was the son and grandson of Episcopal priests. His own son, the Reverend John A. Sanford, was also an Episcopal priest and author of numerous books. Sanford entered the priesthood after a period of turbulent years. As a young man he learned engineering drafting in various New England machine shops, and then went to college relatively late in his life. After graduation he taught Latin for a short time. Finally, motivated by boredom, he went to China, where he worked as a teacher and engineer of sorts and as a lay missionary and administrator of a Christian boys school.

Still in China, at the age of about 32, Sanford was ordained to the Episcopal ministry. About at this time, during a visit to Soochow, he met his wife-to-be, Agnes Sanford, a daughter of Presbyterian missionaries . They married in 1923. After a short time together in China, they returned to the United States where he took a parish in Moorestown, serving as a rector for 23 years from 1926 to 1949. He and his wife led the School of Pastoral Ministry which they founded in 1952. When he became older, he resigned to take a less exacting church in Massachusetts and eventually made his home in Westboro outside of Worcester.