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From the Vicar
July 2008 What makes summer different from he rest of the year other than the fact that it is warmer? Hopefully for you, summer is a time of rest and renewal, a time spent with family in outdoor activities, BBQs and picnics, lakes and boats - activities that enrich and enliven. As well as changing our physical activities, summer is a time to change our mental activities. Everyone needs a summer reading list, don't you think? You know, the books you want to read, not the books you have to read (i.e. work, school, etc.). Summer is a time we can do this, whether in a chair on the beach, in a hammock in the backyard or in our favorite spot in the house. My summer reading list is long and diversified from theology and prayer to golf and murder mysteries. However, 1 wanted to share with you an excerpt from one of the books 1 am reading: Alive and Loose in the Ordinary, Stories of the Incarnation by Martha Sterne (Morehouse Publishing). In this book Martha Sterne tells the stories of her encounters with Christ :-in the supermarket and the beauty parlor, in the garden, the kitchen, and sometimes even in church. In her stories Sterne shows that the Incarnation (Christ alive in the world) is alive and loose everywhere you look, in the listening ears, kind voices, and loving hearts of people you bump into. Enjoy this excerpt, enjoy your reading, enjoy your summer.
"Beauty Parlors For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face toface. I Corinthians 13:12 I have always had difficult hair. I want to be grateful for the hair God has given me so I'll just use the word difficult, meaning frizzly or flat, depending on the weather and my current life stance - more like a mood ring than a reliable head of hair. I was radically towheaded as a child and green-headed if I spent a lot off time in chlorinated swimming pools. Then it turned blue when I was a teenager due to a bottle of some nasty stuff that I thought surely would make me look glamorous. I haven't tried dyeing it since, though a member of my parish's search committee said the first thing a couple of folks asked her when I came to East Tennessee was, Do you think she dyes her hair? I said, Well, 1 hope I'd do a better job than this. Due to having difficult hair, I notice the fortitude and kindness of people who cut hairpeople who look into the mirrors with us through thick and thin. I remember the barber, Cecil by name, who gave our three-year old son his first real hair cut. Huge crocodile tears - the boy, and not far behind mama and daddy - and Cecil just kept murmuring: My boy, I believe you're a baseball player. Hit that ball a mile. You can hit that ball a mile, Charlie. And the little boy heard the words - you're a baseball player - and looked in the mirror and stopped seeing the scissors and hearing the whuuzzzz of the clippers and saw instead baseball player Charlie - we'd always called him Charles, but now he heard the words and now he saw Charlie the baseball player who could hit that ball a mile. Or some years later I was going to Grady, who every time I walked in the door of the beauty parlor always screamed in mock horror, Emergency! Emergency! Only this time I am not kidding around, I have been doing - sometimes very poorly – a jobs ministry in an Atlanta public housing project, and I have seen more than comfortable, middle-class people ever want to see about the grind and the pain in the prison of generations of poverty. And I don't talk about that, but I say Grady, I either need a totally new haircut or a totally new me and right now I don't care which. And without saying a word, he cut off every hair on my head - almost like the ceremony when someone enters monastic orders. And he swung the chair around. And he said, You don't need a new you. You need to be you, and God knows that'll be enough. And you know what? He was right. Or my mother's friend, Tara, in Jackson, Mississippi, who cut hair all week and then she and her husband - both white people played the piano and sang in a black gospel choir on Sunday. They didn't sit around and deplore the fact that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in American life. They went to a black church and got in ministry with African-Americans and had a ball. Then off and on through the week she talked about her church with her customers, looking into the mirror with them as they heard her words and saw new possibilities for doing church and loving the Lord. And when my father got kind of down after retirement, Tara heard that his secret dream was to be a country music songwriter. And Tara and her husband recorded his one and only "Meet Me at the Mail Box Molly," a tragic tune of love and flood. Oh, did he get a kick out of that. Now after Tara has retired she comes to my mother's house and she sits Mama in front of the mirror in her bathroom and together Lord knows what they see and say but I bet you they know they are beautiful. Or lately, which is what got me thinking about all this haircut business, I went to Mary to get my hair cut and as I am paying and walking out the door, I hear her say to her next customer, just before the young helper starts the shampooing, How's your husband? And the woman, probably in her mid sixties says, Oh Mary, we're in a bad way. He calls me ten, fifteen times a day at work. He says there is something wrong, that I have to come home. But he doesn't know what's wrong. And he wants to go to the emergency room and they can't ever find anything. And he cries my name in the night, and I don't know what to do. And with that, everything stops. Mary signals the shampoo girl to wait, and she kneels before the distraught woman, who's weeping now, and says Tell me. And I left, love and comfort and common sense flowing through the room like the balm of Gilead. You know the church could do worse than be an "inner beauty" shop - a place where we can look into the mirror together and see each other's potential and belovedness. The church could do worse than be a place where love is shared and truth is told and the beauty of becoming is the world of the community. For Your Reflection Who looks in the mirror with you? Where are your inner beauty shops?" Blessings and Prayers, Eileen
June 2008 From the Vicar: On the 18th of May we celebrated Trinity Sunday. This is the only Sunday in our Church calendar that celebrates a Doctrine of the Church, the Holy Trinity. It is the tradition in the Church here and abroad to place a newly graduated seminarian (Curate) in a church with a senior priest. This gives the Curate the opportunity to learn under a watchful eye and also the freedom to try new ideas while the senior priest is responsible for the parish. In years past it was also a tradition that the curate would be assigned to preach the sermon on Trinity Sunday. You might ask: "Why would such a Sunday, the only Sunday celebrating a church doctrine be given to the least experienced?" And this is precisely the point. It was a trap for the totality of the sermon on this particular Sunday about the holy Trinity can be no more than or no less than: Three in One Person, Blessed Trinity. Amen. Naturally the curate would have pages and pages of sermon trying to explain the Holy Trinity. But to say more or to say less than the above statement would be heresy. And as Justin Martyr said in 167 AD one who would try and explain the Holy Trinity is "helplessly insane." Of the doctrines of our church, the Holy Trinity truly encompasses the "mystery" of God and as such is a point not for reason but for faith. We enter now the season after Pentecost (also called Ordinary Time). Since Advent we have probed and considered the life of Jesus. Now in this time after Pentecost we probe and consider the "new church," the forming of the Christian community as it grew. In the Epistle readings we see and experience these new Christian communities, their joys and their struggles as they work to spread the "Gospel to the nations." In the Gospel readings we encounter those who in their life encountered Jesus and we see how the works of Jesus in those lives apply to our own. These are the lessons of a growing Christian community learning how to spread the love of Jesus to the world. This is our story too. Ortberg wrote: "There is always a call. God asks an ordinary person to engage in an act of extraordinary trust. There is always fear. God has an inextinguishable habit of asking people to do things that are scary to them. There is always reassurance. God promises his presence. There is always a decision. There is always a changed life. Those who say yes to God's call don't walk the walk perfectly - not by a long shot. But because they say yes to God, they learn and grow even from their failures. And they become part of his actions to redeem the world. Those who say no are changed too. They become a little harder, a little more resistant to his calling, a little more likely to say no the next time. Whatever the decision, it always changes a life - and it changes the world that little life touches." I believe there is some aspect of your life in which God is calling you to walk with him and to him. Come, let's walk together and discover. Blessings and Prayers, Eileen+
May 2008 Dear Friends:
April 2008 "When 1 was a child, I tbought like a child ... but as an adult, I put away childish things." The Apostle Paul
In Chapter 13 of his resounding first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I gave up childish ways." Adult Christianity. Paul doesn't spell out with much detail the differences he sees between "childish ways" of thinking and the ways that are appropriate to maturity, but his words are provocative. They prompt me to ask: What are the characteristics of a childish, as opposed to a fully developed, mature form of the faith?
Let me suggest that faith development follows much the same trajectory as moral, intellectual or psychological development. There are certain qualities of mind that are characteristic of a child, others more often associated with adolescence and others that belong to the adult. What are these respective qualities? Children, in my experience, enjoy a good story. Tell a wonderful story and they will listen, spellbound. God. Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny. All these are readily and eagerly believed. Jesus walking on water ... Fairy God Mother. .. Angels, monsters, demons. The world of the child is populated with strange and wonderful beings, all readily believed.
But then there comes a time of disillusionment. One's parents have actually been telling lies?! And if the reality of Santa, the Easter Bunny and Fairy Godmothers come into question, what about Jesus? What credibility is there to the story that this world was created by a just and loving God? Is this, too, one of those comforting tales of early childhood that is exposed to falsehood in later life? You can do everything right, follow all the rules, accept all the teachings of the church, and still end up dead, or out of luck, early on in life, through no fault of your own. So what's the point of it all? And who do you trust? Adolescents, in my experience, react to this disillusionment in many different ways ...
Often they replace the false stories of early childhood with ones that are "TRUE". Replace arbitrary rules imposed by hypocritical parents with passionate conviction held with evangelical zeal! Drop out of their parents' staid church, which is filled with gray-haired men and women listening to sober organ music. Join a new church where there's a rock band on stage. Something solid to believe in. A conversion experience. A full and unfettered commitment to the Lord. Thank you, Jesus, I've been born again!Then there comes a time when both the rebel's anger and the evangelical's zeal are tempered. When one has children of one's own, one begins to appreciate how complicated life can get...and fast! One finds that evangelical zeal doesn't ease a complicated relationship with a co-worker, colleague, or next door neighbor. Faced by any of the major challenges of adult life, the mature person of faith realizes that one needs all the help one can get. A trusted friend, the professional assistance of a doctor, self-help books, continuing education courses, an inspirational sermon. Things are no longer black or white, true or false, right or wrong. The real decisions are hard! How many children can one afford to have? The answers to such questions can be found neither on M- TV nor within the pages of the Bible. The real mind benders require ample quantities of knowledge, critical thinking, and self-awareness. Sometimes one has to entertain ideas that seem incompatible and even contradictory. After all, how can one get along with a boss whom one doesn't respect, a colleague whose religious beliefs seem totally off the wall, or paying taxes to a government one can neither understand or control? Even more difficult, how can one reconcile oneself to the realization that one's personal decisions have caused harm to others? Among the qualities of character that make for maturity, I find, are these: a deep sense of self-awareness, humor, healthy skepticism, appreciation for people who are very different than oneself, patience, the capacity to cope with complexity. These are some of the things which, added to a child-like trust, and youthful idealism, make for a maturity of faith. Of course, the apostle Paul was not promoting maturity for its own sake. He had his priorities clear. "Faith, hope and love abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love." Maturity of faith can ultimately be measured, not by an IQ test, or examination of one's orthodoxy. The real test is whether faith serves that far larger, wider, and ultimate purpose: love. Does faith draw one into closer relationships with other people, with the world, and finally with God? If so, then it is indeed, exactly the sort of faith that Paul had in mind when he wrote: "When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is Love."Welcome to the world of an adult Christianity! Adult Christianity: excerpts from an article by Charles Henderson. Read the entire script and others at GodWeb.org
February 2008 Message from Interim Vicar Eileen O’Reilly:
It seems as if we were just waiting for Jesus to come at Christmas and here we are already at the beginning of the next triune cycle of the church year—Lent, Easter and Pentecost.
Lent is the time of contemplation and reflection which proceeds the greatest event in our story, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Often times churches and congregations focus on one theme—crucifixion—and downplay the other theme—resurrection. Then we have others who downplay the crucifixion and spend all of their time focused on the resurrection.
The truth seems to be in the balance—not one strong and one weak, not one first and one second—in balance there can be no resurrection without crucifixion and in our case vice versa—no crucifixion without resurrection.
What does that mean for us, living as Christians today? I think it means that we take this period of Lent and reflect on our lives. The things “we have done” and maybe more importantly the things “we have left undone”; the “evil we have committed” and maybe more importantly, the “evil that has been committed in our name”.
How is God calling us to bring our life into balance? How is our stewardship with God, our bodies, our spouse or significant other, our time, our children, our job, our church?
Like the secular world uses the new year to reflect and make resolutions—we use Lent, a 40-day period of self-examination, to discover what are the hindrances and blocks to our relationship with God, with all those we love, with all those with whom we come into contact. It is a time to pray unceasingly for God’s guidance in our life. It is a time to re-order our lives, to strengthen our relationships, to breathe in God’s love and care for us.
Take this time of Lent to have quiet time, to pray, to reflect, to discover, to bring your life into balance, to think of God and smile.
Blessings,
Eileen+
December 2007 It is because the image of God lies deep within each of us that every person can make Christ alive in the world. We have the capacity to bear Christ in our own bodies, to bring Christ to birth, to help move the creation toward its fullness in Christ.— The Humility, of God: .4 Franciscan Perspective
The box-office success of the film version of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings introduced thousands of moviegoers to the fantasy world of “Middle Earth.” The characters who inhabit this world move between despair and hope. Their hope comes in part because of prophecies in the story that promise the triumph of good over evil.
Our world seems often to be at the mercy of the forces of evil. We’ve learned to fear the sudden, unexpected violence that can strike close to home. Where do we find hope?
As Christians, our answer comes in the Scriptures we read during the Advent season. In the first reading today, Isaiah utters a hope-filled prayer, imploring God to intervene in our world. “Watchful waiting” is the command of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel today, and we might ask ourselves: ‘Why wait and watch, unless we also have some hope that God will indeed intervene in our world?”
But isn’t that the way Christians are to be? We’re a people who lives in the world, and yet awaits God’s revelation of a new and glorious world to come. To live that way means transforming our relationships with one another and with the world around us. It means making choices that reflect the life that Christ has given each of us. Such a life is better than any fantasy story might promise.
Did you ever notice that dessert is the first dish in line at many buffet restaurants? Yes, you could eat dinner backwards—starting with dessert, then moving on to the appetizer and main course. In the end you eat all the food, but it’s nowhere near as fulfilling as enjoying each part of the meal in its proper place. Or worse, dessert could fill you up before you eat a balanced meal.
Sometimes we suffer the same temptation with Christmas. Our culture tends to skip Advent and start celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving—if we’re lucky to make it that far! Then it's all packed up and stored away by New Year’s. This year, consider returning to the ancient practice of seeing the whole Christmas “cycle”—the period that embraces both the Advent and Christmas seasons—as one unit of joyous celebration. Preparation comes first, then comes celebration extending a few weeks after Christmas Day.
The focal point of the Christmas cycle is obvious: God becoming one of us in Jesus, the Incarnation. All three phases of the cycle—Advent, Christmas and Epiphany—hinge on and celebrate that point These celebrations help us to name the ways our lives are caught up in the “big story” of Christ. And these feasts tie our lives to Christians throughout history. The tradition of the Church, the living gospel, is the real-life experience of Christians like you and like me, and those who have gone before us.
During Advent, which begins in 2007 on December 2, we emphasize the joy that some would compare to the months before a child is born: excitement, wonder, joy, expectation, even exhilaration at the life that is in our midst right now, yet also a hope and longing, and a carefulness to get things into order.
During the Christmas season (December 25-December 30) we celebrate the wonder of the Incarnation. How wondrously we are made that the Word of God would become one of us! God shows us how to live fully: by pouring out our lives for others. That is what the days of Christmas are all about. Epiphany (January 6-February 3)) and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord celebrate Chnst becoming manifest—that is, present—to all peoples. On Epiphany we focus on the three Wise Men symbolizing the many races for whom Christ was born. The baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of his public ministry. God’s “Christmas gift” of the Incarnation is a gift for everyone! One of my favorite posters showcasesthe most interesting doors in my home city. It’s a montage of photos, lined up row after row, a colorful feast for the eye and a source of meditation. Intricately carved doors, simple wooden doors framed in gray stone, iron-gated church doors, heavy doors inlaid with beveled glass. Their variety beckons me to ponder what they share: the “doorness” of the doors. Doors send a mixed message: dividing or joining, protecting or welcoming, withholding or revealing. Closed, bolted, locked, doors make a powerful statement about our need to separate ourselves—from strangers, annoying salespeople, anyone making demands on our dwindling time. Unlatched, flung open, doors suggest how far humans will go as they draw others into their private space, to listen, to hurt, laugh, cry and heal. Doors suggest mystery. In corners of musty cellars, at the edge of an athc, in the labyrinths of pretend haunted houses, they tempt us to explore the unknown. Doors invite hope. We sit expectantly, and often anxiously, in hospital lounges for word of new birth or successful surgery, the door to the operating room or emergency room the focus of our gaze and attention. At the dawn of the millennium, Advent is a door to a new era. As you break open the Advent Scriptures during these first days of the new liturgical year, open your heart to the possibilities of renewal and rebirth. Wait expectantly, vigilantly and quietly for the Word Made Flesh to be more visible in your daily life.
Eileen
November 2007 A Leper’s Thanksgiving By Dr. Ralph F. Wilson Ten men silhouetted along the low ridge called to the leader of a small band below: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Bartholomew glanced up. Lepers, he thought Ragged, pitiable lepers. From the time their skin disease was diagnosed, they were cut off from society, forced to live on their own In caves or huts away from towns. A fortunate few had relatives who would leave food for them, but many had no one. They weren’t allowed close enough to beg for a living. Ragged, thin, rejected Lepers. Even the word spoke an icy finality.
“Have mercy on us!”
Their pleading cut through Bart’s thoughts. Jesus was cupping his hands now, and calling across the low valley which lay between the road and the ridge where the lepers stood. His voice rang out sharp and compelling In the stillness of the morning.
“God Show yourselves to the priests!”
The lepers looked at each other. You only went to the priests If your leprosy was gone. Only the priests could issue a dean bill of health so you could return to your family.
As they held up their decayed limbs, they were asking, “Why go unless we’re healed?” They looked over to Jesus again, but he was conversing with Peter and John, and they didn’t catch his eyes.
But then Bart heard a shout, a cry of exaltation, a loud eerie call that filled the valley and bounced off the hills: “I’m healed! I’m whole. My leprosy is gone! It’s gone!”
Bart looked around in time to catch a smile at the corners of Jesus’ mouth. The healing hadn’t occurred as the lepers stood looking and wondering. It had taken place as they had begun to obey Jesus’ words. “As they went” they were healed.
Suddenly a lone figure broke from the circle of rejoicing ex-lepers. He bounded over the little creek and raced towards them, rags fluttering behind him. He sped toward Jesus and then landed on his knees before the Master In a cloud of fine dust.
He spoke just a phrase — “Thank you, Master” -- In a sort of broken accent, the accent of Samaria. Then he just knelt there sobbing.
Jesus spoke now, not really to the leper, but beyond him somehow, as if to the whole world. “Were not alt ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Bait’s mind spun. He thought of the countless times God had answered his prayers, provided for his family, given him work, healed his sickly daughter. How often had he really said “Thanks”? Too often he had taken these blessings for granted, rejoicing in his good fortune, but seldom racing back to the Giver with a word of heartfelt thanks on his lips.
As the man knelt, Jesus’ hand instinctively rested on his head, blessing, and at the same time stroking and smoothing the tangles left from years of sojourn. Jesus wept as he caressed the man’s head. Tears-making rivulets down his cheeks into his beard.
Bart looked up. The leper band was now heading off towards the priests’ village. They had received physical healing, indeed, but the man at Jesus’ feet had received a healing of his whole person. As Jesus helped him up, he said, “Rise and go. Your faith has made you whole.”
The newly-whole Samaritan embraced Jesus. Then they stood there for a moment looking at one another — smile meeting smile. The gift of healing had sent him the message of God’s love, but thanks had brought him home.
This is a fictional retelling of the story found In Luke 17:11-17.
October 2007 I received an email shortly after returning from vacation and before my first Sunday in the parish. “Time to submit articles for the Red Door.” I thought to myself: “I haven’t even been in the parish yet and I need to write another article. What could I possibly write?” And then, as so often happens, I was driving home one day last week and heard something that triggered the following thoughts. We seem to always be ahead of ourselves. Sometimes this is imposed by the outside world and sometimes it is self imposed. It begins when we are very young. It begins when we “wish” to be older, to have that next birthday, to gain privileges by virtue of time passing. And while we don’t necessarily relish birthdays later in life, we still tend to live in the future (or for some of us in the past), but rarely do we manage to live in the present. We may look like we are living in the present (taking our children places, spending time with loved ones, doing things we love to do), but are we really “living in the present.” In the normal routine of things, it seems we spend our adult life always “headed” somewhere, driven by the clock, the boss, the airplane, the schedule (if not our own, the children’s). To me the issue is when, in the midst of our day, do we pause to realize the moment, see the sunset, appreciate the soccer goal, marvel at the beauty of our spouse, share the joy of living with our children, appreciate our own accomplishments, or just breathe. You might say, “well I am there!” This is true, but if you are “there” thinking about “where you are going next, or the grocery list, or tomorrow’s business meeting, or last week’s golf game, or all the things you have left to do before you can sleep, “I ask you: “Are you really there?” “Are you really in the moment?” And if you are not “in the moment” life is passing you by as surely as if you were “never there!” Jesus asks us to do out best in each and everything we do, no matter how small the task or how big the task. One way of doing our best may be to be present in every encounter and in every activity. Let us pray for the strength and the awareness to stay present with everyone and in everything. Blessings and Prayers, Eileen+ September 2007 A message from the Reverend Eileen O’Reilly A friend once remarked to me how she “loved the Fall.” When I inquired why that was the case, she responded: “I get to start over, a new year!” Well as you might have already guessed my friend was a teacher and every Fall brought the beginning of a new school year, another chance to “do better, to get it right, to move on from those classroom problems of last year”. In contrast, in Ireland I have a friend who would remark how she “hated the-Autumn (Fall).” When I inquired why that was the case, she responded: “Because the darkness is on its way.” (In Ireland daylight is 18 hours in the summer and 6 in the winter. The daily changes in light are dramatic [15 minutes per day]). This friend too was a teacher, same time of year, same new classes and yet an entirely different viewpoint. To me, it seems so clear, it is about the choices we make, particularly the choices that run around in our mind. We can see the cup as half full or as half empty. How we see the cup will influence how we see and respond to everything and everyone around us. How we see the cup will determine our attitude towards life, loved ones, work, success, failure, stewardship, and most importantly Jesus. Here we are, beginning the Fall together. Let us rejoice in the opportunities, challenges and possibilities that this new season brings. Let us remember that with the Winter darkness comes a time of warmth, rest and restoration from our busy lives and the hope of the Spring light. Let us relish those we love. And, let us revive our passion for Jesus and our enthusiasm as His followers. Blessings, Eileen
April 2007
Dear Friends in Christ: As our Lenten worship, service, study, and prayer draws complete in Holy Week, we’re looking ahead toward Easter and the celebration of new life in resurrection that Jesus Christ brings. New life! Life that springs forth into God’s future: here and now and forever! Easter is and has always been my favorite day of the year. In our Diocese we’re on the cusp of new life, too! The Rev. Dr. Thomas Breidenthal will be consecrated 9th Bishop of Southern Ohio at 11: 00 AM on Saturday, April 28t11. Because no church building in Southern Ohio is large enough to accommodate this service, it we be held in the Mershon Auditorium in Columbus. I’ve only been to one Bishop’s consecration before, and I remember it as an amazing and solemn moment of worship. I hij~’h1y recommend your attendance and participation. But there’s a problem. There are 25,000 Episcopalians in Southern Ohio and the auditorium only holds 2,500 people! So, Saint Andrew’s Church has been allotted 15 tickets - and you need a ticket to get in! If we need MORE tickets, I can certainly get them (that’s one thing I’m good at) - but I’ll need to know if they’re needed. I’ll have a sign up sheet at coffee hour for you to let me know you want tickets. Then, once our 9th Bishop is consecrated - he wants to hear from you! We heard PLENTY from Dr. Breidenthal during our search process ... and now he’s turning the tables. To help him develop a vision for our life together as a Diocese, Bishop Breidenthal is coming to you (and our deanery) to listen to you. At this point, he has two specific questions for you: 1) What is the most interesting/exciting experience you have had in your life as an Episcopalian in Southern Ohio? 2) What is your heart’s desire for the future of our life and ministry as a Diocese? Bishop Breidenthal will be HERE at Saint Andrew’s Church on Sunday, June 3rd at 3:00 PM to hear from you! Mark your calendar now - but don’t worry, I’ll be reminding you. Resurrection and new life happen in many, many ways. God is ALWAYS the one who initiates it as He invites us to live into it, through the Grace of Christ our Savior. May our walk of Holy Week into Easter open us to see God’s hand at work in new life - may we respond to that gift with all we have and all we are. In Christ,
October 2006 Red Door The Blessing of the Animals Sunday, October 1st ‘—4 PM Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church “And God blessed humankind, and God said to them, “t.. have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) ~ “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” (Francis of Assisi)
We’ll gather in the parking lot. Bring your pets! Bring your animals! Bring your neighbors! —‘ Please have them appropriately restrained (Well, maybe the neighbors needn’t be restrained) I am not aware of any other churches in the community that offer a gathering such as this each year - it’s one more way Saint Andrew’s Church is unique and open to the many ways God is at work. Invite your neighbors, friends, and especially those who may not have a church home! The entire community is invited and welcome to participate in this annual gathering of prayer, thanksgiving, and blessing for the animals of farm, field, and home. With thanksgiving to God who creates, redeems, and makes holy
September 2006 Red Door Dear Friends in Christ,
The calendar declares January 1 to be New Year’s Day, but in many ways the beginning of September functions more accurately as the beginning of the New Year. Our children have started a new year in school. Travelers return home from cottages and vacations at the lake, the beach, the mountains, wherever one finds a place of rest and refreshment. With the beginning of September the rhythm of life gets more regular. September also marks the beginning of a “New Year” in the life of Saint Andrew’s Church as the Choir rehearses and vests again, the ministry of our acolytes serving at God’s altar resumes - all enriching our Sunday worship, Christian Education for people of all ages is off and running beginning with “Rally Sunday” on September 10th. I pray you will open yourself to the fullness of life and ministry through our parish family, as there are so many ways in which you may respond to God’s presence in our midst, so many vocations and opportunities to offer our lives back to God from all that has been given to us. Pray over how God would lead you into an ever deepening relationship with him through your church. Saint Andrew’s Church truly is a gift from God. May we respond accordingly! Lord, you have apportioned to your people the manifold gifts of the Spirit: Grant amid the changes of the world that your Church may abide, and be strengthened in ministry through the continuous outpouring of your gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
June 2006 Red Door Dear friends, You've been reading about it for months now, and the time is nearly upon us - the 751h General Convention of the Episcopal Church is meeting in Columbus from June }3-2}51. This gathering of thousands of Episcopalians over these nine days, once every three years, is a wonder to me. No, I don't always agree with the decisions that this gathering makes, yet for all the hype - General Convention is one of the reasons I am fiercely proud to be part of our Episcopal Christian tradition. WHY?? The Episcopal Church, USA does not have a "Pope" to make our decisions for us. We do have a "Presiding Bishop" - but even that person, elected for a term of office, does not have decision-making authority. The authority for making choices about the mission, policies, budgets, and constitution of this Church rests In this prayerful and sometimes contentious gathering of both clergy (bishops. priests. and deacons) - TOGETHER WITH the laity, the baptized people of God. Every order of ministry has a voice and vote at the table. God continues to speak and work through this messy process .., through every order of ministry. This is NOT the way it works in other Catholic traditions. This is NOT the way it works even in other Anglican traditions around the world. So where does the "buck stop?" The buck stops with every one of us as we take seriously and prayerfully our role and participation in the life and governance of the Church: in our own congregation, in our own diocese, and in the Episcopal Church at the national level. Yes, it is demanding - and a profound gift of God. Regardless of what decisions are made in the weeks ahead, I have no doubt you will hear much about General Convention from the secular news media. The news media will be drawn to the noisiest fringes of the Church - that will make for the best ratings! Surprise, surprise! The secular news media will NOT however, be remotely interested in the ongoing, prayer-filled, life-transforming mission and ministry we engage day by day. You and I know better. May God continue to be at work in our life and our lives, restoring people to unity with God and each other through Jesus Christ. The Diocese prepared and sent to every household a useful booklet to guide us through this General Convention. It includes some helps for responding to people who have questions about this gathering and this Church. Use it! If you're stumped, ask me and we'll prayerfully work through the question together! Saint Andrew's Church has to date 14 people volunteering at General Convention in Columbus is many different capacities. That's more than any other mission congregation in the Diocese! Wonderful! Keep them in your prayers. Keep the Church in your prayers! A prayer written for General Convention appears elsewhere in this Red Door. "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad indeed!" (Psalm 126:3) In Christ's Love
April 2006 Red Door Dear Friends How many ways can I express my gratitude to God for you during these weeks? As I continue to recover from the deep vein clot found in my leg at the end of February, I have no doubt whatsoever that your prayers - along with prayer that is offered all around the country from friends and total strangers - for my healing - are among the means God is using to knit me back together toward health and wholeness. In my weakness and dependence, I was reminded again that you are strong, very strong, in faith. You are a strong Church! Part of that strength also came through in your absolute insistence that I flat out STOP! ... and give God the time and space to heal me. Meanwhile all of you carry on with the ministry of Saint Andrew's Church! I am blessed. Another blessing came to me as I read my horoscope in the newspaper one afternoon last week (Hint: Do not limit where God's wisdom may be found). The horoscope that day read: "Do not focus on what you cannot do. Focus on what you can do. " Wow - that was timely! I was constantly lamenting to Beth that my physical ability to do much of anything was nil and I couldn't stand it! As I am discovering, those messages to which I was devoting much time and energy, those things I can't do right now ... all those notions come from the Devil. Notions of lack and scarcity come from Satan. The reality of abundance comes from God. Yes, I really do believe this stuff.Of course, there was plenty I could not and to some degree - still cannot do. BUT - those things pale in comparison in importance to what I COULD STILL accomplish: prayer, rest, listening, waiting, writing, and some reading. Even though I could not get up and go, I could still be present to God as He was thoroughly present to me. My own experience this peculiar Lent mirrors the truth for Saint Andrew's Church. Guess what: there are all sorts of ministries we cannot and are not equipped to do! The more time we spend wringing our hands over what we can't do makes Satan smile. Don't even go there! In God's Holy Spirit, focus on what we CAN do empowered by the Holy Spirit, responding to the reality of Christ's passion for God's beloved children in Holy Week, responding to Christ's resurrection at Easter and the promise of new life that leaps from the tomb. Easter is a time to open up to possibility ... since God brought life from death in Jesus ... imagine what God wills for us and through us in Jesus! "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. " (Ephesians 3:20-21)With profound gratitude and prayer for a Blessed Holy Week and a Joyous Easter -
March 2006 Red Door Dear Friends - Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. (Hebrews 12:1-2) The season of Lent lies before us: a time for reflection and repentance shown through study, prayer, fasting, and self-denial; forty days and forty nights of pilgrimage toward Easter. This season is an invitation to come ever closer to Jesus Christ; to reflect on God's immeasurable love for us, so much love that He would choose to die for our sins at Calvary; that through Christ's life, death, and resurrection we are offered LIFE: without end! What love! What gift! What an opportunity - for you and me. The gift God makes out of His love, and nothing we've done ... but our response calls forth all that we are and all that we have, and all we can become. Take a cue from the athletes we've watched in the Winter Olympics ... their focus, the practice, the life modeled and patterned to facilitate excellence on the slopes, on the ice, in the chute. Offer this season to God to facilitate Christian spiritual maturity for this life and the life to come. As the athletes have exercised the muscles of their bodies, this year is offered for you, on Tuesday evenings, an opportunity to exercise your spiritual muscle as we consider and experience classical, powerful "spiritual exercises." We will try our hand at Lectio Divina (Holy Reading of Scripture), Ignatian Meditation, and Praying with Icons. We will consider the Shape of our Prayer, Reviewing the Day with God, and other forms of Contemplative Prayer. Any or all of these spiritual exercises may lead you deeper into relationship with Christ - and may fit into your life of prayer. Give it a try! I've had the chance to experience all of these "exercises" and found them meaningful! Come, enter into a holy Lent. Open your heart, mind and soul to the grace God longs to share. Listed below are several opportunities to help us walk this road together. God loves you without measure and has shown it through Christ. Will you respond to that love .... with God's help In Christ's love
There is a complete list of all the Lenten opportunities on the back of the Lenten Calendar in this issue of the Red Door!
February 2006 Red Door Holy Time in Sacred Space Dear Friends,
January 2006 Red Door Dear Friends,
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