Our Passover!

Easter was such an amazing experience.  We had over 60 additional people than we expected on Sunday.  It was a packed St. Peter’s.  All of our efforts pulled together to prepare our hearts and minds for God to enter and create an opportunity for folks to rejoice in God’s presence at St. Peter’s.  Jesus lives!

The efforts around Holy Week also create this amazing opportunity for Easter Sunday to be so uplifting.  As I said on Palm Sunday, “When you go down with Jesus in the suffering of Holy Week it makes going up with him on Easter that much greater!”

God was honored in all our prayers, worship, and preparation.  I hope these activities have helped you feel closer to God.  I want to thank the Daughters of the King for folding Palm Crosses, the Altar Guild for setting up, filling candles, and so much more.  For Eucharistic Ministers, lectors, and usher/greeters thank you for being positive in these added services and being the face of our church to new guests.  Ministries to Children and youth have kept them connected which led to several baptism and first communions this season, with prospective confirmations to come.  Thank you for our hospitality teams especially that carried the goodies to the columbarium and garden on Easter Sunday.  People were very welcomed and included.  Thank you to the choir who makes beautiful music to God’s glory.

Thank you, leaders and teams, Kathy Thompson, Nancy Leaton, Mary Mabry, Cornelia Estey, Carol Muegge, Cathy Dawson, Kate Whaley, Chris Hilton, and Joanne Clark. 

We will continue to celebrate the wonderful gifts that God has given to ST. Peter’s.  As we enter the summer season in which we tend to travel a lot.  Don’t lose that fervor for God.  Remember that traveling affords an opportunity to see how other churches do things. 

If you’re traveling visit local churches.  Take their service sheets home with you and share them with us.  If there are things that others are doing that will help St. Peter’s improve let us know.

It’s important to continue to cultivate your life in Christ wherever you go.  Sometimes it will also make you appreciate more the things that we share here at home.  It right and a good thing always to praise God wherever you go.  The Lord is Risen!

Loose Ends

This article has a couple of "housekeeping" items.

I am extraordinarily humbled by the outpouring of prayers, love, and support from my St. Peter's family.  Going all the way back to December you've kept me in prayer when I was under a lot of unexpected stress.  You collected a purse at Christmas which made me speechless, and I had to sit down.  Your gifts were anonymous, and so I can't write you all thank you letters.  But please share with one another my great thank you and appreciation!  With the passing of my father you again have showered me with love and support in my confusion about how to feel and think.  You are quite wonderful St. Peter's, and I love you.

Now logistics.  By now you know I've relocated my office to the upstairs hallway adjacent to the church nave. I communicated my rationale for this move to the vestry months ago, but I assumed it would trickle out to the rest of the congregation.  So much for the trickle down theory.  So folks have asked, "Why did he do that?" 

Sometimes actions without broad explanation can cause confusion and often people fill in the blanks without asking directly.  So, I want to let you know my thinking.  

On Sunday mornings if I wasn't teaching a class I would often head back to my old office to sit down and take a rest.  I often felt so far away from where people were gathering; it's isolating.  And at times, if I forgot something when I'm teaching on a Sunday or weekday I would have to go all the way back to my office to gather that item.  So there was a practical need to get my office closer to where I do ministry.  This is true as well for when I read the Daily Office (Morning Prayer).  I specifically want to be closer to the nave and chapel for prayer.  As St. Peter's expands programmatic ministry I also desire to be closer to the programmatic staff.  That is staff that has hands on work with our people.  It's necessary to work collaboratively with music and Moms Inc. teachers. And as St. Peter's grows we hope to integrate a Family Life position that helps with coordinating teaching children, fellowship, and membership integration. 

As my thinking progressed I realized the natural step then is for administrative work to be joined together with my former office with the administrator and bookkeeper positions.  My old office is now the Wardens' and Treasurer's Office.  Our financial records will be kept there and checks will be generated through this office.  Being placed next to the administrator allows for better records storage and access for the financial coming in and going out.  It seems logical to me that they should be closer in proximity as opposed to separate buildings which they have been in the past. It should also help logistical preparation for our yearly audit. In addition the office is also available for our junior and senior wardens to use for organization and record keeping.  We will also continue to use the office for executive committee (rector, wardens and treasurer) to prepare vestry meeting agendas.

The consequence of this change is that during the weekdays it feels to drop-ins that I am harder to reach.  I understand that it might feel that way.  That is an unfortunate interpretation of what's happening.  I am still very accessible no matter who comes in.  It takes the same number of doors to get to me; it's just a different set of doors.  As always parishioners can be buzzed in through our camera system on the exterior hallway door, or through the columbarium door if you want to avoid stairs.  And folks can call me on my office line or cell phone. Just know, that sometimes I'm visiting hospitals, homes, or out in the community.  It's always good to call first.  But I want to be available to you when needed.  See you Sunday.  

Blessings,

Fr. Stephen+

Your presence is a gift to us.

 It's been engrained in us clergy for 2-3 decades that ASA (Average Sunday Attendance) is the gold standard for the health of  a congregation.  It answers the questions; "how many people are coming on Sunday and how often are they coming?"  Traditional forms of measurements and values have forced us to reconsider how we gauge our parish health even before COVID.  An alternative measure has been financial support. It does provide indicators, but to me it feels mercenary to think of money in that way.  Persons are more important.

We still look at our ASA and go online to keep an eye on how many people are watching our broadcast.  We have to do these things for our canonical obligations to the Episcopal Church.  They want statistics on membership, finances, Sunday School classes and participants, as well as how much we spend on missions work.  Burger King™ does the same thing. These numbers represent a lot of activity, but don't represent the full picture of home and hospital visits, shared conversations amongst friends, prayers heard by only God and you, volunteer hours for internal and external ministries.  There is so much that happens here that we don't measure.  I'm glad about that.

All of this makes me turn to what I am concerned about.  We sense a void  of those of you who we do not see on Sundays or in the food line or in bible study and potlucks.  We completely understand for those of you who don't feel safe yet to come back to church.  I've been struggling to articulate my thoughts about this.  

Of course, I want to see attendance numbers return and exceed pre-COVID amounts.  Numbers feel good and they are something a little more tangible to use for evaluation.  But if I'm honest, even when numbers are high, they have never satisfied me in this regard.  They always leave me wanting more.

This thought brought me to remember the ancient church, how small the household churches were.  There might be 10-15 in the church in a city or village.  If someone didn't come, you missed him or her.

All of this leads me to my conclusion of what that void is.  It is just your presence that is missing.  Paul tells us this in I Corinthians 12.  Each person has a role to play. Your presence among us has an impact on the whole.  When you are absent from the Body we miss you and when each of you is present we are better for it.  We know it will still be a while before we're back to full participation.  But we long for that time.

God's gift

As a child, I loved the smells of this time of year.  In my memory, it always seemed to get cold in December (even though it rarely snowed in Houston). But the coldness brought with it the smell that somewhere, someone was burning wood.  The idea of campfires and fireplaces and cords of wood permeates the season.  The smells and temperature (not so much the wall calendar) pointed to carol singing in the car on the way to celebrate Christmas with my dispersed families in New Braunfels, Corpus Christi, and Old Ocean, Texas.

I love Christmas. I always have.  Presents were always wonderful to get, but I don’t remember most of them.  What I remember and carry with me to this day are family gatherings in Madisonville and Lake Conroe, Brach’s candy wreaths, huge feasts of ham, turkey, and venison, cream cheese on celery stalks, and putting whole black olives on my fingers to eat them one-by-one.  Then followed Christmas games and pranks, charades with the adults and children playing together. 

I remember the current girlfriends of uncles initiated into the family through pranks at Christmas.  I always assumed they would become a part of the family until they didn’t show up the following year.  Love is complicated.

At the shopping mall the signage of the stores used words like, Joy, Peace, Light, Hope, Love…great words!  I believe in these words.

But none of this compares to the incomprehensible depth of what God accomplished at the Incarnation and birth of his Son.  The God and Creator of the Universe stepped into his creation in the most common way.  Your Maker lowered himself to his creatures to bring us up to where he exists.  This simple fact alone should change us, let alone his acts on Calvary.  More than anything else, Christmas is the time to contemplate and be transformed by the depth of God's gift to you.  Let those great words become manifest in your life daily, not just annually.

Church Processions

 I hope you’re as glad as I am to be done with that long 12-part series on Anglicanism.  😊  It was fun to write a series. but that one was particularly long and somewhat heady.  So, let’s get back down to earth.

Is there such a thing as a “recessional” hymn in church parlance?  The common language folks use for when ministers enter the church is to “process” into the church.  And by extension the opening hymn is referred to as “the processional” or “processional hymn.”  In contrast the hymn sung on the way out of church has been referred to and defined by Webster as the “recessional.”  In essence we walk in (proceed) and we walk out (recede.)  But are we really receding?

While in seminary in our first week in liturgics the professor attempted to deconstruct that type of language and insist that we do not recess from church.  Can you feel the eyes rolling in my head?  What does it matter?  Well as people of the prayer book I have to say language and words do matter.

What the professors were trying to get across to us was that we do not recede from church or from the Presence of God.  Especially since, at the end of worship, we have just consumed the Presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament.  It’s analogous to think of it as Christ going with us and in us into the world.  In fact, when we listen to the words of the post communion prayer, it anticipates that we are proceeding into the world “to do the works thou hast given us to do" or "to do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.” Then, we should see ourselves as the “Church” (Body of Christ) proceeding into the world to further God’s work where ever he leads us.

Why is this important?  Because liturgy is supposed to shape the way we think about things.  When you leave church, are you thinking about stepping away from God by leaving the building and going out into world?  That’s a reasonable perspective.  

Alternatively, as Jesus stepped (proceeded) into the world to save sinners it would be more in line with his character if we, his followers, understood that we too are proceeding into the world, for the purpose of bearing his gifts into the same.

What is Anglicanism? Prophetic Witness Article 12 of 12

 Prophetic Witness: “The prophet has never been popular among his other contemporaries.  He has been stoned, beheaded, crucified and shot.  If not killed, we have been all too ready to vilify him or her in the name of God, little realizing that it may well be God who sent the prophet to challenge our complacency.” Urban T. Holmes III.

The final article in this series is a call to action.  Holmes concludes his book on Anglicanism with the understanding that the previous chapters lead us to our individual and corporate actions to work in the world.  We are the ongoing fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer “…thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  This is incarnational, making our prayers come to life.

This is an impossible task for one generation of believers so each generation works to move closer and closer to the Kingdom images that Jesus declared.  Our job is to bring the values that Jesus taught into our lives and into the lives of people in the world.

One of the most obvious prophetic voices in the Anglican past was William Wilberforce Anglican layman and parliamentarian who pushed for the end of the English slave trade in the late 1700s until his death in 1833.  Clergy such as John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) who worked as a slave trader until his conversion to Christ empowered Wilberforce to use his voice in the early abolitionist movement.

What happens when the Gospel is truly preached?  What do we expect to hear when the Good News of Jesus Christ is truly preached?  And how should we act in response to it?  Some erroneously, interpret the Gospel to say that the sufferings of this world are simply to be endured by those who suffer, so that their place in heaven can be greater.(As in slavery)  Some interpret the Gospel to say that as we enjoy the luxuries of our economic system this is God’s tacit approval of our religious state and culture. (today called the Prosperity Gospel).  The problem with these two outlooks is that both are static and accept the status quo.  These mentalities do not bring healing to the sick, or freedom to the oppressed as such they do not reflect the mentality of Christ to bring about his Kingdom.  There is something about the Gospel of Jesus that enacts change in persons and subsequently in cultures.

Upon hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ and accepting his gift of God’s grace, love, and life to us, we are changed and desire a change in the lives of the world around us.  Upon hearing this message, a desire within us is awakened to bring about the Kingdom, a longing for heaven here on Earth.

Through history and today, bishops and clergy will often come alongside political movements hoping to affect changes in our culture.  These often come in the passing of legislation, constitutional amendments and the like which have been both freeing and catastrophic for some communities.  The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s certainly helped confront overt racist policies and mentalities in our culture.  At the same time there have injurious effects to the African American family in the last 50 years.  These are not just political talking points.  These are people suffering.

How do we respond to that suffering?  We must first listen.  We must listen to God.  What is God’s desire for all people?  To be reconciled to God and one another.  We must listen to the sufferer.  Give room for him or her to convey the suffering instead of assuming we know what it is and that we can fix it.  Finally, we must work with others to bring about God’s healing and reconciliation for all of us.

What is Anglicanism? Church and State Article 11 of 12

Church and State:  The Church got a big boost in attendance and membership when Constantine legalized and then declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman state (313-323 AD).  You could make a solid argument those acts were simultaneously the Rise and Fall of Christianity.  On one hand it brought to the forefront the values that shaped Western Civilization: honesty, forgiveness, mercy, egalitarianism.  On the other hand, it brought unchallenged earthly power into the movement of the Church for over 1200 years.  Along with faithful leaders, establishment opened the door for godless leaders to wield power in the church.  The marriage of Church and State brought forth philosophies that existed through the Reformation of the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Erastianism is the belief that when the church and state are united, the state is supreme to the church as regards ecclesiastical (church) matters.  More specifically it has to do with punishment meted out upon the people for violating ecclesiastical laws.  Proponents of this philosophy would be seen as encouraging the state to burn heretics or deny the sacraments to notorious sinners while the church abdicated its role to maintain order in the church. It appears similar to how the Sanhedrin handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities for punishment.

Anglicans have a long history of standing in opposition to the supremacy of the state over ecclesiastic affairs.  St. Dunstan, St. Thomas a Becket, St. Thomas More are known for their desires to purify the church in ways that were not commensurate with the desires of the sitting king.  This often led to martyrdom.  A more modern example can be found in the life of Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda.  During Idi Amin’s rise to power Luwum worked with the administration to build unity between various tribal groups including Christian and Muslim tribes.  The archbishop successfully worked with the government to help unify a Christian tribe that threatened to break free from Uganda early in Amin’s administration.  Later, in order to maintain power, Amin used anti-Christian sentiment to bring a wedge between groups and began persecutions.  Realizing Amin’s intentions Luwum and other bishops wrote a letter condemning Amin’s evil actions.  Ultimately these challenges were used to bring charges of insurrection against the bishops who were summarily murdered. 

What this history points to isn’t so much a picture of political unity between the church and state. It acknowledges that there are times for the sake of the Gospel of Christ when bishops, clergy, and Christian laity must stand in opposition to the abuses of the state.  That line is clearest when the state is totalitarian, persecuting or murdering innocent people.

History has seen Anglicans take on roles within politics. This is revealed in the prominent roles of the founding fathers and presidents of our country.  Many (not all) stood in opposition to the felt totalitarianism of King George III.  Controversially, many Episcopalians (e.g. Robert E. Lee, Leonidas Polk-Bishop of Louisiana) stood in opposition to the government of the United States during the American Civil War.  The point here isn’t that these people were right or wrong in their cause.  Often these examples were balancing conflicting values and loyalties.

The point is that Anglicans understand that personal faith has a role in shaping culture and society.  The instruments of government (particularly representative government) are molded by individuals to achieve those higher values that faith upholds.  Those values are enlightened by God through our conversation with Holy Scripture and one another.