Septuagesima Sunday - Rector's Rambling for February 1, 2026

     We are having quite the winter this year, with bitter cold and snow.  And worse than just snow, but snow on Saturday and Sunday which has impeded travel for many parishioners.  Some years we have a mild winter, but this one is not one of them!  Thankfully some have been able attend on snowy days, and by God’s grace worship has continued unimpeded. 

Last week was one of those snowy Sunday.  And although the 8 AM Service was very sparsely attended,  about half the regular number of people were able to make it to the 10 AM Service, and attendance at the Annual Parish Meeting following was 2/3 what we anticipated—not a bad turn out for a snow day!

At the Annual Parish Meeting we elected three new members of the Vestry: Durene Brown, Renee Peck, and Charles Roby.  The financial reports were reviewed for 2025 and we glanced to the forecast for the coming year, which overall continues to be positive.  Thank you to all who were able to attend, and the booklets containing the financials and reports from the various committees and ministries is available from the parish office.

February has several big events to note.  Friday we are heading to see the play at the Detroit Players Theatre.  Please be sure to get your reservation into the office today.

On Sunday, February 15th we welcome  Bishop Wendell Gibbs to the 10 AM Service to preach and celebrate.  We will be commemorating my 25th Anniversary at Rector here at St. John’s.  A luncheon will follow.

February 17th is Shrove Tuesday.  We will be having our Pancake, Paczki and Trivia Night starting at 6 PM.  This is a last Feast before we start our Lenten Fast.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 18th, which Mass and Ashes at 12:15 and 6 PM, and Evening Prayer with Ashes at 4 PM.  If you can’t make it downtown that day then get your Ash in a church nearby.

Thanks be to God for a new month.

 

Conversion of St. Paul - Rector's Rambling for January 25, 2026

     Today we have a special feast day in the midst of our short Epiphany Season.  Today we are celebrating the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle.  Certain Holy Days, such as this one, take precedence over the regularly assigned Sunday lessons and observance (such as the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, which today is otherwise).

Paul is an apostle, but unlike the other apostles commemorated, his feast day is kept on the day of his conversion, rather than the day of his death.  A person’s day of death is considered one’s “heavenly birthday”, since it is through earthly death that we pass to eternal life.  And in the case of all the apostles, except St. John, their death was by martyrdom – being killed because of their faith in Jesus Christ.  St. Paul was also martyred.  The church believes that under the general persecution of Nero in 64 and 65, both St. Peter and St. Paul met their deaths for being followers (and promoters) of Jesus Christ.  Peter, not being a Roman citizen, was crucified (tradition says head-down) and St. Paul, being a citizen, was given the quicker execution of being beheaded.

But today the church commemorates St. Paul’s conversion to the faith.  It is one of those stories that is powerful because he was not just a non-believer in Jesus, he was an active persecutor of those who believed that Jesus Christ is Lord.  He consented to St. Stephen’s stoning, his executioners laying their jackets at his feet. (Acts 7:58, 8:1)  His journey to Damascus was to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem for trial. (Acts 9:2).  Paul’s conversion is unique, but gives us hope that no matter what our, and others’, spiritual condition may be, God can intervene!

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After today’s Service join us downstairs for lunch and for the Annual Parish Meeting.  We will go over the financial reports for 2025 and forecast for 2026, elect new members of the Vestry, and receive reports from the various organizations, committees, and ministries of the parish.

 

Short Epiphany and Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - Rector's Rambling for January 18, 2025

     Today is our one and only green Sunday for the season of Epiphany in 2026.  Because Easter is set by a lunar calendar, this year it is relatively early, occuring on April 5th.

Once Easter is set, we then start counting backwards.  40 days for Lent and Holy Week, three Sundays of pre-Lent before that (the quesima Sundays) and the Season of Epiphany is only three Sundays.  But on top of that next week is a Prayer Book Holy Day, the Conversion of St. Paul, which takes precedence to be celebrated on Sunday instead of the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany.

This week is also the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Starting today through next Sunday the church prays with special intention for the unity of the Church.  Jesus prayed that we all be one as He and the Father are one, but we are divided because of human sinfulness.  May God have mercy upon us.  More information on this week of prayer is found in the teaching note on page 4.

The holy water stoups have now had a full week of use and it has been interesting to see folks, myself included, walk past one, pause when we see it out of the corner of our eye, and reach back to dip a finger in it and make the sign of the cross with it.  It will take time to develop the new habit  here in our church that I and so many other do in other Episcopal and Romans Churches.

 

Holy Water - Rector's Rambling for January 11, 2026

     You may notice that there are now Holy Water Stoups installed at the entrances to the chapel and the church.  This ia an ancient custom of the Church to have a receptacle at the entry of the place of worship containing water that has been blessed.  As you see pictured here, the new stoup  has a celtic cross on it, a reoccurring theme here at St. John’s.  The cross outside the ministry center, the beautiful cross on the wall inside the ministry center were both obtained based on the processional cross we use every Sunday.  The new stoups continue that theme.

So what is it for?  Holy Water is what is known as a sacramental, These are objects that help point us toward the sacraments themselves, which are an assurance of God’s grace/blessings.  Things like icons, crucifixes, and holy water are reminders of the abundance of God’s blessings toward us and draw us to holiness.

Holy Water at the entrance of a church beckons back to the ancient Jewish tradition of ritual purity, where one wahed the feet and hands before entering worship.  Remember that Jesus did a similar thing to his apostles at the last supper when he washed their feet. (John 13: 1-17)

We have been cleansed in the waters of baptism (a sacrament) and holy water at the entrance of the church is a tangible reminder of that being born again in water and the Holy Spirit (a sacramental).

Of course this is optional, but if you would like you dip your finger in the water and make the sign of the cross, asking that God cleanse your heart and prepare you for worship. 

Also, in the sacristy will be a container pictured below.  This contains Holy Water, water that has been blessed by a priest or a bishop.  It is there in order to fill the stoups around the church.  But it is also available for you if you would like some Holy Water for your home.  Some people like to have a stoup in their house.  Small ones for home are available online or at a religious supply store. 

Having sacramentals such as these can be an aid to us in our spiritual life, reminding us of the blessings available by God’s Grace.

 

Epiphany is coming - Rector's Rambling for January 4, 2025

     Today is the 11th Day of Christmas and Tuesday we begin a new Church season with the Feast of the Epiphany.  This feast day has two names, but both mean the same thing.  To have an “epiphany” is to have something made manifest, or to have something shown to you.  In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer the title for Tuesday’s feast is The Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.

In the Christmas story we hear that the shepherds in the fields heard, by the proclamation of the Angelic Hosts, the good news of Jesus’ birth.  The shepherds represent the people of the Jews, since there would have surely been Jews in that region.  They come and adore Jesus.

The Magi (Wise Men or Three Kings) are not Jews, but Gentiles.  We hear in scripture that these wise men came from the east, having seen in the stars an amazing, celestial event which they understood to be the portent of the birth of a new king.

So, they went to Herod, assuming that this would foretell the birth of his heir, but of course there was no baby there.  Herod, whom secular history confirms was a man of great jealousy and wrath, tries to convince these men to let him know when and where they have found this king (“…bring me word again, that I may come and worship him”).  Obviously, Herod had a poisonous intent; not to worship but destroy him.  However, the Magi were warned of God in a dream and Herod’s plan was thwarted.

As the shepherds represented the people of the Jews coming to worship Jesus, since it is the fulfillment of the promise to them to send a Saviour, so the Magi represent the rest of us.  Gentile basically means, “not Jew”.

Jesus’ birth is Good News, not only to the Jew, but the Gentile as well.  He is Lord of all, and all are included in the New Covenant sealed in His blood on the cross.  He was made manifest to the Jews in the persons of the shepherds, and to the rest of us through these wise men who also came to worship.

And the wise still come and worship Him!

Edited from Rector’s Rambling 2013

 

Holy Innocents Day - Rector's Rambling for December 28, 2025

     Merry Christmas!  I hope that you haven’t already tired of hearing that phrase since today is only the fourth day of Christmas!  Christmas is a SEASON, which runs from December 25 until January 5.  The 12 days of Christmas are these 12 days, not the days preceding the Feast.

After Christmas there are three immediate Feast Days on the Church calendar.  December 26 was the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr.  December 27 was the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, our patron because the parish was incorporated on that day in 1858.

Today’s Feast Day is tragic.  The event itself, chronologically, occurred much later after the birth of Christ.  Herod, jealous that the wise men told him that a new king was born, and angry that they did not come back to tell him where Jesus was, orders the destruction of all children under the age of two.  St Augustine says of the slaughter “they are the first buds of the Church killed by the frost of persecution; they died not only for Christ, but in his stead .” (“Sermo 10us de sanctis”)

These three Feasts are placed on the calendar so close to Christmas because “These dates have nothing to do with the chronological order of the event; the feast is kept within the octave of Christmas because the Holy Innocents gave their life for the newborn Saviour.  Stephen, the first martyr (martyr by will, love, and blood), John, the Disciple of Love (martyr by will and love), and these first flowers of the Church (martyrs by blood alone), accompany the Holy Child Jesus entering this world on Christmas day.”

On the revised calendar, this Feast Day is no longer observed on Sunday.  It is transferred to Monday.  Most members of the Episcopal Church and the other churches using the new lectionary will most likely know nothing of these innocents who died for and in the place of Christ, since not many attend weekday Masses (if they are held at all).

And as the Collect for today reminds us, we should pray that God will “mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace” so that we glorify Jesus this Christmastide, and all our lives.

~ Portions excerpted from www.catholic.org/encyclopedia

 

Are we there yet? - Rector's Rambling for December 21, 2025

 “Are we there yet?”  “How about now?”  “How much longer?

Those of us who are parents have heard those phrases said from the back seat of the car or mini-van, as children are anxious to be done with a long trip and be at the anticipated destination (or perhaps we remember saying that ourselves).  Over on Twitter there is a funny account called, “Is it Henley Regatta time yet?”, and every day at a set time that account tweets, “no” (this rowing regatta in England is in July).

Well, just as during the car trip an answer of “almost there” is a small consolation, the Fourth Sunday in Advent is our “almost there” Sunday.  The church got a head start on the decorating Friday, and today after the service, the sanctuary will be decorated, as well as the rest of the church and chapel.  We can sense even more poignantly the “almost there” of Christmas.

So, as you do all the last-minute preparations for Christmas, one thing to add to that list is to decide which Christmas service you will attend!  Though the 4:00 PM Christmas Eve service includes the Children’s Pageant, it isn’t just for families with children, but for all parishioners and friends.  The 8:30 PM Carol Prelude and 9:00 PM Candlelight Mass are our primary services for Christmas Eve, and the Christmas Day 11:00 AM service in the chapel is our smallest attended service (but growing), with a hearty amount of carol singing during the otherwise simpler spoken Communion Service.  And the 11 AM Christmas Day Mass has a different set of readings than the ones we do on Christmas Eve.  A few parishioners attend both days and you are welcome to do so as well.

If you haven’t already done so now is the time to invite friends, family, and neighbors!  Your invite may be the way that God is bringing someone back into the practice of attending church, and attending St. John’s!  And of course you should  be sure to come to the great celebration that is almost here!

If you will be out of town be sure to bring us a service bulleting to share with us so that we can see what other parishes are doing to celebrate!