"animated with earnest zeal" - Rector's Rambling for November 26, 2017

First, I want to thank everyone who pitched in to help on Thanksgiving, with the pancake breakfast and donut/hot chocolate sales, as well as the many people who welcomed guests and showed them around our beautiful  building.

St. John’s is an amazing place, with amazing people!  When I give tours of the building during the week, I get to see the our place through their eyes.  They walk in and you hear them gasp, and look around in awe.  Before long someone in the group says, “I have driven by this place a thousand times and I never imagined how beautiful this is!”  And as I give them a synopsis of our remarkable history, I always make a point of telling them that as wonderful as the building is, and amazing as our history is, even more amazing and beautiful is what God is doing here now, and more beautiful are the people who are members here!

On Thanksgiving we welcome hundreds of people into our midst.  Our big challenge is to find ways to reach out to the multitude of people who live near us, work near us, and pass by on their way to the stadiums, arena, and theatres, to come in to pray, worship, and join us for both religious and social events so that we can build relationships which open opportunities to share Jesus with them.

In our prayer for St. John’s we ask God to “Enlighten our minds, subdue our wills, purify our hearts, and so penetrate us with Thy Spirit, and fill us with Thy love that we may go forth animated with earnest zeal for Thy glory; and may Thy living Word so dwell within our hearts that we may speak with that resistless energy of love which shall melt the hearts of sinners to the love of Thee.”  This is the formula we need to embrace in order not only to become holier, but to do so in order to draw people to Jesus.  If we are working on growing in grace, we will be motivated to reach out to others and share Jesus’ love.

The building is a wonderful attraction,  a wonderful inspiration to lead us to holiness, and a great location for ministry.  Let us step up to our responsibilities to use it for God’s Glory!

A wonderful week ahead - Rector's Rambling for November 19, 2017

We have a wonderful week ahead of us at St. John’s Church, and I hope you will participate and invite others to partake in all the busyness around here!

On Wednesday, at 7:00 PM, we have our Thanksgiving Eve Service in the chapel with all the great hymns of gratitude for God’s Blessings.  Afterwards, if you are so inclined, you are welcome to spend the night at the church (BYO bedrolls).

On Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving morning here in a big way!  COME EARLY to get a space in our parking lot!  We will be serving pancake breakfasts ($7 adults, $4 children) in the undercroft, and at the front doors we will be selling donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate.  Food service starts by 7:00 AM.  Volunteers are always needed at both spots to welcome our many guests that day.

And there is no better place in Detroit to view America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade than at St. John’s Church.  We will have scaffolding built to sit on, food is available, and of course you can come and go inside the heated building.  The comradery that day is wonderful, and nothing beats welcoming jolly Ol’ St. Nick to downtown Detroit with than the ringing of our 158 year old bell!

Next weekend we have an interesting anomaly – a Sunday after Thanksgiving that is NOT a Sunday in Advent.  Because the 4th Sunday in Advent is the same day as Christmas Eve this year, we start Advent in December.  But rest assured, our various outreach opportunities will begin on time, and we will be busy, busy, busy, to the greater glory of God, with things like our Bazaar and Advent Soup Luncheons beginning December 3.

TODAY, be sure to stay after the service for 15 minutes for a presentation about the building project preparations, vestry strategic planning, and some exciting future events coming up in 2018.  We will meet after the 8:00 AM service in the chapel, and after the 10:00 AM service in the undercroft.

Exciting things are happening at St. John’s that you should be involved in!

Bishops make us Episcopal - Rector's Rambling for November 12, 2017

Two-hundred and thirty-three years ago this Tuesday a very important event happened in the life of what was to become the Episcopal Church USA.

On November 14, 1784, Samuel Seabury was consecrated by three bishops in Scotland as the first bishop for the remnant of the Church of England in the new United States of America.

If you are a big fan of the wildly popular Broadway musical Hamilton, that name is familiar to you.  Samuel Seabury, along with King George, are two of the villains in the play, and in fact Rev. Samuel Seabury, as a priest of the Church of England in the colonies, was an avid loyalist to the King (all priests in the C of E take an oath of allegiance at their ordination).  Seabury wrote pamphlets supporting the king in the colonies, was chaplain to a British regiment, and then after the war, unlike many of his fellow clergy who went back to England or fled to Canada, stayed in the new country and continued his ministry.

During colonial times England did not consecrate a bishop for the Church here, and it was technically a mission field of the Bishop of London.  After the Revolutionary War, groupings of clergy and laity began to form what was to become dioceses, and eventually a national structure that was to become the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

Since our Church needed bishops, the clergy in Connecticut elected Seabury to be their first bishop.  The bishops in England refused to consecrate him because he could not take the oath of allegiance to the King.  So Seabury sought his line of apostolic succession from the dissenters that were the Scottish Episcopal Church, and on November 14, 1784, he was made a bishop.

Soon after that the clergy/laity of Pennsylvania and New York elected William White and Samuel Provoost, and they were able to convince the Church of England to ordain them without the Oath to the King, to which they most likely begrudgingly agreed to prevent them from going to Scotland as Seabury did.

November 14 is not Seabury’s Feast Day (the Church has not declared him a saint).  But it is an important day because to be EPISCOPAL you need BISHOPS in Apostolic Order.  In the Bible επίσκοπος (pronounced Episkopos) means Bishop.  We are the Protestant Church with Bishops (Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA).

Photo of the Seabury Consecration window at St. James Church, New London, CT

A 'local' saint - Rector's Rambling for November 5, 2017

In the coming weeks you will be hearing a lot about Fr. Solanus Casey, because on November 18, he will be declared “blessed” by the Roman Catholic Church, the a step in their process to be declared a “Saint” of the Church.

Here in the Anglican Communion, we do not have the same, long, tedious process the Roman Church has to investigate the holiness of those who have lived lives of extraordinary sanctity.  Their goal is to be sure that the person was not a fraud with a cult following, as sometimes is revealed about people after their death.

As we celebrate All Saints’ Day today, we will sing my favorite hymn, “I sing a song of the saints of God” in which we will declare that the “saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.”

Too often we think of the saints as far away and long ago, and the hymn reminds us otherwise.  Fr. Solanus Casey is yet another example of one who started out as “folk like me” and by his desire and cooperation with God did wonderful things through Him.  He did much of his ministry two miles from St. John’s, and he died only 60 years ago!

Fr. Solanus was born in Wisconsin and desired to be a diocesan parish priest.  When he wasn’t smart enough to pass his theology exams in seminary, it was suggested that he join a religious order.  That order then sent him to seminary where he failed AGAIN.

Not deterred he persisted, and the Roman Church ordained him, but with “limited facilities”, which prevented him from doing many things expected of a priest other than saying Mass.  So the Capuchin Franciscans made him the doorkeeper of the friary on Mt. Elliot in Detroit.  From there he interacted with the poor and needy, prayed with and for those who were ill or in other need, and God began using him for miraculous purposes.

Perhaps his most well-known contribution was his suggestion to his religious superiors of the need to start a soup kitchen because he predicted there would be increasing numbers of people in need.  As the new plan was being put in place, the stock market crash of 1929 proved him right.  And to this day, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen ministries continue to feed thousands of people a week, as well as minister to the poor through counseling and other programs.  Fr. Solanus was just “folk like me” who wanted to be holy and cooperated with God to do it!

Unique to St. John's - A teaching note turned brochure

St. John’s is a unique place.  In Metro Detroit there is no other church, Episcopal or otherwise, that is like St. John’s.  There are certainly parishes in other major cities much like St. John’s, with similar attributes.  But in our area there is no other place with this complete “package” of attributes!

Individuals are generally drawn to one or more aspect of this package, but all play a part in defining and strengthening the brand.  To diminish or change a portion of what we do here is the endanger damaging the brand, and its attraction to the whole.  For example, when Coca-Cola changed the recipe for its successful product, they damaged its brand for several years.  This is not to say that we can’t be looking to make improvements.  All must be done with an eye to the greater whole of who we are and what we do.

What are some of the portions of our brand that make up the package here at St. John’s?

1) Traditional Anglican Faith – No deviations theologically to the faith as the Anglican Communion has received it from the witness of Scripture, and the traditions and ministry received from the Apostles.

2) Traditional Worship/Liturgy – Based on that traditional faith as codified in the Book of Common Prayer from 1549 to 1928.  The form for ceremonial was restored in the Anglican Communion by those involved in the Oxford Movement of the mid-19th century, of which St. John’s was an early proponent.

3) World Class Music – St. Augustine said that “He who sings prays twice”.  Music has been a vital aspect of the worship in the Anglican Communion, and especially so here at St. John’s.  Our English choral tradition lifts the heart, promotes right belief, complements our Prayer Book worship, and edifies the faithful in ways that are deeper than words can express.

4) Biblically sound and inspiring preaching and teaching – The clergy strive to make the Word of God relevant and challenging so that the faithful can be both comforted in His Holy Word, and challenged to grow in greater holiness.

5) Remarkable Building – For over 150 years these grand buildings have stood on this corner of Woodward Ave as a witness to the strength of the Gospel, and its architecture inspires one to worship God Almighty in the beauty of holiness.  In addition to aiding in worship, our facilities are used for education, social gatherings, and they host a variety of parish ministries and community groups.

6) Our downtown urban location – Although some think is a disadvantage, we embrace being centrally located among the sport stadiums and theatres, near major highways, and easily accessible for those who travel from as far away as Ann Arbor, Algonac, and South Lyon on a regular basis.  The neighborhood also continues to see new and renovated housing and loft apartments which attract people to move into the neighborhood surrounding St. John’s

7) Warm, welcoming, and encouraging fellowship – Many people have said that as much as they like a combination of the first 6 items listed, it is this seventh one that brings it all together and keeps them coming back to St. John’s.  At Coffee Hour or Potluck luncheon after worship on Sunday, at various Social Fellowship Outings, or in one another’s homes, we come to know one another and care for each other.  This strengthens our bonds to each other, and to the parish, through the common denominator of our faith in Jesus Christ.

What are the things you like best about St. John’s?  Two, three or four of the items may jump out at you as your favorites.  Another one or two you may find you don’t take advantage of, or perhaps you are not too interested in.  And there may even be an item or two that doesn’t strike your fancy at all.  If you put together even a small group of parishioners I am sure you will find all parts of the package covered in a “favorites” column.