All Souls - Rector's Rambling for October 29, 2023

 
On Thursday, November 2nd,  we commemorate the Feast of All Souls, also known as the Feast of All Faithful Departed.  The day before is All Saints Day, which we will also celebrate next Sunday within the Octave.  What is the difference between the two?

All Saints Day is the day that we recognize those whom the church confirms  have lived lives of heroic virtue.  People like St. Francis, St. Clare, St. Maximilan Kolbe, and St. Mother Teresa.  We will talk more about what it means to be a saint next week!

But on Thursday, we pray for ALL the faithful departed, all those who have gone before us, and not just those who have lived lives of obvious sanctity.  We continue to be connected in Jesus to those we love and have died.  We remember them before God in our prayers in thanksgiving for their lives.  They, being outside of our time and space, await the second coming of Jesus “when the earth and the sea shall give up their dead” (Revelation 20:13), knowing that when He returns “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  Each time we recite the creed, we affirm this truth as we say in the third section that we believe in “the resurrection of the body”.

We have two services of the Holy Communion on Thursday.  At 10 AM we will be in the chapel at Elmwood Cemetery.  It is here that the overwhelming majority of our parishioners in the first 75 or so years are buried.  Pictured here is the monument for our founder, Henry Porter Baldwin. 

At 12:15 we celebrate the Mass in our own chapel where cremated remains are interred of many of our parishioners who have died since the late 1970s.  At this Service we will also read the names of our loved ones that have been submitted. 

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them.  May they rest in peace.

Open Door Ministry - Rector's Rambling for October 22, 2023

     An important ministry of St. John’s Church is an open door.

I know that may sound funny.  “How can an open door be a ministry?”  But it is a vital thing that we do here at St. John’s!

When I arrived here in 2001 the church building was open on Sunday, and  for the Wednesday 12:15 Service parishioners knew to come through the old office building.  In my conversation with then Diocesan Bishop Gibbs, he expressed a desire that we not be a “Sunday only” congregation, to which I whole-heartedly agreed!  As I did at my last parish, we expanded the public worship schedule to include 4 weekday Holy Communion Services, and also added Evening Prayer.

The first few years we had the front doors open for the weekday Masses from 11:30 to 1 PM with a modestly paid attendant keeping an eye on the building during that time (and also worshipping with us). 

Since the reopening after Covid shutdowns, we have begun opening the church on weekdays from about 11 AM until 4:30 or so and Sunday afternoons from 3 until 6 PM. The security cameras and system alert those in the office if someone has entered, and they cannot get into the offices or undercroft.

On an average weekday a dozen or more people come into the church to look, take pictures, or to sit and pray. On Sundays it is triple that number depending on what events are happening at the stadiums/arena/theatre.  Brochures, The “Why Jesus” booklet from Alpha, and copies of Our Daily Bread are taken  by curiosity seekers. I regularly receive emails from people working and living in the neighborhood thanking us for the open building and chance to pray, and we now have several people who join us regularly for Sunday and/or weekday worship services because they encountered the ministry of an open door. 

May we strive to be a church with open doors and open hearts!

 

St. Francis - Rector's Rambling for October 8, 2023

        This past Wednesday we celebrated the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  As the Episcopal Church’s Book of Lesser Feasts and Fast claims, Francis may be one of the most admired and least imitated of all the saints!

In our modern day, St. Francis is perhaps best known for the blessing of pets.  He has been declared the unofficial patron saint of such a thing because of the stories of his encounters with animals. 

The town of Gubbio was being terrorized by a fierce wolf, and St. Francis is said to have tamed the wolf by walking out to him despite the snarls and threats, and ‘made a deal with him’ that the town people would feed him regularly if he stopped being a threat!  They did just that, and the wolf’s skeleton is on display in the church there to this day. 

He is said to have preached to the birds, which he did on an occasion when the people were not coming to hear him preach.  Lesser known is another time that he also rebuked birds that were being too loud for people to hear a sermon.

And St. Francis is also credited with the first ‘living Nativity’ with real animals in a reenactment of our Lord’s birth.

But less popular among the lukewarm followers is that Francis was a biblical literalist, who when writing his rule of life is said to have randomly opened the bible to Jesus’ admonition to the rich young man to sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and follow Him.  Francis made that a basis of his own rule of life, owning nothing but the patched gardeners tunic for a habit for the rest of his life.   He and his early followers slept on church floor, begged for food if they were unable to earn it doing manual labor, and refused to touch money.  As the order grew, that rule had to be revised so provide more stability without completely losing the charism of St. Francis to be a ‘little brother’ who serves others in Jesus’ name in simplicity of life.

To this day the Franciscan Friars, Poor Clare Nuns, and Third Order Franciscans seek to do the same.

 

Holy Angels - Rector's Rambling for October 1, 2023

     Today we celebrate last Friday’s Feast Day - St. Michael and All Angels.  A red letter Prayer Book Holy Day, it is a great day to celebrate with an ‘octave’ which means that for 8 days it is remembered in prayer, and can be celebrated on the Sunday within it. 

Not only is it wonderful to commemorate because of the great hymns, and the fact that our Youth Conference is dedicated under St. Michael’s patronage, but because there is lots of fascination about angels, as well as lots of bad folk lore and theology about them that needs to be dispelled.  Sorry Clarence - but you don’t earn your wings by doing good deeds after you die.

Angels are real, a part of God’s created order, and we give thanks for their ministry

Today after the 10 AM Service we will inter the cremains of Ronald and Patricia Pike.  Ronald died in 2008 and Patricia passed away this summer.  All are welcome to join us in the chapel for this brief service of prayers from the Book of Common Prayer.

On Tuesday we will be starting The Alpha Course.  YOU SHOULD BE HERE FOR IT even if you are not sure if it is for you.  Plan on being here on Tuesday for the first session to see what it is about and then decide if it is for you.  We start with dinner at 6:30, watch a video and have a discussion.  We will be done by about 8 PM.  Just let me know if you will be here so that I can make sure I prepare enough dinner.

Who is Alpha for?  It is produced with the unchurched, those with little to no understanding of Christianity.  And it is also wonderful for those who have been in the church a long time and could use a refresher!  And it is a good thing to have as many people in the parish being graduates of this basic course in the essentials of the faith.  As St. Peter says in his first epistle we should “be ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you….” (1 Peter 3:15).  Alpha is a great way to be equipped to do so.