165th Anniversary - Rector's Rambling for November 17, 2024

     

Today is the 165th Anniversary of the dediction of our Chapel, the first building completed for St. John’s. 

November 17, 1859 was a Thursday that year.  Our 50th Anniversary book records that day for us. 

(A)nd on Thursday morning, November 17, 1859, the congregation assembled for the first time for their common worship, on the occasion of the Consecration of St. John’s Chapel.  With the Bishop and the Rector were twelve other clergy; the Senior Warden presented the “Instruments of Donation and Request to Consecrate,” the Rector read the “Sentence of Consecration;” the Bishop preached from Ephesians 5:32, “I speak concerning the Church;” in the Holy Communion, the first of so many celebrations at that beloved altar, the Bishop was assisted by the Reverend Rufus Murray of Mariners’ Church.  At Evening Prayer the same day, the Rector ministered the first Baptism in the parish, to Louis Alden Grelling.  Thirteen boys had been trained and organized into a choir, which sang at both these services.

St. John’s was off to a rousing start, having been built in what was a rural area outside of the City of Detroit (hard to imagine this corner being described that way back then).  Sunday worship was very well attended, and then on Monday night a parish meeting was held to re-elect the wardens and vestry and to assess pew rents.  Yes, in those days the pews were rented for the year rather than the collection plate passed around.  They ran into an immediate problem...too many people wanted to rent pews in the chapel which they thought would suffice for 5 to 10 years before having to build the larger church!

Our parish historian continues,

With the same characteristic promptness that had marked the enterprise thus far, at a Vestry meeting the following Monday night, November 28, these resolutions were adopted: “Resolved that in view of the fact that every seat in the Chapel is already rented, and that there is a large demand for additional seats, it is desirable that efforts should be made for the immediate erection of a Church seating about one thousand persons “resolved that a subscription paper for this purpose be prepared and circulated and that as soon as $10,000 in addition to the $17,000 offered by Mr. Baldwin, be obtained, the Vestry will feel authorized to take steps for the erection of the Church”  As the estimates came in for the building and furnishing of the Church, Henry Porter Baldwin and the Vestry doubled their pledges, and the total cost to build the Church was just under $49,000 which is worth $1,860,000 today.

 

Weekday Masses - Rector's Rambling for November 10, 2024

     

    One of the greatest privileges of the catholic Christian (a title aptly applied to Episcopalians who believe in the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’) is to receive the Blessed Sacrament regularly.  Every Sunday it is offered at St. John’s, and as the Prayer Book Office of Instructions reminds us our ‘bounden duty is to follow Christ, to worship every Sunday in Church” (p. 291).  In the Sacrament of Jesus’ Body and Blood we are nourished in our bodies and souls by His Sacramental Presence - an assurance of His Grace.

In addition to being offered on Sunday at the 8 AM and 10 AM Service, The Holy Communion Service is also prayed during the weekdays as well.  Regularly scheduled Monday through Thursday, unless supplanted by a funeral service at the same hour or my being out of town.  Occasionally we add a fifth or sixth weekday Holy Communion Service if there is a Prayer Book Holy Day, Wedding or Funeral scheduled on Friday or Saturday.

The weekday Masses (another word for the Holy Communion Service) differ in a few ways from our Sunday Celebration.  Generally it is shorter because there is no sermon in a traditional sense.  In its place is usually the reading of a hagiography (a biography of a saint) about the person being commemorated on the Church calendar for that day.  The lives of the saints inspire us to strive for holiness, and are proof that God can take anyone, in any spiritual condition, and make them into holy people by His Grace.  It can also be a reminder that we still have a long way to go, personally.  But then again that is why we are there! The Sacrament is the most powerful aid to holiness!

The weekday Holy Communion Service is also quieter and more intimate.  I have heard the comparison that the Sunday Service is like a Royal Official State Banquet with all the trappings, but the weekday Service is like an intimate meal with the immediate family.  In both cases we are being fed, but there is a different feel to it.  Many of our weekday Masses have only two or three people present, but if even only one person is present, they represent the prayers of the entire parish incarnate!

A weekday Mass is not a substitute for Sunday attendance but is intended to be in addition to it.  But if you are hindered by travel or illness from making it to Church on Sunday, making the effort to make a Mass during the week is efficacious for growth in the spiritual life.

Once a month?  Once a week?  How many weekday Masses can you add to your every Sunday attendance?

 

Saints then, and now - Rector's Rambling for November 3, 2024

     Since September I have been away three times, to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.  In all three places I had to opportunity to worship in remarkable parishes.

My trip to New York was for the ordination of our own Cam Walker.  While in the City I had the opportunity to attend Thursday evensong at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue.  Sunday through Thursday they have Choral Evensong with their Choir of Men and Boys who attend their  parish boarding school a few blocks away near Central Park.  On Saturday the ordination was at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, Long Island, which has a long history of being a flagship Anglo-catholic parish.

While in Boston I attended Evening Prayer at the Church of the Advent at the base of Beacon Hill.  My wife was a member there after college, we are friends with the organist, and I have been friends with several of the clergy over the years.  Also a renown Anglo-catholic parish they two have a full schedule of weekday Masses and the Daily Office in addition to their Sunday worship, with professional choir, as we do at St. John’s. 

In Philadelphia I joined a lunchtime Mass at St. Clement’s Church, a parish that supported me financially and spiritually, and was very important in my formation as a priest in the Anglo-catholic tradition. 

Sunday morning I attended 7:30 Morning Prayer and 8:00 Holy Communion at All Saints, Wynnewood, a near suburb of Philadelphia. Being a 1928 Book of Common Prayer parish the worship for those morning services is a clone of our own (the Prayer Book is good that way).

I am reminded this morning of all the “Saints”, the holy people of God, who have worshipped in our pews and the pews of these other churches.  All those who built and supported these churches, and have left them both as a legacy and as a tool for our own greater sanctification - to help us to become holy as well.  This All Saints Day let us look backward to the Holy who have been, and look forward to the Holy that God desires us to be. To be saints is our ultimate goal as members of the Body of Christ.

 

King of Kings - Rector's Rambling for October 27, 2024

 “We have no king but Caesar”  John 19:15

The phrase above is recorded for us from the mouths of the religious authorities of Jesus’ earthly time.  Having brought Jesus before the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, they accused him of all sorts of sedition mainly centered in religious disagreement.  Pilate seems to know better than to meddle in such matters, and looks for a way to let Jesus off with a scourging and admonition.

But the religious authorities were set that Jesus must be put to death for having declared himself the Son of God, in their ears a blasphemy.  In one last attempt at relief Pilate asks why he should crucify their king (they had tried to trip up Pilate with a political charge that Jesus was trying to usurp Rome’s earthly authority with a claim to be an earthly king).

When asked, the Sanhedrin, no friends or admirers of their Roman overlords, reject Jesus and claim Caesar as their own.  A full apostasy on their part.

Today we have a secondary observance of Jesus as Christ the King.  Not an earthly kingdom, as many expected, but King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.  For an explanation of the history and theology of this observance, see the Teaching Notes on page 4.

Jesus is King, and where he desires to rule is in our hearts and in our lives.  His Kingdom is among us as his faithful people, and we worship and adore him as Sovereign over us.  And yet he is also an intimate friend who dwells in hearts, feeds us in His Word and Sacrament, and loves us so much that he died on the cross for us.  So let us submit in love to his most gracious rule!

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I am most grateful that Fr. Geoffrey Piper could be with us today at St. John’s while I am in Philadelphia for my annual rowing race (yesterday) with alumni friends from college.  Fr. Piper served in the Diocese of Quebec, then in the Diocese of Michigan at Church of the Advent, Orchard Lake and Christ Church, Detroit before moving on to the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.  He recently retired back to the area to be near children and grandchildren and I am grateful!

 

Stewardship - Rector's Rambling for October 20, 2024

     It is that time of the year when the Treasurer, Book-keeper, Wardens and Vestry begin to work on the budget for the coming year.

By God’s grace we are starting from a positive financial position at this point of the financial year. As of the end of September we are ahead  of anticipated income, pledge and plate as well as overall income, for 2024.  With 75% of the year completed as of the end of September we are above 75% in giving due to YOUR generosity.  Thank you!  Rarely at this point of the year, after a long summer of lower attendance due to parishioners being away, are we at 75%.  In most years we spend October, November and December catching up to anticipated budget.

And due to the financial prudence of the Vestry and Staff we are below 75% in expenses as well as at the end of September.  Ahead in income and below in expenses is a good financial position to be in at this point, and we are most grateful to God for it.

So from this point we are both thanking you for your support of the parish, and we are asking you to consider what you are giving now as you discern what your giving might be in the year ahead for 2025.  Pledge cards are enclosed in this Order of Service, and will also be mailed to homes that are currently regular contributors.

We are asking you to continue to support St. John’s not just because St. John’s needs you to - of course we do..  We are asking you to support St. John’s because it is good for you to be generous in the support of His Church here for our continued ability to do ministry and to expand that ministry into the future.  The Lord loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6-7), and also that it is more blessed to give that receive (Acts 20:35). 

Your support blesses St. John’s AND it blesses you as well.  You learn continued generosity and are reminded in a tangible way that what you earn is still a gift from God— “for all things come of Thee, and of thine own have we given thee “ (1 Chronicles 29:14)

 

Homecoming 2024 - Rector's Rambling for October 13, 2024

     Happy Homecoming Sunday at St. John’s.  We started this tradition in 2001 as an additional excuse to get those Christmas and Easter visitors to come a third time a year. 

When I first arrived here 23 years ago we had many former parishioners who moved the suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s and continued to attend St. John’s for the big holy days, bringing their children with them.  Those children grew, married, and many continued the family tradition of returning to St. John’s for the big celebrations.

But time, and the change in our culture, has interrupted that pattern.  Those ‘kids” now grown have either settled into their suburban parishes and want to spend the holidays there, or tragically have stopped attending church at all.  Nationwide church attendance is down.  Those kids’ kids now grown, do not have the emotional attachment to St. John’s.  Best case is that they just don’t feel drawn to make the trip downtown for worship. Worst case is that they do not practice the faith at all. 

But we continue Homecoming for those who continue in the faith and want to join us, as well as for our own fellowship.  I am so grateful to the women in our parish who coordinate our September Welcome Back Luncheon, this Homecoming Potluck, and the other food-related events coming up in November and December including the Front Door Canteen for Thanksgiving and Advent Soup Luncheon.  All this in addition to the events such as craft days, monthly themes (school supplies in August, Coats/Blankets and Food collection in October), bake sales, Advent Tree lighting reception, the Christmas Bazaar, and The Advent Tea . These are the result of the dedication of the St. Catherine’s Guild and Daughters of the King. THANK YOU for all your hard work!

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Please note - THE ALPHA COURSE will now begin on November 7th.  We are grateful that we had to move the schedule because of the Detroit Tigers playoff run.  

 

Dante, Alpha, and the neighborhood - Rector's Rambling for October 6, 2024

Last week we started our Adult Education Class on Dante’s Inferno.  Elizabeth Savage is leading this class, and on the first week we had 17 people in attendance, with a few more people planning on joining us this week.  Last week we did an introduction to Dante, and Canto 1.  Today we plan on discussing Cantos 2 through 4.  We are using two translations, by Mark Musa, and Robert and Jean Hollander, to help us look at not only the small translations differences, but the differing notes that the authors feel are pertinent about the text.  Just as Virgil is guiding Dante on his way through this epic poetic journey, Elizabeth is guiding us through the class!  Interested?  Come sit in on the class after the 10 AM Service to give it a try. 

Note - with the Tigers Playoff Schedule now announced, we have pushed back the start of ALPHA to November 7th.

On Thursday we begin The Alpha Course.  HOWEVER...as of the writing of this article which we have to send to the printer Wednesday morning, so therefore we do not know if the Detroit Tigers will be hosting a home playoff game that evening at Comerica Park.  For the good of the community I hope that they win the wildcard series and at least one of the first two games of the American League Divisional Series so that they will have game scheduled at home on Wednesday and Thursday.

If this turns out to be true then we will have to pivot on when/where the class will start because of traffic issues in the neighborhood.  This would be a great problem to have (or may not be a problem at all—we will have to see).

All that above being said, let me encourage you to sign up for the Alpha Course.  The evening begins with dinner at 6:30 PM, followed by an entertaining video teaching and then a discussion.  We are generally finished by 8 PM.  And the course is FREE. 

Alpha is not only for those of us in the Church who would like a refresher course on The Faith, but also a class for those discerning a relationship with Jesus Christ, or even those who are just curious about Christianity. Know anyone like that?  Invite them to join us for this free meal, class, and discussion.