"We should all be singing that part" - Rector's Rambling for September 20, 2026

     I am grateful to be back after last week’s wedding on the other side of the state, and grateful Fr. Geoffrey Piper led our worship in the morning.  By God’s grace I made my way back to St. John’s in the afternoon, opened the church up to greet those leaving the Tigers and Lions games and was able to lead the 5:30 Service. 

Last week Sunday School got underway and today we have our first session of Adult Education Class at 9:15 AM, the same hour as Sunday School.  We will be studying comparative denominations the next few weeks, and then do a bible study series following that.  If you are at the 8 AM Mass you can stay after Mass to join us, or come early before the 10 AM  Service.  Whether you can join us for all the classes, or occasionally, you are most welcome to be a part of it..

After the 10 AM Service today we have our Fall Kickoff Fellowship Luncheon, to celebrate the start of the choir season, the Sunday School and Adult Education Sessions, and the various programming events of the Daughters of the King and the St. Catherine’s Guild,  Thanks be to God for all our kitchen volunteers who are so faithful in providing coffee hour and these special meals.  Worship is the most important thing that we do, but fellowship over a meal or a snack is an important aspect of our common life in getting to know one another.

Also last week we welcomed back the full choir and it is wonderful to have them lead us in singing.  Notice that I said LEAD US in worship. With the exception of the minor proper chants, psalm, and the Offertory Anthem, all other parts of the Service are intended for the WHOLE congregation to sing!

Hymns and the Proper of the Mass should be sung by the choir and everyone in the building.  The hymns are listed in the Order of Service and are also listed in the hymn boards on the wall on both sides of the sanctuary. 

The Proper of the Mass are the set wording that is sung every week but to a rotation of musical settings.  The ‘lyrics’ are a part of the Prayer Book Service and they are formally called the Kyrie, Sanctus and, Benedictus, the Agnus Dei, and Gloria in Excelsis Deo.  Those are the Greek and Latin names for them - and are probably better known at the “Lord have mercy upon us”, “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, the “O Lamb of God” and the “Glory be to God on High”. 

We generally do two different settings of this, by John Merbecke and Healy Willan, with a more ancient Gregorian chant version in Advent and Lent.  These are all easy to learn and you should be singing them with the choir.  On rare occasions such as Christmas and Easter the Choir does a special setting.  Otherwise we do want to hear you singing along with the choir and not just listening to them sing!

 

I'm away, choir and Sunday School back, and Stigmata - Rector's Rambling for September 13, 2026

As you read this on Sunday morning I have been in Western Michigan for the weekend and am on my way, God willing, back home later this morning.  I had the opportunity to do a wedding yesterday for family members, and I am grateful to have been asked and to be with Jennifer’s family.  God bless Samantha and Robert as they begin their new life together.

I am so grateful that Fr. Geoff Piper is available to celebrate today at the 8 and 10 AM Services!  I have known him since 2001 and it is an honor to have him here to preach and care for you while I am away.  Ordained in Quebec, he served in Canada, parishes in the Diocese of Michigan and in Western Massachusetts, and during the winter has care of a parish in Boca Raton, Florida. 

Sunday School starts today during the new 9:15 AM time slot.  We could still use a few volunteers to assist with the teaching on a rotating basis, and of course we could use more kids!  Adult Education, also at 9:15 AM, will begin next week with a course on Comparative Denominations: who are we and they?

Our Fall Kick Off Luncheon will also be next Sunday after the 10 AM Service.  Nothing beats a community lunch at St. John’s and a chance to hear about the various ministries and groups in the parish.

Thursday is the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis. 

In 1224 St. Francis was deeply in prayer on the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14), meditating on the great sacrifice that Jesus made for him and for all humanity by dying on the cross for our sins.

Suddenly there appeared to him a seraph, a heavenly being, and from him St. Francis received on his body the marks of the crucified Christ.

This is a rare occurrence in the church, when our Lord allows someone to share in His sufferings by bearing on their body the marks of The Crucified.  Francis was embarrassed by it – not embarrassed to share in our Lord’s suffering, but rather the public nature of it.  He could not hide from others the special person God thought him to be (not that that was a great secret anyway by then!)

He bore these marks until he died in 1226.  So much of Francis’ life was one of utter contradiction to the world.  Yet the world was attracted to “God’s Fool”, as he liked to refer to himself, because he radiated the love of God, and in his last two years literally reflected him to the world in his own body.

 

Looking ahead to Fall - Rector's Rambling for August 30, 2026

     Fall is coming!  This is our last Sunday in August, next Sunday is Labor Day weekend, and then the following week we begin our programming year (which basically follows a school year calendar). 

Today after the 10 AM Service all who are interested in Sunday School are invited to join us at a table the Undercroft to discuss the upcoming school year.  Lena Nealley is turning over the baton of leadership for the Sunday School after years of doing so here at St. John’s (and decades of teaching here and at previous parishes!).  We are so grateful for her love for our Lord and passion for passing that on to the children, and we are also grateful that she isn’t going anywhere, but will be with us to help the the transition to the new team.  Decisions are in process about timing and curriculum, and we look forward to speaking over coffee today. 

Also, we are reviving the 9:05 AM Adult Education Class session, so that 8 AM participants can stay after and join us, and 10 AM folks can come early and join as well.  Our first sessions will be a comparative denominations class—who are we as Anglicans in comparions to those around us.  After a few weeks of this, we will then transition into a bible study block for a few weeks.  Stay tuned for a published schedule to come.  We will also sometimes have an post-10 AM Adult Education Series.

Fall also means a start to extra activies sponsored by the organizations and guilds of the parish.  The parish calendar is already filling with great events and opportunities!  More information to follow!

Dr. Lewis is away this weekend because of the opening convocation at Hope College where he has served as a  professor since 1990.  Yes, Dr. Lewis drives from Holland, Michigan to Detroit to be our Director of Music and Master of the Choir!   Having our Edwards Organ Scholarship Fund, we are blessed to have had, and currently have, great organists to be a part of our music department and to lead when Dr. Lewis is away.  Chanmi Kim is now in her second year of her Edwards Scholarship and we are grateful to have her.

 

Be opened - Rector's Rambling for August 23, 2026

     
This morning we hear of the healing of the man who was deaf, and had an impediment of speech.  Jesus performs the healing with the command Ephphatha, which means “be opened”.

This reading, and that phrase, holds a special place in the heart of St. John’s.  For over 100 years St. John’s was the host of the Ephphatha Episcopal Mission of Detroit.

According an article in the February 1919 edition of the magazine “The Silent Worker: a magazine for the deaf by the deaf”, the mission to the deaf at St. John’s began in 1877.  Originally meeting at Grace Church on Jefferson (now closed), by summer of 1877 the mission moved to St. John’s, and continued her ministry here until the 1970s.

In the 1920s St. John’s had seven Sunday Services, two of which were held in sign language.  At 11:00 AM, while the rest of the congregation worshipped in the main sanctuary, the Ephphatha Mission worshiped in the chapel.  In the afternoon there was also a 3:00 PM Evening Prayer service.  Many of the staff and members were graduates of the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, which continues to this day.

By the 1970s the mission congregation’s size had dwindled, and those few remaining members attended the larger congregational service with a sign language interpreter.  In 2001 the last remaining member of the Ephphatha congregation, Elizabeth Prescott Weber Walker, died.  She had been wife and granddaughter of two of St. John’s Senior Wardens.

Recently we discovered that the Roman Catholic ministry to the deaf community, also called the Ephphatha Mission, was located at St. Joseph’s on Gratiot, located on the other side of I-375 from St. John’s, near Eastern Market.  They too were served by staff and graduates of the Michigan School for the Deaf.

At this time the Roman Archdiocese has Amcrican Sign Language Masses in Redford, Eastpointe, and Roseville. Two non-denominational and an Assemblies of God Church have services in Detroit.

 

Tract Rack Ministry - Rector's Rambling for August 16, 2026

     The last two weeks in this column I wrote about welcoming newcomers, and how people find St. John’s through things like social media and google.  YouTube has become a wonderful way that people find us as well, or watch some videos to get a preview of what it may be like at St. John’s before they worship with us.  Just last Sunday a couple from San Antonio, Texas joined us for 5:30 Evening Prayer, and they said they googled us, and then watched a few videos to get a sense of the place!

Our Open Door Ministry is another way in which people discover St. John’s.  On weekdays when someone is in the office we have the front doors wide open, inviting people to come in.  In addition to Sunday morning while we are worshipping, on Sunday afternoon the doors are open for those coming and going for sporting events and theatre shows.

A majority of people who walk in the open doors get no further than in the interior doors between the narthex (lobby) and Church.  At this point they lift up their cell phone, take a picture, and leave.

But others walk into the church, walk up the aisle, look at the windows or the altar area from the chancel steps (we have a rope there).  Some sit or kneel in a pew for a period of time.

Many people take advantage of our tract rack located in the narthex.  These are materials available to take and read about Jesus and St. John’s.

In addition to our weekly Chronicle, the most popular item picked up and taken is the booklet “Why Jesus” by Fr. Nicky Gumbel of the Alpha Course.  In the last year or so we have had about 150 of these picked up and taken.  I pray as I put them in the rack that those reading it find, or renew, a relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Daily Bread, a bible study booklet provided by Suzie Decker quarterly, is also very popular.  Regular visitors and those in groups who use the building will come asking if the new Daily Bread has arrived because they have been faithfully reading the current one and they notice that it is nearing the end of that edition.

Other items are a series of teaching tracts, including “Why St. John’s? (formerly “Ancient Faith and Worship”) which introduces us to inquirers.  The other three about lighting votive candle, using incense, and “why does the priest have his back to us” helps to explain the faith and worship at St. John’s.  They are professionally printed in color on glossy paper (see the wish list on page 3 if you would like to help us re-supply the stock).  Other brochures on prayer, Lent,  and making a confession also make an appearance.

 

Lex orandi - Rector's Rambling for August 9, 2026

     Last week we had the wonderful occasion of the baptism of five of the Wilson children; Leonardo, Lot, Levi, Luke, and Leah.  And what a great moment of grace it was.   I got pretty emotional seeing their faces all aglow as they held their candles, smiles from ear to ear!  We are grateful to have them, as well as mom and dad Leo and Shay and daughter Kiylah as members of St  John’s

Last week in this column I wrote about welcoming newcomers into our midst.  We get a lot of visitors to St. John’s who come to us out of curiosity because they have seen the building, read something online, or follow us on social media. It is always interesting when I meet someone at the end of the service visiting from out of state who say that they have watched our worship and Daily Morning Meditations online and wanted to visit while in town for another reason,  Others, as I mentioned, find us via google because they are looking for a specific kind of traditional Anglican/Episcopal/Anglo-catholic church that uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  This is that place in Metro Detroit. 

Liturgy, how we worship, is a vital part of our identity.  And St. John’s is unique in it’s continued use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Newer liturgies have been published since then and are in use around the rest of the denomination.  We are now the only parish left in this diocese using the traditional form.  

In my first interview with the Search Committee for this parish, I asked them why they continued to use the old prayer book.  I was looking for a specific type of answer, and Libby Schudel, on the other end of the phone with the committee, gave that answer. “It best expresses the faith that we believe at St. John’s.”.  That was the answer I was looking for!  Not a litany of the deficiencies of the newer liturgies, but a positive affirmation of the faith once delivered to the saints and expressed in the prayer book tradition as embodied in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

In addition to the faith that is expressed in the Prayer Book Tradition, our worship is best classified at Anglo-catholic.  Every Sunday we profess during the Nicene and Apostles Creed that we believe the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  Our worship supports and highlights the catholic teaching  that we profess to believe and is embodied in the traditional Anglican formularies.  There is an old adage Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi—the Law of Prayer is the Law of Belief.  In other words it’s prayer (and worship) that forms and encourages our belief system.

Being regular in the use of the Prayer Book for worship and prayer helps to form us in right belief!

 

Five Baptism Sunday at St. John's - Rector's Rambling for August 2, 2026

     Today we welcome 5 new members of the Body of Christ through the water of baptism, 5 of the 8 members of the Wilson Family.  Dad Leo has been attending weekday Masses for several months, and we are grateful that they have decided to make St. John’s the place to worship and to become a member of our parish family.  Already young Leo has found his way into the acolyte corps, and we look forward to the family’s incorporation into our fellowship.  Today we baptise Leonardo, Lot, Levi, Luke, and Leah!

We have already had three other baptisms this year, always a happy occasion for the church! 

We give thanks that St. John’s continues to grow again in membership.  Each week newcomers visit, curious about this beautiful old building on the corner of Woodward and I-75.  A first visit can always be a bit intimidating.  Where do I sit?  What will the Service look like?  Can I receive Communion?  Will I be underdressed or overdressed?  Will I be welcomed by people? These questions and more go through the heads of those stepping into our midst for the first time, as I have been told. 

When I first arrived at St. John’s in 2001 we already had an active website presence.  The late C.A. Hocker built our first website in 1997— a pioneering move.  When I was applying to be rector here I scoured that site for information on what the parish might be like!  I had visited once for a Christmas Eve Service while I was a seminarian, but I wanted insight into what the parish might be about.

In 2006 we started a YouTube channel to broaden our reach with now has 7400 videos uploaded and 3.7 million video views.  Then with the advent of Facebook and then Twitter we have yet more avenues to reach people.  And our presence on the search engine Google has been a blessing.  Many people who have visited and have joined have told me that they googled phrases like “traditional Anglican”, “traditional Episcopal”, or  “1928 Prayer Book near me” and St. John’s appeared at the top of the search!

Our internet and social media presence is certainly a great way to introduce ourselves to the world around us, and give those looking to visit us an opportunity to peek in in advance to see what the worship looks like and what they can expect.  And of course a personal invitation by you to family, friends, and neighbors is always a great way to have people visit and possibly join us regularly.

Once the visitor is in the door a kind welcome from the ushers, friendly smiles from parishioners and happy handshakes, introductions, and invitation to join us downstairs for coffee hour is the onramp to people feeling welcome among us. 

Ultimately it is God the Holy Spirit who moves hearts to join us regularly to Glorify God and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, but these are all a few ways that we cooperate in that mission ot let the world know about our Saviour, one guest or visitor at a time.