Dear People of Christ Church,
Writing, late, on a Thursday afternoon, thinking of endings and beginnings; we said goodbye to our Micah Intern, Paul, this week, in a variety of ways, and he and I had some time together to think about what we'd celebrated together this year. I encourage you to take a look at the pictures from this year on our facebook page. You don't have to be a member of Facebook to see them. (Thanks to St Peter's member Edith Williams, who took many of the Christ Church and St Peter's joint event pictures) I've spoken to the director of the Micah Project, who won't spill the beans about who, exactly, we'll have working with us next year, but I am assured that "you'll be very happy." We'll welcome the next intern in early September next year.
Historic Waltham Day on Saturday was our most successful ever, thanks to our parish historian Mike Balulescu and our guests, one of whom, a descendent of Homer Sewall, was excited to see a stained glass window offered by his relatives. Other attendees included volunteers from Stonehurst, the Paines' summer home, who were glad to tour the parish that Robert Treat Paine Jr helped to build. It was also nice to see the Cohn family, who look forward to getting involved in the parish, as well as several other curious souls. Last week also saw our annual work with B Safe, and our field trip to Houghton's Pond. We've so far raised $485 to defray costs of the bus for the field trip and the food, so special thanks to each of you who have donated! One camper on Thursday told me that Bill Fowler's macaroni and cheese was the best lunch he'd had all year, so your donations are certainly appreciated by all.
Otherwise, I'm getting ready to go on vacation-three weeks off (!) starting on Monday. In case of any parish emergencies, senior warden Jonathan Duce is on call, with nearby clergy just a phone call away in case any pastoral issues come up. I'll be with you this week, but after that will be away. We have a stellar lineup of guest clergy, all of whom are fascinating people and good priests. Please don't take the rest of the summer off! This summer our Hebrew Scriptures readings are from Genesis and Exodus, read consecutively, an opportunity we have given the revised lectionary officially adopted at General Convention in 2009. Such good stories, meant to be read aloud, as we engage them on Sundays. I'll miss being with you as you continue on through with Jacob and on with Joseph. One of my favorite moments in the Old Testament comes when Joseph is reunited with his brothers after they sold him as a slave in a jealous rage. They come to him, terrified that he will punish them for their cruelty. Instead, he forgives:
"Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. (Genesis 50:19-20). How often do our own stories reflect that? Even in the darkest and most painful encounters, God never intends for us to suffer, but always is with us.
Blessings,
Sara+
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Dear People of Christ Church,
This Saturday, we celebrate Historic Waltham Day at Christ Church, with morning prayer according to the prayer book used at the construction of the church. For a liturgy geek such as myself, I find it fascinating—and encouraging—to see through history how our worship has changed and how it’s stayed the same. One of the principles of Anglicanism is that it’s close to the ground; when communities change, the liturgy has room to change as well.
Saturday’s liturgy of Morning Prayer is in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) 1790, of the 1871 standard. Before the 1892 Edition of the U. S. Book of Common Prayer, minor changes were made, published in “standard editions” of the years 1793, 1822, 1832, 1838, 1845, and 1871. Each year’s changes were minor, having mostly to do with format and the regularization of spelling, which was not uniform in 1790. After this BCP, a slight revision was published in 1892, and wholesale revisions followed in 1928 and 1979, the version found in the pew today.
Each book reflects theological ideas and themes of the time. The Episcopal Church has always found itself on a continuum of “protestant” and “catholic,” more one or the other at different times and places. For example, the term “minister” is used in the 1790 prayer book, a more “protestant” identification than “priest,” which, along with “Celebrant” or “Officiant” is used in 1979. Other controversies included the subject of kneeling for communion and what vestments were worn. And don’t forget candles! Candles were hugely controversial. I imagine 100 years from now people will look back on the controversies of our day and wonder how we could possibly get so worked up about the things that vex us now.
Under the Books of Common Prayer 1892 and in 1928, Morning Prayer was a more commonly celebrated service of Sunday worship; Holy Eucharist was observed for special occasions or, perhaps, once a month. In 1979, the Episcopal Church returned to the earliest church practice of having Holy Eucharist celebrated each Sunday for worship. Our Current Book of Common Prayer (1979) continues to serve us well. Supplements have been published that permit for new prayers to be used in the framework of the Book of Common Prayer that offer more expansive imagery for God and more inclusive gender identifications. And no prayers today use the word “heathen!”
I warmly invite each of you to come this Saturday. I don’t know how “spiritual” it will be (after all, there is a reason all the changes that have transpired since then have been made) but it sure is interesting.
For more on our history and the builders of Christ Church, see my post from this time last year.
http://ecrier.blogspot.com/2010/07/sharing-our-legacy.html
This Saturday, we celebrate Historic Waltham Day at Christ Church, with morning prayer according to the prayer book used at the construction of the church. For a liturgy geek such as myself, I find it fascinating—and encouraging—to see through history how our worship has changed and how it’s stayed the same. One of the principles of Anglicanism is that it’s close to the ground; when communities change, the liturgy has room to change as well.
Saturday’s liturgy of Morning Prayer is in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) 1790, of the 1871 standard. Before the 1892 Edition of the U. S. Book of Common Prayer, minor changes were made, published in “standard editions” of the years 1793, 1822, 1832, 1838, 1845, and 1871. Each year’s changes were minor, having mostly to do with format and the regularization of spelling, which was not uniform in 1790. After this BCP, a slight revision was published in 1892, and wholesale revisions followed in 1928 and 1979, the version found in the pew today.
Each book reflects theological ideas and themes of the time. The Episcopal Church has always found itself on a continuum of “protestant” and “catholic,” more one or the other at different times and places. For example, the term “minister” is used in the 1790 prayer book, a more “protestant” identification than “priest,” which, along with “Celebrant” or “Officiant” is used in 1979. Other controversies included the subject of kneeling for communion and what vestments were worn. And don’t forget candles! Candles were hugely controversial. I imagine 100 years from now people will look back on the controversies of our day and wonder how we could possibly get so worked up about the things that vex us now.
Under the Books of Common Prayer 1892 and in 1928, Morning Prayer was a more commonly celebrated service of Sunday worship; Holy Eucharist was observed for special occasions or, perhaps, once a month. In 1979, the Episcopal Church returned to the earliest church practice of having Holy Eucharist celebrated each Sunday for worship. Our Current Book of Common Prayer (1979) continues to serve us well. Supplements have been published that permit for new prayers to be used in the framework of the Book of Common Prayer that offer more expansive imagery for God and more inclusive gender identifications. And no prayers today use the word “heathen!”
I warmly invite each of you to come this Saturday. I don’t know how “spiritual” it will be (after all, there is a reason all the changes that have transpired since then have been made) but it sure is interesting.
For more on our history and the builders of Christ Church, see my post from this time last year.
http://ecrier.blogspot.com/2010/07/sharing-our-legacy.html
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
This week, I'm doing something unusual, in that I'm also contributing to the email newsletter for St Peter's, our partner congregation who worship with Anglican liturgy at 12:30 in Luganda, one of the languages of Uganda. I wanted to write to thank them for our joint Pentecost service and the work we've shared this year with Paul Hartge, our Micah Intern, and also to think together for a moment on the meaning of Pentecost itself. Paul's last Sunday will be July 17, and we hope to welcome a new intern in September.
We are not "Pentecostal" churches, but we do celebrate in the light of Pentecost. On that first Pentecost, the diversity of human community was all in one place. We think Waltham is diverse! Jerusalem had more cultures, more languages, more beliefs than we could imagine, all in one place. Even more people than usual were in Jerusalem for Pentecost on that day 2000 years ago-50 days after Passover, they gathered to give thanks to God for Mt Sinai, when God called the people of Israel into covenant. So it wasn't only the ordinary diversity of Jerusalem, it was every last breed of traveler and pilgrim, on top of all the year round-inhabitants of Jerusalem, pagan, Jewish, Christian, all there to give thanks.
All there, and all very seriously divided by substantial issues-the question of circumcision, of women, of dietary laws-all of these topics were incredibly contentious. We argue over different issues today, but they are no less-and probably no more-fervently debated.
But even in the midst of that, such a glorious outpouring of the Spirit gave birth to the church. Pentecost teaches us that Church is more of a verb than anything else. Church happens when each of those different people heard what the other was saying, even though they spoke different languages, even though they came from different places, and probably believed pretty different things. Pentecost teaches us that church isn't a club. It's not about like minded people coming together to improve themselves, or even coming together to improve the world. Pentecost is about a new reality, a reversal of those old divisions and desires for ownership and control that came to be at the tower of Babel, that ancient pre-cursor of division. Pentecost is about our souls and bodies being a home for Jesus Christ.
On Pentecost, each could understand the other; but each understood in his or her own language. The languages-the differences-were preserved. The Gospel is about unity, not homogeneity. We are unified in our love of God, in the grace of the Holy Spirit that we have each received at baptism. But the song of that love is sung with different words in all of our lives. We may hear and embody different songs, but we are all sustained by one God. We here at 750 Main Street in Waltham are particularly blessed that we have evidence of God's riotous diversity right here, right now. With the politics of the Anglican Communion swirling around us, we pray for that unity, but if it is not to be, it is not to be.
One of my favorite prayers in the prayer book shows up in some different places--at the Easter Vigil, but also Good Friday, and the liturgy for ordinations. Our church is a "wonderful and sacred mystery." We don't quite know how it really works, or why. How some relationships begin, how others end. So much comes down to mystery-an invitation to us for humility, I think, to remember we don't have it all figured out. How is it that we in the Anglican Communion can share a space and be so different? What will it be like if the differences prove to be too contentious? What would it be like, really, to truly trust in God?
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Blessings,
Sara+
We are not "Pentecostal" churches, but we do celebrate in the light of Pentecost. On that first Pentecost, the diversity of human community was all in one place. We think Waltham is diverse! Jerusalem had more cultures, more languages, more beliefs than we could imagine, all in one place. Even more people than usual were in Jerusalem for Pentecost on that day 2000 years ago-50 days after Passover, they gathered to give thanks to God for Mt Sinai, when God called the people of Israel into covenant. So it wasn't only the ordinary diversity of Jerusalem, it was every last breed of traveler and pilgrim, on top of all the year round-inhabitants of Jerusalem, pagan, Jewish, Christian, all there to give thanks.
All there, and all very seriously divided by substantial issues-the question of circumcision, of women, of dietary laws-all of these topics were incredibly contentious. We argue over different issues today, but they are no less-and probably no more-fervently debated.
But even in the midst of that, such a glorious outpouring of the Spirit gave birth to the church. Pentecost teaches us that Church is more of a verb than anything else. Church happens when each of those different people heard what the other was saying, even though they spoke different languages, even though they came from different places, and probably believed pretty different things. Pentecost teaches us that church isn't a club. It's not about like minded people coming together to improve themselves, or even coming together to improve the world. Pentecost is about a new reality, a reversal of those old divisions and desires for ownership and control that came to be at the tower of Babel, that ancient pre-cursor of division. Pentecost is about our souls and bodies being a home for Jesus Christ.
On Pentecost, each could understand the other; but each understood in his or her own language. The languages-the differences-were preserved. The Gospel is about unity, not homogeneity. We are unified in our love of God, in the grace of the Holy Spirit that we have each received at baptism. But the song of that love is sung with different words in all of our lives. We may hear and embody different songs, but we are all sustained by one God. We here at 750 Main Street in Waltham are particularly blessed that we have evidence of God's riotous diversity right here, right now. With the politics of the Anglican Communion swirling around us, we pray for that unity, but if it is not to be, it is not to be.
One of my favorite prayers in the prayer book shows up in some different places--at the Easter Vigil, but also Good Friday, and the liturgy for ordinations. Our church is a "wonderful and sacred mystery." We don't quite know how it really works, or why. How some relationships begin, how others end. So much comes down to mystery-an invitation to us for humility, I think, to remember we don't have it all figured out. How is it that we in the Anglican Communion can share a space and be so different? What will it be like if the differences prove to be too contentious? What would it be like, really, to truly trust in God?
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Blessings,
Sara+
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