Dear People of Christ Church,
I look forward to being back with you this Sunday for our service at 9am; I've been to church a few times over vacation, but there is nothing like your home altar.
Two weeks ago, my family had the opportunity to worship at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Grosse Ile, part of the Magdalen Islands of Canada. The Magdalen Islands are accessible by a five hour ferry ride north of Prince Edward Island (which is, in turn, a 12 hour drive from here)-in short, they are far away! The Magdalens are part of Quebec, but there is a tiny English speaking community on the islands. There are three English speaking churches on the islands, and we went to the big one-there were about 15 people in addition to my family.
The service was nice enough, but I was most struck by the stained glass window at the front. The windows portray Jesus calling Simon Peter and Andrew-walking by the Sea of Galilee, he sees them throwing in their net, doing their work. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him."
I've always liked the story because it portrays Jesus doing what God still does-going to people right where they are. In the window, though, it's not some airy tunic-clad wispy Jesus; it's Jesus as an actual fisherman, wearing a thick sweater and big boots (The window was created in 1986). A girl standing near him has jeans on, and the hills of the East Cape of the Magdalens are visible in the background. Another is holding a thick rope, with overalls and a knit cap.
What would this window look like if it were made in Waltham? We have one answer, our own great West window. It's not as explicitly time-bending, but it's full of local imagery and speaks to the central focus of our city at the time. Rivets, cars, gears, factory equipment-it's dedicated to the power and meaning of work. God working, as the creator, Noah building the ark, Ruth gleaning the fields-this is one generation's answer to God reaching people where they are.
What is your image for this? Is it Jesus in a committee meeting, a sales call, a performance evaluation? Jesus with you adjusting a patient's medicine, or sharing a secret smile as a coworker talks about something? Jesus with you, leading a small child back to bed after his fifth trip to the bathroom of the night? Is it hard to imagine Jesus in a business suit, or scrubs, or coveralls?
This is the power of the Christian hope and resurrection: that Christ, the risen Lord, is risen right here and now, working in our lives and with our own hands and feet. Crashing through all the boundaries of time, space, location, gender, language, convention. When was the last time you saw him? When did she show you God's grace?
Blessings,
Sara+
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Thursday, August 18, 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
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Sharing our legacy
This week, we're getting ready for our participation in Waltham History Month, which we'll observe this Saturday with a service of historic Morning Prayer according to the Book of Common Prayer of 1792. After the service, we'll have tours of the church.
Each Sunday as I celebrate the Eucharist, I face our "Great West Window." The dominant images are, of course, Jesus, Mary, and other ordinary stained glass fare. But if you look closely, you also see more unusual images: a lathe, a car, a watch mechanism, gear pump, bicycle wheel, spindle and shuttle, and a foundry ladle. The industrial history of our city is all there (looking even more closely, the window is full of tiny rivets). My own work life is pretty comfortable--there are the occasional late nights and early mornings, but 200 years ago the typical Waltham woman worked at the Lowell textile mill, not in a nice office. The "mill girls" worked for twelve hours a day, from 5 am to 7 pm. They lived together in factory- provided housing, had only Sundays off, and were paid $0.40 per day, less than half of what the lowest paid male worker received. Ouch!
When it comes to Waltham history, of course, you can't go far without meeting the Paines. In our church you can't go far without them; Robert Treat Paine, Jr was elected senior warden of Christ Church in 1897. He was a man of a lot of privilege, the grandson of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (Robert Treat Paine, Sr), and a very wealthy lawyer. Paine Jr's wife, Lydia Lyman P, died suddenly during the construction of the church, and they dedicated the chancel windows in her memory (the woman kneeling in red in the window is based on a picture of Lydia herself).
Paine was instrumental in building this church and Trinity Church, Copley Square, but he was also intensely dedicated to the rights and protection of those who were less well-off than he. Deeply influenced by his friend Phillips Brooks, the rector of Trinity, he founded a number of organizations to benefit working people, and funded the construction of affordable housing in Boston--many of which were sold to workers at cost. He also was president for many years of the pacifist American Peace Society.
When the demands of his philanthropic work became too demanding, he gave up his work in law. On this decision, he said, "This I regretted for many years. Yet at length I reached the conviction that as we only had this life on earth once, I was not willing to devote at least half of it to the mere business of making money."
The "mere business of making money" --he'd already made a ton of it by that time, but it's still a moving transformation on the part of someone who could have gone from having everything to having--what?--more of everything. We may wonder whether the care and feeding of this behemoth structure we've inherited is worth our time and energy. Paine did--in one part of his autobiography he says that if he knew from the beginning how much the construction of Christ Church would end up costing he may not have gone through with it. But he did, and here we are. After our beautiful church service in the garden on July 4, it'll feel different being inside again.
Still, it is a blessing, and not just for us. This Saturday's service is a chance to open our doors to the wider community and offer a day for them to share this gift. A group lead by Shawn Russell, our treasurer, is busy at work on a grant to apply for Waltham CPA (Community Preservation Act) funds to help restore our building. It's part of Waltham's history--Paines and Lymans and Storers all called this home. This year at history day, we're especially mindful of the legacy of Paine's work--and our place in continuing both his love for the church and his work on behalf of those who are less fortunate.
Each Sunday as I celebrate the Eucharist, I face our "Great West Window." The dominant images are, of course, Jesus, Mary, and other ordinary stained glass fare. But if you look closely, you also see more unusual images: a lathe, a car, a watch mechanism, gear pump, bicycle wheel, spindle and shuttle, and a foundry ladle. The industrial history of our city is all there (looking even more closely, the window is full of tiny rivets). My own work life is pretty comfortable--there are the occasional late nights and early mornings, but 200 years ago the typical Waltham woman worked at the Lowell textile mill, not in a nice office. The "mill girls" worked for twelve hours a day, from 5 am to 7 pm. They lived together in factory- provided housing, had only Sundays off, and were paid $0.40 per day, less than half of what the lowest paid male worker received. Ouch!
When it comes to Waltham history, of course, you can't go far without meeting the Paines. In our church you can't go far without them; Robert Treat Paine, Jr was elected senior warden of Christ Church in 1897. He was a man of a lot of privilege, the grandson of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (Robert Treat Paine, Sr), and a very wealthy lawyer. Paine Jr's wife, Lydia Lyman P, died suddenly during the construction of the church, and they dedicated the chancel windows in her memory (the woman kneeling in red in the window is based on a picture of Lydia herself).
Paine was instrumental in building this church and Trinity Church, Copley Square, but he was also intensely dedicated to the rights and protection of those who were less well-off than he. Deeply influenced by his friend Phillips Brooks, the rector of Trinity, he founded a number of organizations to benefit working people, and funded the construction of affordable housing in Boston--many of which were sold to workers at cost. He also was president for many years of the pacifist American Peace Society.
When the demands of his philanthropic work became too demanding, he gave up his work in law. On this decision, he said, "This I regretted for many years. Yet at length I reached the conviction that as we only had this life on earth once, I was not willing to devote at least half of it to the mere business of making money."
The "mere business of making money" --he'd already made a ton of it by that time, but it's still a moving transformation on the part of someone who could have gone from having everything to having--what?--more of everything. We may wonder whether the care and feeding of this behemoth structure we've inherited is worth our time and energy. Paine did--in one part of his autobiography he says that if he knew from the beginning how much the construction of Christ Church would end up costing he may not have gone through with it. But he did, and here we are. After our beautiful church service in the garden on July 4, it'll feel different being inside again.
Still, it is a blessing, and not just for us. This Saturday's service is a chance to open our doors to the wider community and offer a day for them to share this gift. A group lead by Shawn Russell, our treasurer, is busy at work on a grant to apply for Waltham CPA (Community Preservation Act) funds to help restore our building. It's part of Waltham's history--Paines and Lymans and Storers all called this home. This year at history day, we're especially mindful of the legacy of Paine's work--and our place in continuing both his love for the church and his work on behalf of those who are less fortunate.
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