Thursday Thoughts

The movement of the spirit

There is a blessing I sometimes use on Sunday mornings at the end of the Eucharist that has a line in it that I want to highlight as we look toward Pentecost this coming Sunday. Before the Trinitarian Blessing--"and now the Blessing God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...," I say, "Rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life, and in the life of this congregation."

The Spirit is always at work in the world: cajoling, empowering, comforting us, and sometimes upsetting our plans. The work of the Spirit is about the unexpected and we are called to be on watch for those movements and to do what we can to join up. The difficult part is that we sometimes misread what the Spirit is up to and we fail to do our part or we actively work to subvert what is trying to break in. It's also difficult business because it can't be up to one person or one faction of the whole to discern how this movement-of-the-Spirit work is happening. And, it's not science, but art. There is no formula that allows us to be certain. It takes an openness to one another and a willingness to make mistakes, and to know that even in mistakes, all things are redeemed for those who believe.

As we celebrate Pentecost and then move into the Season after Pentecost or Ordinary Time, the growing season of church year, my hope and prayer is that we'll all be on watch and open. I want us to be willing to water and fertilize what is growing and life-giving and to ask questions about what is not. But we must always make those decisions after prayer, conversation, and with fear and trembling.

In Christ, Hunt+

Creating Inter-generational Communities

The work of creating community. As Christians, we believe the Spirit is constantly drawing us together and toward deepening relationship with each other and with God as revealed in Jesus Christ. But it is up to us to allow community building to happen and to nourish its growth. Last Sunday during our Rogation procession, I was once again reminded of one of the great gifts of Emmanuel--a large, vibrant and engaged contingent of elders. See some procession photos here.

As our inter-generational parade made its way around the outside edges of the Emmanuel property, we offered prayers of intercession and thanksgiving; intercessions for ourselves, our community, the growing season and thanksgiving for the beauty and bounty of our churchyard and all of creation. The children "beat the bounds" (you have to see it get it!) and the elders read from scripture and also told some of Emmanuel's own sacred story (the story of faithful Emmanuel people and their trust in God and the work they were given in growing a church.

This past year, the staff (and particularly Arienne) have worked hard to carve out at least one Sunday a month when the adults and children were able to at least begin to pray and sing together at 10:30. The children's choir sang on those Sundays, we usually  had a children's sermon and the prayers of the people were those used during Children's Chapel. We also did a little teaching about the Eucharist.

It was a beginning, these Inter-generational Sundays. We must continue to find ways to engage our children and teens in our liturgical life. More acolytes, more choir members, more chalice bearers, more lectors, ushers and greeters. Not to keep them quiet, but to make sure they are learning about reverence, about mystery, and to get a weekly glimpse of what the psalmist must have dreamed of in Psalm 133: Oh how good and pleasant it is, when brothers and sisters live together in unity! For at least an hour on Sunday, we gather as a community to embody that vision of God's reign.

Of course, with more opportunity comes more responsibility. So we will work with all our children to remind them that we do this work together and that we respect others by not walking in or out while someone is reading lessons or leading prayers. We'll talk about when to stand, when to kneel, when to sit quietly listening, or perhaps reading one of the books in the basket or drawing.

Building and rebuilding and growing multi-generational communities is not easy work. We get in each other's way sometimes or on each other's nerves. But it is work that I and many others are convinced that we are called to do. I invite your comments about that here on this blog or in conversation around the church. In Christ, Hunt+ (p.s. If you didn't look at those Rogation photos, go back up and click the link.)

Care of our Musicians

In January, your vestry and I made some tough decisions about the makeup of our church staff. Our musicians are now being impacted by those decisions as they are finishing up their work with us. Kerry O'Connor will finish her work with our children's choir this coming Sunday. At the 10:30 service we will offer a prayer of blessing for her journey and invite the children and others to lay hands on her and present her with a gift.

Terry Ketcham, who has been Emmanuel's Organist and Choirmaster for more than 7 years, will lead our musical offerings for the last time on May 31, which is Pentecost. The congregation will show its gratitude at a reception following the 10:30 service.

Please keep in your prayers Terry, Kerry, their choirs and their many friends here at Emmanuel. This is not an easy time for them. Your good care of them will most certainly be appreciated and remembered. As you all know, I hope, they are talented, committed and faithful people and they have been a blessing to this congregation.

Blessings, Hunt+

The next few weeks

The last three Sundays of May at Emmanuel will be full of emotion and feelings, beautiful music and pageantry. Different emotions and feelings will all be jumbled up together. We're going to be sad and grateful as we say thank-you to our two musicians. Kerry O'Connor will lead our children's choir for the final time on May 17 and Terry Ketcham will finish his work as our Organist and Choirmaster on May 31, the Feast of Pentecost. Sadness to be sure. Endings are painful. Gratitude certainly. Emmanuel has been blessed by the ministries of two talented, passionate and compassionate people. There is also room for anger, disappointment and feelings of loss. Far too often in the church we don't give our darker emotions their due. It's okay.

And as we are honoring Kerry and Terry, we will also be remembering other blessings. On the 17th we'll be celebrating Rogation Sunday with a procession around our grounds, offering prayers for our beautiful and bountiful gardens--our pea patches and so many flowers beds. We also hope to tell some stories of the people who toiled to make all that we enjoy possible. The procession will begin at 9:15 and last 20 or 25 minutes. It is intended to be an event for all ages. Also on that Sunday, Carla Pryne will be with us to preach and to talk with us after the Rogation procession.

On the 24th we'll honor all those who have remembered Emmanuel in their wills. Emmanueul's Legacy Sunday tradition of bagpipes and Scottish dancers lives on. It's the Sunday after the Ascension. This year it also happens to be Memorial Day weekend. The theological significance, however, is around the remembering of the return of Jesus' human nature to Divine glory and our own ultimate return to the nearer presence of God as well. Legacy Sunday will be celebrated in years to come on the Sunday after the Ascension, which moves around the calendar depending upon the date of Easter.  

On Sunday the 31st, we'll have a special reception following the 10:30 service: to celebrate the music of Emmanuel, but most especially to honor Terry and to thank him for sharing his gifts and ministry. Please see one of the clergy or a vestry member to get details about a special gift for Terry if you haven't already received some information.

In Christ, Hunt+

Some gifts of being Episcopalian

Last week I wrote a bit about the experience of being with my mother-in-law as she took her last breath. It was a holy and sacred time and we will never forget it. Since then we have planned and participated in her funeral, not in any formal clergy-ish way, but as a family that gets surrounded by the prayers of the gathered people of God. After the funeral, we gathered with friends and family to tell stories on her and about her, to laugh and cry some and her grandchildren got to be together with their elders and other adults. They got to see what it means to weep and mourn the death of someone we love, but not to weep as people without hope.

Perhaps it would feel like an odd exercise in this season of Easter, but sometime soon, take a minute to read through the Litany at the time of death. It's what we say when we have no words to say. It's a set of prayers that offers our loved one to God and reminds us that "all shall be well." More often than not, I've seen these prayers be a family's final act of love and release for a dying. You may also find it in the Book of Common Prayer ("the red book, found in the pew rack"!) And when you find yourselves in the place that our family did this past week, remember to call one of your priests. We do everything we can to be with the dying and their family and friends. (My only regret from last week is that I didn't ask someone from outside our family to join us around Ellie's bedside. I led the prayers, but upon reflection, we all  needed a pastor and that couldn't be me.)

Also, please take some time to read through our Burial Rite. It is full of hope and comfort and joy. Make the effort to attend the funerals of others. And bring your children, at least to ones in the Episcopal Church and other mainline denominations. (I've been to some in other denominations that were scary and inappropriate for children.) As my son Will told me last week when I asked if he was okay being so involved in the process, "Dad, it's a part of life." Indeed it is.