Thursday Thoughts

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.

From a funeral

In these days leading up to my mother-in-law's death after a 3 year battle with cancer, I'm deeply aware of the power and strength of Christian community. Ellie lived for over 2 years with a community of nuns at Our Lady of Perpetual Care Cancer Home in Atlanta. They are an order, all RNs, who care for people with a terminal cancer diagnosis. She was never in pain, never lost any weight and was really never alone.

The other communities I am so aware of right now are the two congregations I have been fortunate to serve as a priest. The people of Emmanuel and of St. Paul's in Newnan have cared for our family in small ways and in large: cared for us as they care for others who are dying or watching loved ones die.

And then there is the community that is a bit harder to describe. It is the Communion of Saints, the great cloud of witnesses, that surrounds all of us as we move through life. I sensed them as our family gathered around Ellie and prayed the prayers of the church for the dying and I will sense them as we gather on Saturday to celebrate and to give thanks for Ellie's life and witness. In the ancient prayers, the hymns, the breaking and sharing of the bread all who have gone before and all who will come in the future are gathered with us in an unending "Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia."

It is in times like this, at the difficult turning points in our lives, that I'm so convicted of our need to be better at sharing the Good News. Too many people need what we have and don't have any way to access it. Or so they think.

I can't imagine living through these last few years without so many faithful and loving people to surround us.

Hunt+

Pilgrims on a Journey

We are pilgrims on a journey, We are trav'lers on the road; We are here to help each other. Walk the mile and bear the load.

Those are the lyrics to "The Servant Song" and as I reflect back on the past several weeks--Lent, Holy Week, Easter Day--I recall those words as a way for all of us to think about what we are up to at Emmanuel. The journey to the cross is one very clear example of how as a community we travel together on a spiritual journey. Of course, at the end of our Lenten travels stands the empty tomb, that glorious sign for us of God's desire for life to conquer death, hope to conquer fear, joy to conquer despair.

My first Holy Week and Easter as your rector was a real exercise in community life, in trusting that we had all that we needed to be present to God and one another, and in giving thanks for the ministries of so many committed people. So many highlights for me: the abundant and delicious meal on Maundy Thursday, the Stations of the Cross, my time with the altar guild and flower guild on Saturday, the drama and storytelling of The Great Vigil, followed by a festive celebration of the resurrection, two baptisms, all the children at the 10:30 service, the musical offerings of our choirs, meeting your children and grandchildren, parents and friends. So much to be thankful for.

There were also moments of miscommunication, a few missteps in planning, a change or two in liturgical practice that didn't quite work. We all continue to get to know each other, to discern what still works for Emmanuel and what needs to change a bit.

Please remember that all that went well and all that just missed are ooutward and visible signs of a community that is a gathering of pilgrims, pilgrims on a journey, a people open to walking the mile and the bearing the load. For us, Easter is the beginning of the journey, not the end. And we are never called to perfection, but instead are called to strive, to live in the light and joy of the resurrection.

Blessings on each of you for the Great Fifty Days of Easter and forever more. Amen. Hunt+

We will, with God's help

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when it was assumed that the work of the church was accomplished by the Rev. Mr. Whatsit (and of course it was always a Mr.) and a few ladies of the congregation who dutifully tended the sacristy and cooked in and cleaned parish kitchen. Father Whatsit alone visited the sick, prayed the prayers, offered intercessions, and distributed communion. He alone was the face of the church and often he alone (or at least it seemed) bore the burden of keeping the place going.

Thankfully those days are gone in the Episcopal Church. Over the last 30 or 40 years, we've come to understand that the work of the church is accomplished by all God's children. That's what those promises in the Baptismal Covenant are about. It was a major shift in our understanding of church life and one that has served us well, I think.

I was reminded of those old days yesterday when I saw the article in the Mercer Island Reporter about the Great Vigil of Easter. It was written by Jeanette Petersen, daughter of Emmanuel Church and currently a member of the vestry. She wrote with enthusiasm and authority and the article did not need Father Whatsit's photo or byline to make it legit. If you didn't already read it, click on the  link above. Then thank her for that work of evangelism on behalf of the Good News.

When I think about Emmanuel, I see the people who are doing the work of the church. The very public liturgical ministries we all see and appreciate. And there's also what happens more quietly: the Altar Guild, Flower Guild, staffing the office every day, caring for the building and grounds, visiting the sick and home bound, organizing and executing big parish events and dinners, serving on diocesan committees and boards, intercessory prayer groups, teaching Sunday school to name just a few.

And yet, we need to cast the net wider, you and I. There are many people in our environs who need to know the healing love of God in Christ. We are called to be channels of that love and acceptance and grace. I am convinced that it's not more programs and activities that people are looking for from the Church. Today's Seekers are looking for an authentic community of people where they can imagine themselves being accepted "just as they are," to paraphrase an old hymn, and to then grow as children of God.

This, my sisters and brothers, is such a place. On Sunday, when you see someone who hasn't been around for a while, tell him or her how glad you are to see them. And when you encounter those Seekers (and they will be with us on Sunday), tell them what a great thing we have going here. Because we do!

We have much to accomplish together. People are hurting, but "there is a balm in Gilead" (as the old spiritual reminds us) "to make the wounded whole." We have some information about that that others need to know about.

Blessings for the Triduum and for Easter Day. I hope to see you often these next few days.

How will we be changed?

It's a question Bishop Greg says we should be asking instead of asking "When will this economic crisis be over?" The crisis will end when it ends and there's very little you and I can do to speed it up. But how the crisis changes us is something we do have some control over. After we get through it, will we go back to business as usual, or will our common life be different? Greg's question is one we should be asking every time we encounter a significant turning point in our lives. How will we be changed? 

It is also a question we should be asking as we approach the holiest of weeks in the Christian year as well, for this week is a turning point. To walk the spiritual journey between Palm Sunday and Easter Day is to walk the road of momentary triumph, of fear and trembling, of abandonment and lament, of community, of death and new life. To go deeply into the experience of Holy Week is to go deeply into the heart of God. 

We are all very busy in our own way, but it is often our busy-ness that prevents us from encountering that which God most yearns for us to encounter. Please don't miss this opportunity to walk the way of the cross with your community of faith. All of us will be changed. Here's the schedule of services . Hunt+

More Communication

For a while now I've been thinking about, talking about, planning about an electronic newsletter that would be sent out every week to members and friends of Emmanuel. This is the inaugural edition of what is basically an electronic version of the Community News found in the Weekly Bell, handed out on Sunday mornings by our ushers. In addition to news, the electronic Bell will have a link to a weekly column I plan to write and post to this blog and to the Emmanuel website. It is called "Thursday Thoughts" and you are reading it now.

My hope is that this weekly column and the email that carries it out to parishioners will become a point of community building and conversation for all us. We shall see.

These days leading up to Easter are important ones for Christians. The journey toward Resurrection and New Life must include the experience of death. Consider leaving in Lent those parts of you which are injuring your body, spirit or relationship with others.  

And then, please come to as many of the liturgies of Holy Week as you are able to make, then consider adding 1 more! Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and The Great Vigil (this year at 9pm on Saturday) are our most powerful liturgies, with many of the prayer forms going back to the earliest years of the church. Additional information about our schedule.

Blessings on you and those you love during this season of reflection, prayer, fasting and deepening connections to God. Peace, Hunt+