The St. Paul's Epistle
May 16-31, 2005
Contents
Letter from the Rector
Stewardship Callers Reunion
Enriching Our Worship
Let's Talk about Church School
Parish Picnic - Sunday, June 5
Class of 2005 - Lost Boys of Sudan
Elijah Moved to October 2
Lilac Festival Concert - May 22
Sunshine, Gravel & Smiles in El
Salvador
So why do you do that?
Dear Members and Friends of St. Paul's:
Rest, reflect and rejuvenate are the three movements for my upcoming sabbatical, granted by the Vestry from August 1st to November 20th. On August 1st I will begin my sabbatical time to do just that: to rest and reflect in preparation for my 6 ½ week journey to either Nepal or Northern India sometime in mid- to late September. I have been in touch with clergy who are presently in Nepal apprising me of the political situation and its effects on visitors and travelers. I am also in communication with a person familiar with the Everest region who has been traveling to Nepal for the past 6 years, presently helping to build a school for a Sherpa village. In preparation for my journey, I plan to explore these questions raised in a book by Paul Knitter in his "Theologies of Religions:"
- Are all religions valid in God's eyes - all equally effective in putting people in contact with the Divine?
- Are their differences more a matter of varied colors than of conflicting content? How should the religious traditions relate to each other?
- How should my religion relate to others?
I am grateful for this Sabbath time. I am excited about a place that has woven into their sacred journey of faith some of the highest mountains in the world.
I ask your prayers for God's guiding spirit and wisdom to direct me in my sabbatical plans. I ask your prayers for my family and me while I am away on my journey.
Faithfully yours,
The Rev. Frederic W. Reynolds
Rector
Stewardship Callers Reunion
The Stewardship Committee invites all 2004 callers to a discussion after the 10:00 a.m. service on May 22. Please come and share your experience, what went well and what didn't. Your comments will help us build upon last year's success. Please join us in the Cadigan Room.
Enriching Our Worship
Almost from the moment that the 1979 Book of Common Prayer received its approval at General Convention, work began on supplemental materials. A good deal of that work focused on what is often termed expansive language. As the preface to Enriching Our Worship (EOW) states: "Expanding our vocabulary of prayer and the ways in which we name the Holy One bear witness to the fact that the mystery of God transcends all categories of knowing, including those of masculine and feminine."
Last year, we used two of the three eucharistic prayers in this collection of materials. Beginning on Sunday, June 12, we will use the third of these prayers during the summer months. Eucharistic Prayer 3 is, like the other two prayers, grounded in the language of scripture and the heritage of the Church. For example, while the identification of Jesus as eternal Word and Wisdom is not widely known today, it is clearly evident in the New Testament and the writings of the early Church (e.g., Origen and Tertullian both identified Jesus as Wisdom, as does Augustine of Hippo). With respect to the heritage of the Church, a deliberate decision was made in this prayer to return to perhaps the earliest tradition of the Church with regard to the use of manual gesture, that is, no gestures at all (in contrast, for example, to the medieval church with its requirement for no less than 33 signs of the cross to be made over the bread and wine in order to have a valid celebration). In addition to the eucharistic prayer, we will also be using from EOW a new acclamation and a postcommunion prayer.
Bishop McKelvey at last year's diocesan convention urged all congregations to use this material, and we are responding to his request. In using this material, if you have comments that you would like to have shared with the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music of the national church, please give them to me.
Thomas McCart
Let's Talk about Church School
Come to the Forum, Sunday, May 22, at 11:30 a.m. in the Vestry Room to discuss helping our young people express their faith and to look ahead to the next school year! Children are welcome for a project and snacks. Explore this topic also at the next meeting of Shalom on Friday, June 3, in Paul's Cross (the lawn by the flag pole).
Barbara Warner
Parish Picnic - Sunday, June 5
Mark your calendar! St. Paul's Parish Picnic will be held on Sunday, June 5. Games and activities are being planned. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and drinks will be provided. Plan on bringing your favorite dish to pass (enough to serve 8-10 people) along with a hearty appetite. All are welcome! There will be no admission fee for this event, but donations in any amount will be gratefully accepted. If you would like to help with any aspect of the planning, set up, or clean up, please call Alice Eldredge at 637-8851.
Class of 2005 - Lost Boys of Sudan
Congratulations are in order to several of the young men of Sudan who will be graduating this June. Those graduating from MCC are:
- Deng-Deng Agoth - Deng will be attending RIT in the fall. Deng plans to major in accounting.
- Abraham Biar - Abraham plans to pursue a career in medicine. He is considering the U of R.
- David Garang - David will be a student at Niagara University this fall; his focus is Political Science.
- John Mahen - John will most likely attend RIT, where he plans to major in business.
- William Riak - William is off to SUNY Geneseo pursuing a major in International Relations.
Graduating from High School:
- Jacob Biar - Jacob will be graduating from Wilson Magnet High School. He will be joining the class of 2009 at St. John Fisher College.
If you would like to send a card or letter of congratulations to any or all of these incredible young men, please leave it in the basket marked "Graduates" at the front desk in Wainwright Hall during the week, or in the Sunday Office on Sundays, during the month of May.
Thank you,
Ann Marie DeLuccio
Elijah Moved to October 2
Mendelssohn's well known oratorio Elijah has been postponed to Sunday, October 2. Additional singers from the parish are invited to join us in performing this great sacred choral masterpiece. Rehearsals are Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in the Vestry room.
David Fetler, Choir Master
Lilac Festival Concert - May 22
David Fetler will conduct a special Lilac Festival Concert With Many Voices on Sunday, May 22 at 3:30 p.m. at the Hochstein Music School. Featured will be the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, the Bach Children's Chorus, Rochester's Taiwanese Choral Society, flutist Glennda Dove Pellito and percussionist Jim Tiller. Both American and Taiwanese music will be presented. Tickets are available at Wegman's or from Julie Doescher.
Sunshine, Gravel & Smiles in El Salvador
We from the Diocese of Rochester, with two Anglican priests - one who until February had served in San Francisco and the other a retired Salvadorian banker turned cleric, and several young adults, gathered in the alfresco dining area to celebrate the Eucharist together in Spanish and English. This week-ending service, at which the available bread was a tortilla, captures the essence of our experience in El Salvador.
(left to right) Dawn & Erle Barrett, Father John, Barbara Warner, Kitty MacDowell, Gloria & Ron Lundberg, and Nancy Frank at the Joya de Ceren Archeological Site. Omar, van driver, is in front. Unidentified pooch is to the right.
Just 13.5 degrees north of the Equator on the Pacific coast of Central America, El Salvador, recent victim of civil war and earthquakes, has been a recipient of the attention of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), an agency of the National Church. ERD encourages personally funded short-term mission trips to the area.
Led by Nancy Frank, Diocesan Representative for ERD, Kitty MacDowell, Barbara Warner, and the Rev. Dawn Barrett and her husband Erle, and Ron and Gloria Lundberg from the Southern Tier, made the trip during spring break.
San Salvador, the capital city of more than two million, is modern in many ways including rushing traffic and congested highways. Days are sunny, near 90 degrees. The children, as everywhere, are captivating - they showed off their learning when we visited the schools. They waved holas as we walked through the villages and picked up shovels and rakes to help as we worked in El Congo, a newly developing community. A requirement of our visit was that we not attempt to set an agenda but follow the lead of our hosts. These hosts strived to make our stay meaningful as they balanced our doing some manual labor with our getting to know the country and people.
It is the people who are memorable. The priest at San Juan Cathedral was the only Anglican who stayed during the war and so continued the presence of the church in San Salvador. He now creates mosaic hangings to decorate the churches. Our competent van driver and companion works only when there are visitors. We communicated with plenty of laughter. One of the first residents of El Congo is justifiably proud of his family's house with its outside shower and vibrant flowers. Entrepreneurially, this man has set up a several-shelf store in his small home as a result of his neighbors continually coming by to borrow. He good naturedly provided us with the tools and information we needed to carry dirt and gravel. The elderly cook in the outdoor diocesan kitchen faithfully nourished us with her traditional cuisine, three meals a day. She was assisted by a vivacious granddaughter, who, though not understanding our language, made every effort to be sure we were well fed.
"Bring the children"
The hope of ERD is that we share the stories of El Salvador to make others aware of the needs of the people there. Through the support of ERD, three communities have been built since 2001, one at a time. Each community has 30 one-room cement block houses, a church, a multi-purpose building and a clinic. There are plans for two more communities. More than 200 volunteers have visited and helped build. Although sparse by many standards, these buildings provide opportunity and hope for its residents. We who were fortunate to visit are eager to share the stories of a wonderfully inspiring week and encourage support of the projects. We and the people of El Salvador working together have so much to share with each other.
Barbara Warner
So why do you do that?
Several of you have asked me of late why I and some others in the altar party make the sign of the cross at different times. Some of you have wondered if this is a "Catholic" thing or a very high church thing. So I thought I would try to answer those questions. In typical Anglican fashion the answer is a "both" and "sort of" answer. This action of making the sign of the cross is in fact related to the "catholicity of the church." You will notice that I used the small "c" catholic in this particular case. When we use the lower case catholic we refer to the broad church or the church of all people, the entire Christian church. In regard to tracing the sign of the cross on one's body it is one of the oldest forms of prayer and is associated with the invocation of the Blessed Trinity; "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This symbol is a very ancient one and is mentioned by the early church fathers as being a habitual practice as early as the second century. So in this sense this sign is related to being catholic in that the sign belongs to all Christians but not in the sense of being part of the Roman Catholic tradition, per se.
So what about that "High Churchiness" question. In part I may practice these signs and symbols because I was raised primarily in Cathedral settings of the Episcopal Church both here and in Europe (thanks, Mom and Dad). But here again that is not really an accurate answer because if we trace the root of this signing we would find that it started amongst those who were just common folk spreading the word of Jesus Christ. It is common in our denomination as well as others to make the sign of the cross on the forehead of those who are being baptized, confirmed or ordained. You may notice that I make the sign of the cross on the forehead, the lips and the chest or heart at the pronouncement of the Gospel. These practices hearken to scripture. In Ezekiel 9: 4-6 we read of Ezekiel's prophetic vision of judgement in which the Lord commands that "a mark be set upon the foreheads" thus marking the Israelites as God's people and saving them from annihilation. We again read of the "sealing of God's people" in the Apocalypse (Revelation 7:4,9:4). So these gestures are really related to our entire Biblical and Christian heritage.
So why do people do them now? The sign of the cross is primarily a blessing. It is used to call God's blessing upon us. When we make the sign of the cross upon ourselves, we express our belief in God and the Trinity. Making the sign of the cross on the forehead, the lips and the heart at the pronouncement of the Gospel is another outward and visible sign of our belief in the Word of God, our commitment to spread God's word and our awareness of God's presence in our hearts. For me, as I make this sign I pray that I will understand these words with my mind, speak them with my lips, believe them in my heart and live them in my life.
Many of you notice that I make the sign of the cross with the wafer as I distribute communion. This is another outward and visible sign of our relationship with the Trinity. It is through our embracing the cross, individually and as a community of Christians, that we embark on the path to eternal life. Christ's crucifixion, death and resurrection opened eternity for each of us, by accepting both the cross and the body and blood we express our willingness to take up our own cross, spreading the Good News of life in view of the Resurrection. So you see, though this may seem to be a routine action, it is not at all. It marks us as Christians and is a visible expression of our belief and hope in God. Hope this helps!
Peace,
The Rev. Leslie M. St. Louis