The St. Paul's Epistle
May 16-31, 2006
Contents
Dear Members and Friends of St. Paul's
2006 Antiques Show
Accolades for Ladies Who Lent
Art of He Qi Presented to St. Paul's & the Rev.
Leslie St. Louis
The Hope of Sudan
Good Friday 2006
Antiques Show
Welcome to St. Paul's
ECW
Stephen Ministers Commissioned
SPY Corner
Recognition Service and Parish Picnic
Spring Picnic
2005 Stewardship Campaign
Dear Members and Friends of St. Paul's:
Taking a Sabbath rest, a sabbatical, is properly just that - a time for rest and refreshment at a variety of levels. It is also in many cases, if not always, a life-changing time. The break from the "ordinary" routines of work which gives opportunity for reflection, the new experiences of visiting other churches, conversations with new folk, renewed friendships with former acquaintances. All of these, and other occasions, effect how one views the world and one's self. One can't help but be changed in some degree or other.
During my Sabbath rest, I read several significant books (at least in my opinion). James Alison's On Being Liked was the most thought provoking and the most challenging one. In fact, it has led me to reconsider completely my understanding of the story of our salvation. What I was taught in seminary is no longer an adequate or satisfying explanation. As a consequence of reading Alison's book, I found that I could no longer approach Good Friday in the same way as I have done many times in the past twenty-eight years. If you compare last year's sermon to this year's, you will find them taking almost exact opposite approaches, and reaching opposite conclusions, to and on the subject.
I share this year's sermon with you (it is inside this issue) as a way of showing how I was enriched by the gift of a sabbatical and how my time away will enrich our common life here at St. Paul's.
Blessings,
Thomas McCart
2006 Antiques Show
The Antiques Show committee would like to thank all parishioners who donated items, volunteered, and attended the Antiques Show & Sale this year. Gross income will be around $26,500 which should yield a net income close to our goal of $20,000.
Chris Curtis
Accolades for Ladies Who Lent
In March, St. Paul's hosted the conference, "Ladies Who Lent: Faith of Our Mothers." This two-day retreat was sponsored by The Episcopal Diocese of Rochester and The New York West Area Office, United Methodist Church (UMC). Some sixty women from the region participated in this informative spiritual event.
This program was orchestrated by the Rev. Leslie St. Louis of St. Paul's and the Rev. Alice Ford of UMC. The conference leaders drew from St. Luke's Episcopal Seminary at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee: The Rev. Dr. Susanna Metz, Dr. Robin Reed-Spaulding, and The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Abts Wright. The closing worship sermon was delivered by the Rev. Adrienne Phillips, Pastor of the West Avenue United Methodist Church, Rochester, NY.
The retreat provided insight into the relationships we have with our biological mothers, the impact of those relationships, ways to listen better to what we are called to be and do, and, if necessary, ways to reconcile and move on. In addition, we examined how our Biblical mothers provide us with, in some cases, models for respecting ourselves and finding our voices. In some other cases, Bible stories illustrate the negative impact of women in conflict.
Participants had time to consider our own reactions as well as to share our thoughts and personal experiences in small groups. The retreat was subtitled "A Journey in the Formation of Our Feminine Faith"-what a meaningful and spiritual journey it was!
The retreat was further enhanced by the display of Old and New Testament stories in the artwork of the Chinese artist He Qi in the Parish Hall.
Erin Glanton
Art of He Qi Presented to St. Paul's
and the Rev. Leslie St. Louis
On Sunday, April 23, during the Cross of Flowers service, St. Paul's Wardens and Vestry announced the acquisition of art work by Chinese artist He Qi to celebrate the vision and hard work of the Reverend Leslie St. Louis, who sponsored two special events at St. Paul's during the month of March.
The first event was a two-day conference, "Ladies Who Lent," hosted by Leslie and the Reverend Alice Ford, United Methodist Church. This Lenten retreat explored the influence of women on our spirituality and featured national speakers, drawing participants from across the community.
The second event this March was the international art exhibit of Old and New Testament stories by Dr. He Qi. The artist is a professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. His vibrant work blends Chinese folk painting with Western art, to illustrate Christian themes. Leslie orchestrated and installed the exhibit of 27 original prints, with the help of the Rev. Alice Ford and St. Paul's Vestry member Charlotte Kimberly-Haag. The art exhibit drew visitors to the Church at the art opening, and the art graced our newly renovated Parish Hall from March through Easter.
To honor Leslie and to recognize her work culminating in these enriching events, Stan Refermat, Warden, and Erin Glanton, Vestry member, announced that an anonymous parishioner has purchased one of He Qi's prints for St. Paul's. Appropriately, this gift is titled "The Calling of St. Paul," showing the dramatic conversion of Saul who persecutes Christ, to St. Paul, who follows Christ.
In addition to this anonymous gift, the Wardens and Vestry of St. Paul's have purchased "The Annunciation," featuring the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will be the handmaid of the Lord. Both of these works are gifts to St. Paul's permanent collection. They will grace our church for all of us to enjoy and provide teaching tools for the Church School and Bible Study groups. There will be plaques identifying their dedication to Leslie.
The Wardens and Vestry have purchased another print as a personal gift for Leslie. This work is entitled "Red Sea Crossing" and shows the Israelites escaping from the Egyptian soldiers who perish in the closing waves. This work was framed as a gift by parish members Joe and Peg Willard of Pittsford Picture Framing.
On the day that we lifted high the cross of flowers, we honored Leslie as one of the ladies who lift our Church through her leadership and love.
Erin Glanton and Melissa Hopkins, Vestry Members
THE HOPE OF SUDAN
Trauma and Healing Workshop for the "Lost Boys of Sudan"
May 26-28, 2006
Fr. Paul Boyle, a Scottish Missionary with extensive experience in Sudan, will be delivering his Trauma Healing Workshop in Rochester at the end of May. The 3-day workshop is designed to address the trauma suffered by the young men of Sudan during their childhood and young adulthood.
The United Nations has labeled the Lost Boys as the "most traumatized group of children in our era". Unfortunately, little has been done to address these issues since their arrival in the US in 2001.
Fr. Boyle developed this workshop and has delivered it to the leadership in Sudan, including the President and Cabinet Ministers, the military leaders, and the leadership of the Episcopal Church. His workshop is aimed at naming, claiming and taming the pain.
We feel strongly this is the greatest gift we can offer the men here in Rochester as they struggle daily with memories of loss and grief. With some assistance they can more freely move forward with forgiveness and hope.
"The Hope of Sudan", which has its origins here at St Paul's, will be coordinating and hosting the event. St Paul's will host most of the workshop on Friday and Saturday, and Risen Christ Lutheran will host the Sunday events which will include Lost Boys church services.
The schedule is as follows:
- Friday - 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.
- Saturday 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.
- Sunday 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
The young men are very excited and sign-ups have been brisk. Please pray for a successful event, and that God's hand of healing is able to touch many of our young men. Their faith assures us that will be the case!
If you would like to assist by offering your time (setup, clean up and shut down), talent (preparing food or treats) or treasure (making donations toward the workshop), we would be most appreciative.
Please call Ann Marie DeLuccio at 585-582-2648.
Good Friday 2006
There is a story that Beethoven once played a newly-composed sonata for a friend. When he had finished, the friend asked, "What does it mean?" Beethoven sat down at the piano and played the sonata all over again.
I feel something of Beethoven's implied disapproval of the question as I try to talk about Good Friday. What does it mean?
During my sabbatical I read a number of books. One book in particular has led me to rethink completely my understanding of Good Friday. The book is James Alison's "On Being Liked." It is a thought-provoking work, but not an easy one to read. Even so, I recommend it highly.
For a long time, the church has been fairly constant and consistent in its answer to this question of the meaning of Good Friday. Alison offers a refreshing, succinct summary of the church's answer. According to him, with some editing by me, the answer goes something like this:
"God created the universe, including humanity, and it was good. Then, somehow or other, [humanity] fell. This fall was a sin against God's infinite goodness and mercy and justice… So there was a problem. Humans could not, off their own bat, restore the order which they had disordered, let alone make up for having dishonored God's infinite goodness. [God could have said, there's no hope for humans, and destroyed everything.] "But God was merciful as well as just, and so God pondered what to do to sort out the mess. Could God have simply let the matter be? Maybe, but God couldn't get around the problem of infinite justice and honor.
"Only an infinite payment could [restore what had been broken.] Humans couldn't make an infinite payment, but God could, yet the payment had to come from the human side or else it wouldn't be a real payment for the outrage in question. So, God came up with the idea of sending his Son into the world as a human, so that his Son could pay the price as a human, which since he was also God, would be infinite, and thus justice would be satisfied. Thus the whole sorry story could be brought to a convenient close.
"By the death of Jesus, we would be saved from our sins, given the Holy Spirit, so that when you and I die, we would be able to inherit heaven, which had been the original plan all along, before the fall messed everything up." (18 ff)
Alison believes that this theory - although we've been talking about this for hundreds of years - it is just that, a theory - Alison believes there are a number of problems with this theory. For example, such an understanding of Good Friday presupposes a vengeful God, a God who has to get retribution for humanity's wrong deeds. It also places sin at the center of the story. Now, neither Alison nor I deny sin, but should it be the center of a story about redemption? With sin entering the story at the fall, it "runs", drives the story forward, with all the other characters, including God, "dancing around, wondering what they should do about it." (23) There are other problems, but these are enough to push Alison toward a different theory, one that is, in my mind, far more exciting and more congruent with what I have come to believe about God and God's creation, including you and me.
So, if the standard theory is problematic, what alternative theory can be put forth, one, perhaps, with fewer aspects that are troubling.
In a nut-shell, what Alison argues is that Jesus went voluntarily and with considerable freedom to his death in order to show us that we, too, can live as if death were not. (40-41)
This death was not to pay some price for our prior wrongs; it was not done to please God. No, it was done to get through to us. The prime audience of the crucifixion is not God - which is the old theory, the prime audience, for Alison, is us, you and me. We are what Good Friday and Easter are all about.
The resurrection thus becomes the "breakthrough into our world of perception of something which had not been perceivable before, that God has nothing to do with death, and that humans need not either." (41)
Of course we will die; but that fact should not be what forms us; we do not have to live as though "the end of our biological lives were our enemy." (41) Paul talks about this often as the central Christian experience: undergoing "a form of dying-in-advance so as no longer to be driven by death in our living." (41)
Alison places this creative act, and it is creative - for something new comes out of Jesus' actions - he places this creative act in what he terms an "anthropology of forgiveness."
Through death and resurrection, Jesus "made available what his life and death had been about as forgiveness." (41)
Forgiveness, as Jesus revealed, is an ongoing process of "learning to behave as if death were not, which will mean coming gradually to stand up against those whose being depends on death, and running the risk of being persecuted by them, and maybe even killed by them." (42)
Jesus became like us, which involved not "merely losing his life so that we might lose our fear of death, but losing his human identity… in forgiveness, so that we might be given his identity. (43)
If Alison is correct, then the resurrection made available what God wanted for us all along - a life lived without the fear of death. Forgiveness then is not about "our slates being wiped clean so that we can be fitted back into a pre-existing model of creation. On the contrary: forgiveness is our access to being created in the first place." (44)
In other words, the more I live a life free from the fear of death, live a life of forgiveness as Jesus did, the more I become who God intended me to be. In fact, the only way I can become the real me, or you can become the real you, is to "embark on a dangerous adventure of allowing ourselves to become forgiveness in imitation of the one who gave himself for us." (46)
In this adventure, living into a life free from the fear of death, which Jesus reveals as what God intended from the first, we find for the first time what really is.
In this adventure, we find ourselves "empowered to be on the inside of God's creative act, which is always opening up before us." (64)
The good news of Good Friday and Easter is not only the revelation of what it means to live a life free from the fear of death, it is also the good news that Jesus tells us, "I will come with you starting from where you are."
So today, let each of us start from where we are, and begin to live this life given to us by the God who created us - a life of true freedom.
Thomas McCart
Antiques Show
The Antiques Show committee would like to thank all parishioners who donated items, volunteered, and attended the Antiques Show & Sale this year. We appreciate everyone's hard work and commitment to this church-wide fundraising event.
Everyone involved had a good time and the weather was perfect. Gross income will be around $26,500 which should yield a net income close to our goal of $20,000 after all expenses are accounted for.
New for this year's show were door prizes. The following individuals were drawn from over 450 entries. Winner of two tickets to GEVA is Diane Prichard of Fairport; winner of a $25 gift certificate to the Good Book Store is William Bell of Rochester; and the two winners of two tickets each to next year's preview party are Dan Johnston of Williamsville and Larry Rausch of Rush. Since the response to the door prize was so positive, the door prize committee drew five additional names to receive two tickets each to next year's show and sale. The five winners are Brian Beach of Owego, Robb Salerno of Rochester, Barb Palmer of Rochester, Regina Gonek of Rochester, and Elaine McCusker of Rochester.
The Antiques Show committee would also like to extend a special thank you for a job well done to Judy Loveland, Nancy Wood, Lisa Hubbard, Wayne Reinert, Keith Thompson, and Paul Ring. Without their support and dedication to St. Paul's, the Antiques Show & Sale would not be possible.
Chris Curtis
Welcome to St. Paul's
All too often we are uncertain about how to begin a conversation with someone we don't recognize.
Helpful Hints
- Introduce yourself and say, "I don't believe we've met, have we?" This goes a long way toward solving the problem of greeting an unrecognized fellow member and also provides some direction for the conversation.
- If the person is a visitor, ask, "What brings you to our church today?" This may provide some information on how the church may continue to be of service to that person.
- At some point in the conversation, you might want to state in one sentence what you most appreciate about St. Paul's, such as "I really like this church because…"
- Draw their attention to the display racks and the new brochure describing St. Paul's.
- Invite the person to join you for coffee fellowship after the service and, before you leave them, invite them to return for another service or program.
- If it can be done graciously, introduce the visitor to someone who shares a common interest or who can speak to the information gleaned from your conversation.
We're all in the business of welcoming. I hope the above will help you welcome people throughout the year.
Thomas McCart
ECW
ECW will meet on Thursday, May 18 at noon for a brown bag lunch and fellowship. There will be no business meeting, but Tom McCart will speak to us at 12:45 about his experiences during his sabbatical.
Stephen Ministers Commissioned
On Sunday, May 7, we commissioned four Stephen Ministers - Louise Moore, Carol Panzer, Donna & Floyd Bayley. They began their fifty hours of training last fall as part of an ecumenical group at St. John of Rochester, and will now join our first class of Stephen Ministers - Joyce Bogdanski, Jim Blake, Sally McGucken, Kitty MacDowell, Beverly Vaughan, Nancy Frank, Anna Marie Fabrowicz - in this ministry at St. Paul's. Thanksgiving to God is offered for this gifted and dedicated group and for our Stephen Leaders, Judy Carpenter and Anne Refermat.
Thomas McCart
SPY Corner
Overnight at Camp Cory
May 19
We will meet at St. Paul's at 5:00 p.m. and then head to the YMCA's Camp Cory on Keuka Lake.
After settling in we will have dinner, enjoy a bonfire, play some games and watch a movie.
On Saturday, we will complete a service project for the camp. We plan to return to the church by 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Please RSVP to Laura Hayden by
Friday, May 12
(383-8808 or email)
Recognition Service and Parish Picnic
The Youth Choirs will offer their glorious music at the 10 o'clock service on June 11 as we celebrate our young people and all those who work with them. Come to the lawn following the service for the Annual Parish Picnic.
Spring Picnic
June 11 is the date for the annual Spring Picnic. We need a few people who like to work the grills to volunteer to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. We would also like a few people to help the sextons set up tables and chairs and put them away afterwards since we are counting on having a beautiful day.
Please call Gail Bush at 377-5129 if you can help. More details will follow in the next issue of the Epistle.
2005 Stewardship Campaign
The chart below reflects the results of the 2005 Stewardship Campaign and is an important part of the 2006 budget for St. Paul's. The vertical axis shows the number of pledges. The horizontal axis shows the pledge bands. This information helps us with our activities and goals for this year.
One of our goals is 100% participation of member households pledging to St. Paul's. Just think of the impact that 240 households could have on the programs, services and ministry of St. Paul's if they were to decide to pledge a small amount per week in this year's upcoming campaign for the 2007 budget. For example, if each of the 240 households pledged $5 a week for a year that would amount to $62,400.
If there are any questions regarding this information, please feel free to contact one of the Stewardship Co-Chairs, Thank you for your support. Angie Jones and Paul Berezney.
