Dear Friends,
The Season of Pentecost has not yet begun, still the Holy Spirit already dances in the hearts and lives and events of this congregation and its ministries! In April alone, I’ve witnessed its jig during Discovery Weekend; the St. Andrew’s Sisters Soul Gardening morning; the discussion of “The Ragamuffin Gospel,” by our Eucharistic Ministers, visitors and lectors; the Spring Clean-Up; the St. Andrew’s Minstrel’s concert; and, certainly during our worship time together. I’ve noticed its footprints in the work done around the church—in the closet in the office, the new exit lamps, the electrical outlets, and the plants springing forth in the pots on the Front Porch. Ah! There’s so much joy left in the path of the Spirit; I feel like I do after a good polka—excited, energized, and elated—wanting at least one more dance!
And so there will be, not just one, but many more. Some we know about as they are on the calendar, and some are only a spark waiting to be ignited. I’m looking forward to the play put on by the Clarkston Players and featuring our own Melissa Butler; the new Adult Christian Education program that begins on 4/30, Women of the Bible with Susan Boyer, who is a very spiritual person herself; the Ministry Development Commission will begin its work for the EYSJ meeting this month, starting with the Informational Meeting on 5/21; the Squeakers and their moms and grand-moms and other important women in their lives will be singing on Mother’s Day; and the Newcomer’s tour is scheduled for May 18. And, folks, these are only the things I know about. When you add all that you know about, whew! the Spirit will need a new pair of dancing shoes!
If dancing is a metaphor that doesn’t work for you, let me suggest walking with the Holy Spirit. Let me remind you about the pilot offering of our parish-delivered Exploring Your Spiritual Journey (EYSJ). There are signs and informational packets in the Richardson Room, and LouAnn Leonard, Bob Wollard, and I are available to answer your questions and hear your comments and concerns about the program any time, and especially on May 21, 2008, 7 p.m., in the St. Gregory Room (a.k.a library/music room/multi-purpose room). This program and other St. Andrew’s discernment opportunities are meant to help you commit some time to your self and your spiritual life and ministry. And, I’d like to alert you to another walk, a physical walk.
Waterford’s annual C.R.O.P. (Christians Resolve to Overcome Poverty) is scheduled for the first Sunday in October, October 5, 2008. Last year, St. Andrew’s raised nearly $800, bringing relief to many who live near or far. The area walk raised over $10,000, and twenty-five percent of it stayed right here in our community helping people who count of the Baldwin Center, Open Door, Meals on Wheels, and the Good Samaritan Food Pantry for help.
St. Andrew’s not only sends walkers and donations of money several people work together to provide a “water station” here on our corner. They put up a canopy and provide bottles and coolers of water, oranges, home-made energy bars for the walkers as well as water for their pets who walk with them. This year, I am hoping that someone will feel called to co-ordinate the program here at St. Andrew’s, become the Recruiter. The task is not hard nor is it very time consuming; what it does require is an enthusiasm for and commitment to wanting to overcome world hunger and poverty. If you think this is a ministry for you, please contact me. Watch for more about the C.R.O.P. Walk in future editions of “The Companion” and in the bulletins on Sundays!
Let us go forth, rejoicing (walking or dancing), in the Power of the Holy Spirit!
Deacon Marlyn
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
April Message
Dear Friends,
Annie Dillard, author of For the Time Being, begins its seventh chapter with these words:
Birth • Our lives come free; they’re on the house to all comers, like the shopkeeper’s wine. God decants the universe of time in a stream, and our best hope is, by our own awareness, to step into the stream and serve, empty as flumes, to keep it moving. (175)
What a picture this created in my mind! I had to look up the word, flumes, though, not knowing much about streams and rivers. Seems they are like channels, open and dry, and then the water rushes through them. Hmmmm….
I get the notion they are empty but not completely. I imagine that over time, pebbles, rocks, even boulders find their way into these flumes, along with branches and other debris blown into them from across the landscape. Sometimes, these things become obstacles to the flow of the water, and sometimes they facilitate it, and they create a new force, a new energy. And, we know, river beds change their paths, slowly over time, as they wind their way through the territory. What a metaphor for our own birth, our own life, our baptism and spiritual life!
Step into the stream! Serve! Love and Serve the Lord and your neighbor! That’s the call to all who say yes to God. But how, that is the question many of us have. It is the intention of the Ministry Development Commission (MDC) to offer you as many opportunities as it can to help you discern what it is you are called to do and to support you as you step into the stream. To that end, it has agreed to pilot a Whitaker School of Theology (WSoT)program, Exploring Your Spiritual Journey (EYSJ) for this congregation and the congregations in our Oakland Deanery.
EYSJ participants make a commitment to themselves, to God, and to each other to meet twice a month for about eight months. During this time, each person looks into his/her spiritual life. This is a scripture based program that looks at prayer, creation, call, covenant, suffering and hope, and images of Jesus. It is also a program that gives individuals time to explore and share their spiritual journey, identify their gifts, and explore ministry. The program doesn’t end there, but sends each person out with a learning plan to carry out his/her ministry. This program is open to all people who are either at the stream’s edge or in the stream and wondering, “Okay, now what?”
Because this is a pilot program for WSoT, it will underwrite the program, and this means a savings in tuition for the participants. Participants in the St. Andrew’s pilot will be charged $275. ($125 is for the retreat in September at the Emrich Center, and $150 is the tuition cost.) Ordinarily, this program costs $1400 per participant. Scholarships are available through WSoT. An informational meeting is scheduled for May 21, 2008, 7-8:30 p.m., in the St. Gregory Room. The first class session is scheduled for August 20, 2008, from 7-9:30 p.m., here at St. Andrew’s. At that time, the participants will set the place and calendar for the remaining 14 meetings. We know that Father Bob and I will facilitate the program, so you can talk to us about the program or any member of the MDC—Carole Wollard, Mary Kay Sparre, Diane Hammond, Aleta Morris, Tracy Moore, and Marcia Bottomley.
EYSJ is perhaps more of a commitment than some are ready to make right now, so other discernment opportunities are needed. For you, MDC will offer a shorter, but intense, “Listening Hearts” experience, they hope this summer. And, the regular 5-6 week “Listening Hearts” program will be offered again this next fall or winter.
More information about all of these programs and more will become available in the bulletins, on the bulletin boards, and/or in future editions of the “Companion.” I hope you will participate in many of these discernment opportunities as discerning God’s call to serve, to step into the stream, is on going, a never ending responsibility and joy. With that in mind, I’d like to leave you with another thought from Dillard’s book:
As Martin Buber saw it—writing at his best near the turn of the last century—the world of ordinary days “affords” us that precise association with God that redeems both us and our speck of world. God entrusts and allots to everyone an area to redeem: this creased and feeble life, “the world in which you live, just as it is and not otherwise.”…
“It is given to men to lift up the fallen and to free the imprisoned. Not merely to wait, not merely to look on! Man is able to work for the redemption of the world.”
The work is not yours to finish, Rabbi Tarfon said, but neither are you free to take no part in it. (199-200)
Deacon Marlyn
Annie Dillard, author of For the Time Being, begins its seventh chapter with these words:
Birth • Our lives come free; they’re on the house to all comers, like the shopkeeper’s wine. God decants the universe of time in a stream, and our best hope is, by our own awareness, to step into the stream and serve, empty as flumes, to keep it moving. (175)
What a picture this created in my mind! I had to look up the word, flumes, though, not knowing much about streams and rivers. Seems they are like channels, open and dry, and then the water rushes through them. Hmmmm….
I get the notion they are empty but not completely. I imagine that over time, pebbles, rocks, even boulders find their way into these flumes, along with branches and other debris blown into them from across the landscape. Sometimes, these things become obstacles to the flow of the water, and sometimes they facilitate it, and they create a new force, a new energy. And, we know, river beds change their paths, slowly over time, as they wind their way through the territory. What a metaphor for our own birth, our own life, our baptism and spiritual life!
Step into the stream! Serve! Love and Serve the Lord and your neighbor! That’s the call to all who say yes to God. But how, that is the question many of us have. It is the intention of the Ministry Development Commission (MDC) to offer you as many opportunities as it can to help you discern what it is you are called to do and to support you as you step into the stream. To that end, it has agreed to pilot a Whitaker School of Theology (WSoT)program, Exploring Your Spiritual Journey (EYSJ) for this congregation and the congregations in our Oakland Deanery.
EYSJ participants make a commitment to themselves, to God, and to each other to meet twice a month for about eight months. During this time, each person looks into his/her spiritual life. This is a scripture based program that looks at prayer, creation, call, covenant, suffering and hope, and images of Jesus. It is also a program that gives individuals time to explore and share their spiritual journey, identify their gifts, and explore ministry. The program doesn’t end there, but sends each person out with a learning plan to carry out his/her ministry. This program is open to all people who are either at the stream’s edge or in the stream and wondering, “Okay, now what?”
Because this is a pilot program for WSoT, it will underwrite the program, and this means a savings in tuition for the participants. Participants in the St. Andrew’s pilot will be charged $275. ($125 is for the retreat in September at the Emrich Center, and $150 is the tuition cost.) Ordinarily, this program costs $1400 per participant. Scholarships are available through WSoT. An informational meeting is scheduled for May 21, 2008, 7-8:30 p.m., in the St. Gregory Room. The first class session is scheduled for August 20, 2008, from 7-9:30 p.m., here at St. Andrew’s. At that time, the participants will set the place and calendar for the remaining 14 meetings. We know that Father Bob and I will facilitate the program, so you can talk to us about the program or any member of the MDC—Carole Wollard, Mary Kay Sparre, Diane Hammond, Aleta Morris, Tracy Moore, and Marcia Bottomley.
EYSJ is perhaps more of a commitment than some are ready to make right now, so other discernment opportunities are needed. For you, MDC will offer a shorter, but intense, “Listening Hearts” experience, they hope this summer. And, the regular 5-6 week “Listening Hearts” program will be offered again this next fall or winter.
More information about all of these programs and more will become available in the bulletins, on the bulletin boards, and/or in future editions of the “Companion.” I hope you will participate in many of these discernment opportunities as discerning God’s call to serve, to step into the stream, is on going, a never ending responsibility and joy. With that in mind, I’d like to leave you with another thought from Dillard’s book:
As Martin Buber saw it—writing at his best near the turn of the last century—the world of ordinary days “affords” us that precise association with God that redeems both us and our speck of world. God entrusts and allots to everyone an area to redeem: this creased and feeble life, “the world in which you live, just as it is and not otherwise.”…
“It is given to men to lift up the fallen and to free the imprisoned. Not merely to wait, not merely to look on! Man is able to work for the redemption of the world.”
The work is not yours to finish, Rabbi Tarfon said, but neither are you free to take no part in it. (199-200)
Deacon Marlyn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)