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Presiding Bishop's Christmas message—Eyes to see: Finding Immanuel as immigrant, wanderer, child
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ENS photo |
[Episcopal News Service] In what form will you find the Christ child this year? The fact
of the Incarnation in a weak and helpless babe says something
significant about where we focus our search. I am convinced that
it is part of our call to exercise a "preferential option" on
behalf of the poor, weak, sick, and marginalized. The long arc
of biblical thinking and theologizing has to do with seeing
God's care for those who have no other helper. Indeed, Jesus is
understood as that helper for all who fail, by the world's
terms, to save themselves. More accurately, we understand that
Jesus is that helper for all.
One of the great gifts of the way in which those in our cultural
surroundings celebrate Christmas is the focus on children and on
those who have few human helpers. We delight in the wonder of
children as Christmas approaches, and many of us make an extra
effort to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and care for
the needy. The challenge is to let our seasonal "seeing"
transform the way we meet our neighbors through the rest of the
year, and through all the coming years. How might we begin to
see that child in those around us: strangers and aliens (both
Immanuel and Immigrants); wanderers (Homeless, like Mary and
Joseph, for whom there was no room); widows and orphans (Social
Outcasts); babe born in Bethlehem (Palestinian and Israeli
alike; or the boy babies whom both Pharaoh and Herod sought to
kill); divine feeder of thousands (Soup Kitchen worker); and
savior of the world (Peacemaker, Bringer of Justice for All,
Reconciler, Just and Gracious Lawgiver...). If God comes among
us as a helpless child, then the divine presence is truly all
around us. Where will you meet Jesus this Christmas?
Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas message
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ACNS photo |
[ACNS] One of the strangest yet most moving expressions in the New Testament is a verse in the Letter to the Hebrews (11.16): God ‘is not ashamed to be called their God’. The writer is talking about the history of God’s people. When they have been faithful to God, faithful in keeping on moving onwards in faith rather than settling down in self-satisfaction, when they are true pilgrims, then God is content to be known as their God. He declares himself to be the God of pilgrims, of people who know that their lives are incomplete and that they are still journeying towards the fullness of God’s promises. Visiting refugee camps in the Middle East, as I did this October, brings home so powerfully what it is to be literally and absolutely homeless, not able to be confident in any resources, inner or outer. People in these terrible circumstances will never be complacent, they will always be looking for a future. They are in the most obvious way those whom God is not ashamed to be with, people whose God he is happy to be. He is at home with the homeless. But it is also an image of God’s relationship with all those who are homeless or wandering in other ways.
What an odd expression, to say that God is not ‘ashamed’! It’s as though we are being reassured that God, in spite of everything, doesn’t mind being seen in our company. Most of us know the experience of being embarrassed by someone we are with – children are embarrassed by parents, parents by children; I have sometimes found myself walking down the road with someone who is talking loudly or behaving oddly, and wishing I weren’t there. But God is not embarrassed by human company when that company is turning away from self-satisfaction and ready to move on. We might think that God would be ‘ashamed’ of human company that was imperfect, confused, even sinful. But God is happy to be the God of confused and sinful people when they recognise their own confusion and face the truth of their need. That’s what the great parables of Jesus in St Luke’s Gospel are so often about, especially the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
So at Christmas, God shows that he is not ashamed to be with us. He has heard our cries of weakness and self-doubt and unhappy longing, he has seen our wanderings and anxieties, and he is not ashamed to be alongside us in this world, walking with us in our pilgrimage. And because he is content to walk with us, we are challenged about whose company we might be ashamed to share. So easily we decide that we would be ashamed to share the company of the sinful, the doubting or the outcast. But God, it seems, is not ashamed to be seen with such people. If he is ashamed to be called the God of any human group, the text from Hebrews strongly suggests that he is most ‘embarrassed’ by those who think they have arrived at the end of their journey, who think they have already attained perfection (compare St Paul’s angry and scornful words in I Corinthians 4.8 – ‘Already you have become rich!’). And it is clear why God would be ashamed to be the God of such people: they behave and speak as if they didn’t really need God, as if they didn’t really need grace and hope and forgiveness.
God loves the company of those who know their need, and that is why he comes at Christmas to stand with them, to live with them and to die and rise for them. He is the God who blesses the poor – not only those who are materially poor, but those who are without the ‘riches’ of self-satisfaction and complacency, those who know all too well how far they fall short of real and full humanity. And so we are to pass on that blessing to the poor of every sort, those who are without material resources and those who are ‘poor in spirit’ because they know their hunger and need. Let us ask ourselves honestly whose company we are ashamed to be seen in – and then ask where God would be. If he has embraced the failing and fragile world of human beings who know their needs, then we must be there with him.
May God give us every blessing and joy in the Christmas Season.
+Rowan Cantuar
[Episcopal News Service] The Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has written to the Primates of the Anglican
Communion and Moderators of the United Churches reflecting on their
responses to the Joint Standing Committee's analysis of the New Orleans
statement from the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, and offering some
proposals for the next steps in the lead up to the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
The full text of the archbishop's Advent Letter is available at
www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92855_ENG_HTM.htm.
Some delegates vow to "Remain Episcopal"; Presiding Bishop
comments on action
By Pat McCaughan
[Episcopal News Service, Fresno, California] Delegates
attending the 48th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San
Joaquin on Saturday, December 8, overwhelmingly voted to leave
the Episcopal Church and to align with the Anglican Province of
the Southern Cone.
"The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some
members of this church have made a decision to leave this
church," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "We
deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within
the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness. We
wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The
Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin,
albeit with new leadership."
To read the full story, as well as related articles, visit Episcopal Life Online, www.episcopalchurch.org/elife, page for several related stories.
Episcopal Relief and Development assists people affected by storms in the Pacific Northwest
[Episcopal Relief and Development] Episcopal Relief and Development is providing emergency assistance to communities in the Pacific Northwest battered by powerful winter storms that devastated the region last week. High winds and heavy rains damaged homes and agriculture in large areas of the region, leaving at least eight people dead, hundreds in shelters and tens of thousands without power.
Episcopal
Relief and Development responds to flooding in South Dakota and
Cuba
[Episcopal Relief and Development] Episcopal Relief and Development is
providing critical assistance to people affected by severe
flooding in South Dakota and Cuba.
Details of both efforts can be found on the ERD Web site, www.er-d.org. Donations may also be made via the Web site.
The Right Reverend Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr., Bishop of Upper South Carolina, will institute The Reverend Carol Ann Phillips Marshall as the 10th Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Lancaster, South Carolina, on Thursday, the 17th of January Two Thousand and Eight, The Feast of St. Antony, at 7:00 p.m. Reception will follow.
Your prayers and presence are requested. Clergy: White
Stoles.
God Willing The Right Reverend Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr., Bishop of Upper South Carolina, will ordain Mark Anthony Abdelnour, Alfredo Pedro Gonzalez, Joseph Kershaw Smith, and Joseph Stewart Whitehurst to the sacred order of Priests, Saturday, the 2nd of February, Two Thousand and Eight—The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, South Carolina, 11:00 a.m.
Your prayers and presence are requested. Clergy: White Stoles.
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St Luke's, Newberry
On December 6 Bishop Henderson presided over the institution of the Rev. Elizabeth Morton as rector of St. Luke's, Newberry. The Rev. Harold Morgan, spouse of St. Luke's new priest and rector of All Saints, Clinton, was the preacher. Both Morgans are former Upper South Carolinians who have returned to the diocese. Elizabeth Morgan served most recently at Christ Church, Blacksburg, Virginia, in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia.
St. Timothy's, Columbia
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On December 13, Bishop Henderson installed the Rev. Dimitrula “Tula” Henson as Rector of St. Timothy’s, Columbia. The Rev. Michael A. Bullock, rector of St. Martin’s in-the-Fields, Columbia, was the preacher at the celebration of new ministry service. Henson is the first woman rector of St. Timothy’s, a parish founded in 1892. She comes to the diocese from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Georgia, where she was associate rector.
Do you know a young person who would make a good deputy to Diocesan Convention? Please share this information and contact Bethany Human (803.771.7800, ext. 19) at Diocesan house for a nomination form ASAP! It's time to submit nominations in to convocation deans, as outlined below.
The 85th Convention of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina approved a diocesan canon change that calls for the election of two (2) youth deputies from each convocation to have seat, voice, and vote at Diocesan Convention. The election for these positions is to take place at the January meeting of the convocations and the term is for one year. To be eligible the young person must be a confirmed communicant in good standing in his or her congregation and a member of the electing convocation. The youth deputy is expected to attend all convocation meetings and the Diocesan Convention.
As of this writing, dates for all of the convocation meetings in January have not been posted. Watch the diocesan calendar on the Web site for updates or contact the appropriate convocation dean: Catawba – The Rev. Susan Wight (wwwight@earthlink.net); Gravatt – The Rev. Janet Tarbox (tarboxje@bellsouth.net); Midlands – The Rev. Canon Charles Davis (davis@trinitysc.org); Piedmont – The Rev. Robert Brown (fatherrob@stmattsepiscopal.com); and Reedy River – The Rev. Michael Schnatterly (MikeGoodShepherd@aol.com).
Gravatt news Call for staffers: Camp Gravatt is now hiring for summer 2008. Being a part of the summer camp staff at Gravatt is a positive, life-changing experience. Camp counselors serve as Christian role models for campers and make a lasting impression in the lives of the children they serve. If you have something to gain, and a lot to give, please consider applying. Applications for counselors, junior counselors, kitchen staff, and program staff are now available online at www.bishopgravatt.org or by calling 803.648.1817.
Camp Gravatt registration is online. Brochures will be mailed to last year's campers and to churches in January. There are some new program highlights this summer—Family Camp, a shorter session for younger campers, a Counselor-in-Training program for rising 10th graders, and an all-ages session so that parents can send all their children to camp at one time. Campers will also be able to participate in the new Gravatt Environmental Education Program. There are multi-sibling and multi-session discounts. There are also discounts for early-bird registration. Details are available on the Gravatt Web site, www.bishopgravatt.org. Families wishing to host a "Camp Gravatt Party" in their home are eligible for extra discounts when new friends sign up to attend camp.
The Gravatt Staff and Volunteers Reunion is scheduled for April 19, 2008. If you have ever served on summer camp staff or as a volunteer, you are invited to attend this day which will be filled with delicious food, old friends, fun activities, and a silent auction. Overnight accommodations will be available for families and individuals, and overnight guests can enjoy worship in the outdoor chapel on Sunday morning. Please e-mail gravattreunion@gmail.com or call Christine Koutrakos at 803-256-4954 to make sure we have your correct mailing address for invitations or if you would like to volunteer to help. Registration will be available online beginning in February. Donations of items for the auction are being accepted.
The January 5, 2008, Epiphany event at the St. James Center
for Spiritual Development featuring
the Rev. Howard Storm has been cancelled. Stay tuned for
updates.
"Arts at the Advent," with a focus on exploring Christian spirituality through music and art, will be held January 11-12, 2008, at Church of the Advent, Spartanburg. This groundbreaking conference will explore how an engagement in and with the arts is a means of encountering the “Holy in the ordinary.” Keynoted by former Upper South Carolinian the Rev. Michael Sullivan, now rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lynchburg, Virginia., the conference will feature the 40-member Davidson College Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble, and offer eight workshops led by local artists to include past and present Advent clergy.
For more information, contact the Rev. Roy Cole at Advent, 864.585.2268.
A registration form, including a complete conference schedule, is online at www.churchofadvent.org. Cost for the entire conference, $60… Saturday only, $40 …Friday night only, $20.
New Year's Eve Celebration—"This Fragile Earth, Our Island Home"
The convent's 5th annual celebration!
Monday, December 31,
10:30 p.m. with refreshments following.
Lessons, music, meditations, dance, stories, and new surprises!
January 11-13—Father/Son Weekend,
with Mark Shaver, Ernest Mensah, and Sr Rosina, OSH.
In January, the sisters are doing a new thing and inviting
fathers of all
ages and their sons of all ages for a guys' get-away. Our
"brother"
facilitators reside in Atlanta, with Ernest Mensah originally
from Ghana, West
Africa. They will be assisted by Mark Shaver's sons, 17-year-old Dan
and
25-year-old Stephen, an Episcopal priest. This interesting group
of men
will share perspectives on father-son relationships from the
points of view
of two cultures and will explore with you ways to create and
strengthen the
bond between a father and son, regardless of their ages. Open to
fathers and
sons, close male friends, and men attending solo.
$160 full weekend program, meals, lodging; $80 commuters, unless
specified.
Pre-registration and deposit required; some scholarship funding
available.
For more
information, contact the Episcopal Convent of St Helena by phone at
706.798.5201, e-mail
augustaconvent@comcast.net. Online at
www.osh.org.
An
experiential retreat entitled "Discovering ‘Thin Places’ During
Lent" will be hosted by The Snail’s Pace in Saluda, North
Carolina, January 25-26, 2008.
In Celtic Christian spirituality a “thin place” is when and where the veil between the sacred and the secular is so thin, it often disappears! This overnight retreat will get you “up and running” with the resources of Celtic spirituality for connecting with the Living Christ in daily living.
The format will include brief presentations followed by practice of various pathways for enabling your faith and discipleship to come alive. One key pathway will be lectio divina with scriptures for the upcoming Lenten season. Likewise, in the Celtic perspective we will practice lectio divina with nature as a way of meeting the redemptive Christ through meditation and contemplation with a bird, bush, squirrel, tree and/or landscape that may “seek you out” as an occasion for being in a “thin place”.
The retreat leader, Fred Macon, has made multiple trips and pilgrimages to Christian Celtic areas and with spirituality leaders in Ireland, Wales and Scotland. He is on the Intentional Growth Center’s Adjunct Faculty in Spiritual Direction and Spirituality at Lake Junaluska and has been through the two year Upper Room Academy for Spiritual Formation and the two year Shalem Guidance Program. His retreat leadership has taken him to South Africa, the Netherlands and Maine. In addition to Celtic spirituality, he is especially involved in centering prayer and meeting God in the present moment.
The cost is $95 per person, meals included. This retreat will be limited, so make your reservation by sending $25 to The Snail’s Pace, P. O. Box 593, Saluda, NC 29773. Visit The Snail's Pace at www.thesnailspace.org.
The Friends of St. Benedict have announced an upcoming
Benedictine Experience, February 7-10, 2008, at the Marywood Center
for Spirituality and Ministry in Jacksonville Florida. This retreat
is co-sponsored by the Friends and The Cathedral Center for
Spirituality of St. John's Cathedral, Jacksonville, Florida.
A Benedictine Experience is a time spent in community designed for
those who wish to nurture and strengthen their daily lives through
prayer and spiritual companionship. Participants follow the
Benedictine practice in an ordered day of prayer, study, work and
holy leisure. For this Experience, Sister Carolyn Gorny-Kopkowski,
OSB, will lead reflections on Sister Joan Chittister's classic book
on following the Rule, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily.
Questions and more information: Gail Larson, 904.642.5394.
Dear Bishop Dorsey,
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Bishop & Mrs. Masereka at our 85th diocesan convention, October 2007 |
Greetings to you from me and Stella, my wife.
I hope you are doing well. I hope your family is also doing well. I am writing to express our deepest gratitude to you and your nice staff for having welcomed us in your Diocese with so much love and care. Stella and I are very very grateful to you personally for having promoted our ministry in your Diocese. We are very grateful to you for the very generous contribution of $1550 that you gave to our ministry from your Diocesan Convention. Your contribution has already arrived in Uganda and will be used to pay school fees for over ten orphaned children in primary school for about one year.
Your generosity is most commendable.
Stella and I enjoyed every minute of our visit to your Diocese. Thank you very much for having given us a time to speak at your Convention. It was a great privilege for us to speak to the delegates from all over your Diocese. The time we spent interacting with various members of the Convention was also very special for us. Reverend Alice Haynes
[vicar of St. Matthias, Rock Hill] was very good at taking us around and looking after us.
May I take this opportunity to request you and your Diocese kindly to consider donating funds for setting up solar lighting in the BMCF Medical Clinic which I mentioned to you. We will kindly appreciate your assistance.
Electricity in Uganda is very un reliable and causes a lot of problems in the Clinic.
I also want to request you to continue helping our ministry by promoting our name and needs in the Parishes in your Diocese.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.
Yours in Christ
Bishop Zebedee Masereka
Power Point presentations on the Millennium Development Goals and used as "Millennium Moments" during diocesan convention in October are now available for download from the diocesan Web site, www.edusc.org. The presentations include an overview of the 8 MDGs and "If I had a million dollars," a Power Point that shows us how relatively little it will cost us to put extreme global poverty on the run.
February
10, the first Sunday in Lent, has been designated ONE Sunday
in support of the Episcopal Church's commitment, nationally as
well as in our diocese, to the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Bulletin inserts and other materials will be
available soon.
Our diocese is a "ONE Diocese"; for more information on what that means, please visit ONE Episcopalian (www.episcopalchurch.org/ONE/ ) and http://one.org, the Campaign to Make Poverty History."
ONE Episcopalian Declaration Cards – these are a great tool to get people involved in the ONE Episcopalian Campaign. Consider inserting them in your Sunday bulletin and having people placed filled out cards in the offertory plate.
Prayers:
A Bidding Prayer For An End To Global Poverty And Instability – This is a litany prepared by the Office of Government Relations. It is based on the MDG’s and can be used in place of the Prayers of the People.
Book of Common Prayer – the BCP also has many prayers that relate to topics of the MDG that you can use including prayers:
For Social Justice, p. 823
For the Poor and the Neglected, p. 826
For the Right Use of God’s Gifts, p. 827
For the Conservation of Natural Resources, p. 827
MDG Sermons and Theological Reflections:
2008
| January 10 | Deans and lay wardens quarterly meeting with Bishop |
| January 17 | Installation of the Rev. Deedie Phillips Marshall, Christ Church, Lancaster |
| January 24 | New rector / vicar orientation |
| January 27 | L.A.R.C.U.M. service |
| January 28-30 | Clergy Pre-Lenten Retreat |
| February 2 | Ordinations to the priesthood |
| February 3 | World Mission Sunday |
| February 8 | Ash Wednesday |
| February 9 | ECW Convention |
| February 28 | Clergy Business Day |
| March 17 | Renewal of ordination vows |
| April 12 | Continuing Education Day |
| May 3 | Diocesan Leadership Conference (Convention I) |
| July 2 | Deans & lay wardens quarterly meeting |
| September 15-17 | Fall Clergy Conference |
| October 4 | Continuing Education Day |
| October 15 | Deans & lay wardens quarterly meeting |
| October 24-25 | 86th Diocesan Convention (Part II) |
| December 11 | New rector / vicar orientation |
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Lions and oxen will sleep in the hay, |
A friend shared this poem in the form of a song by
Glenn L. Rudolph that she
had heard, sung in 2006 by the Wittenberg choir in concert in
Columbia. She brought me the words, played me the track on the CD,
and sat back while I let the music roll over me and through me. The
music is amazingly powerful, building in intensity to the final
refrain. I was in tears by the end. But one need not hear the music
to sense the intensity and poignancy of this poem.
Advent is here, and will soon be coming to its conclusion in the
celebration of the birth of Jesus. During this season, we are to be
preparing ourselves to meet Jesus, right now, today. But I think, on
an even deeper note, we are to be gestating Jesus the Christ in our
own bodies. There is a poem by the great Christian mystic Meister
Eckhart that says, in essence, if Jesus is born of Mary, and not
born of us, what
good is it? If Mary is full of grace and we are not, what good is
it? Mary is not here. We have to do the job. We have to be pregnant
with Christ, birth Christ, be Christ, know Christ, worship Christ,
and learn from Christ.
Of course, this makes no sense at all. It’s all paradoxical. We are
not the Christ and we must be the Christ. We can never know Christ
fully, yet we must strive to know Christ fully. We know Christ more
fully by knowing ourselves and others more fully. How can this be?
How can anything be that is mysterious and mystical?
The words to this poem are idealistic, but they must be real at the
same time. Can peace pervade? We must believe so and work toward
this goal in whatever ways are possible for us and with whatever
gifts God gave us.
Can nature be re-ordered and look more like God planned it? We must
try to see that this is so, in whatever ways we can. We must be like the prophet Isaiah and
dream a huge dream and believe it.
The international movement launched by the UN and endorsed by all
the world’s countries and every leading development institution
called The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is a structured way
for us to put our idealism into action. There are eight goals, all
attainable by the year 2015 if we put our idealism into action. They
range from ending world poverty to fighting illnesses to empowering
women and children. For a more detailed look at the MDGs, go to the
links on our very own Web site,
www.edusc.org, by clicking on
Millennium Development Goals on the right hand side of the home
page.
Sometimes the problems seem so large that we aren’t sure we can make
a difference. The next time you feel this way, look at the eight
goals and pick just one and work toward that. In this way, you can
know that you are being Christ’s hands and feet. The next time you
act out of a place of love and peace instead of out of prejudice and
arrogance, the next time you are even willing to really listen to
someone whose views are different from you own, you are allowing
Christ to “take new lodgings” in your heart.
This Christmas season may Christ be birthed in the world, through
you and me.
©Copyright Amy Sander Montanez, 2007
