The View from Bolton Street
Liturgy & Living Sunday April 15 - Report from the Vestry
This Sunday, following Coffee Hour, the Vestry will update the congregation on outcomes from the Vestry retreat and planning for this year and the years to come.
The central focus for this discussion will be community, culture, and worship.
Please plan to join us!
The View From Bolton Street
Jesus Is Risen: Now what?
Happy Easter! Now that the organ has cooled off, the incense died down and the horns from ‘Thomas Sunday’ have stopped blaring - you might be asking yourself ‘Okay, now what?’ Jesus Died. He rose again. So... now what? What does it mean for us?
Do we just go back to the way church always was? To the way life always was?
After all this does happen every year. What exactly is the Church supposed to do AFTER Easter? Where do we go from here.
In the grand theological history of the Church, we would hope that each Easter brings with it a renewed focus on telling Jesus’ story, and inspiring a sense of resurrection and hope, that in turn produces new programs, efforts, ministries, and yes, even new believers. The season of Easter, which ends with Pentecost Sunday, is a time of rebirth. It is why we read through the Book of Acts and remind ourselves of the birth of the Church, and work to find rebirth in our own communities. Which is why it is perfect this happens in spring when the world around us is being born anew. That would, of course, make more sense if spring would ever actually get here. But even so - the fifty days of Easter are a time to make resurrection a reality in the Church and in the world.
With an eye towards Easter and our own resurrection stories here at Memorial, the vestry has been discussing how our community might experience resurrection and rebirth. We have felt the energy of new members, a renewed interest in social justice efforts, continued upgrades to the physical plant, and a worship experience that is restorative and energizing. During our vestry retreat we focused on how our community can create a more open and welcoming culture for prospective members and neighbors, and on who exactly our neighbors are.
I hope you can join us this Sunday following the 8:00 am and the 10:30 am services to hear more about the Retreat and the ‘Now What’ from our Vestry - and to hear how you can be involved in a little bit of rebirth at Memorial in the coming year.
See you in Church!
Justice Committee Meeting
Just a reminder that the regular Justice Committee meeting (7 PM) preceded by the Justice Eucharist at 6:30 is scheduled for the second Wednesday of the month. That is next week on April 11. We will meet at the church. I look forward to seeing you.
In addition I want to bring to your attention a training opportunity with BUILD to be held this Thursday. The details are in the body of an email from Libby Cohen who is the BUILD organizer that works with Memorial...copied and pasted here. I know that Dick W. is going. All others who are able are encouraged to participate also.
"Hi Memorial-ites,
I wanted to make sure you all knew that we'll be gathering for our next citywide issue action team training, or 'Nehemiah' training, next Thursday, April 5th from 6:30 to 8:30 at Northside Baptist Church.
Just as a quick reminder, we've divided into 4 issue action teams: youth trauma and opportunities (where Jessica has been helping us do great research work--thanks, Jessica!); policing and public safety; mental health and addiction; and jobs. Our police team has been doing great accountability work with the new commissioner, and they will lead us in a workshop on moving from 'problem to issue' and political judgment. We'll then break into our issue teams to apply what we've learned. **No worries if you did not make it to our first of these trainings in January; you are welcome to jump in now!"
Family Dinner at Memorial
Hi Memorial Families,
I am looking forward to our first family dinner/fellowship next Wednesday PM in the Upper Parish Hall.
As Grey mentioned in his last email, we hope to hold one monthly through out the year and have at least 1 picnic this summer.
In our initial discussion about creating this time, we saw the objective of this time together is to take a breather from our busy week to talk amongst ourselves about opportunities for and challenges to spiritual growth of our families. Of course we will talk more about this next Wednesday, including a discussion for best format and timing for a monthly get together.
Just bring yourself and kids - church will provide dinner, and childcare
Stay Tuned for an Evite so you can RSVP
The View from Bolton St.
Fifty years ago this spring, on March 31, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached what would be his final Sunday sermon, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, at Washington National Cathedral just days before his assassination in Memphis. That Friday, April 5th, thousands came to the Cathedral for a national service to mourn this preacher, prophet and man of faith. People filled the Cathedral; thousands spilled out onto the Pilgrim Steps.
In this 50th year since Dr. King’s death, Washington National Cathedral will host a series of programs reflecting on his leadership and his faith. We take as our guide Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s call for racial healing, justice and reconciliation, embodied in the document Becoming Beloved Community. We have much to do as a community, and as a country, to live into Dr. King’s dream.
For more information, please click here to go to the Washington National Cathedral site.
Memorial Players Presents: Into the Woods
Memorial Players presents six performances of “Into the Woods” April 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29. This beloved musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine uses familiar fairy tales to explore parent-child relationships that, as always, are difficult, scary and loving. Featured here are our old friends Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack, Little Red Riding Hood, plus some new characters such as the Witch, and the Baker and his Wife, that are added to the fairy tale canon. The show explores the consequences of the characters getting everything that they wish for, what happens after they get what they want and face the inevitable consequences, and the ensuing mayhem, chaos, blame, and finally forgiveness.
Casting for this show is diverse, full of intergenerational Memorial teens, children and adults. Nampoina Randrianarivelo is Cinderella, Ruby Webb is Little Red Riding Hood, Brinley Fisher is Rapunzel, Paris Weeks is the Narrator, Sallie Ratrie is Lucinda, one of the stepsisters, Ginny Hornbeck is the Baker’s Wife, Jamie Griffith is double cast as the Wolf and the Steward, Megan Dimmock is the Stepmother, and Sue Gorman is the Giant. A children’s chorus featuring Memorial’s and the neighborhood’s children enriches the production with their lovely voices and beautiful presence on stage. An adult ensemble adds richness to the vocals with Rebecca Gorman, Jill Griffith, Tom Penniston and Debbie Phinney. Last but not least we feature Grey Maggiano as “The Priest.” Look for Kate Gorman, Noah Stone and David Dimmock in the pit.
Our Director, Stephen Deininger, well known to the Memorial Stage as Uncle Archie in “Secret Garden” and Tateh in “Ragtime,” is an actor, a singer and a musician and fun to work with. Our Assistant Director, Stacy Wells, teaches our children their songs, blocks them and rehearses them. John Seeley’s set is creative and imaginative. Beth Ratrie and Ros Kooser’s costumes dazzle. Lighting and sound by Daryl Beard. Ochestra conducted by Tim Viets. Kaite Vaught is our Stage Manager. Julie Modlin will coordinate the concession stand. Kristine Smets worked so hard to get our Bolton Hill neighbors to open their homes for the pre-show receptions. Paul Seaton is the producer.
For details on reserving a spot in those popular pre-show receptions please visit http://memorialplayers.org/reservations/index.html.
As always Memorial Players features open seating, and free admission. Free-will donations will be solicited at the show. Online donations in advance can be made at http://memorialplayers.org. For questions, do email or text the producer Paul Seaton at pseaton@memorialepiscopal.org or 410-615-4532.
Green Team updates
Below you will find all the information you may need for the Inspirational Bus Tour. If you still need to register, you can find that information here.
The OneWaterPartnership Inspirational Bus Tour gets on the road! April 8, 2018.
The rain garden at Chizuk Amuno is designed to filter 2.8 million gallons of run off annually from their 4300 sq. ft. roof.
The Bus Tour ends at what is quite possibly Baltimore's most world-famous landmark - Mr. Trash Wheel. With his googly-eyes and his green mission, Mr. Trash Wheel has been featured in articles and lectures from Singapore to Sweden.
