The View from Bolton Street
Liturgy & Living - Becoming Beloved Community, Part 3
This week after coffee hour we will be diving in to Part 3 of the Becoming Beloved Community program: Practicing the Way of Love. The questions we will be asking ourselves this week are:
How will we grow as reconcilers, healers and justice-bearers?
How will we actively grow relationship across dividing walls and seek Christ in the other?
We hope you will join us as we continue this process and continue to examine who we are and who we want to become.
All Saints' Day - combined service with St. Katherine of Alexandria
All Saints’ Day combined service with
St. Katherine of Alexandria
On Sunday, November 4, we will celebrate the Feast of All Saints. This year we will be joined by the congregation of St. Katherine of Alexandria, and will have a special preacher - The Rev. Melanie Mullen, the Presiding Bishop’s Officer for Racial Reconciliation, and a Seminary classmate of the our Rector.
We will have combined choirs, Brass Reflections, and a festive coffee hour following. We hope to see you there.
Rev. Melanie Mullen serves as Episcopal Church’s Director of Reconciliation, Justice & Creation Care – charged with bringing the Jesus Movement to the concerns of the world. Prior to joining the Presiding Bishop’s staff she was the Downtown Missioner at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, leading a historic southern congregation’s missional, civic, and reconciliation ministries.
Before the ministry, Melanie worked in campaign fundraising and development, raising more than $10 million for leadership PACs, the Congressional Black Caucus, and US Congressional and gubernatorial races from Louisiana to Connecticut; and she served as Development Associate for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, with a focus on poverty advocacy.
She is a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity; and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, with a Bachelors in History.
The View from Bolton Street
“The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but Jesus holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:23-28
“Let it Go” Frozen
In the instant Disney Classic (at least for anyone with small children in their lives from the years of 2013-2016) ‘Frozen’ - the Princess turned Queen Elsa is holding on to a terrible secret, and rather than confront it (and her enemies) directly she runs away, builds a literal fortress of solitude and belts out her isolation anthem ‘Let it Go!’ Of course, she is as yet unaware that this ‘Let it Go’ advice is very good advice that she herself is unwilling to take! Until she is able to ‘Let Go’ of the hurt and fear of the past and deal honestly with friends and enemies alike, she never quite gets where she needs to be.
Moving on is an important skill. But often one we as humans have trouble with. We can get stuck on events or people in the past, we can continue to rehash our old conflicts, or worse we can just try and sweep them under the rug and ignore them and hope they will go away. But this week’s reading from Hebrews reminds us that the only thing that is forever is Jesus. And all the other priests, all the other stories, all the other things that have plagued our past will pass away.... if we let them. And more importantly BECAUSE Jesus is the one constant in our lives - Christ is always available to help work through those things we can’t handle on our own. If Elsa is the one shouting ‘Let it Go! Let it Go!” Jesus is responding “And I can help!”
The Former Priests in Hebrews after all include a fair number of bad priests. Ancient Israel, like any society, had its share of bad leaders, as has the United States, and most any society, or religious institution for that matter. The Episcopal Church endured long periods where much of its leadership were British sympathizers, confederate sympathizers, and later on ‘White Moderates’ - in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet we have been able to move beyond these periods because we recognize Jesus as our Lord, King, and great High Priest, and only in him do we see perfection. Part of the challenge of Christianity is acknowledging that you are not perfect. And that we are in a constant process of repentance, redemption, reconciliation, and trying again.
When the Church is at her best, we are constantly seeking amendment of life and trying to present a better way of carrying out God’s work in the world. When we are at our worst we are unwilling to admit our role in the evil around us and unable to imagine a new way of being outside of ‘what we have always done’. This week after Church we will discuss the third piece of ‘Becoming the Beloved Community’ — Repairing the Breach. Repairing the Breach requires us to recognize that no matter how much we love who and what has come before us, it was problematic. And that in order to repair the damage done, in order to cross the boundaries between us and neighbors and friends who seem so far from us, we need to seek repentance and reconciliation in Jesus.
And that is hard.
BUT it also is extremely fruitful. I hope you will join us for our Litrugy and Living Hour this week to contemplate what ‘Repairing the Breach’ looks like within the Memorial Community and between us and the communities around us.
See you in Church.
Souls to the Polls - Volunteers needed
This Sunday, October 28, at 1 pm we’ll be having a voting party at Linden Park. We need people to volunteer to help with serving food and driving people to early voting. The party will run from 1 pm to 4 pm and any time you can give would be most welcome. Please contact Hannah Hutchens if you can join us Sunday afternoon. This is among the most important things you can do for our voter drive - all are encouraged to help out!
The Seminarian's Corner
The Seminarian’s Corner
October 24, 2018
Sisters and Brothers,
I want to take a minute and introduce myself! My name is Jill Williams and I am a seminarian. This means that I am in the 4th year of a 5 year process to become an Episcopal priest. I attend Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, where I am studying to earn a Masters of Divinity, and will be the seminarian intern here at Memorial until I am ordained in 2020. I hope to use this space each month to tell you a little about what I’m doing or what I’m learning, or just to share some thoughts with you. I hope to hear back from you with any of your thoughts or reactions at jillwilliams1904@yahoo.com. And if I haven’t met you yet, please introduce yourself! I really want to get to know everyone.
This Sunday will be the first time I am preaching at Memorial. Preaching is serious business. I’ll be talking about scripture and I’ll be talking about our lives. And I want you all to know that I take the responsibility seriously and promise to always do my part to pray fiercely and study with great discipline about what is to be preached, and reflect with love and integrity what I hear God saying to us all. I hope to see you all Sunday!
Welcomers needed!
We are in need of new blood in the Welcomer ranks (you may think of them as Ushers). This is particularly important as we head into All Saints where we will be welcoming St. Katherine here, as well as Advent and Christmas when we have more services than usual.
As always, many hands make lighter work for all, and it would be a blessing to those already Welcoming to see some new faces and helping hands on Sundays.
If you are interested and want to learn more about what is involved, please contact Dick Williams by clicking on his name.
The View from Bolton Street
The View from Bolton Street
This week the Church remembers Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Anglican Martyrs burned at the stake by Rome. They were among the first Bishops in the Church of England and the first targets of the Catholic Church when they re-took control of England. It was violent, brutal and inhuman. For many of us, it makes us angry, scared and worried that similar things could happen to us. It reminds us of our own persecution and the persecutions our friends and family have experienced, big and small.
But we remember also that soon after, the English Church brutally executed even more Catholics in revenge. Hundreds, in fact, were drawn and quartered; beheaded; disembowled. It was violent. brutal. and inhuman.
And it didn’t make it any better.
A lot of folks are very angry right now. Whether it is about the state of leadership in our city, our nation or just at frustrations in our own lives at work or at home. And so often that anger brings with it a need for revenge. But the lesson we are reminded of this week is a need to be careful about our thirst for revenge. Because that blood ends up on our hands, and it weighs on our hearts and our minds.
As you prepare for Election Day, and for whatever other transitions might be in front of you, think less about how you will ‘punish’ those who you leave behind, and more about how you will move forward into a better tomorrow.
Election Eve Prayer Service
Monday November 5th, 6:30 pm
All are welcome for a contemplative prayer service on the eve of the Midterm elections to center our hearts and minds on God and our common call to strive for a more just and equitable world. We will pray not for a particular outcome on Election Day, but rather that voters and elected will be listening for the true spirit of God’s will; that they will put the needs of the most disadvantaged first; and that we will all wake up on Wednesday November 7th more committed to a more united and connected city, state and country.
Liturgy & Living October 21 - Becoming Beloved Community Part 2
This Sunday after church we will be engaging part of 2 of Becoming Beloved Community: Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community.
The questions we will be tackling are:
How can we publicly acknowledged things done and left undone?
What does Beloved Community look like?
What behaviors and committments foster healing, reconciliation, and justice?
These are important questions, and at the core of what we hope to do here at Memorial over the next several years. Please make time to come be part of the conversation.