The Vestry

I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received

1 Corinthians 15:1

Paul certainly had a way of opening a sermon, huh? That might as well have been the beginning of the Church of Corinth's annual meeting circa 55 C.E. Christ the same yesterday, today and forever! 'Remember...' Is how we begin every service -- 'Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Blessed be God's Kingdom now and Forever, Amen."

Today I am pleased to announce that on Sunday the 2022-2023 Memorial Vestry voted on a new slate of officers: Bill Roberts will serve as Senior Warden, Stacy Wells as Junior Warden and John McIntyre will continue in his role as Secretary while Paul Seaton continues on as Treasurer.

I am grateful for these new leaders who have taken up the Apostle Paul's call to remember the Good News and to make it true for everyone in our midst. Please join me in welcoming them and all of our new Vestry members this year - Keenan Dworak Fisher, Shannon McCullough, Steve Howard, Ryan Sturm and Wendy Yap.

The Vestry will do a virtual retreat in two parts - February and March - and between the two meetings will be 'retreating' with all of you, so be prepared to hear from a member or two sometime soon.

Holy God, the navigator of our souls, hear us as we hold up before you our annual Vestry. Be with us in our yearning to chart a course together, inspired by the presence of your Spirit. Give courage to our clergy, all of our leaders, and each of us, as we move forward with your blessing. For all we do, we do to your glory, in Jesus' name. AMEN

The View from Bolton Hill

Noisy Gongs and Clanging Cymbals

There are only a few bible verses that you can say a few words of and even nominal Christians know where it comes from, and Paul’s reflections on love from Corinthians is definitely in that canon.  I am also sure that I am not the only parent for whom the pandemic has been a constant stream of noisy gongs and clanging cymbals from children spending far too much time at home. And what I can tell you, over my intensive research over these noises in the last two years is that they are…annoying! 

Yet, when it is your child performing their umpteenth Interpretive dance or rock concert no matter how terrible the cacophony all you feel is love. Well. Mostly. 

The difference between joy and misery is often as simple as connection.  Relationship.  The same thing you find endearing in one person is positively odious in another not because of how they do it but because of your relationship to them.  There are a lot of definitions of love but the power to make the obnoxious beautiful may be up there. 

Or better said - to love something is to love its beautiful and ugly parts in equal measure. 

God loves your beautiful and ugly parts in equal measure. 

This is very good news, though it is hard to believe in our instagram centered, image focused 21st century world. We convince ourselves that the things we love have to be perfect - be they sports teams, or churches, or politicians, movie stars, we ask them for perfection, demand it sometimes.  

Have you ever considered that demanding perfection is the opposite of love? 

If there is one part of our work on reparations and truth telling that I think has been critical to our success it is that we love this church.  We don’t need it to be perfect, but we do want it to be better.  Whatever we might say about racism, white supremacy, segregation or any of the other sins of division that continue to plague this city — we say it from a place of love.  

We proclaim it out of a desire to be better as a church, a community, and a world. And in so doing, we recognize we are the first ones that need to change. 

Loving our ugly parts doesn’t mean we want or need to keep them! But we do acknowledge they are part of us, and that we can only change the outcome if love ourselves enough to tell the truth, acknowledge what it is we desire to change, and then work together to wake up tomorrow a little bit better than today. 

As our Deacon said last week, ‘No one said it was going to be easy!’ It will require us to be patient and kind, neither envious, boastful or rude. (Sound familiar) We will need to seek out new paths, we will not be swept up in our mistakes but we will take time to stop and celebrate our victories.  

Please join us this Sunday at our annual meeting as we celebrate some of those victories at 10:30 am. 

The Content of our Character

“It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I’m going to tell him to include women in the sequel.” Hamilton

“All men are created equal.” Thomas Jefferson

It is not currently in vogue in the progressive Christian set to talk about King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. We are supposed to instead discuss his stance on poverty, on reparations, on socialism, on the problems with white moderates in Birmingham. Certainly all those sermons and speeches are worth your time, and I commend them to you. But the simplicity and bluntness of King’s most well known address should not be forgotten.

Because it was at once an obvious summary of the proposition of the American project from the beginning — that we are all equal, and also a tremendous threat to the status quo for all of White America.

Today, almost 60 years later, that is still true.

Because we all clap at the first line — but you scratch at the surface of any of the pieces of that speech and you STILL meet tremendous resistance. School funding, equal housing, job opportunities, an unequal justice system - we are still issuing bad checks to Black America.

The question is - why?

Because White America still has not reconciled with the fact that our own life, liberty and pursuit of happiness was and is built upon the suffering and misery of others. Martin brought this into vivid detail as he marched, prayed, preached and taught his way through a segregated America and many of us hated him for it.

We are all in for the dream, as long as it doesn’t cost us anything.

I am proud of Memorial Episcopal Church for learning this lesson and committing $500,000 to reparations here in West Baltimore, because we want to make the Dream real. This is not a check that will come back marked insufficient funds. But money is only part of the work.

One thing I continue to find amazing about King is that, like Saints Francis and Paul before him, he walked everywhere. Perhaps his biggest gift was not his words but his presence. He was always there. And right there too. Not from a balcony or a passing car but right on the ground.

He got his hands dirty. We should get our hands dirty too.

That is how we can show the world the content of our character.

Memorial Episcopal Church's 2022 Annual Meeting - January 30th at 10:30 AM

2022 ANNUAL MEETING REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

Fr. Grey and the wardens have decided to push back the date of the Memorial Church Annual Meeting by one week with the hope that it will make it more likely that people will choose to attend in person. We believe that it’s better on many levels if lots of us are together in the sanctuary. Please move the meeting on your calendars to Sunday, January 30 at 10:30 am.

To be clear, we are not saying that we are moving the meeting date so that everyone will attend in person. We do hope that by delaying the meeting by one week there is a better chance that more of us will feel comfortable coming to church if the current pandemic conditions have abated enough by then. There will be a Zoom option, just as there is every Sunday, and we want each person to decide against in-person vs Zoom attendance that is right for them.

As in past years, we will begin the Annual Meeting by worshipping together and having the business portion after the Eucharist. I look forward to seeing all of you there, either in the church or virtually. If the date change makes it impossible for any of you to join us, please let us know. And of course, also let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you.

Bill Roberts, for the Rector and Wardens

E-Church 8 and 10:30 am - February 6

Due to Rising COVID Cases Memorial Services will be virtual

and In-Person for anyone who feels comfortable attending.

WE WILL RE-EVALUATE NEXT TUESDAY

Call In Info for 10:30 am

Meeting ID: 848 7313 8202

Passcode: 156705

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Dial by your location

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The View from Bolton Street

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12

Today I walked into the church to give our new Parish Administrator a tour of the facility and was immediately hit by a whiff of something rotten. This is not metaphorical - it stunk! So our tour turned into a scavenger hunt for gross smells. Quite an introduction to Memorial! But maybe appropriate for a 160 year old building.

Occasionally I, and perhaps some of you, am frustrated in doing the things that advance the mission of the church because I’ve got to hunt down a leaky pipe or a permit or something mundane. However these challenges present themselves in our lives, we want to scream “I am more important than this! I’ve got better things to do!”

And then there is that still small voice saying “we are one body…” and I remember that this is ALL THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH.

Maintaining the building, filing the vestry minutes, turning the lights off, picking up the trash, it is all part of the ministry of the Church. When we let one part of our body, community, or institution falter it makes everything else function less well.

Perhaps you are spending a lot of time doing things that are frustrating, nonsensical and far outside the mission of your work, your life, your everything. Perhaps you have been doing that for almost two years now. If you feel like you are working harder and accomplishing less you are not alone. So remember that all these efforts, even the ones focused on basic survival, are to protect your body and the entire body of Christ.

You are more productive than you could possibly realize - because you are here! All of this frustrating, repetitive and contradictory effort is holy work, done by holy people. Take some time to honor that holy work.

E-Church 10:30 AM -- January 2nd 2022

Due to the rise in COVID cases - this weeks worship will be all virtual

To join us online, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!

Two tips for Zoom worship:

1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance. 

2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together. 

Meeting ID: 848 7313 8202

Passcode: 156705

One tap mobile

+13017158592,,84873138202#,,,,*156705# US (Washington DC)

+13126266799,,84873138202#,,,,*156705# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location

+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

Meeting ID: 848 7313 8202

Passcode: 156705

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/knhOVE23a

Making the Vision Plain

Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.

Habakkuk 2:3

Some of you may know that the Feast of Saint Thomas is the anniversary of my ordination to the Priesthood. It is a significant day, and Thomas is a significant figure in my life for a variety of reasons, but for some reason this particular reading stuck out to me. Write the Vision. Make it Plain. So that a Runner may read it.

I fear that perhaps in the cacophony of the last two years, the vision of who we are at Memorial has not been made plain. We have been so busy trying to survive this pandemic, to care for each other and for those around us, and to just keep ourselves going that you might be hard pressed to know what we are about.

As we approach the tail end of stewardship season and begin to prepare for the annual meeting in January, I thought it made sense to put pen to paper (or fingers to key pad) about what exactly the vision is for Memorial and why you will want to be a part of this community in some form or fashion for many years to come.

Community Focused - Outward Looking: In order to stay vital, Churches have to re-orient how they encounter the world around them. If a church community is not seen as a vital resource to the people around it it simply won’t survive. For the last five years we have been opening our doors and expanding the boundaries of what we call our neighborhood. A few years ago residents in Druid Heights or Upton would not have known our name, now we have deep and deepening connections with neighbors and organizations in all four directions.

Jesus Focused - Justice Centered: Taking our cues from the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior we seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus out in the world. We also recognize that the Church has been and continues to be an instrument of injustice in too many places, and that if we are to truly reflect the Gospel today we have to be about justice.

Repairers of the Beach - Restorers of the Streets to live in: Memorial has made a $500,000 - five year commitment to reparations in West Baltimore. But we recognize that this is just a down payment. As a community we are committed to repairing and restoring relationships, neighborhoods and lives in central west Baltimore not because of a political agenda, but because it is what Jesus would have us do.

The Light of Christ: Finally, we do all this to be the light of Christ in the world. Church attendance has never been lower, and peoples hunger for a spiritual connection has never been greater. People have not given up on Jesus! But they have given up on the church - it is our hope that through our ministry, our worship, and our way of life - people will find themselves drawn into deeper relationship with the divine through word and sacrament.

THIS is why we need you to finalize your pledge for 2022.

Because in 2022 we will have our most robust staff in a decade - with a Priest, Deacon, Seminarian, Sexton, Justice Minister, Youth Minister, Parish Administrator, Building Administrator, Music Minister, Treasurer and Bookkeeper.

We will have a staff that more and more reflects the whole body of Christ and the community around us - representing a variety of races, creeds, colors, backgrounds and pronouns.

We will be working closely with many partners in West Baltimore for the spiritual, physical and emotional renewal of the broader community.

We will be making more use of our space than ever to serve Bolton Hill and the Neighborhoods and Institutions around us.

But that only happens if you pledge. So please make your pledge today if you have not already

PLEDGE HERE: https://www.memorialboltonhill.org/stewardship

A Christmas Message

Did the Baby Jesus Cry?

And other mysteries of an incarnate God

You might have heard the term before ‘C+E Christians’, that is, someone who only comes to Church on the C and the E days (Christmas and Easter). There are usually snarky comments associated with such participants in the life of faith, especially from ‘REAL’ Christians. Which is silly. More people watch the World Series and the Super Bowl than a standard pro game, more people vote in presidential elections than local primaries, It is basic human nature! More people come on the biggest days, which this pastor loves. The carols, the incense, the candles, the pageants, Silent Night by candlelight; it makes perfect sense why people want to come out for that! I want to come to that!  

I am less concerned with C+E’s than I am with the difference between C and E Christians. Do you have a preference - the simplicity and tradition of Christmas, or the pageantry and rhythm of Holy Week and Easter? Easter is about salvation, resurrection, redemption. It is what separates us from all other faiths. A man died. Rose from the dead. Went to Heaven. And is now our only Mediator and Advocate. 

Christmas  in contrast is a story with undertones across many faiths and traditions. The Son of God is born of a woman under unlikely circumstances and is sought out by some offering joy and others offering to do harm to this living child of God. This story reflects and refracts back through history.  It’s intimate nature draws us all in. We all desire to know God; no matter our faith, background, language or culture. This manger Jesus, this incarnate God made man, is accessible to all of us because we share a common characteristic. We were also born babies. This God needs us in the same way we need God. We read in Genesis that God made us in God’s image, but we know it to be true because we see it in the incarnate Christ.  

This year, whether you are an every week Christian, A C Christian, an E Christian or a COVID Christian (zoom only), I invite you to come meet the Christ Child.  God chose to come to us first as an innocent and helpless newborn - needing our care, our gifts, our help, and our hope.  That is what is waiting for you. 

Come share in the hope this Christmas.

The View from Bolton Hill

The View From Bolton Street

 On Missionaries, Martyrs and us

 “Son of David have mercy on me!”

In the Gospel this week we have the story of Blind Bartimaeus, who calls out quietly first and then loudly to Jesus, asking for help.  

Sometimes all we have to do is ask. This morning I asked if there were churches that could house refugees, and three churches reached out immediately.  

You all similarly have been responsive to requests for needs since I have been here, and long before. All we have to do is ask. Whether it is meals, or clothes, or money, or a place to stay, you all are a thoughtful and caring and generous bunch. 

Would you believe that God is the same way? That The Divine is even more generous, compassionate, caring and responsive? All we have to do is ask. 

When you are feeling overwhelmed, in crisis, stressed and not sure what to do, prayer can seem like a waste of time. I’ve got real problems! But prayer should be not just our first response, but also a constant refrain.  

But what do we pray?  

I love the example of Bartimaeus because his prayer is so simple: “my teacher let me see again.” That’s it! That simple. If we are going to pray to God, we need to be clear with God so we can be clear with ourselves. Sometimes, we don’t know WHAT we need!  

Which is why Bartimaeus’ prayer is so great: let me see again.  

When we are confused and flustered, and don’t know what to do next, a prayer for vision seems highly appropriate. “Teacher let me see…” what is next, let me see what you have in store for me, let me see the road ahead.  

When things are dark and confusing, spending time in prayer and reflection may seem like a waste of time, or even scary. But it can make all the difference. 

Sometimes… all you have to do is ask.