The View from Bolton Street

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

Acts 9:3

For the last few days, Monica, the kids and I have been living out of a hotel in Hunt Valley while our floors are being redone.  Like any good historic home renovation, a two day job is now going into week two.  So as I gaze out the fifth floor of a building overlooking Wegmans and the Interstate, I had an epiphany not unlike Paul’s road to Damascus moment.

Between walks in Oregon Ridge and take out from Chain Restaurant X,Y and Z, and the pristine shopping environment of Wegmans and an all you can eat hotel breakfast….

I am beginning to go blind. 

Blindness is not a miracle limited to Paul and a few other prophets and disciples in scripture.  Blindness can happen to any of us when we are so focused on doing one thing that we forget to open up and see everything else at play.   

Sitting out here at this high perch the thing I am going blind to is… Baltimore. But I’m not blind to the need, or the poverty, or the inequality.  I can’t be blind to the crime and misery because the news shows me that every night since we don’t have Netflix out here, and our youngest is suddenly obsessed with watching “the news”(this takes lots of careful curation). 

What I am blind to is the community.  The beauty of Baltimore as a place and a space where people gather, people share, and people lift each other up. This is what Saul/Paul was blind to - that the community of Christ followers was a community of God’s people that would gather, share, pray, grow, laugh, cry, fight, argue but always seeking to come back together and move forward.

He only saw the headlines.  He missed the people. He missed the light.

This is not (entirely) a plea to encourage everyone to move into the city.  But it is a plea for us as a church community to explore ways to better root ourselves in this community.  So that we do not become blind to those around us, and so they do not become blind to us. 

You see - Paul was not ‘bad’ and then became ‘good’.  He was always about the work of salvation, he was just blind to the fact that Salvation could look different for different people.  That a cookie cutter approach to life and ministry does not serve any of us well.  

Maybe you are blind to this?  When you close your eyes and picture success… does it require letters after someone’s name?  Does it mean living in a particular zip code? Does it mean a particular sized bank account?   When you picture someone who is capable and talented…. What do they look like? What do they wear? How do they talk? What do they do?

You see the secret is that Paul was not struck blind on the road to Damascus.  He was always blind.  It was only through the bright light of Christ that he was finally able to see.  To see the possibility and joy and salvation among this nascent Christian community, and more importantly to finally see his actions and beliefs for what they were. 

Maybe we should all take a moment to consider our blindness, so that we too can see.

The View from Bolton Street

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry Easter Message 2022

The View from Bolton Street

“The door was locked for fear….”

You may not be aware that Holy Week, historically, is the most dangerous season for the jewish people.  With millions of people around the world reading about the death of their savior, it is tempting to cast blame on someone, anyone, other than ourselves.  

Due in large part to the translation of the Gospel of John this has almost always been directed at the Jewish people.  This was true up until the Shoah (the holocaust) and in some parts of the world is still true.  We see reflections of this today in the Holy Land - as this year with the overlap of Lent, Passover and Ramadan there has been markedly more violence directed at Jews in the palestine. 

This year the Episcopal Church has approved a new translation of the Passion of John that seeks to restore the original understanding of John’s Gospel, largely replacing the translation for Jews with Judeans.  You can read more about these changes here - but a brief summary is that the distinction in the Gospel is not a religious one, but a geographic one.  After all, both the disciples and the hearers of John’s Gospel are jewish.  They do not ‘fear the Jews’; they fear the Judeans, because they are from Galilee - a poorer region of the Palestine - and are being persecuted by the wealthier and more connected Judeans.  

There are other instances where the translation is shifted to the ‘Jewish authorities’ because it is the Jewish leaders with whom Judas negotiates. This summer, the Episcopal Church will consider among other resolutions, one focused on Anti-semitism. The resolution acknowledges both our church’s past anti-semitism and commits the Church to more thoughtful engagement with our Jewish siblings.  

Why? You might ask. We aren’t anti-Semitic! We love our Jewish neighbors.  

Because while the issue of Anti-Semitism may seem far off, the compulsion to blame our own failings, shortcomings or distance from God on someone else is not.  Bigotry, homophobia, racism, often originate from a place of fear.  Fear that we are too far away from God. From success. From hope.  So we need someone else to be culpable to make us feel better. 

This Holy Week I encourage you to consider where your anger and frustration goes when you feel shame. Who shoulders that blame?  Trump? Biden? The Police? The City Council? Your Rector? Your family?  

Feeling lost and far away is a lonely and scary place to be.  And if you have gotten this far in this reflection, you would be tempted to think that the alternative to blaming someone else is to blame yourself.  “I MESSED UP.”  

But that is not it at all.  

The message of the passion and the Gospel is that no matter where we are Jesus is there too.  Whether we are locked in the upper room, asleep in the garden, alone and scared by the fire, or at the foot of the cross, Jesus is there waiting expectantly for us.  

Jesus is not interested in judgement.  His last words on the cross are not “you guys are gonna get it!” But rather “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

You are already forgiven.  We are already forgiven.  

Whatever you think is keeping you from a deeper relationship with God is… not.   Jesus is waiting for you - to wash your feet, to meet you at the cross, to show you the empty tomb, to meet you on the way to Emmaus and to break bread with you.  

So what are you waiting for? 

Lenten Reflection 6

This month's Poem of the Month is "Daybreak in Baltimore" by Aiyana Thomas, who highlights the strength that is grown through negativity. This poem was published in our very first volume! The art we selected to feature with it is entitled "World's Greatest Discoveries," a drawing by Elijah Furr that captures the beautiful progress the world made.

Happy National Poetry Month!

CHARM community

Walter Montgomery Howard Graphic Design
1420 Mason Street, Baltimore Maryland 21217 | 410-949-4630

The View from Bolton Street

A Report from the Wardens

Your Vestry at Work

April 5, 2022

Over the past two years, it was necessary for us, as a church community, to curtail virtually all of our in-person activities, or at least move them to a virtual space.  This involved pain and sacrifice, yet it served to keep us healthy during the worst of the pandemic.  During that time, your elected vestry focused mostly on the issues that we had to confront in order to keep us together as one body, despite all the hardships.  Having now come through that difficult time, the vestry has been praying, discerning, and discussing what lies ahead for Memorial Church, as it appears that we can begin to do many things more “normally” again. 

We have been asking ourselves what God is calling us to do as leaders, and, by extension, what God is calling Memorial Church to do.  Over two sessions in February and March, we engaged in a retreat to consider our individual roles as vestry members, our working relationship with the rector, and to establish mutual ministry goals, or priority areas to work on, for the year ahead.  We also reached out to a quite a few members of the congregation with questions about what has been and remains important to you about this community of faith.

We came away from this process with strong perceptions about our shared experience of Memorial Church:

o   Our membership cares deeply about Memorial, and feels a firm sense of shared values.  We have found our center, and we treasure our sense of mission.

o   The strength of our commitment to our mission of justice and inclusion keeps us coming back to Memorial as a place where we feel we belong. 

o   The “stickiness” of our commitment to our mission has drawn many of us back to Memorial at times when, for various reasons, we have been temporarily drawn away.

o   Our collective commitment to the mission of Memorial may be, at least at times, stronger than our commitment to worshipping together. (We realize this may be a triggering statement for some folks.  Please know that this was our observation, and that it is shared with you devoid of judgment.)

o   We may not be able to be everybody’s church always.  (Again, no judgment.)

o   It is important to invite people to have a role in carrying out the mission.  Memorial is what it is because that tradition took root here.

With the understanding that it is the job of a church to 1) gather people together, 2) transform them, and 3) send them out into the world to do God’s work, we established three attainable mutual ministry goals that as a vestry, together with the rector and congregation, we will endeavor to achieve during the remainder of this year.  They are:

o   Improve the organization, information, and format of the church’s web site, to make it more reflective of the scope of Memorial’s ministries, more useful for internal and external communication, and a more effective tool for inviting people to come in;

o   Enhance our youth programs, aiming to include children across the age spectrum;

o   Revive regular adult formation programming, with regular get-togethers for families of all descriptions to work, learn, and play together.

Finally, the members vestry, after prayerful discernment, agreed to take leadership in one or more specific areas vital to our forward momentum, as follows:

o   Welcoming newcomers and returners

o   Alice Peake, Sarah Rice, Bill Roberts

o   Christian formation – children and adults

o   Sara Rice, Ryan Sturm, Kaite Vaught

o   Stewardship Campaign, 2022-23

o   John McIntyre, Alice Peake, Stacy Wells

o   Transformation of our worship space (continuing the pandemic-interrupted work that began with removing the plaques and changing the altar art work)

o   John McIntyre, Alice Peake

o   Liaison to the Guy T. Hollyday Justice and Reparations Initiative, and to Linden Park Apartments

o   Keenan Dworak-Fisher, Steve Howard

o   Liaison to the Buildings and Grounds Committee

o   Beth Torres, Stacy Wells

o   Liaison to the The Samaritan Community

o   Wendy Yap

It is our hope, as your wardens, that we have laid the groundwork for moving ahead in the remainder of 2022 with the “gladness and singleness of heart” for which we pray at the conclusion of each Holy Eucharist.  We pledge to keep in touch.  We ask you to prayerfully consider what part you will play as we nurture this holy ground that God has given us, that we might spread God’s love in the world.

Bill Roberts

Senior Warden

Stacy Wells

Junior Warden

Lenten Reflection 5

Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." - John 12:8

As we have explored the meaning of space and stewardship this Lent, this week's readings ask us to explore - what happens after we are gone? What legacy is left behind for those that come after us?

So, how is that connected to what I did this weekend? I'm glad you asked. Hopefully, we all have those people in our lives that we can call and invite ourselves over for a visit. One of those people for me is a friend from graduate school. We can go months of not connecting and then reconnect as if no time has passed.

That led to a trip to Rochester, NY and the Mount Hope Cemetery. Mount Hope was found in 1838 and was the first residential Cemetery in the United States. As we wandered a small part of the 196 acres on this sunny, cool April afternoon, we saw a multitude of family plots that serve as the final resting place for multiple generations. The markers came in all shapes and sizes with a large variety of inscriptions.

Two of the many notable individuals buried at Mount Hope are Frederick Douglass and Susan B Anthony. I'm sure as they led their lives for freedom and voting rights, it was not to ensure they had fancy monuments erected in their honor. Actually, our conversation was that the grave markers don't come close to symbolizing the legacy these two left for the generations that have come after. Just like Martha and her three hundred denarii worth of perfume. Would any amount of perfume be too much to prepare Jesus for burial?

The question we are struggling with as a community is what to do with memorials to legacies that were harmful and tore apart families and communities. How will our building and what fills our space tell our story as a community? And what is the story we want to write as a community moving forward? Will it be memorialized in marble or in tearing down barriers our previous legacy helped to erect? Who (not what) can we help build up?

The View from Bolton Street

I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

When Isaiah preaches these words - he and the people of Israel are in exile.  They are away from their homes, their land, and their God. Isaiah promises a new thing! water in the desert! Food and drink to the hungry and the thirsty!  

You won't be surprised to know that not everyone believed him. They couldn't believe it even as it was happening! "Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" 

Over the last year, Memorial has been doing tremendous work just below the surface on justice and reparations.  A new thing indeed has been springing forth.  Our justice and reparations committee has developed a policy paper on What Reparations Means and How We Are going to do it. (link: Black Paper_Hollyday Initiative_FINAL JANUARY 6 2022.docx (squarespace.com) )

They drafted a position description and screened hundreds of candidates to find the ideal person to lead this effort. We asked all of our finalists to come up with some initial steps with Memorial and Anthony's recommendations fit perfectly with who we are and who we aspire to be.  I wanted to share below a few of the proposals Anthony share with the committee: 

1. CULINARY DIPLOMACY: BREAKING BREAD AND BARRIERS is reminiscent of a time when families set down at the dinner table together to share a meal and talk, to reflect on their day,

create memories, discuss strategies, and even settle disagreements. 

2. UPCYCLE IT 21217: In addition to positive environmental changes, upcycling has significant

social and personal benefits because behind every upcycled product is transformation.

3. THE GHOST LIGHT SERIES: When theatres go dark at the end of the night, they turn on a

“Ghost Light,” offering visibility for all to return safely. Inspired by the tradition, the Ghost Light

has a new significance and a broader symbolic meaning of hope and transformation. We will create theatrical performances led by community members to encourage collaboration.

4. CULTURE SWAP matches community members with partnering organizations to spend a day

together in each other’s community sharing insights and brainstorming ways to address social

inequities and challenges. 

I am delighted to introduce Anthony Francis, the founder of Bmore's Coalition for Positive Change (link HOME | Bmore coalition (bmorescoalition.com) ) As Memorial's Justice and Reparations Organizer.  Anthony started this Monday and he will be with us at Church on Sunday. 

We have also raised almost $120,000 of our $500,000 goal and developed consistently stronger relationships with partners in West Baltimore.  If you would like to make an additional contribution or a pledge for the next four years you can do so here: https://onrealm.org/memorialepiscopal/-/give/JRF

I hope you will be able to join us on Wednesday April 20th for a screening of Deserted a short documentary featuring Anthony that will follow with a conversation with Anthony and the Director. This will be a great way to meet Anthony and to better understand the issues around equity and safety in West Baltimore. 

Welcome Anthony!

Lenten Reflection 4

"Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven..." Psalm 32:1

Perhaps the word "happy" isn't what comes to mind when we think about Lent. I mean, Lent is all about repentance, right? Yes: Lent is about confession and repentance. In Lent, we confess that we've denied God's goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world God made. But the thing is: Lent isn't a season just to feel miserable or unworthy. Lent isn't about grinding ourselves for forty days until Easter comes. Instead, Lent is a season about being restored and renewed by God who has opened the way of forgiveness for us.

The psalmist writes, "Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven..." In this season of Lent, Psalm 32 actually invites us to find happiness: happiness that comes from being forgiven by God.

Happiness for the psalmist isn't about being sinless or perfect, nor is it about ignoring our sin and accountability to one another. God has opened the way for us to confess our sins and be forgiven—and at our deepest core, being human is not about being a sinner but about being loved and transformed by the One who defeated the power of sin on the cross. The steadfast love of God is an open doorway to repentance, forgiveness, amendment of life, and trust in God.

Psalm 32 reminds us that when we sin, it's the same God who loves us that forgives us. Even when we sin, God still provides a way for us to experience happiness. Happiness that comes from acknowledging our sin and accepting God's forgiveness. Happiness from being forgiven by God who is swift to forgive, then amending our lives and seeking reconciliation—attending to God's instruction, as the psalmist puts it.

"Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; shout for joy, all who are true of heart." Psalm 32:12

This Lent—in this season of repentance, restoration, and renewal—may we find happiness knowing that sin isn't the end of the story, for God is full of abundant love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. "Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven..."

Amen.

The View from Bolton Street

Herod was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse his daughter. Mark 6:26

Now that is a familiar feeling. A father never wants to disappoint his daughter. As true for Herod as it is for me.

Sometimes, this is perfectly harmless. “Can I borrow the car daddy?” “Can I have 20 dollars Daddy?” And sometimes… it ends up with John the Baptist’s head on a platter!

What is at play here for Herod is the same thing that often is at play for us - saying no to his daughter and refusing the kill John the Baptist does not just mean disappointing his child.

It also means acknowledging in front of all those people that he is not King. That there is some bigger power out there that Herod does not understand that he is terrified and amazed by.

Ultimately, when asked to make the decision, Herod prefers to remain a small king rather than listen for the voice of the True King.

The question is why. Why does Herod not want to give up some of his power. We think sometimes these kind of decisions are made from a place of strength but it really comes from a place of deep weakness. Herod’s daughter tricked him, his wife betrayed him, the only person he knows WON’T lie to him is the man he is asked to kill. But he has to kill him or else he acknowledges how weak his reign is, how little power he has.

Have you ever made a decision like this. Held out angrily trying to retain some power or authority you never really had? Tried to control the world around you even though Jesus was right there saying “you need help friend.”?

Few of us will be asked to serve up physical heads on physical platters - but many of us deal with the temptation of double crossing, tricking or proverbially stabbing a friend in the back to hold on to a little bit of power, even as we know, WE KNOW, we don’t actually have any power - we are just too scared to say so.

Herod killed John the Baptist only to have Jesus show up next. What power are you willing to crucify a friend for? And how can you let that go and give it up to Christ?

Lenten Reflection 3

What a blessing during this winter to be participating in a Sacred Ground group following the curriculum of the Episcopal Church’s antiracism program. We are reading Howard Thurman’s seminal work Jesus and the Disinherited which helps to put Jesus front and center as a Jew within a Roman occupation. And thinking about how the Church has gone from the teachings of a dispossessed and marginalized man to an organization that has been used to control and undermine peoples. So much to struggle with but also so much hope and beauty. That the church can simultaneously be used to marginalize and control but that every day people continue to still see the words of succor and purpose that is contained in our Bible.

In Exodus when God says to Moses that he will send him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses says “Who am I?”, he is God’s chosen. When we stand on this sacred ground we are all chosen to bring our peoples out of degradation and into fellowship. We are all asked to gather together in God’s name and to worship together. As Fr Grey said to us last week, this ground remains holy when we continue to gather and be together, bringing life and through fellowship.

 As we approach Easter and the resurrection we must continue to see how we use our talents to maintain the sacred ground and support the Word of Jesus in all our interactions.