Rector's Blog
September 16, 2011, Church (77), In the News (Richmond) (74)
Posted by Wallace+
Blessings to all of you who participated in "Moving Forward Together - In Remembrance of 9/11" at St. Paul's last Sunday and joined in our prayer service on the eve of September 11. It was a weekend of moving memorials and remembrances. I was especially uplifted by how many individuals, of various ages and faith backgrounds, came together at the forum we hosted at St. Paul's.
As the Rev. Jim Somerville said, "I think we can really begin to see that we have so much more in common than those things that divide us."
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Tags: interfaith, september 11
September 07, 2011, Church (77), In the News (Nation, World) (80)
Posted by Wallace+
| The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina |
Recently, while visiting at Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City, Bishop Michael Curry was asked, "What do you see as the state of the Episcopal Church today?" His answer is worth reading more than once:
"We live in a profoundly pluralistic culture and world. We live in a world where we are interconnected in ways that we never imagined before. We know more about each other; some folks might say we know too much about each other. And I think one of the great challenges for faith is to live in this multicultural, pluralistic world, being people of faith who reflect the love of God and not the tyranny of God. I think that's one of our greatest religious challenges, and it has impact for different ages and generations of people. This is an Episcopal moment, a moment that is crying out for a way of being faithful that doesn't have to deny somebody else's way of being faithful. This is our moment."
Amen, brother.
I am reminded of a bumper sticker that one of you (a member of St. Paul's) saw and told me about: ENTHUSIASTICALLY EPISCOPALIAN.
It is indeed "a moment that is crying out for a way of being faithful that doesn't have to deny somebody else's way of being faithful."
Yes, it is an Episcopal moment.
So, let's claim it.
With grace, and with gusto.
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Tags: bishop michael curry, trinity church, word from grace street
September 02, 2011, People of St. Paul's (41), Church (77), City & Commonwealth (63)
Posted by Wallace+
All are welcome to visit St. Paul's for quiet reflection and prayer whenever we are open (daily, 10am - 4pm). However, next weekend, ten years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, we anticipate some individuals may feel a special need for refuge. In response, we are reminding the community of our prayer presence and inviting them to visit anytime on Saturday, September 10 and join us for a service of prayer and music that day at 5 pm.
To help welcome any visitors, we are looking for volunteers who can help greet during the day and pass out bulletins during the 5 pm service. If you're available, please email John Taylor at taycamp@aol.com or contact me at rector@stpauls-episcopal.org.
If you'd like to know more about our offerings that weekend, visit www.stpauls-episcopal.org/911 .
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Tags: 911, september 11, welcome
August 16, 2011, People of St. Paul's (41), Church (77), City & Commonwealth (63), In the News (Richmond) (74)
Posted by Kimberly Allen
You may have seen the news that the First Fridays Art Walk has been canceled for September. However, many galleries and sites are choosing to remain open and St. Paul's is one of them.
Bob Wynne (whom many of you may have met at church) will show a new exhibit of paintings and photos of the Western United States and Western Europe. He will host an opening reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Parish Hall and free guided tours of the church will be available. His Facebook invitation is available here.
This week, the church issued the following statement about our decision to remain open and our ongoing support of the art walk:
"St. Paul's Episcopal Church will remain open as scheduled on First Friday, September 2 from 5 pm to 8 pm. We helped launch 'First Fridays East' in spring 2010 in part to support a vibrant downtown community and we continue to believe in the importance of welcoming all those in the area to visit the heart of the city. We invite you to visit us on Grace Street where we have been proclaiming Christ since 1845; take a guided tour of the church; and enjoy a new exhibit of paintings and photos by artist Bob Wynne."
Visit www.stpauls-episcopal.org/firstfridays for details about our upcoming 2011 - 2012 season.
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Tags: arts, downtown, first fridays
August 03, 2011, Christianity (85), Church (77)
Posted by Wallace+
"The Gospels were written by simple men who earnestly and with a miraculous eloquence tried to report events which they themselves had never witnessed but of which they had been told. Even what these writers of hearsay set down we have never seen in the words they used, but only in the later Greek translations. Consequently the narratives of the four Evangelists as we read them are full of misunderstandings and contradictions and inaccuracies--as every lawyer knows any human testimony aiming at truth is sure to be--yet they throw more light than darkness on the heart-shaking story they tell. They are pitifully human and misleading, but drenched in a supernal light and their contagion changed the dreaming world." -- William Alexander Percy (1885-1942)
Will Percy was many things: a memoirist; a poet, with a hymn text to his credit (see The Hymnal 1982, Hymn 661); a lawyer; a planter; and the adoptive father to three of his younger cousins, one of whom was the novelist Walker Percy.
He was also a person of deep, and deepening, faith. In time, Percy grew beyond many of the conventions of the Roman Catholic faith in which he had been raised. Nevertheless, to the end, his faith was at the core of his life and, indeed, his being.
The passage above comes from a chapter in Percy's memoir Lanterns on the Levee. The chapter is entitled "For the Younger Generation." In that chapter, he, essentially, relays to his young cousins his faith and his hope. His hope for them, and his hope for the world.
More light than darkness. The heart-shaking story. Drenched in supernal light. The contagion that changed--and changes--the dreaming world.
Changed. And changes.
Amen, amen, amen.
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Tags: walker percy, william alexander percy, word from grace street
August 01, 2011, Church (77), City & Commonwealth (63), In the News (Richmond) (74)
Posted by Wallace+
If you haven't seen the Style Weekly article on river baptisms, it's a must read.
And, by the way, I'd love to baptize someone in the James. Let me know!
Pictured: Photo by Scott Elmquist, Style Weekly. Leah Mei Ward, 8, is baptized in the James River on July 17 by the Rev. Jim Somerville.
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Tags: baptism, jim somerville, style weekly
July 13, 2011, Christianity (85), Church (77)
Posted by Wallace+
Rabbi Edwin Friedman, the late author and family systems therapist, has influenced countless people, among them legion upon legion of ordained ministers, across denominations and faiths.
Friedman wrote and taught about how human systems operate, be it a nuclear family, a nation, a baseball team, or an order of monks, providing deep and often witty insight for those interested in improving the health (the functioning) of those systems.
A very Friedmanian moment, from one of his lectures (a recording of which a friend passed along to me), has stayed with me for years: The rabbi remarked upon how, in many churches, people put up with a lot of unkind and unpleasant behavior out of a vague notion that it would be "un-Christian" to confront those behaving poorly. And, indeed, the rabbi continued, often in synagogues, people are unwilling to hold one another accountable for comparably bad behavior, out of the very same vague notion that it would be "un-Christian" to do so.
We get the rabbi's irony, right?
Of course there is no real community, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or otherwise, without, among other things of course, accountability. Compassionate accountability, yes; but, nonetheless, accountability just the same.
In a word, the un-Christian thing is not to hold one another accountable.
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Tags: accountability, rabbi edwin friedman, word from grace street
July 01, 2011, Church (77), Guest Blog Posts (9)
Courtesy of Elizabeth O'Leary, St. Paul's Tour Guide Ministry
(enlarge)
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has recently put on view the 1890 preliminary watercolor study for Moses Leaving the House of Pharaoh, the stained glass window designed by Henry Holiday for St. Paul's (LE3, third lower east window). Commissioned by the Stewart sisters of Brook Hill near Richmond, the window is one of a pair by the prominent British designer that were installed in 1892 in memory of Robert E. Lee.
The watercolor, privately owned, is on loan to the museum until February 2012. The watercolor won't remain on view beyond next February because, as a work on paper, it will have met the conservators' set time limitations regarding periods of light exposure.
Look for the watercolor in the British section of the Sydney and Frances Lewis decorative arts galleries on the museum's third level.
Questions? Contact Bety O'Leary, eoleary@verizon.net.
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Tags: lee, stained glass, windows of st. paul's
June 29, 2011, Church (77), Peace (18)
Posted by Wallace+
On Friday evening, I gave a little coaching to the readers for Saturday's wedding of Kristen Gagnon and Dave Herman. Because we tend to have our own laypeople do lector (reader) training, I don't have occasion very often to coach readers. A wedding is the one regular exception.
And the counsel I give the readers is always simple: Take your time.
What I tell them is that, if they'll take their time, if they'll not hurry, then most everything else will take care of itself, most everything else will fall into place.
I have found that to be true.
For reading.
And otherwise.
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Tags: word from grace street
June 17, 2011, People of St. Paul's (41), Church (77), City & Commonwealth (63)
Posted by Kimberly Allen
This week, Bekah Holbrook and Shola Walker added their voices to the Views from the Bottom Blog, launched in tandem with St. Paul's Views from the Bottom Covenant Group being led by Andrew Terry. They challenge the group (and their readers) to think about the meaning of place and story as they head out to experience Shockoe and Church Hill, two neighborhoods that make up and shape the downtown community.
From Bekah's reflection:
People often talk about what they like (or don’t like) about where they live. They cite real estate value, public transportation, quality of schools, public safety, proximity to work and recreation. Interestingly, what people miss when they move away is more often relational: friends, family, potluck groups, faith communities, neighbors, friendly landlords. Perhaps it’s because we seek to feel connected. We want to identify with others, be recognized and known. We want to have a sense that we belong to a place and that place belongs to us.
I had started to develop that sense living in the Fan, which is a neighborhood with a strong identity, one that I felt connected to. I was comfortable and secure there. I wonder if I can develop a sense of connectedness to Shockoe Bottom. What is the identity of my new neighborhood? Who are my neighbors? How and when will I know if I belong to this place?
And from Shola's poem:
There’s only one problem in Richmond
that only compassion can sort
when you have so much pride
that you accept only one side
then we ALL end up in court!”
Oh Richmond, Dear Richmond
maybe your story starts with mending
because the problems in The Bottom
if we choose to solve them
is we first have to stop our defending. Peace
Check out the blog for more.
The group will meet at Cafe Gutenberg this Sunday around 11:30 am.
Tags: covenant group, shockoe bottom
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