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.
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."
In this week's Word from Grace Street, Wallace+ reflects on the mystery and gift of the 25,000 purple martins ("bird-nados," as his son Nelson would say) that descend on Shockoe Bottom each summer.
"Even as you're standing right there watching, it's hard to believe. And it's beautiful. And a little hypnotic."
In this RTD video from the martin-watching celebration, you can hear an awed onlooker describe the birds' appearance as "a blessing."
Following up on yesterday's post, two items in today's RTD keep the question before us: how do we, as people of different faiths, live together?
M.P. Williams has it right. Of course Henrico should OK the mosque. Likewise, the editorial page has it right, the President should do as President Bush did and meet openly with the Dalai Lama. Granted, that's easy to put in a web post, and hard to execute foreign-policy-wise; nonetheless, it's the right thing to do.
In only a matter of weeks, we will arrive at the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001. With this mind, may each of us, and may each community of faith, do all that we can do to promote respect and compassion for people of all faiths. It's the right thing to do; and it's the holy thing to do.
"In fact, I would suggest that people of faith who are leaders in the business world have a theological imperative to recognize that the world is not as it was created and intended to be, to identify the changes needed to bring about healing and wholeness, and to work without ceasing for change that transforms lives."
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.
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?
Yesterday, St. Paul's hosted over 270 lunch guests and more than 30 volunteers as part of Homeward's 13th Winter Point-in-Time Count. The Point-in-Time Count, conducted by Greater Richmond region’s planning and coordinating agency for homeless services, is a twice yearly survey of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single day.
As the central event site, service providers from around the region were also at St. Paul's offering free flu shots, blood pressure screenings, confidential HIV screenings, and hair cuts, as well as information about veterans services, offender aid and restoration, supportive housing, and more.
"Do you get treatment for mental illness? Do you have a problem with alcohol? Do you have a physical disability? Do you have debts? Were you homeless as a child? Knowing more about the approximately 1,000 homeless people in the Richmond region helps the agency and others who serve the homeless do their jobs more effectively, said Homeward Executive Director Kelly King Horne."
Yesterday, Wallace+ shared his experience at a gun show this past August during a briefing at the Virginia General Assembly about legislation to close the gun show loophole. He spoke along with Del. Jennifer McClellan, sponsor of the bill, and Lori Haas, whose daughter survived the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. Also supporting the measure are Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones and Police Chief Bryan Norwood.
"My experience at a gun show, and my faith in the Prince of Peace, compels me to pray for and work for an end to the "No questions asked" gun sales on the outskirts of our city. We can do better than the status quo of the any gun/any place/any time agenda...
For the sake of the Prince of Peace, and for the sake of our fellow citizens, we must no longer sit on the sidelines and wait for more Virginians to die; for more guns purchased in Virginia to find their way trafficked to other states where they are used to kill and maim our brothers and our sisters.
We know better. Our elected officials, who represent us, know better. So let's act like it and let our better angels prevail. May God give our lawmakers the courage and good judgment to do the right thing and close the Gun Show Loophole."
Click on "read more" for the full text of his remarks.
And, of course, this Christmas, tonight, and tomorrow, new memories are being made; a Carol sung, pure and exquisite; an old friend; warm, endearing words exchanged; a first Christmas for a new grandbaby; a candle lit, a face aglow, eyes agleam.
More than fifty times, in his published writings, Barth refers to the Grunewald image; and, indeed, usually, it is precisely in reference to John, and John’s relation to the figure of Christ; as he points.
Barth (and Grunewald before him) understood John’s sole purpose to be to serve as a pointer to Christ, a reference to Christ, a witness to Christ.
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