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July Epistle Newsletter
Download the July issue of our newsletter: The Epistle, July 2009
Inside this issue:
- Letters from God: Some in Hand, Some in the Mail by The Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley
- Horizontal Ladders by The Rev. Kate Jenkins
- Faith Amid Economic Chaos by Brian Carr
- An Open Invitation to PRAXIS by Eileen Mannix
- Coming Home to St. Paul's by Dick Carlton
Letters from God: Some in Hand, Some in the Mail
Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four,
and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God…
I find letters from God dropt in the street,
and every one is sign’d by God’s name…
-Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass
I have seen God in dancing, smiling children, waving red streamers in the air, on Pentecost Sunday. I have seen God in the happy eyes of a man who had been away from St. Paul’s and has come home. I have seen God in the face of a man who lay in a hospital bed, telling me how much the love of his fellow parishioners has meant to him. I have seen God in a parish hall packed with homeless Richmonders come to eat a hearty meal. I have seen God in a parish hall packed with working Richmonders on their lunch break, listening to jazz rhythms and improvisation. All letters from God delivered on Grace Street.
And who knows what else is in the mail?!
From the day our “plogs” (“parish logs”) went up on Pentecost Sunday, inviting input for our “Such Great Heights” movement, it has been exhilarating to see what you, the parishioners of St. Paul’s, have put forth. Following is just a sampling:
• more mission trips;
• honor the feminine face of God;
• support marriage equality and welcome the LGBT
community;
• acoustic jam sessions/open mic nights at St. Paul’s;
• “serious” and “back to basics” Christian formation
programs, Bible studies, and sermons;
• extended jazz lunch series;
• new DOCC program
On Pentecost Sunday, I laid out before you my vision of where we, the People of St. Paul’s Church, are going, underlining, as I did so, that this is our vision, revealed to us, as a people, over time, by the Holy Spirit of the Living God. This vision has indeed been emerging over time, and we have faith that this vision will continue to emerge, with greater clarity and force, thanks to the presence of the Spirit in our midst.
Recently we decided that we will bring Mondays back during Lent next year—the preaching and the lunch. (God bless the Lenten Lunch leadership and volunteers!) We are, indeed—per the plog!—commissioning more and more mission trips (New Orleans, Tanzania). We have just started a partnership with the Pastoral Care department of MCV, through which 30 of our parishioners are being regularly visited this summer by a seminarian in training, exploring and reflecting on the relationship between our faith and the workplace.
Who knows that else God has in the mail, bound for Grace Street?
Waiting with open hands,
your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
On page 3:
Horizontal Ladders
by The Rev. Kate Jenkins
Several years ago, a wise friend gave me a book, Thomas A. Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ. I first read it as one seeking a way out of the frustrations of my own life, in prayer and meditation that would settle for nothing less than the sweet refuge of perfect virtue. My notion of imitation was based on a simplistic understanding of Jesus. I appreciated too little the very human nature and qualities of the Christ; my eyes searched only for ladders into heaven. Ten years later, I have just finished re-reading it.
After choosing his twelve apostles, Jesus went with them to meet a great multitude of people seeking to be healed of their diseases. “And all in the crowd were trying to touch him,” Luke tells us, “for power came out from him and he healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you…’” (Luke 6:19-20). It was not to the multitude that Jesus addressed the beatitudes, but to the disciples – to those who were there in order to learn and to follow.
What Jesus taught them was strange indeed. What he offered was not a ladder out of this world, nor even a list of virtues to be imitated. Instead, he spoke to them of poverty, especially poverty of the spirit, and of hunger. He told them that in their poverty and hunger, in their tears and troubles, they possessed the kingdom of God, the very realm of heaven. The tears, the hunger, the poverty, and the pain themselves are of the kingdom of God, of God’s realm and subject to God’s sovereignty.
We do not find heaven up a ladder, nor God in flights of fancy. We find heaven with our feet firmly planted on the ground, and God in the midst of our gravest difficulties. The imitation of Christ, then, is not some blueprint for virtue, not some pattern of behavior to which we are to conform our lives. The imitation of Christ is an invitation to see the world and human experience as Christ sees them. Not as subdivided into exclusive territories where the good and pleasurable things belong to God – and Satan (the devil, evil, whatever you name it) take the hindmost, not as something to be subdued or escaped, but as the very substance of God whose hand has made everything that is.
To see God we must look into the places we would sooner flee – the hard labor of loving, the difficult business of sharing, the frustrating experience of failing, the heart-rending pain of loss. There, in the difficulty of living, we follow Jesus. That is imitation of Christ – not some vain pursuit of haloed perfection, but the very stubborn insistence that life is to be lived, even if it leads to the cross. That is imitation of Christ; the patient determination to live into the mystery that utterly defies our sense. As Thomas reminds us in his conclusion to The Imitation of Christ: “Whatsoever thou canst not understand, commit it faithfully to God; for God will not deceive thee.”
On the Faith @ Work page:
Faith Amid Economic Chaos
by Brian Carr
It’s a story that’s been all too familiar on Richmond’s economic landscape in the last year. Once-proud Fortune 500 company, major regional employer, icon of Richmond’s corporate history – GONE. Bankrupt or shut down or sold off. And sadly, you don’t even know which company I’m talking about yet because several fit the description.
I worked for LandAmerica for more than 12 years. The company started as Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation in Richmond in 1925. It had grown to be a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest three companies in its industry. After making money hand over fist in the real estate boom of the previous decade, revenue collapsed in 2008. Unprepared for this kind of downturn in the real estate market, the company found itself heading into bankruptcy and forced to sell off its main operations to a competitor. My job went with that sale.
Immediately after Christmas, layoffs began in full force. Wave after wave. It was painful and depressing to watch 60% of our local office get laid off over the next few weeks, including several single mothers with kids. I also felt guilty that I was one of the lucky few who survived all the cuts. Why me? Who knows?
How I Kept My Faith
How does one maintain faith amid all this economic chaos? Surely, it was not because God was choosing to spare me while letting others get fired. I refuse to believe that anymore than I believe God is deciding which team wins the Super Bowl and which loses. Perhaps I was just lucky. But then my former boss who had been laid off, went to work for another title insurance company, one with little presence in Richmond. In what was the most difficult employment decision of my life, I chose to leave where I was, where I had survived round after round of layoffs, and to join a new office starting up for a much smaller competitor. This at a time when few real estate deals were happening anywhere.
Well, three months into this new adventure, I know I made the right decision. I’m having more fun than ever before and enjoying my work in a way I had not for several years. Things are better at work in nearly every way. I have pinched myself more than once.
We often hear the phrase “Things work out for the best.” These days this can be an especially challenging phrase to embrace. Even so I do believe that it can be true in our working lives, but only if we understand that it is not a passive phrase. Things do not usually “work out for the best” when people sit back and wait for whatever is going to happen. Active work and effort are usually needed if you want your business or job to “work out.” And even when things do not look like they are working out well, the point of the phrase is that constant effort and attention will help us all move our lives in the direction we want.
God Didn’t Make Faith Easy for Most of Us
In this way then, work is like faith. Faith is not passive. God and Jesus are there for everyone – everyone who walks through the door and wants to engage them. But Jesus rarely forces his way into people’s lives like he did to Paul on the road to Damascus. God chooses not to make faith that easy for most of us (and he didn’t make it easy for Paul either!). After all, if he just showed up and announced himself to the entire world in a way no one could doubt, then it wouldn’t really be faith at all, would it? To know God we have to want to know God. We have to be open to his love. We have to work to know him. And we have to keep working as life and God’s love unfold before us. But as Jesus told us in numerous different stories, if we are willing actively to seek out God and his love, then God will be there for us – always.
And once you know God, it is amazing how easy it can be to see him throughout the world, even when economic chaos seems to be around us.
Open Invitation to PRAXIS
by Eileen Mannix
There’s a little item that appears on the weekly calendar in our bulletin and on the monthly calendar posted in the elevator: “Tuesday, 7:30 a.m., Reflection & Prayer in the Library.” Have you every noticed it? Wondered about it? Does anybody really go?! Why is it SO early? Well, the calendar posting is a good, de-mystifying description of what occurs, with each week’s upcoming Gospel lesson serving as the primary source of our reflection. Those of us who attend regularly came up with a name we call ourselves: PRAXIS. All of the dictionary definitions apply:
1) practice, as distinguished from theory - We try to take practical messages from the Gospel, asking ourselves: to what is God calling us with this lesson, and how we can take it into our daily lives this week?
2) established practice, custom - This practice was started long ago as Vestry Prayers, designed to provide a time in the week when members of the Vestry - primarily men who worked downtown - could gather to pray for God’s guidance. Now, women and men, couples and singles, workers and retirees, parishioners and other Episcopalians still find this a beneficial weekly practice.
3) a set of examples, or exercises, as in grammar - When I think of how our shared knowledge and use of grammatical rules shape our communications, our common language, I particularly like adapting this part of the definition. By making this a regular spiritual practice, we hope to develop a greater facility for understanding what God is calling us to do, and who God is calling us to be.
And we do have a kind of rule: we follow the basic format for Daily Devotions from the Book of Common Prayer. After lighting the Christ candle and taking a few moments to settle into silence, we read the Psalm, lift up the prayers that parishioners have requested, share our sources of gratitude and barriers to gratitude as a group homiletic exercise, and read the Gospel Lectio Divina style - reflecting on the particular word or phrase that strikes us.
Having made this a regular practice - or PRAXIS! - for over four years now, I have experienced it as a very intentional journey all through the lectionary and back again. Each time I find something different, depending on what is going on in my life and in the world, and because all these experiences of reflection and discussion lead me deeper and deeper into God’s word. Each following Sunday, I find myself much better prepared to really attend to the readings and appreciate the sermon. So PRAXIS both orients me during the week AND enhances my worship experience with all of you.
May this article serve as an invitation to YOU, to come and check it out if you have never been, or if you haven’t been in a long while. You may not be a morning person, it may present a scheduling challenge, but come at least once if you can, to taste and see. You may find something that you can adapt for your own spiritual practice. (One former participant whose current work schedule precludes her attendance is considering starting an evening version - stay tuned.)
After we came up with the name PRAXIS I could not resist trying to turn it into a descriptive acronym (though I had to take poetic license with the X!), one that I find to be true for me and I hope it will be for you: Parishioners Refreshed After eXamen Into Scripture! So if you’re looking for a new source of refreshment, we’ll be looking for you in the Library on Tuesday morning! (And yes, Virginia, there is coffee!)
Coming Home to St. Paul's
by Dick Carlton
Coming home to St. Paul’s has been a joyous time in my life mainly because of what we all share as part of this unique community. And having been removed from that community for too long has made me appreciate it that much more.
But let me backtrack for a moment.
While I was away, I stayed in touch with many parishioners even though for some this was limited to conversations in the aisles of St. Paul’s West—Ukrop’s in Carytown or at the Village. I explored and attended several Episcopal churches and became a regular “attendee” at First Baptist—my childhood church—through its television ministry that I shared with my elderly parents on Sundays during the last five years when I was caring for them.
After they passed away, it was apparent that there was a huge void in my life. Several parishioners had been very persistent in their urgings for me to come and hear the new rector and after only a couple of visits to Sunday services I was—to put it bluntly—hooked. Not only was Wallace an inspiring speaker, but he brought a sense of true vision and energy that was contagious.
After an Adult Forum, he and I talked briefly and we decided to get together and discuss where I was in my spiritual journey. Thinking we would meet for maybe 20 minutes I soon realized we had been talking for almost an hour and I felt as if I had known him for a very long time. His generosity of spirit, his inclusive love, his devotion to St. Paul’s and his dreams and expectations for the church were all so apparent that I knew I wanted once again to be part of the St. Paul’s community.
Since making that decision, my whole life has changed. Never have I felt so welcomed by old and new friends. Never have I felt so immersed in a spirit that is making a real difference in our city. Never have I felt so cloaked in the love of God and his people. Never have I felt more supported even while going through some tough personal times.
Yes, it feels great to be back at St. Paul’s sharing with so many wonderful people and seeing Wallace and his team working together.
And truly there is a force working on Grace Street. Being away from it for so long has made me realize just how powerful that force is and what it can mean in the lives of our parishioners and the entire community.
St Paul’s Episcopal Church
815 E. Grace Street
Richmond Virginia 23219
Phone: 804.643.3589
Copyright © 2007 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
