Congregational Development

Postings on Parish Development during the Virus

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Consider becoming an associate of the Church's religious orders

Thursday

Apr302020

The path of servanthood

Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 2:58PM

The devil challenges Jesus to use his divine might for strictly personal benefit. In effect, the reference to bread is simply the bait that hides the hook. The temptation is not really about food but about turning Jesus away from the difficult road that the Father wills for his Son (26:39). Gospel of Matthew Curtis Mitch, Edward Sir

In our baptism we are given identity and vocation. We participate in his death and resurrection. We are instruments of the divine love.

There will be a particular shape of all this in each life. The common baptismal identity and vocation has a unique expression in each life. Personality and circumstances come into play. The particulars of family and friends, workplace and civic life, shape us and our action. The religious life of sisters and brothers will draw some. Others will connect to that as associates.

Embracing the way of the cross

When Jesus refused to go the way of the tempter he was embracing the way of the cross N.T. Wright

I read two commentaries before I say Morning Prayer—one with a Catholic orientation, Gospel of Matthew by Curtis Mitch and Edward Sir and one more evangelical, Matthew for Everyone by N.T. Wright. Then I make more coffee, light the candles, and begin. When I get to the intercessions and thanksgivings I follow a pattern: For the day and its tasks (an idea borrowed from Common Worship), for my brothers and sisters in the Order of the Ascension, for the Church, and for those I have written in my intercessions book. That little blue book as been with me for decades. I have it divided into 30 days with the names of people on a page, today included my niece. During the virus I often stop and send a message to someone on that page. Then there’s a section in which I note people who have asked for my prayers or whom I feel called to pray for.

That last section picks up people where there is a particular concern attached. Three have cancer, one an injured back, two just struggling with life at the moment, three bishops doing their best, a married couple I want to see get through these days, and all the workers serving to protect, heal and feed us. As St. Anselm put it, “I pray your mercy upon all men, yet there are many whom I hold more dear, Since your love has impressed them upon my heart with a closer and more intimate love, so that I desire their love more eagerly – I would pray more ardently for these.”

The prayer within the prayer is usually rather clear to me. Within and under the particular reason a person is in that book is an innate and greater reason. I want them to remain true. Whether ill or facing danger, doing a difficult work or living well and content, I hope they will be true. That whatever their circumstance they will not lose their identity and purpose. That they will be true.

The new life

Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Baptismal Rite, BCP

We’re in our own wilderness these days. In this time of the virus there will be many temptations—despair, self-serving, hostility, impatience, negligence in prayer, blindness to human need and suffering, uncharitable thoughts. It’s Ash Wednesday stuff during Easter.

Here’s what N.T. Wright wrote on Matthew 4: “The temptations we all face, day by day and at critical moments of decision and vocation in our lives, may be very different from those of Jesus, but they have exactly the same point. They are not simply trying to entice us into committing this or that sin. They are trying to distract us, to turn us aside, from the path of servanthood to which our baptism has commissioned us. God has a costly but wonderfully glorious vocation for each one of us. The enemy will do everything possible to distract us and thwart God’s purpose.”

Our task is to remain in the identity and vocation that is ours in Jesus Christ. To remain true.

It’s not easy

Thomas Merton wrote, “Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny-to work out our own identity in God, which the Bible calls 'working out salvation' is a labor which requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears.”

It also requires living in the Rule of the Church—Eucharist, Daily Office, Reflection/personal devotions. Our Lord’s response to the tempter was found in Scripture. Thousands of people have come to value the daily office in these days of digital worship. Small parishes that had been seeing 3 or 4 people at daily Evening Prayer (which is wonderful!) now find 40 joining on-line. The religious orders of the church, both gathered in monastic houses and scattered in apartments and houses, join and root the whole church in that daily prayer of the church. What better way to live these days than to pray the prayers and the Scriptures. Grounding ourselves in truth so we might remain true.

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Postings on the inner life and the virus

You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives

Postings on Parish Development during the Virus

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You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives

Wednesday

Apr292020

Spiritual vitality and authenticity

Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 6:22AM

The church’s spiritual vitality and authenticity

According to A.M. Allchin, Evelyn Underhill saw the restoration of the religious life in the Anglican tradition as a sign of the church’s “spiritual vitality and authenticity.” She wrote that, ”the religious life sums up, and expresses in a living symbolism, the ideal consummation of all worship; the total oblation of the creature to the purposes of God.”

Two ways of participating

Most of the church's religious orders have two ways of associating with this expression of spiritual vitality and authenticity: as professed members and as associates.

Professed Members (those having taken life vows) of the religious orders have found a special place in the heart of many of our parish churches. They have served as teachers, community workers, sacristans, and officiants at the Daily Office. They have visited to lead retreats and quiet days and offer spiritual guidance. Possibly most importantly they have stood and knelt with all the faithful in the Holy Eucharist and Daily Office.

Associates of the various orders are clergy and lay, women and men, who have a special relationship with a particular community. They share in the life of, and have a rule of life consistent with the charism and traditions, of their order.

In the parish church

A parish is blessed by the presence of a religious community in its life. In a few places you have a long -standing practice of sisters or brothers serving as part of the parish’s staff. For example, at Saint Mary the Virgin, Times Square there are now two Franciscan Friars in residence and before that two sisters from the Community of Saint John Baptist. More commonly in recent years is the presence of newer forms of the religious life such as the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory and the Sisters of Saint Gregory.

There are also thousands of associates of the orders scattered throughout the church. Many serve on vestries, in service and liturgical ministries, and as faithful parishioners grounding the parish's heartbeat of prayer and worship. They may add a dimension and perspective about living the Christian Life. An internal dialogue can be set off among parishioners about how deeply and completely the Life is to be lived.

The work of the incarnation

You are the Body of Christ....That is to say; in you and through you the method and work of the Incarnation must go forward. You are meant to incarnate in your lives the themes of your adoration. You are to be taken, consecrated, broken, and made a means of grace; vehicles of the Eternal Charity. Evelyn Underhill

Many of the early women's religious orders gave themselves to nursing during times of plague and war. For them this was a way of participating in the Incarnation.

From Sister Kate's "Memories of S. Saviour's Priory" --

In the autumn of 1870 dropping cases of smallpox begin to occur, increasing rapidly as the winter set in severe and early. The poor starving people, huddled together with doors and windows closed to keep out the bitter cold, rapidly succumbed to it. The Sisters struggled on as best they might, stripping their own beds and blankets for them, and keeping a supply of beef-tea going day and night.

A panic seem to spread around; people shrank from performing the last offices for their nearest relatives; the Priory was besieged day and night with people imploring to be visited, with piteous cries for help, sad stories from the inflicted houses of clothing and bedding compelled to be destroyed for fear of spreading infection, and the sufferers being reduced to the direst necessity.

The Community of St. Mary

This is the community of Constance and her Companions who gave their lives in Memphis during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878. The Community of St. Mary (CSM) is an Episcopal religious order of nuns with independent houses located in Greenwich, New York, Sewanee, Tennessee, Mukwonago, Wisconsin, and also in Malawi and the Philippines.

Associates of St. Mary's (in their Eastern Province) "are Christian men and women who undertake a Rule of Life under the direction of the Community. They share in the support and fellowship of the sisters, and of one another, while living dedicated and disciplined lives in the world. (The Community of St. Mary today has three autonomous Provinces; an Associate belongs to the whole Community, but has a principal tie with one Province.) Each Eastern Province Associate has a relationship with a particular sister who keeps in touch on a regular basis."

An overview

Consider becoming an associate of one of the church's religious orders.

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The icons are from my collection - "The Anglo Catholics." At the top of the page is an icon was written by Christine Simoneau Hales. It's called "The Restoration of the Religious Life.' The images are of Mother Harriet Monsell, CSJB, Richard Meux Benson, SSJE, James Otis Sargent Huntington, OHC, and Priscilla Lydia Sellon. The second is of Constance and her Companions written by Suzanne Schleck.

Postings on the inner life and the virus

Postings on Parish Development during the Virus

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From: In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practice

Tuesday

Apr282020

People touch

Tuesday, April 28, 2020 at 7:13PM

Touch is innately humanizing. Jesus healed with his touch. Thomas believed through touching. Many doctors know about touch. The routine of using the stethoscope and pressing the patient’s belly may be less about diagnostic benefits and more because it’s expected and also because it makes a connection and offers comfort. At coffee hour you’ll see people hugging, patting a back, reaching across a table to grasp a hand.

Physical touch is a common element of liturgy. In the Eucharist we exchange the peace. At our baptism we are anointed and crossed with oil. On Ash Wednesday the cross is made on us with ashes. On Maundy Thursday there is foot washing. When we’re ill there is the laying on of hands with anointing. All this touching is an expression of our communion with one another and God.

We also touch things—we eat bread and drink wine, we touch the water in the baptismal font.

Captain Jean Luc Picard: It’s a boyhood fantasy...I must have seen this ship hundreds of times in the Smithsonian but I was never able to touch it.

Lieutenant Commander Data: Sir ,does tactile contact alter your perception?

Captain Jean Luc Picard: Oh Yes! For humans, touch can connect you to an object in a very personal way. (From Star Trek: First Contact)

Touching, as with most spiritual practices, requires us to exercise our emotional and social intelligence. Even though touching is normative in the church, there are those who, for various reasons, are unable to be touched even if the intention is to encourage, connect, or support. We are called to be aware and respectful.

Being in close proximity with others, and engaging in activities such as the Peace, involves risk. We exchange germs, we may feel uncomfortable, or inadvertently cause someone else to feel uncomfortable. There is always some risk that comes with taking part in the liturgy. There is no way for to live in a germ-free, risk- free society. In fact we need one another’s germs to establish an adequate immune system.

In healthy parishes we touch and are sensitive about how we do that.

rag+

Postings on the inner life and the virus

You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives

Postings on Parish Development during the Virus

Comments Off |

Monday

Apr272020

Becoming an associate of a religious order

Monday, April 27, 2020 at 4:36PM

For some, the virus has stirred a desire for a deeper relationship with God. The Holy Spirit has been nudging them toward community and solitude, persistence and patience, courage and prayer. Many Episcopalians have found their spiritual life enriched and supported by becoming associates of one of the church’s religious orders. Five are listed here.

Society of Saint John the Evangelist

The Brothers of the Society welcome members of the Fellowship of St. John as partners in the Gospel life … They look to SSJE for encouragement and inspiration in following our Lord Jesus Christ. and who seek to abide in him by living an ordered life of prayer and service in fellowship with us, may seek to become members of the Fellowship.

Society of Saint Margaret

Associates have a close link with the life and work of the Sisters of St. Margaret. They are people of faith whose sense of vocation draws them to be related to the Sisters. After a period of mutual discernment between the prospective Associate and the Sisters, this connection with the Society is formalized at a Service of Commitment. Each potential Associate crafts a Rule of Life based on the core Rule for Associates.

Order of the Holy Cross

Associates commit to anchoring daily life in the basic values of Benedictine spirituality: Community, Hospitality, Humility, Balance, and Mindfulness. The process of tailoring the rule to fit specific circumstances is consistent with the practical wisdom of Benedictine life.

Community of Saint John Baptist

Associates and Oblates are bound to us in a spiritual bond of love and prayer.... Those interested may receive a Manual, and after practicing the Rule for a period of time, may then be received.

Order of the Ascension

Our hope is:

that you will find growth in holiness of life and strengthen your own vocation.
that you will join us in seeking the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things and circumstances of life through stability, obedience and conversion of life.
that you will love and pray for your parish church and live in the parish community in a way that best fulfills your vocation and gifts.

A list of religious communities

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You are invited to create a link to this page on your parish website and FaceBook page. Or you may want to cut and paste these page onto your site.

Postings on the inner life and the virus

You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives