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                The Gryphon’s Roar            

                              "St. Mark's Newsletter"

The Reverend Battle Beasley      

Dear People of God,

Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany!

I hope in these  seasons of Light you truly find your souls self refreshed, renewed by the glorious  Good News

that unto us a Savior is Born! These are times of great hope and  expectation for the Christ is come to make

all things New!

For many in our world  sadly this is not their experience. The rush and bustle of the Christmas season can

bring great stress and unfulfilled expectations. Family gatherings can  lead us into putting such pressure on

ourselves and others that the moments of  joy can be lost or simply never experienced. As we look at the state

of the world we might become skeptical of the Good News the Church proclaims.

And yet it is precisely because of our disappointments our fears and anxieties that we are in such need of

hearing, telling and living the Good News of our Savior's birth. We begin again our great journey to

Jerusalem, to the heart of God's great Love for us. As we go thru these seasons of Light we are being fed with

the Word made flesh, with the Word indwelling each of us. The reality of the world's darkness is that the Light

has come into the world and the darkness cannot overcome it. We who gather together in Christ' name are

invited at this time to refresh ourselves in the promises God has made to us in his Son Jesus.

I encourage you to take time for yourself, to be with God, to once again celebrate the mystery of the Christ

indwelling you. Be like Mary and ponder the words of the shepherds. Be the shepherds and rejoice in the

songs the Angels sing. Be the wise men and bring yourself as a gift to the One who creates and makes you

new with each breath you take. Be Joseph and nurture the Child you have been given guard over. Be at Peace

with the Holy on this earth and make real His  presence amongst us.

Peace, 

Battle  + 

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   NEW YEAR’S BREAD

(I found this recipe in my archives—it came from long time parishioner Cary Stephenson.  He has relocated to Oklahoma so I thought I would reprint this family recipe as a way of remembering him and his good work and to say farewell– Ed.)  

The recipe for this bread came from my great grandmother, Anna Grossenbacher.  She was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1869 and married German born Henry Bueker in 1890.  They moved to the United States soon after their marriage. Her recipe lists the ingredients and how to mix them, then says, “Bake until done.”  No oven temperature, to baking time…those wood stoves must have been tough going!  The recipe was handed down to each generation of cooking women.  So, when my mother had four sons and no daughters, she was very afraid that it was the end.  Not a problem Ma!  Three sons have learned how to make New Year’s Bread!  Happy New Year!

 1 1/2 cakes yeast, in 1/2 c warm water and 1/3 c flour. Let rise 1 1/2 hrs. in warm place.

2 big sifters flour (about 5 1/2 lbs)

1/2 dozen eggs (large) save two yolks

1/2 lb. butter

3/4 c sugar

1 pt milk

3/4 ts. salt

Let rise 1 1/2 hrs. until double. Knead 10”. Oil dough to keep from forming crusty top. Let rise a second time. Knead & make round strips. Braid. Let rise. Before baking paint loaves with mixture of egg yolk mixed with 1 ts. sugar.

 The diagram below describes how to braid the strips of dough. I have found that an oven setting of around 300 degrees for about 35 minutes works well.

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[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold joined 32 other Christian, Jewish and

Muslim leaders in announcing a new collaborative effort to mobilize broad public support in the

pursuit of peace in the Middle East.

In letters to President George W. Bush and members of the Congress, the religious leaders are

calling on the administration to make peace in the Middle East a high priority, warning that “if the

Road Map is allowed to fail, Israelis and Palestinians will sink even deeper into cycles of violence,

jeopardizing the prospect of a two-state solution, escalating regional instability, undermining the

global campaign against terrorism, and threatening vital U.S. national security interests.”

The religious leaders endorsed four steps that could renew momentum on the Road Map, the Bush

administration’s incremental peace plan that includes establishing a Palestinian state. First step would

be a call for an end to all acts of violence and a renewed effort to work for a ceasefire. Second,

keeping a visibly active special presidential envoy in the region, followed by more specific steps by

the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, with a timetable and vigorous monitoring. Finally, support

for benchmark ideas for possible peace agreements from earlier negotiations and initiatives such as

the Geneva Accord, an official plan signed December 1 that is drawing support.

Details on the initiative are available at www.walktheroadtopeace.org

-- James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service.

                                    Out of Nowhere

Lane Denson

Originally Published 9/26/2003 via e-mail

    It is easy to be lulled into a kind of take-for-granted, here-we-go-again listening to the cyclic pattern of

readings from scripture that calendar the seasons of the church's year. But just as we may be so tempted,

there come these startling two-by-fours between our eyes like this morning's gospel with its unorthodox

paramedic casting out demons and its catalog of emergency surgery for the morally lapse (Pent 16/21B, Mk

9.38-43,45,47-48).

    These extraordinary stories and others like them about walking on water and being swallowed by fish and

turning water into wine at best may strike most of us not only as quaint, but perhaps even absurd. For those

who feel they must believe in the inerrancy of scripture, they have to be absolute nightmares. Maybe Paul

had this sort of thing in mind when he called the gospel  a scandal and a stumbling block to the Greeks and

Jews and surely would have included us if we'd been standing around.

    But because we are so shocked -- and rightly so -- our preoccupation with the lack of any  convincing fact

about them can lead us to risk overlooking what may be any possible convicting truth within them.

So why is it that the obvious consensus of the faithful down through the centuries is to tell these stories over

and over and over again?  What is there about them that makes a difference? What is there about them that

we can believe, that somehow, we must believe?  If we are to take comfort in them, how can we? 

    The 18th-century poet Samuel Coleridge suggested a way.  He called it the "willing suspension of disbelief."

He spoke of that childlike ability to believe that is born firmly in each of us, that characteristic which Jesus

likened to the presence of the kingdom, but which so often withers as we grow older and are taught that the

world of imagination is simply not all that reliable. 

    The power of Coleridge's phrase, the "willing suspension of disbelief," is the conviction that not only

disbelief, but belief, as well, is a matter of choice. And that by virtue of God's creative imagination of us into

human being, we are free to choose.  Faith, itself, is a choice. It is primarily an act of the will. Just so is the

choice to rid ourselves of what may be a clutter of disbelief.

    We live in a time when few of us will to believe what we do not already understand or what we have not

experienced or what does not meet our own personal criteria in order even to qualify as "experience." Most

of us have not been swallowed by a fish. Most of us have not walked on water, even if in certain moments

some of us leave the impression rather that we think we could if brought to the test.

    But like Jonah and Peter, for example, who were faced with these things, all of us have been afraid and more

than likely will be again.  All of us have eyes and hands and feet that haven't always been morally

impeccable. All of us know someone whose faith we are convinced is "less" than our own, but whose

faithfulness casts out demons again and again, demons that we can't even lay a hand on. Our fear to believe,

to choose faith, can often be one of our special scandals and stumbling blocks.

    We live also in a time when fear of almost any kind is our enemy, when to triumph over fear or even simply to

hold fear at bay has become more important than to understand fear. A growing part of our own beloved

church is making the strangest of choices in these times, judgments clearly grounded in an obsession with

being right and a profound fear of being wrong. 

    As a nation and as a people, we've spent billions to conquer fear, to make ourselves secure from our

doorsteps all the way to outer space.  This anxiety about a hostile environment without can only create in us a

hostile environment within. We greet strangers with at least a mild suspicion, if not more. Addiction, a most

singular form of fear, is rampant, not only addiction to chemicals, but addiction to power and to control.

Wherever such addiction resides latent in our genes, as the evidence increasingly suggests that it can, fear

inevitably drives it out of hiding and into control over us. 

    Perhaps, then, it may help to suspend our disbelief when we realize that these ancient stories are not so much

about controlling fear, but about understanding and naming fear and about understanding the gravity of our

moral behavior. We inherit these stories and hear them over and over that we might understand, not that we

might better describe or define or convince or demonstrate through research, but that their message might

have meaning for us, that it might make sense and become a part of us, that it might ultimately overcome our

fear or at least cast it into a manageable perspective. 

    Just as the will to love precedes true loving, so can the will to suspend disbelief create an environment for

believing. One can choose to free oneself of the notion that something must be demonstrably and factually

clear before it can be considered true. To open ourselves to that possibility is the meaning and can be the

beginning of our spiritual awakening.

    Jonah and Peter were rescued because they believed God was accessible even under the most outrageous

conditions. Jesus affirmed the man casting out demons even though he was not a card-carrying member of the

discipleship. Perhaps that's the message, the answer, the understanding, even the healing value of a willing

suspension of disbelief.

**********************
Out of Nowhere is an occasional piece, intentionally daily, but not likely. On Fridays, it picks up a theme from the coming Sunday's propers. Be free to use it as you will. Attribution would be nice. If you know of others who might want to receive OoN, please send their addresses. If you're receiving duplicates or if you want your address removed, please say so. Previous OoN pieces may now be found at www.covenant-journal.org.  Copyright © 2003  Lane Denson III

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The following letter was sent to our friend, Sarena Pettit who translated for us during our visit to La Pila this summer:
 

La Pila, Ecuador, Dec. 18, 2003
Dear Sarena,

I greet you, your family, and all the members of God's church, hoping that you and all the members of St. Marks Church are well. My reason for writing is to wish you and all the members of our sister church a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and fortunate New Year. The members of Santiago Apostal and I wish that all your desires may be fulfilled. Remembering your visit this summer, we send a special greeting to Elizabeth, Holly, Frank and George. Also, the children of the Kindergarten that is now in session next to our
church, thanks to the help you have given us for the construction of the class rooms, wish you a Merry Christmas and a fortunate New Year.
Greetings and joy to all in this holiday season.

Faithfully in Christ,
Santiago Gomez

If you have been outdoors much you know that the weather has turned decidedly colder. The cold is especially difficult for the homeless.

Daughters of the King are sponsoring PROJECT BACKPACK. We are requesting donations of used (in good condition) backpacks, duffel bags, or fairly large totes with closures. Please don't make a special purchase. If you don't have any of these items, you will be able to donate items for the packs: gloves, scarves, simple first-aide items, lotions, pop top can foods, use your imagination (someone has already signed up for harmonicas).

There will be a container in the parish hall & a sign-up for what will be donated. This will simply be to give us an idea of what we may have to purchase to complete the packs. Donations will also be accepted.

We wish we could do more to help eradicate the plight of those less fortunate than we. Maybe in the future we can provide more than sustenance for the road, job training, shelter, etc. With prayer, anything is possible.

In our abundance let us be generous to others.

It is time to update St. Mark’s Directory.  Please review the information listed in the current directory for accuracy:  spelling of names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers.  Please make sure that your children’s names are listed.

Please submit corrections and new information in writing to Pat Worsley,  email lhworsley@comcast.net  Your assistance in keeping this information accurate is much appreciated.