The
Gryphon’s Roar
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The
Gryphon’s Roar
"St. Mark's Newsletter"
“Listening to the radio the other day, I heard the
beginning of a program that went like this.
Because we have two cars, we’ve lost the art of communication.
Because we have TV, we’ve lost the art of conversation.
Because our children each have their own bedroom, we’ve lost the art of
interaction. Because we have two
bathrooms, we’ve lost the art of cooperation.
Because we have computers, we’ve lost the art of recreation.
Because we have fast foods, we’ve lost the art of gathering for meals
and the interplay that it provides. Because
we have multiple incomes, we’ve lost the art of family dependency.”
Summer is winding down, children are back to school routines , and what seems like a quiet spell in the church is about to change. September 15th is Rally Day, a time for us to consider the opportunities for service which are open to us within our church community. Rally Day presents us with opportunities for study, for work, and for worship, opportunities to deepen our spiritual life and to support the work of the church in offering the good news of God’s love to others, both inside and outside our congregation.
This year on Rally Day, information booths will be set up in the parish hall at both services. Everyone will be given the opportunity to visit each booth in order to learn what is being offered and to sign up for the classes or ministries that each person feels called to explore.
Deciding what to be involved in this fall or this year in our church life is, in spiritual terms, a process of discernment. Discerning what we are called to do, how we need to grow. As you think about those questions, I urge you to consider in what ways you are best suited to give of yourself to others, what areas of your life have your grown complacent, and may need challenges in order to stretch and grow.
Peace, Battle+
Sayings of the Master
I love you, my brother, whoever you are –
whether you worship in your church,
kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque.
You and I are all children of one faith
for the diverse path of religion are fingers
of the loving hand of one Supreme Being,
a hand extended to all,
offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive all.
From The
Voice of the Master by Kahlil Gibran, translated from the Arabic by Anthony
Ferris Copyright 1958 by Anthony Ferris, the Citadel Press, New York, New York
What
exactly is going on on Sunday morning? Just how big is Eucharist?
“The
liturgy is a process of fulfillment,
a
growth to maturity.
The
whole of nature must be evoked by the liturgy,
and
as the liturgy seized by grace takes hold of it all,
refine
and glorify it in the likeness of Christ,
through
the all embracing,
ardent
love of the Holy Ghost
for
the glory of God,
whose
Majesty draws all things to Itself.
The
liturgy embraces everything in existence:
angels,
people and things—all the content and events of life;
in
short, the whole of reality.”
Romano
Guardini, Sacred Signs (As quoted by Gertrud Mueller Nelson in Liturgy:
Heritage Meets Hope (Vol. 17, No. 4), p. 53.
Worship on a "Grand" Scale
In 1951, the National Park Service and the National Council of Churches drew up guidelines for a national interdenominational ministry in the National Parks. It was launched the following summer with Warren Ost as its director. Ost had conceived of the ministry while a student at the University of Minnesota and Princeton Theological Seminary, working summers as a bellhop at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park. Now, fifty years later, about 300 young seminary students from more than 40 denominations each summer provide ecumenical worship services, religious activities and Christian education, such as Bible studies and counseling, for park visitors and employees in 65 national parks, national forests and resort areas.
(Source: Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service) National Council of Churches
Episcopal
News Service
Churches plan to commemorate first
anniversary of September 11 terrorist attacks
by James Solheim
(ENS)
Churches
across the nation are completing plans for special ways to commemorate the first
anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC)
and the Pentagon.
St.
Paul's Chapel, part of New York's Trinity Parish, is a few blocks from the
ground zero site. It miraculously survived the collapse of the towers, and
served as a place of refuge for the rescue workers. Trinity is arranging a
series of church services and events around the theme, "A Day of Hope and
Healing."
The
chapel will be open to visitors all day and premiere an exhibition highlighting
its eight-month-long ministry to recovery workers. Trinity will hold a service
of morning prayer at 8am and a choral service at 11am with Archbishop of
Canterbury George L. Carey and Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. At the
service the Lord Mayor of London, Michael Oliver, will present a commemorative
church bell as a symbol of sympathy from the City of London to the people of New
York. The service will be broadcast live on the BBC.
The
bells at St. Paul's and Trinity will ring regularly during the day, including at
10:29am, the time when the second tower collapsed. The church's bells will
conclude civic ceremonies at the site.
Other
churches in the Diocese of New York will mark the anniversary with a variety of
services, concerts, and tolling of church bells. At the Cathedral Church of St.
John the Divine and several parishes the names of the thousands who died will be
read. The diocese is also participating in a multi-media project, "9/11: A
Spiritual Response," in cooperation with the Church Pension Group, Church
Publishing, Trinity Parish and the New York Historical Society. It will
illustrate and analyze the religious dimensions of the church's response.
Seamen's
Church Institute (SCI) has prepared a 10-minute video, "Witness at Ground
Zero," and sent it to Episcopal parishes throughout the church, "to
serve as a focus of reflection for your congregation, either as part of a church
service, Bible study, or for use during your coffee hour." The video
includes reflections by the presiding bishop during services at SCI a few days
after the attack, focusing on the lessons for Holy Cross Day.
Tutu
at National Cathedral
At
Washington National Cathedral a series of events will begin at 8am with
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa leading an Interfaith Service of
Remembrance that will include Christian, Muslim and Jewish participants. They
will be joined by Congressional leaders, as well as members of the judiciary and
administrative branches of government and the diplomatic corps.
On
the West Coast, St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle is planning a Week of
Remembrance with an emphasis on "reconciliation, peace, justice and
hope," opening its doors at 5:30am on September 11. At St. Paul's Cathedral
in San Diego a 7pm service will feature John Rutter's Requiem. A service of
prayer and remembrance will begin at 5:30am at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul
in Los Angeles and the bells will begin at 5:46am, the time when the first plane
struck the WTC in New York.
Many
Episcopal churches across the country will join community-wide ecumenical and
interfaith observances. In Massachusetts a statewide service will include
participation by the Corps of Fire Chaplains, many of whom served for seven
weeks at the site of the WTC. Volunteers at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis
will read the names of those killed and the cathedral will host an interfaith
prayer service at noon.
Many
resources available
A
wide variety of worship resources are available, many of them ecumenical and
easily adapted for use in local parishes.
The
office of the bishop for the Armed Services, Healthcare and Prison Ministries is
compiling a list of materials and websites to support education forums and youth
groups. (www.episcopalchurch.org/ashapm/crisisresources.html.) "After
collation and review, some of these resources will be e-mailed to all parishes
via the new e-mail newsletter of the Episcopal Church Communication
Network," according to Bishop George Packard. Information from the
newsletter will also be available on the church's web site at
www.episcopalchurch.org/911resources, including a collect especially written for
commemoration of September 11 by Griswold. The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is
offering a Day of Remembrance Liturgy written by the Rev. David Selzer and
available at www.epfonline.org.
The
National Council of Churches (NCC) has encouraged Christian churches to
participate in an Interfaith Hospitality Project, calling on congregations to
"extend an Open House welcome to neighboring Muslims" in September.
"In the days following the tragic events of last September, the doors of
many houses of worship were opened, as people who were looking for comfort and
meaning sought out places to reflect and to gather with others to pray,"
according to the NCC invitation. "During those days responsible leaders
reminded us that it was a group of Islamist terrorists, and not Islam nor
ordinary American Muslims, that attacked the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon."
The
NCC's Interfaith Relations Commission has posted materials to help congregations
considering the open house project, which may be downloaded and used freely,
with credit to the NCC. A Litany of Remembrance, Penitence and Hope is available
at http://www.ncccusa.org/interfaith/sept-11-litany.html
the
Lord’s day
day of the Lord
now
then
today
time
collapses
commingles
in
sharing the feast
Dan Benedict
August 18, 2002
|
August 1, 2002 The Presiding Bishop was asked to write a prayer that could be used in observances of the anniversary of September 11, 2001, perhaps at the conclusion of the Prayers of the People. |
God the compassionate one, whose loving care extends to all the world, we remember this day your children of many nations and many faiths whose lives were cut short by the fierce flames of anger and hatred.
Console those who continue to suffer and grieve, and give them comfort and hope as they look to the future. Out of what we have endured, give us the grace to examine our relationships with those who perceive us as the enemy, and show our leaders the way to use our power to serve the good of all for the healing of the nations.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord who, in reconciling love, was lifted up from the earth that he might draw all things to himself. Amen.
