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St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
3100 Murfreesboro Pike
PO Box 741
Antioch, Tennessee 37011
615-361-4100
The Right Reverend Bertram Herlong Bishop of TennesseeThe Reverend Battle Beasley Rector
Debbie Colvin Senior Warden
Candy Burger Junior Warden
Elizabeth Gregory Treasurer
Suzie Abrahamson Clerk of the Vestry
Deadline for submissions to next month’s Gryphon is
Sunday, October 21Please submit articles at the earliest possible date to insure inclusion in the newsletter. Electronic submissions are preferred with text in the body of an email. Email submisions to: submitgryphon@earthlink.net
There is now a bin for submissions in the office. If you submit something, please put your name and contact information on it. I will make every effort to get it into the newsletter. - Shelley Davis, Ed.
For the Nation
Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of your country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and The Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen BCP—258.
Continuing Conversation
The Reverend Battle Beasley
D
ear People of God,The events of September 11 have touched all of us to the core of our Being. We all have been struggling with our emotions including feelings of sadness, confusion, anger, despair, fear, and hope, relief, wonderment at the human spirit. I cannot begin to articulate all that each of us have been feeling and thinking in the past days and weeks. I can and do invite and urge you to talk about your experience with family, friends and of course especially here in our community of faith. We began that conversation Sunday the 16th, but we are by no means finished with this conversation. What I want to make absolutely clear is that we will honor and respect the feelings and opinions of any who come to share their story with us. We may not all be in agreement as to what we are feeling or how we should respond but we are a community bound together by the Love of God, and trusting in God’s Love to sustain and direct us we will not simply support, but love and honor, everyone in our community.
Please know that if any of you are in need of short term counseling to deal with thoughts or emotions a number of our members are therapists who have offered their services for children or adults. We will continue to hold the victims -- dead, wounded, those who suffered loss -- in our prayers. We will continue to pray for our leaders, nations of the world, our armed forces and our community. I invite you to share our prayers with others and to invite them to join us. We will hold a Labyrinth Walk for Healing on Saturday October 13th. Thank you for your honesty and willingness to share and to be supportive of each other.
God’s peace be with us and with all God’s children.
Peace Battle+
Note: You are invited to use The Gryphon’s Roar to relate your experiences, thoughts and feelings about these and other things happening here at St. Marks. Contact me if you would like to make a submission.—Ed.
An Evening Prayer
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen
BCP—833.
Helping Children Cope With Tuesday's Acts
of Terrorism; Tips for Parents and Teachers
Tuesday's tragic acts of terrorism are unprecedented in the American experience. Children, like many people, may be confused or frightened by the news and will look to adults for information and guidance on how to react. Parents and school personnel can help children cope first and foremost by establishing a sense of safety and security. As the nation learns more about what happened and why, adults can continue to help children work through their emotions and perhaps even use the process as a learning experience.
All Adults Should:
1. Model calm and control. Children take their emotional cues from the significant adults in their lives. Avoid appearing anxious or frightened.
2. Reassure children that they are safe and so are the other important adults in their lives. Explain that these buildings were targeted for their symbolism and that schools, neighborhoods, and regular office buildings are not at risk.
3. Remind them that trustworthy people are in charge. Explain that the government emergency workers, police, fireman, doctors, and even the military are helping people who are hurt and are working to ensure that no further tragedies occur.
4. Let children know that it is okay to feel upset. Explain that all feelings are okay when a tragedy like this occurs. Let children talk about their feelings and help put them into perspective. Even anger is okay, but children may need help and patience from adults to assist them in expressing these feelings appropriately.
5. Observe children's emotional state. Depending on their age, children may not express their concerns verbally. Changes in behavior, appetite, and sleep patterns can also indicate a child's level of grief, anxiety or discomfort. Children will express their emotions differently. There is no right or wrong way to feel or express grief.
6. Tell children the truth. Don't try to pretend the event has not occurred or that it is not serious. Children are smart. They will be more worried if they think you are too afraid to tell them what is happening.
7. Stick to the facts. Don't embellish or speculate about what has happened and what might happen. Don't dwell on the scale or scope of the tragedy, particularly with young children.
8. Keep your explanations developmentally appropriate. Early elementary school children need brief, simple information that should be balanced with reassurances that the daily structures of their lives will not change. Upper elementary and early middle school children will be more vocal in asking questions about whether they truly are safe and what is being done at their school. They may need assistance separating reality from fantasy. Upper middle school and high school students will have strong and varying opinions about the causes of violence in schools and society. They will share concrete suggestions about how to make school safer and how to prevent tragedies in society. They will be more committed to doing something to help the victims and affected community.
Upper middle school and high school students will have strong and varying opinions about the causes of violence in schools and society. They will share concrete suggestions about how to make school safer and how to prevent tragedies in society. They will be more committed to doing something to help the victims and affected community.
Support
and Prayers from our Companion Diocese
Each Sunday, I’m glad to be reminded of our continuing relationship with the world-wide Anglican Communion – as we pray for dioceses listed in the Anglican cycle of prayer, churches in Tennessee, and for Bishop Morante, Fr. Leon, and Santiago Apostle in La Pila. Each year when we’ve attended church on Sunday in Guayaquil, usually the service has been at 10:30 am. That’s when the words “world-wide” come home to me. I realize that as I’m stumbling over the Spanish words in the Book of Common Prayer (I don’t speak or understand Spanish), nonetheless, I know what’s being said because of our common heritage. Also, at almost exactly the same time as we share the Eucharist, our friends and families at St. Mark’s are doing likewise. On 12 September, this took on additional meaning when I received the following e-mail from Bishop Morante, praying for us and the victims:
“I am writing just to say that we are all in prayers with the American people. The whole world is shocked with this terrorist attack. It is regrettable to know that there are people capable of doing horrible things as happened yesterday. I would like you pass on this message of sympathy to all our brothers and sisters in the Diocese. I am sure many people don’t approve of this cowardly attack in which many Americans and people from all around the world died. So, please receive our deepest sympathy and we’ll be praying for the peace of the world. I hope those responsible for this attack will be punished on the earth, but I believe that the Lord will be the one in charge to punish these people in due time. For now we all can pray for peace and for those people deceased. May the Lord be with you
Faithfully in Christ
Obispo Alfredo Morante”
When we first started correspondence with Bishop Morante in 1997, we asked what was needed in his diocese. He didn’t list any specific, material need. Instead, he said, “We just feel very isolated and alone.” His message reminded me that the idea of “companion church” is one that goes in both directions, and it was nice to know we are prayed for, also.
THE GREAT EXPANSE
Anger
Sinks the boat.
Now we are not praising
That "drowning" in His ocean,
Just crossing the great expanse
Of each minute with all the compassion and
Dignity we can
Find.
from The Gift, Poems of Hafiz,
Penguin USA, copyright 1999.
From the Editor -
For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been confused by my response to the events of September 11th. Spiritually sick men crashed planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers and murdered thousands of innocent people. I was recovering from surgery the first week, so I felt a little numb. That was understandable. Then I felt some fascination by it all, the same sort of fascination one might have at a two headed calf or an amputated limb. I wanted to watch and not watch at the same time. I wanted to look and look away, unsure if what I was seeing was real, knowing in my brain it was real but reeling from the surreal quality of the whole event. I guess that’s called shock.I cycled through fear and dread at the thought of our nation entering into a World War. I do not want our country to go to war and am of the opinion that it’s not necessary. If this truly is a “Holy War” and the battle is in the spiritual realm, then tanks and planes and ships become irrelevant. A friend suggested that the way to win this “war” would be to go over to the Middle East and build roads and schools and put water works and infrastructure into the country. We “win” by building up instead of tearing down. A spiritually radical notion I’m inclined to agree with. If returning an evil for an evil is as spiritually destructive on the global scale as it on the personal, perhaps the inverse is true? Perhaps the true spiritual response, as a nation, is to show compassion, practice those principles upon which our country is founded, and teach our enemies a new way of life through example?
Maybe, my lack of negative emotional response is due to the fact that my psyche doesn’t interpret these television images as really real and I don’t feel threatened because New York and Washington are so far away and besides the United Stated has the military might to annihilate any and all who threaten our American freedom. It sounds good but I don’t think so.
What I’m about to suggest here seems radical to me, egotistical, even. Could it be that the message of mercy and love and compassion I have been listening to all these years might have actually found a place to sprout and grow? How wonderful to be released from the God of damnation and judgment I had built up over a lot of years. It feels a little strange.
What I have ended up with, is an enduring sense of expectation. God’s Spirit is moving among us and wonderful things are happening. An entire country is drawing upon spiritual reserves and relying on God in a way I’ve never before seen. Anger would do nothing but add to the destruction; it would punch a hole in the bottom of this precarious boat we are all in together. Anger, as a reaction to anything, has an absolute destructive quality.
But my fear whispers to me that no, anger is called for in this situation. My ego wants to tell me that there’s something wrong with me if I don’t get angry. I feel a little pressure to be more condemning, to come up with a judgment about those men.
I don’t think God is an American; I don’t think God is an Afghani or an Israeli or a Palestinian. I don’t think God roots for the Titans or the Ravens. I think God is rooting for all of us. We are His human family. The way out of destructive action is to reach for and to practice compassion. The humble result is that I am God’s kid. You are God’s kid. The terrorists are God’s kids. The wounded and dead are God’s kids as are the people left behind to mourn their loved ones. We are ALL God’s kids and each of us is doing the best we possibly can do, with as much dignity as we can possibly muster at any given moment. I need to be reminded of that.
Peace– Shelley
Episcopal Peace Fellowship National Executive Committee
September 14, 2001
The Episcopal Peace Fellowship deplores the violent loss of lives and serious injuries in New York City, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. We are filled with sorrow at this time for those who have experienced the fear and horror of acts of terrorism, the loss of life and of extreme suffering at the hands of evil. We must at this time remember that as Christians, it is justice that we seek and not revenge. As Martin Luther King said, "an eye for an eye would mean a blind world." We must seek first to be peacemakers. We echo and proclaim the presiding bishop's statement, "Never has it been clearer to me than in this moment what people of faith, in virtue of the Gospel and the mission of the Church, are called to be about peace and the transformation of the human heart, beginning with our own." As Bishop Riah, Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem wrote to Griswold, "We struggle with the weapons of God. Our struggle first must be in prayer."
We echo the words of the Fellowship of Reconciliation: "Vengeance and retaliation cannot be the answer to this situation, for they simply increase the spiral of violence and deepen the culture of violence. We must condemn and deplore the acts of those responsible for the bombings. These persons should be brought to justice through legal means and the accepted standards of international law." We must prevent abuse of our Arab American sisters and brothers. They are living in great fear; afraid to leave their houses, afraid to send their children to school. We call on our elected officials to protect Arab American communities, the school systems to be alert to the harassment of children with Muslim names, the media to cease name calling and finger pointing. As members of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship we join together to call on our political and religious leaders to respond with:
- reconciliation based on justice rather than revenge;
- dialogue rather than inflammatory rhetoric;
- peaceful nonviolent alternatives rather than plans for war;
- respect for all peoples rather than stereotypes and blame;
- restraint rather than retaliation;
Actions to Take: 1) Pray for the victims and their families, those assisting in
the recovery,and for justice and peace in the world; 2) Reach out to those in
immediate need by offering blood, money, time, or skills; 3) Join with other
peacemakers in your community to act together; 4) Write your local and national
officials asking for protection for Arab- Americans in your locale and reach out
to the Arab-Americans in your community to ask how you can help.5) Contact your
Congresspersons and ask them to support establishing a Department of Peace (H.R,
2459 sposored by 40 congresspersons this summer) EPF Executive Committee: The
Rev. David Selzer, Janet Chishom, Chris Pottle,Bobby Armstrong epfnational@ameritech.net
web site: www. epfonline.org
Taken from A Vigil for Peace by David Selzer, Chairperson of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship
We ask your presence with all who are in mourning this
night, for those who lost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses, lovers,
friends and
neighbors. We pray: Have mercy on us.
For those who have died as a result of the terrorist
attacks; for those who
have been injured; for those who are in shock and grief; We pray: Have mercy on
us.
For the victims of terror and fear; for us, who are shaken
and ill at ease
with the future; for all who are beset by fear and anxiety; We pray: Have
mercy on us.
For those who plot terror and mass destruction, that their
hearts, minds and
will be changed. For those who suffer from oppression and religious
fanaticism, that they may be opened to your creative and loving presence in
their lives,We pray: Have mercy on us.
For our nation and its people; for all who live in
distress and agony, for
all who have given up hope,We pray: Have mercy on us.
Be with us and guide us, O God; prevent us from vengeance and isolation. Give us a community of people united in faith and hope, a community willing to work through the issues of our life and world without violence. We pray: Have mercy on us.
For a complete copy of the Vigil for Peace contact The Rev. David Selzer at dos403@aol.com
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On behalf of the Vestry...
I would like to thank Gretchen Miller and Peggy Tucker for their donations of lawn mowers to the church for labyrinth and grounds maintenance. These donations will help ease the large task of caring for our yard.
I would also like to thank Steven Page for his above-and-beyond work keeping our grass cut - almost single-handedly - all summer long. This is a significant gift of time and money that, in my humble opinion, merits sainthood.
A mower that had been previously donated by the Brannon's was stolen from our storage barn earlier in the summer. Many apologies to Frank and Pam. The barn has now been modified so that even I have difficulty getting it open. That's good if you want to store other semi-valuable things (like a weed eater), but bad if you're having difficulty manipulating the lock. Don't hesitate to call if you need help. Thanks, Cary
Will you Help Out?
Volunteers are needed to set tables up in the Parish Hall on Saturdays for the Second Sunday Breakfast. The next breakfast will be October 14th. Usually 2 people are needed. Please call Betty McKee if you will help out.
Hope
Even as we are living through this great tragedy in our
nation, there are many families in our St. Mark's community that are living
through there own tragedies. As I struggled with the way I could become involved
in rebuilding hope, I realized that helping at home would probably be more
meaningful to me. Our Rector knows the needs of those in our midst. I have
chosen to contribute to the Rector's Discretionary Fun. I would like to
urge all of you who are experiencing helplessness in not knowing where to
assist, to consider the Rector's Discretionary Fund as the means of rebuilding
hope for our own brothers & sisters in Christ.
Pam Carr-Brannon
Blessing of the Animals
Saturday October 6th at 2PM, we will celebrate the Blessing of the Animals at the church. This will be in observance of the Feast of St. Francis.
More Ways to Give
Episcopal Relief and Development, the national relief agency of the Episcopal
Church, is receiving donations to support recovery from the terrorist disasters
in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.
ERD is now evaluating the best way to respond.
Tax-deductible donations, payable to Episcopal Relief and Development, may be
sent to:
Episcopal Relief and Development
c/o September 11 Disaster
Box 12043
Newark, NJ 07101
For more information see their web site: http://www.er-d.org/ or call +1 212 716
6020.
Gringo Market
St. David's will hold its Second Annual Gringo Market on Friday, October 12th (10-3:30) and Saturday, October 13th (10-3). Hand-made items from Central and South America will be on sale. ALL proceeds will benefit St. David's mission projects in Honduras and our Companion Diocese of Litoral, Ecuador.
Hand-Made Items from Central and South America:
Nativities, Holiday Decorations , Clothing, Toys, Hand-Carved and
Hand-Painted Items, Crosses, Jewelry, Backpacks,
Linens, Handbags, Kitchen Items, Coffee, Vanilla
St. David's Episcopal Church
6501 Pennywell Drive
(West Meade)
ALL proceeds will benefit mission projects in Honduras and Ecuador.
Retreat: Celtic Retreat: The Hermit’s Song
Leader: Sister Lucy Shetters
Date: Friday, October 26 -
28
Place: St. Mary's Retreat
Center,Sewanee, TN
St. Mary's Center for Spiritual Growth will offer a retreat entitled Celtic
Retreat: The Hermit’s Song on October 26-28 at St. Mary's Retreat
and Conference Center in Sewanee, TN. A voice from the early British Church
speaks to many people today. Discover the freshness and joy found in the
prayers, poetry, stories, and songs of these early Christians. Together we will
listen to their voices and look for ways they might inspire and encourage us in
our spiritual quest. Our leader, Sister Lucy Shetters ,Sister-in-Charge of the
Southern Province of the Community of St. Mary, has taken pilgrimages to the
British Isles and has studied the Celtic way of prayer and spirituality for many
years. A popular retreat leader, she always brings to her retreats the breath of
sturdy faith, lived daily. Fee: $130 (Commuters $90). For more information, call
St. Mary's Retreat Center (931) 598-5342.
