THE RECTOR'S REFLECTIONS

Rector's Annual Report January. 21, 2007

I feel a little like Ezra standing at the Water Gate this morning. Instead of being asked to read the Torah in its entirety I am asked to give my annual report before our annual meeting. That's OK. Standing here and reading the first five books of the bible is not my cup of tea and I think it safe to say that it is not yours either. I think you would be able to readily understand why “all the people wept when they heard the words”. (Nehemiah 8:9)

The scene in the reading from Hebrew Scripture this morning needs to be understood, however, in its context. It has a particular relevance for us just as does Jesus' reading of Isaiah in the Gospel reading. And especially in light of Paul's letter to the Corinthians. The revelation of God's word in all our readings is timely for us this January morning.

We start with Ezra, scribe and religious leader, in the year 444 before our common era. It has been 93 years since the Israelites returned from exile. For almost a century the people have struggled to ­rebuild their lives, their temple, and their city and form a proper worshipping community. Now it's over. The temple has been rebuilt, the economy has been improved and now this morning the city walls are finished.

Now the people ask Ezra to gather with them at the Water Gate and listen while he reads the Book of the Law of Moses. This is the moment that the Law is re-introduced publicly and it will shape the people once again as the Holy People of God. Verse 5 in chapter 8 tells us that as soon as Ezra opened the book “all the people stood up.” “Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered. ‘Amen, Amen'. Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord their faces to the ground”. (8:6)

Now I won't go into all the details of what are two of the most fascinating books in Hebrew scripture, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Suffice it to say they supplement the First and Second Books of Chronicles. They were originally one book in the Hebrew bible and became two books in the Christian bible in the 3 rd century. They recount the saga of Israel returning from exile after word had gotten to the exiles that the remnant which remained in Jerusalem was in dire straits. Nehemiah became distraught and went to the Persian King, Cyrus. Over the next several decades there was a series of 4 returns by different groups. Nehemiah becomes governor and Ezra returns as a scribe.

The books recount the rebuilding that I already mentioned. They recount the faith and vision of leaders and people to return to the worship and love of God that they had neglected and which resulted in captivity and exile. These books are really the story of the building up of a faith community.

We aren't all that different when you come to think of it. We haven't been in exile, certainly, but we have spoken among ourselves for many, many years about the building up of a new temple, a new parish church.

In the past few years we have witnessed the growth of our community. When asked early on what my vision was for a new St. Bede's I answered by describing a building that reflected the communities which gather within these walls. We have become a beacon to the wider community. We have become a light of hope, reconciliation, trust and confidence that arises out of our worship as a community that gathers around the Eucharist week in and week out. Bishop Steenson's Canon to the Ordinary, Fr. Michael Perko, remarked to me on a recent visit how warm and welcomed he and the Bishop feel coming here and being welcomed. The occasion was the ordination of Ray Raney to the Priesthood. Warmth and welcome are hallmarks of this sacred place. Support and love can be added as additional values and virtues which newcomers feel. Holiness and hope are also part of the litany of the qualities that greet all who enter here. All these qualities are part of the very fiber of what makes St. Bede's be what it is. We truly do live out our logo by extending ourselves to the world.

Five Ordinations in Five Years

Ray's ordination this past December was one of five that we have experienced here over the past five years beginning with Mother Madelynn. By this coming October we should witness the ordination of one of our Deacons, Randy Lutz to the Sacred Order of Priests.

We are indeed a diverse community. Thank God that we are beginning to see the growth of young families in our midst. Our recent Christmas pageant was without a doubt the largest in years. Thirty-one children took part. Thanks to Gloria Durham and co. we were treated to a great pageant. Thanks to Fritz Anders we are seeing the growth or our choir. Growth is in the air. On a recent Sunday our nursery director, Trish Flores, oversaw 10 youngsters in our small nursery space. Our recent mission to Ciudad Juarez saw the largest number of volunteers, over 33. The prayer shawl ministry continues to grow and grow and grow. I never know how many shawls are going to be brought up for us to bless on any given Sunday. These are but examples of the Spirit of God moving within our walls.

Add to our welcoming spirit and our diversity the presence of our Jewish brothers and sisters in HaMakom. I will never forget when, 5 years ago, Rabbi Malka Drucker came to me and asked to use our sanctuary space for their High Holy Days. I said, “sure” and didn't know it at the time but I was saying “sure” to a new family that would take their place at St. Bede's. The following year HaMakom came and again a friendship deepened not only between Rabbi Malka and me but between St. Bede's and HaMakom.

Taking Risks With a Safe Friendship

But it was a safe friendship if I may say so. HaMakom would pack up and leave after the Holy Days were finished. Come the second year Rabbi Malka asked about moving in and using space on Sabbath days. Quite to my surprise I found myself saying that we didn't have room for their equipment especially the Ark. Looking back I am still amazed at my reluctance. Was a new group coming in to take up space which we weren't prepared to agree with? Was this priest feeling that taking a risk was no longer part of the fiber of his life? I was slowly getting involved in interfaith work and wasn't too sure how close to get to be perfectly frank. In any event that was that…..or so I thought.

Some time after this talk Rabbi Malka returned with the then president of HaMakom. Leslie Davis, God rest her soul, was one of the most remarkable people I have ever known. Her faith, her passion for her Judaism, HaMakom and for God was deeply manifest.

She Came Armed With a Tape Measure

Well, the day she and Rabbi came Leslie also came armed with a tape measure. Before I knew it we were measuring storage and worship space and what can I say, the rest is history. You will hear more about HaMakom at the annual meeting. Its history is moving and not unlike our own.

Leslie knew what God wanted more than I did. I truly feel to this very day that the presence of HaMakom in our midst is a blessing from God for both communities. HaMakom in Hebrew means “The Place” which Rabbi Malka has told me can also be a name for God. Imagine, God as a place to go to! Would that every house of worship understand itself as the dwelling place of God where one can go for hope, solace, challenge, love, nurture, forgiveness and assurance. Perhaps our divisions would quickly cease and we would dwell together in God as brothers and sisters as God truly intends.

Religion is Not a Weapon

HaMakom is a partner in faith with St. Bede's. I propose over the next months that we take time to involve ourselves in the work and mission of both of our communities. Let's meet each other socially, on committees, and especially in prayer and worship. Let us work together to build a true Interfaith center here at St. Bede's. We must, we must demonstrate to the world that religion is not a weapon but rather an instrument of God's work and will in the world. We are all the hands and heart of God. Paul addresses this very reality in his letter this morning to the Church in Corinth . We are all parts of God's sacred body and have roles to play together.

We have the opportunity to begin to build a new moment in the life of church and community. Jesus did exactly that as he walked into the synagogue at Nazareth . The late Verna Dozier, a leader in Christian Education in the Episcopal Church as well as a major part of our Episcopal heritage, once described this morning's passage from Luke as Jesus' inauguration speech. We have the opportunity to take that speech deep into our hearts and souls and carry on the mission he started. The Spirit of the Lord is upon this church and its members both Jew and Christian. We are anointed and charged by God to bring the good news of God to the poor, proclaim release to those imprisoned and to work for the freedom of the oppressed. We are to be agents of God's justice and reconciliation.

Work Together and Be Challenged

We can work together in so many areas and also be challenged to be in community with each other on those boundaries where we can't cross and don't have commonality. That's the challenge laid before us. That is the stuff that makes us all members of the Holy People of God. We are all members of God's family called to heal and repair the world. Tikkun Olam.

The world needs healing. It needs healing from war, from hate, from division. The list goes on. We at St. Bede's do a great job in extending ourselves. Hoyt Gimlim and the Outreach Committee see to it that our commitment of 10% of our undesignated offerings goes to local non profits as well as to a school in Sudan . This money is needed as funds become more and more scarce for those very agencies serving and advocating for the victims of hunger, fear, injustice and oppression. We pray for these victims and we offer their servants our stewardship. Our community grants program is a holy project. It is a part of the DNA of St. Bede's. As rector I have no control over the money of the church. That is as it should be. The vestry is the fiscal agent for the church. That is our polity as Episcopalians. The canons are clear on that role at least. However, given that fact, I have notified the wardens, vestry and treasurer that I will do all within my power by way of influence to see that we do not cut any of this holy giving. I confess that I made a mistake two years ago when I asked for to be dissolved. I won't do that again.

A Spirit of God's Holiness

There is a spirit of God's holiness that permeates St. Bede's. In the words of the Psalmist this morning the servants of St. Bede's praise the name of the Lord. From the rising of the sun to its going down the Name of the Lord is praised. The Name of the Lord is praised in sacrament, word, music and in the very lives of all members of St. Bede's. Our Lay Pastoral Care program, our Lay Eucharistic Ministers and so many others carry Christ's healing and nurturing presence to so many sick and homebound within our parish community. Carol, Jeremiah and I have been and continue to be recipients of your love and support that we are witnesses to the care that goes on within our walls. So, I speak of St. Bede's love and nurturing from direct experience.

So, where do we go from here? It is clear that we are being called to build and we are on the road to the day when, God willing, we will see the establishment of a new house of worship on this very ground. As Jesus began a new moment of life and story in the journey of faith and salvation we too are being called to create a new moment, a new era in the life of St. Bede's. We need to build a structure that reflects all we are to the world. And we need to build a structure for those who are not yet here.

The 19 th century English poet and artist, John Ruskin, once said, “Your work should be the praise of what you love”. [This quote is taken from a talk given on CSPAN on Jan. 20, 2007 by Robert Richardson as he spoke about his book, William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism (Houghton Mifflin 2006). The talk was recorded at the “Concord Bookshop”, Concord , MA .] Our new church will be the work of both St. Bede's and HaMakom. It will reflect the praise of God which we live out in our lives and in our worship. I hope Ruskin's quote becomes a part of the fabric of our building campaign.

Campaign Planning Committee to Report

Later on at the annual meeting you will be hearing from the co-chairs of our capital campaign planning committee, Janie Oakes , Gay Block from HaMakom You will also hear from HaMakom president, Lisa Freeman, as well as our consultant, Beth Johnson. If you are unable to be at the meeting you will certainly be filled in via the minutes that are recorded. We have been meeting just about every Tuesday morning for quite some time. Within the next several weeks our feasibility study will begin and we will learn just what resources we have to undertake a building project. We have, as you will hear in a letter from the Bishop which Janie will be reading, his support and encouragement [ see page 8 ].

The capital campaign planning process has taken up a great deal of my time these last months. As the project progresses it will continue to be a central focus of my time and I do this with enthusiastic willingness and devotion. We have an exceptionally fine and professionally skilled clergy staff in place now that works with me in carrying out the pastoral and liturgical life of St. Bede's. I still want to see the day come, however, when there is a full time associate priest on staff. I would, down the line, love to see St. Bede's become a professional center for the training of full time, newly ordained clergy. I believe we are building towards that day as we build towards a new church.

I heard the above quote from John Ruskin in a talk on CSPAN by Robert Richardson, Harvard professor and biographer. He has written biographies on Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and now William James. In the course of his talk Richardson said that each of these men had a central theme that they arrived at from different directions, Emerson from his Unitarian faith, Thoreau from the study of the classics and James from the study of psychology, philosophy and religion. At least that's the order I wrote in my notes from the talk. The theme was that we live, all live, on the threshold of possibility, our powers are pertinent to the universe and that we have energies and powers within us that we don't use. I call all those possibilities, those latent energies and powers, the presence of God's grace within us. I have, by the way, read Richardson 's biography of Emerson, Emerson: The Mind on Fire, (Centennial Press 1996) and plan to read the biographies of Thoreau and James. I recommend these books.

God's grace, God's Holy Spirit is dwelling within each of us. We are being called to build a community, not just a new church and to use the grace within us to see the project through to its conclusion. We are also being called to add a chapter to the story of St. Bede's. Each of us is pertinent to the story of Christ's mission. Within each of us is the power and energy of God in Christ. May we all be stewards of that power, energy and grace.

Pledges Reach Record Heights

Speaking of stewardship, do you realize that this year we have achieved the highest amount ever pledged in St. Bede's? You will be hearing more about this in the course of the meeting. Thanks to Mary Utton and the Stewardship Committee, Ann Woodward and Norm Millet for organizing the all member canvass and all who took an active part in the canvas. Thanks to you the Spirit, the power and energy of St. Bede's shines brighter today.

Here we are this morning at the Water Gate. Unlike our brothers and sisters who gathered with Ezra we are just beginning to build the Temple .

Amen
Fr. Richard

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© 2007 St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico