MAY 22, 2020
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325 PARK AVENUE AT 51ST STREET 212-378-0222
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STBARTS.ORG
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The Sacred In-between Time
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The Reverend Susan Anderson-Smith
Associate Rector for Justice and Reconciliation
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Patience has never been my virtue. For as long as I can remember, nothing has ever happened fast enough for me. From getting the training wheels taken off my bike to getting ordained, no process has ever moved at the pace I had planned. My father used to tell me, “Susan, all things come to those who hustle while they wait.” That annoyed me to no end. Years later, I realized he was giving me a gift – the gift of embracing my agency, even and especially during the time between the “what is now” and the “what is to become.”
These days, I think we are all living in that in-between time. We are fairly certain that we are “done” with the whole quarantine thing. We are longing for some sense of normalcy, some feeling of certainty. We are longing to know what the future holds and how we can make it happen, now. Not only are we experiencing this in-between time temporally, we are also experiencing it ecclesiologically.
On Sunday, we will hear the final portion of the final prayer Jesus prays in the presence of his closest circle. Although it occurs in John’s gospel prior to his crucifixion, it is given to us on this Sunday after the Ascension – that brief, but breathless and sacred transition time between farewell and future, between what has been and what is yet to be. The prayer draws the disciples, the church and the world into the language of promise. Jesus intercedes on behalf of his friends, entrusting the hope of the future of his followers to God in prayer.
After the Ascension, angels were sent to remind God’s friends that if they wanted to see Jesus again, it was no use looking up. No one standing around watching them that day could have guessed what an astounding thing happened when they all stopped looking into the sky and looked at each other instead. On the surface, it was not a great moment: eleven abandoned disciples with nothing to show for all their following. But in the days and years to come it would become very apparent what had happened to them. With nothing but a promise and a prayer, those eleven people consented to become the Church and nothing was ever the same again, beginning with them. The followers became leaders, the listeners became preachers, the converts became missionaries, the healed became healers. The disciples became apostles, witnesses of the risen Savior, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing was ever the same again. That probably was not the way they would have planned it. But he went away and they stood looking up toward heaven. Then they stopped looking up toward heaven, looked at each other instead, and got on with the business of being the Church.
All things come to those who hustle while they wait!
Faithfully,
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JOIN US THIS SUNDAY, MAY 24
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The Forum at 10 am:
Christian Ethics for a Digital Society. We spend more time on our smartphones, computers, and tablets than ever before, but we don't always consider our use of technology from an ethical perspective.
Kate Ott, Associate Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Drew University, outlines the moral and social issues that often arise in our interconnected world. The Forum will be streamed on our
website,
Facebook Live and
YouTube. Please email questions for our Forum speaker to the
Reverend Peter Thompson. You may also post questions in the comments section during the YouTube and Facebook livestreams.
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Stewardship Campaign: Although we received a very large bucket of mail last week, postal service delays continue to keep us from processing your gift in a timely fashion. Please continue to use our safe and secure portal at
stbarts.org to make your pledge and to set up online giving. We appreciate your generosity and could not do without it!
We now have an Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) relationship with Fidelity Charitable Donor-Advised Fund. If you are a Fidelity Donor Advised Fund Account holder you can direct a gift to St. Bart’s and the transfer will happen electronically. Please access your DAF as usual and follow the instructions.
If you have any questions or concerns please email
Meighan Corbett or call 212-378-0278, leave a message and your call will be returned promptly.
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Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will offer a brief sermon at an ecumenical memorial service for the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, hosted by the National Council of Churches
on Sunday, May 24 at 6 pm.
It will be broadcast on YouTube and Facebook Live.
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MEET US AFTER CHURCH
Newcomers welcome to all groups!
Click links to learn how to join these online gatherings this Sunday.
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St. Bart's Night Prayer: Do you desire a few moments of peace at the end of each day? Join our St. Bart's community gathering for Night Prayer each weekday evening at 8:30 pm. Clergy and lay officiants will lead brief services based on or inspired by the ancient office of Compline.
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Brené Brown's "Unlocking Us"
Saturdays, 10 to 11 am, through May 30
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Creation Care Task Force will meet online via Zoom on
Saturday, May 23, 2 pm to discuss the hopeful documentary
Chasing Tomorrow. All are welcome.
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This is Another Day
The Reverend Deborah Lee has started a video blog offering one- to three-minute recorded daily scripture-inspired meditations to encourage you as you embark upon your daily round. Meditations will be released and available to be viewed online at 7 am on
YouTube and
Facebook.
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An Altar in the World
Mondays, 2 to 3 pm, through May 25
We don't need to be in a church building to encounter God, Barbara Brown Taylor claims in her bestselling book
An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, because God is everywhere. The Reverend Kris Lewis-Theerman leads us through Taylor's refreshing and affirming book and helps us think about spiritual practices we can develop in this time of exile from our church building. Please read the ninth and tenth chapters ahead of this week's class.
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How The Light Gets In:
Love in the Time of Coronavirus
Wednesdays, 6:30-8 pm, through June 10. Join us for a look at how the weight of experience can help us to open ourselves up to love, and make us better able to share that love with our neighbors. We will discuss Job, C.S. Lewis’s
A Grief Observed and
The Great Divorce; Susan Howatch’s
Absolute Truths, and Martin Luther through the eyes of Nadia Bolz-Weber.
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Bring a Friend to Church on Pentecost Sunday:
Pentecost is sometimes referred to as "the birthday of the Church." On this day we commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles as described in Acts 2:1–31. In many ways, this makes Pentecost Sunday a fitting day for our third annual
Bring a Friend to Church Sunday, May 31
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Join St. Bart’s to GOTV (Get Out the Vote)! Reclaim Our Vote (ROV) is a non-partisan campaign to connect with those voters most impacted by voter list purging and other suppression efforts. We will gather on Zoom on
Tuesday, June 2 at 12:30 pm for an overview and Q&A.
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Peace Book Club—
Sunday, June 14, 1-2:30 pm We invite you to the June meeting where we will discuss Robin DiAngelo's New York Times best-selling book,
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. This book explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged (white fragility), how these reactions protect and maintain racial inequity, and what we can do to engage more constructively in meaningful cross-racial dialogue.
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Research Project on Virtual Worship: Volunteers are needed to participate in a research study on virtual worship experience while public worship is suspended. Data collected from this study will be a great benefit to the wider church.
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