Celebrate Epiphany

January 6, 2011

Holy Eucharist with the Blessing of Chalk and the Proclamation of the Date of Easter
7:00 pm

Join us as we celebrate the birth of Christ

CHRISTMAS EVE

5:00 pm: Holy Eucharist with music by the St. Nicholas (youth) choir and organ
10:30 pm: Preludial music for choir, congregation and organ
11:00 pm: Holy Eucharist with music by organ and choir

CHRISTMAS DAY

10:00 am: Holy Eucharist with carols

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS - December 26

8:00 am: Holy Eucharist
10:30 am: Christmas Lessons & Carols with Eucharist

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS - January 2

8:00 am: Holy Eucharist
10:30 am: Holy Eucharist

THE EPIPHANY - January 6

7:00 pm: Holy Eucharist with music

Taize Prayer - December 19

The gentle chants of the community of Taize in the midst of candles and icons - what a wonderful way to celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Join us at St. Paul's on SUnday, December 19, 5:00 pm, for our monthly celebration of Taize prayer. A simple reception will follow.

Do we really sound like this?

It may be a little unfair, but the video below made me wonder about the church. It seems that we often struggle to understand who we are and why we are here: a community of like minded people, a social action group, a "family" that enjoys reuniting each Sunday...? Clergy in their turn have veered over the years from being educators to counselors to community organizers to social workers to...

What happened to being the Body of Christ, gathered by the Holy Spirit, to worship God in holiness, proclaim the Good News, and serve the world in the name of Christ? Where are the clergy being stewards of the mysteries, people of prayer and sacrament, fathers and mothers in Christ to their people - not in arrogance or domination, but love and humility...?

With all that - enjoy the video! It's funny.
(h/t to Women's Guild)

Advent Lessons & Carols

One of the many joys of the season of Advent is the service of Lessons & Carols. St. Paul's will offer its annual Lessons & Carols service on Sunday, December 5, at 5:00 pm. Come and hear the great stories of Scripture that lead us to the brink of Christmas, interspersed with the wonderful music of Advent. One of St. Paul's renowned receptions will follow.

Taizé Prayer this Sunday

The Taizé religious community in France has given the Christian world the gift of their gentle chants and a service of prayer that is peaceful, engaging and moving. Our next service in the style of Taizé at St. Paul's is this Sunday (November 21) at 5:00 pm. All are welcome; a simple reception follows.

From Bishop Robinson: It gets better

Recent media reports suggest that there is a sudden rash of suicides of gay teenagers. In fact this is an ongoing struggle for young people seeking support and affirmation in the face of condemnation from family, politicians, and, tragically, from some religious leaders.

Others are speaking out, including this video. Bishop Gene Robinson of the Diocese of New Hampshire speaks to young gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender folk - and to us all - about hope in God's love.

St. Paul's Church comes to Facebook

Thanks to the good work of one of our parishioners, St. Paul's, Pawtucket is now on Facebook. You can find the page here.

We invite you to add this page to your "likes", share it with others, and check in frequently.

Society of Catholic Priests

On Holy Cross Day, fourteen clergy and religious from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut gathered to inaugurate the New England Chapter of the Society of Catholic Priests. National Convenor Fr. David Cobb,(right in the middle of the photo),a chapter member as well since he is Rector of Christ Church, New Haven, CT, was with us as Presider for the Mass. New members were admitted, continuing members renewed their promises, and the chapter was formed. The Society of Catholic Priests exists to provide a place for catholic minded clergy and religious to meet in mutual support, to encourage a deepening spiritual life and growing ministry, and to celebrate the Church's openness to all who may be called by God to ordained ministry.

If you are interested in the SCP, click here. Potential New England members can contact our chapter convenor, the Rev'd Jo-Ann Drake, at jjdrake_redeemer@cox.net.

An embracing, expansive catholicism

I have a confession to make - I check in regularly on EWTN, the very conservative Roman Catholic television network created by Mother Angelica. My most recent use of the remote caught a report that now an eleventh diocesan bishop has decided to withhold funds from the Campaign for Human Development. This is the arm of the US Roman Catholic Church that does so much good in combating poverty and injustice. Apparently they are involved in efforts that offend the conservative purists. For better or worse, I think immediately of the recent news that the Archbishops of Canterbury & York will be proposing a "scheme" (a wonderful British term) regarding the movement towards having bishops who are women in the Church of England. Their plan is described by one commentator as: "The Church of England definitely believes that women may be priests – and that they may not be. Hilarity ensues." read it here

As the Anglican communion seems to be in retreat from its historic comprehensiveness, as our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters seem to be sliding farther and farther from the hope of Vatican II, I give thanks for such groups as the Society of Catholic Priests (just about to form a New England chapter) and Affirming Catholicism, which recognize both the power and value of the deep tradition of our catholic faith as Anglicans - and the possibility of movement, change and renewal, precisely because of the fullness and breadth of that catholic faith.

God save our meetings

An admittedly quick reaction to Canon Kearon's (of the Anglican Communion Office) responses to questions from The Episcopal Church's Executive Council. One of his answers to the questions of how is it that The Episcopal Church has been removed or demoted from positions on a couple of Anglican Communion bodies included this: “The viability of our meetings are at stake".

The viability of our meetings are at stake.

As a priest of the Church, I am certainly familiar with meetings. Meetings are real, and (sometimes) important, and even places where the Gospel of Christ can be proclaimed, lived out and shared. And yet I cannot help but see this choice presented by Canon Kearon: the ongoing, institutionalized nicety of pleasant meetings - intra-Anglican and ecumenical - versus a faithful, prayerful desire to proclaim the amazing, challenging, even uncomfortable inclusiveness of the Good News of God in Christ. Our Patron Saint Paul writes to us this Sunday that in Christ, "there is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male and female".... (Galatians 3:28). The Episcopal Church has been faithfully exploring the consequences of Paul's first century proclamation for decades, now coming to an understanding that God's call to faithful Christian life - and ordained ministry - includes those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.

The siren call of how it has always been, of how we have consistently understood things - of the viability of our important meetings - can be strong. May we be open instead to that Spirit that is even now leading us to St. Paul's magnificent vision.

For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels

Here is our Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, vested as the bishop she is. News has come from England that when she preached at Southwark Cathedral, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams decreed that she could not wear her mitre or carry a crozier. Words such as "petty", "belittling", "insulting" come to mind. On the way to posting something in response, I read this from Fr. Tobias Haller, BSG, who always has good things to say. You can read it for yourself, but key words surely include, "shivering collection of generally pasty male Brits". Read it all here.

Join us for Taize Prayer

Taize Prayer services offer a wonderful opportunity for gentle chant, silence and prayer, all in a setting of darkness, candles and icons. Join us for our next service of Taize prayer on Sunday, June 20, at 7:00 pm. A simple reception will follow.

Matthew 5:9

I posted this video on Veteran's Day. A song about "the war to end all wars" seems equally appropriate as we approach Memorial Day.



song by Eric Bogle; sung by The Dropkick Murphys; video by Megan Milne.

The Feast of The Visitation

One of the most joyful feast days in our Kalendar, it seems to me, is The Visitation. Our Lady, hearing from Gabriel that she will bear the Son of God, goes to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth. Gabriel has told Mary that a sign of God's power to do all this is that Elizabeth, long past the age of bearing children, is in fact six months along (with John the Baptist!) Their joyful encounter produces language for the Rosary (Blessed are you amongst women) and the extraordinary song of the Magnificat.

Join us at St. Paul's as we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation on Monday the 31st, 7:00 pm, in the Lady Chapel.

May is Mental Health Month

Being a parish priest leads one in many interesting directions. Because our parish houses and supports an overnight, wintertime homeless shelter staffed and coordinated by a program of the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, I was invited to give the invocation at the kick-off event for "May is Mental Health Month".'

Here is what I prayed at the State House this afternoon -

Gracious and Holy One,

We come before you this day from many faith backgrounds and traditions, and we come knowing you to be a God of compassion and love. We hold before you all who are touched by mental illness, and we recognize that in one way or another, we all are. Strengthen and uphold those who struggle from day to day. May they know your love and presence in the midst of daily life. Inspire and encourage those who seek to care and to heal. May they be filled with your compassion and insight.

We pray for our society, knowing that our quality and character are most revealed by how those most in need are treated. Remove stigma and ignorance, enlighten those who have been given the privilege of being leaders in our common life, overcome a cramped spirit that would restrict and decrease resources. In the midst of tiredness and discouragement, lift our vision to see and live out the better side of our nature.

May this day, this month to come, be a time of hope and even of joy as we celebrate each person, created in your image, your beloved child.

We pray in the power of your love. Amen.

More information on Mental Health Month is available at www.mhari.org

I don't get the Archbishop of Canterbury

I don't get the Archbishop of Canterbury. I am such a fan of his writings; I am moved by his obvious deep faith and spirit; I love his letter of support for the Society of Catholic Priests (http://www.thescp.org). And yet, in his most recent communication with the alleged representatives of the "Global South", he veers off in strange directions. By way of urging the Global South folks to have some patience of the Spirit and not overreact to the upcoming consecration of honest, partnered, lesbian Mary Glasspool (full disclosure: I joyfully voted my consent as a member of the Standing Committee) he then states that, "I hope you’ll bear in mind that there are no quick solutions for the wounds of the Body of Christ."

Mary Glasspool is a wound to the Body of Christ? Faithful, committed LGBT people wound the Body of Christ? Hatred, violence, sexism, racism, warfare... yes, these things wound the Body of Christ. Faithful, committed, loving Christians? I don't think so. When will we move beyond this foolishness and get on with the work to which Jesus has called us - reconciliation, holiness, justice, evangelism, transformation...?

What does it mean to be Catholic?

In the midst of sending a notice to some (Episcopal) clergy about forming a chapter of the “Society of Catholic Priests” (info at http://www.thescp.org/), I came across this notice of the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence’s latest proclamation (http://ncronline.org/news/politics/ri-hospital-latest-victim-health-care-flap), in which he demands that Catholic Health Association Chief Executive Officer Sister Carol Keehan remove St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island from its membership rolls. Why? Because the Catholic Health Association, of which St. Joseph Hospital is a part, supported the health care bill. While the bill included strong safeguards against federal money going towards the availability of abortions, it somehow did not satisfy the Roman Catholic bishops. Bp. Tobin said this support had, “caused serious scandal for many members of the church."
Apparently the scandal of abusing children, and then the episcopal covering up of that abuse, is not of the same magnitude as the “scandal” of a thoughtful, nuanced opposition to abortion as expressed by the good sister and the hospital association.
In the spirit of Godly Play, I wonder - Where do we truly find the joy, hope, and fullness of the Catholic faith, versus a narrow, cramped, judgmental expression of that faith?

Taizé Prayer this week

The Taizé religious community in France has given the Christian world the gift of their gentle chants and a service of prayer that is peaceful, engaging and moving. Our next service in the style of Taizé at St. Paul's is this Sunday (April 18) at 7:00 pm. All are welcome; a simple reception follows.

Benefit for Haiti

The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island is sponsoring an afternoon of music and prayer for Haiti on Sunday, January 24 at 4 pm at the Cathedral of St. John (271 N. Main St., Providence). Several parish choirs will be taking part, including our own St. Paul Choir. Sister Marie-Claire of the Society of St. Margaret and a native of Haiti, will be speaking, and there will be an opportunity to make a donation for relief work. Please join us.