And a little child shall lead them

There is a fascinating story in a recent New York Times Fashion & Style section about a young boy who is determined to go to church. The parents, including the father who almost became a Xaverian Brother but then left the church completely, seem to be typical Boomers who have no use for religion and would rather drink their coffee and read the Times on Sunday morning. Despite their lack of support - "you don't have to go every Sunday" - they seem to be gradually drawn in by their son's faithfulness and seeking.

There is so much to look at here I almost don't know where to start. The parents' abandonment of religion. Their discouraging attitude along the way. The fact the Times sees this as a "fashion and style" story!

But most of all, the joy and wonder of a child who seeks God. How dare we not give our children every opportunity to know and worship the living God?

Blog alert: more to come in the next post.

The New York Times story is here.

(with thanks to biblebeltblogger)

Sunday Worship

On this Trinity Sunday I find myself thinking a great deal about the great mystery of God who is one and at the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not because I can even come close to explaining how God can be three in one - but because God IS three in one. My response is not to explain, but to experience and exclaim! It is to worship the glory and majesty of the triune God.

Here at St. Paul's we do just that. We gather week after week to pray, to praise, to glorify God, to give thanks for all that God has done and continues to do for and with us, because we can do nothing less.

Our liturgy is prayer book liturgy at its best. In fact, I was told several times last Sunday (Pentecost) after the 10:30 service, about how good the service was. And not by strangers, who might have been other places where the liturgy isn’t very good, and there are places like that, but by folks who are here regularly, every Sunday without fail. So I started wondering: why comment last Sunday? Of course it was Pentecost, the red banners were hung, we priests had on beautiful copes, the procession was long and festal, complete with bells, the music was great, there were babies baptized, the Eucharist was celebrated – so I suppose that might have been it. But I suspect it was something less tangible.

Liturgy is the work of the people – and last Sunday 135 people showed up. Last Sunday, unlike lots of Sundays when there are barely 80 people, the church felt more full. Yes, there were extra folks from the baptismal families – but they don’t account for the big bump in attendance. We just had a higher percentage of our regular folks here than usual. And so our liturgy, our worship of God, was strengthened, and we as the body of Christ were renewed. So don’t think your not being here on a given Sunday doesn’t matter. It does matter. It matters to you, to the other members of our parish family and it matters to God.

I realized as I preached to those who did attend church this Sunday that I might have to give the same sermon illustration three or four times before everyone in our parish family might hear it. So maybe this blog will reach those who were in church last week but who thought it was OK to take this Sunday off.

A recent survey had some interesting responses to questions about church attendance. Of those who responded that they attended church "regularly" a large percentage then answered the question: how often do you attend? "one or two Sundays a month. Is that really how we define regular?

As we move into the lazy days of summer will our attendance fall off even more? Or will we, as the people of God take seriously that which God calls us to do: come and worship? How will you respond to God's call?

Breaking News: (Fr.) Cutié

Breaking news, as they say, is that the Rev'd Alberto Cutié, the telegenic and now former Roman Catholic priest caught on the beach with his girlfriend, has been privately received into the Episcopal Church and is on his way to being received as a priest. Is anyone else distressed by this and wondering why there might not be time taken to consider questions of vows, commitment, obedience, clarity of vocation...?

The Visitation

Monday, June 1 is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (transferred from May 31). This major Holy Day celebrates Mary's visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth after hearing from the Angel Gabriel that Elizabeth, as well as Mary, will give birth to a child. There Elizabeth's child - John the Baptist - leaps in the womb in witness to Our Lord, and Mary sings the Magnificat, her great song of praise. St. Paul's will celebrate The Visitation on Monday at 7:00 pm with a Eucharist in the Lady Chapel.

The Ascension of Our Lord

St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles tells us that forty days after Easter, Jesus commissioned his disciples to be his witnesses "to the end of the earth", and then ascended into heaven. As the Book of Common Prayer says, he "ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things." St. Paul's will celebrate this major feast day of the Church on Thursday, May 21, with a choral Eucharist at 7:00 pm. Please join us.

A Catholic and Comprehensive Way

In the midst of all the blog and other interweb chatter, a new blog - Comprehensiveness for the Sake of Truth - now comes to commend to the Church a way to think about our life together. It offers what, in my occasionally humble opinion, is too often lacking in our conversation - a theological thoughtfulness that is at one and the same time carefully rooted in our tradition and available to the ongoing movement of the Holy Spirit. In short, it raises up the points of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (the Scriptures, the Creeds, the Dominical Sacraments, the Historic Episcopate) along with the Book of Common Prayer and the other authorized liturgies as the standard for our worship, and response in the name of Christ to the needs of our neighbors and the world as our apostolic ministry, as a way to ground our thought and reflection as a church.

The site is here. What do you think?

Holy Week Reflections

Three holy days enfold us now
in washing feet and breaking bread
in cross and font and life renewed
in Christ, God’s firstborn from the dead.
Hymn 731 Wonder, Love and Praise

This week finds us entering the most sacred time of the liturgical year: Holy Week. It culminates in those three holy days, the Triduum Sacrum, one liturgy stretching from Thursday night through the Great Vigil of Easter and into Easter Day. From the earliest time the church has gathered to commemorate these days, following Jesus’ death and resurrection liturgically. In the forth century a nun, likely from Spain, left us an account of the liturgical life of the church in Jerusalem. Egeria records for posterity how the Triduum is celebrated at the very places tradition says they unfolded in Jesus’ life. These liturgies are, in some ways, very similar to our own these centuries later.
This sense of walking in the way that Jesus’ walked in his final days, as countless Christians have for centuries, produces a sense of awe and wonder for me. Each year I am amazed on Palm Sunday as we sing in procession the hymn, “All glory, laud, and honor” (Hymn 154) with a text written before the year 821 and music written in the 1600s. On Good Friday we sing the traditional chant, “Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle” with words composed before the year 600. At the Great Vigil of Easter the deacon chants one of the most ancient chants of our liturgical life, the Exsultet. It was likely written between the years 400 and 600.
This is not to say that all we do is rooted in the past alone. Much of the music we sing during these three days is much newer. But it is precisely this great wealth of tradition complemented by the more contemporary that is so striking. As Christians have done from the start, we at St. Paul’s Church now do, adapted to express who we are.