|
Smoke Signals Published Quarterly by the
Communications Committee |
There’s
an expectant feeling in the air nowadays as the full blossoming of springtime
approaches. The sun is warmer, and the days are lengthening, Outside, the
trees—long dead and grey—are beginning to show hints of new life. In the churchyard
and the garden we discover, if we look closely, the green tips of bulbs just
above , tentative, as if testing and waiting for that moment when they may
venture out and delight us with their unexpected vitality. Spring is always
a thrilling time of the year, and particularly here in New England, where
winter seems virtually endless, we yearn for the rejuvenescence of the world
and of ourselves that comes with its arrival.
It is no wonder that Easter—that feast in and of the springtime—is so often compared to the season itself. One of our earliest and most beloved Easter hymns, written by St. John of Damascus in the eighth century, tells us:
‘Tis the spring of souls today
Christ has burst his prison
And from three days sleep in death
As a sun hath risen.
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark is flying
From his light, to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
Easter is indeed the "spring of souls"; what Christ accomplished in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection is nothing less than the making new and alive of all our souls, all our lives. The power of his victory over "the winter of our sins" is available to all of us, and that means that we may make his victory our very own victory and rise ourselves, blossoming out into a new life of grace, joy, and love.
That is what Christianity is all about—the real possibility of a life made over and transformed in Christ. It is a life as potentially different from our "wintertime" sinful life, as the countryside in May is from the landscape of December. This transformation in Christ is in fact something more glorious even than the spring, for that season must come to an end. Summer, fall, and finally winter come again. But for Christians, Christ is an eternal and unending springtime. The soul which blossoms in him is rooted in the life, the victory, the power and eternity of God.
Doors of Perception
In the last Michaelmas issue of this newsletter Father Warren, writing about angels, said, "There are realms of Being beyond our perceptions and expectations.... We look around us and see a world of only three or four dimensions, but the world is really much larger than that ..." This article will attempt to expand upon these ideas.
Any church has two major purposes: the first is to provide a framework for corporate worship, for corporate instruction, and for corporate spiritual nurture through the Sacraments and each other; the second is to provide personal guidance for individual souls on their pilgrimage home to God. It is in this second area that it is appropriate to discuss expanded perceptions. Here the church can help, but most of the work has to be done by the individual seeker.
William
Blake is often quoted in this connection: "If the doors of perception were
cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." And we all know
that the Advent is a thin place, where the barrier between the seen and the
unseen is thin. So we have, here, a head start on expanded perception, but
how do we go about the further cleansing of the doors of our perception?
The Eastern religions have codified the various paths by which we can know God with a thoroughness which Christians have not, although most of the Eastern paths are familiar to us under other names. For example there are several distinct yogic paths, all of which have the purpose of reuniting the practitioner with God, e.g. the familiar hatha yoga, the path of perfection of the body, bhakti yoga, the path of devotion, and jnana yoga, the path of the intellect. Then there is raja yoga, the royal road to union. This is meditation.
Patanjali, a Hindu author and mystic whose estimated dates range anywhere from 400 BC to 400 AD, wrote down in great detail how to reach God through meditation. His modern translators and commentators simply call the collection of his aphorisms How to Know God. How can Christians benefit from his insights?
There are many schools of meditation, but they all have in common a device or a gimmick for getting us to abandon, temporarily, our ordinary linear, cause-and-effect Cartesian mode of thinking. Sometimes a mandala is used, a mandala being a visual design of such complexity that it blows the circuits of our usual mode of thinking. (Loud rock music and strobe lights can have the same effect!). More often a mantra is used, sometimes called "the vehicle of the comfortable ride", which is a sound which allows the mind to follow its natural instinct to go inwards if it is given a chance to do so. Christians sometimes use the name of Jesus as a mantra. Here’s how it works.
If the mantra is repeated mentally more and more softly, over and over again, it will soon become just a faint idea, before fading away completely. We are then left simply aware, but not aware of anything. Our awareness, or consciousness, is usually fixed on some object, such as reading this text. When it is freed from its object, through meditation, it will expand in the same way that anything does when it is freed from the constraints which bind it. So for a few moments in meditation, we experience unboundedness, or infinity. Over time, this consciousness of infinity becomes more and more a dimension of our usual waking state of consciousness. Not surprisingly, this new dimension expands our spiritual vision, for what we know depends upon the level of our consciousness.
These techniques are practices which we have to follow on our own. The official Church can only help with encouragement and advice. We have to work on them ourselves. It is a case of the alone to the Alone. But how can we ignore them if we are serious about our various vocations? The result will be that we see through the glass a little less darkly.
Michael Dawson
Return to topThat Ordination Sermon
In one of his sermons the great fourth century Bishop S. Augustine, whom Ben has studied in some depth, said, "I am a Bishop for you, I am a Christian like you and with you."
What is a Bishop, but the fullness of the priesthood, so the priest could equally well say to the congregation where he serves, "I am a Priest for you, I am a Christian like you and with you."
In a few moments we will be reminded that being a Priest is not a position of honour - it is, rather, a function in the Church - a function of leadership, not the type that dominates, but rather the kind that breathes new life into the Christian Community. We will hear about these functions when the Bishop reads, for the last time as Bishop of this great Diocese, the Declaration, and when he sings the Ordination Prayer, and they can reasonably be summed up in two words: prayer and service.
Why God calls any of us to His ministerial priesthood we do not know - perhaps we dare to hope that it is because in the whole body of restored humanity, we are those whom God has seen to be and chosen to be most human. And so the very worst obituary to any priest would be, what I fear is all too familiar, "He was born a human being and died a priest."
It is a real cause for rejoicing that today our Bishop is ordaining a young man to the priesthood one who was born in the same year Bishop Eric was consecrated Bishop of Chichester - because the Church needs many more young men to be ordained at or near the minimum canonical age.
Much of Ben’s time in preparation for the priesthood has been spent in university work with very promising results and further research is taking place at Harvard, but in his short time at The Advent in Boston, and in his year at S. George’s, Paris, Ben has shown himself to be a very human pastor. ....
Like all priests Ben is a frail human creature, so, good people of The Advent, Boston, whom we’re so delighted to see, and those of us here in Ben’s home Diocese, do not expect him or any priest always to be up to the mark. Accept that we will fail from time to time, and remember, priests are not chosen because we’re better than any of you. Remember the story of Mae West, glittering with jewellery, climbing out of a car going to the premier of one of her films. Someone in the crowd exclaimed, "My goodness, look at those diamonds," to which she responded, "Goodness has nothing to do with them." No priest is called because he is good enough - in fact none of us are called as Christians because we’re good - we’re called because God in His love and generosity wants us.
I am a Priest for You. While God uses our gifts and skills in the priestly ministry and works through our failures, the priesthood is not about what personal gifts we have, or don’t appear to have. Rather the priesthood is Christ’s and it is given to His Church. A few years ago at the Holy Week Chrism Mass in this Diocese, the Bishop reminded us that the people of God do not look to their priests to be learned - they do not look to us to be good social workers, financiers or administrators - they do not need the priest to be a psychotherapist - and as helpful as it may be to have some skills in that area - priests are not called to be muscular youth group leaders. But what the people of God do look to us to be, is examples and agents of holiness.
And holiness is nourished particularly through the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and the celebration of the other Sacraments, faithfulness to the Divine Office, and the time of adoration with a heart open to God and other spiritual duties. If I were asked to give any advice to a new priest I would say, "Guard that lifeline of prayer more carefully than anything else, for if there is only a tiny fragment of desire for God, He takes it, delights in it, accepts it and enlarges it ... but what He does need from us is that initial fragment."
And allied to the prayer of the priest - is SERVICE. The priesthood is for the service of the Church. That brilliant Priest and Theologian, Austin Farrer, writing shortly before I was ordained, said, "Being a priest does not make a man more helpful to his fellow Christians in matters of wisdom or of kindness; what it does, is give his fellow Christians a right to his service."
Certainly the priest represents God to humanity and humanity to God, and it is God made Man whom he serves, and it is God made Man who makes the priest His agent in keeping His people in unity of faith hope and love - and leading them in mission to the world. And the priest does this, not by domination, not by power, but by service. There is no other way.
It is by service, and humbly carrying the Cross - through being, not just talking about it, but actually being broken, that we become that channel of life for others.
In the beginning and in the end priesthood is a SACRIFICE. That truly great Archbishop of the sixties and early seventies, Michael Ramsey, in his ordination charge used to tell those he was about to ordain that they wouldn’t be any good until their hearts were broken. And we are promised, that as the broken body of Jesus was raised to life, so our broken hearts too will be resurrected. "A broken and contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise."
In the Retreat I attended at the beginning of my training for the priesthood I remember every address began and ended with the prayer, "Lord I am thine, take me and break me and re-make and make the most that you can out of me for Jesus’ sake." We make that prayer today specially for Ben as he leads us, as a priest, to our eternal goal in the glorious kingdom of Christ. And as we journey there we are guaranteed that he will always assure us of the presence of Christ, and the fulfillment of all human aspirations in God, because he will be a priest for us and a Christian like us and with us.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday returns with the commencement of Holy Week and its progression of events culminating in the Resurrection and fulfillment of the New Covenant. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem actualizes the psalmists’ predictions yet is in distinct contrast to the magnificence of contemporary Roman triumphs and the Hebrew ceremonial opulence of a past era. Christ, the ultimate sacrificial victim, creates a new order and system of justice far eclipsing the goals of the Pax Romana or the restoration by Augustus Caesar, as projected by Virgil, of a mythical Golden Age of Saturn. Christ with his New Covenant is infinitely more than Virgil’s Aeneas, founding more than a Rome but a universal and eternal Kingdom, and the necessary Passion of Christ entailed in Its foundation will liberate on a far greater scale than did the Exodus from Egypt.
In his Palm Sunday narrative John (12:12-15) notes the "great crowd’s" meeting Jesus on his way to the Holy City with such shouted greetings as in Psalm 118’s "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" In his depiction of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, John makes further reference to the scenario envisioned by Zechariah: "Rejoice, greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout! Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt . . ." Before Jerusalem, Christ appears as the inheritor of the Throne of David, with the multitude’s joy reminiscent of that demonstrated when Israel transported the Ark to the City of David "with shouts and the sound of trumpets" (2: Samuel 6:15) and the worship of King David, who "danced before the Lord with all his might" (2: Samuel 6:14). However, Jesus’ entry into the Holy City does not present the material splendor of Solomon’s installation of the Ark in the inner Sanctuary of the Temple or the lavishness of a Roman triumph, celebrating the subjugation of a people and the plunder of its wealth. In contrast Christ annuls material standards of dominion. "He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor." (Psalm 72:4.) Yet Christ’s creation of a new order does not diminish but perfects the majesty of this "ruler of the world" (from a Hebrew blessing) this "King for ever and ever" (Psalm 10:16) who "will rule from sea to sea . . . to the ends of the earth." (Psalm 72:8.)
The fulfillment by Christ of the Mosaic Law produces a divine system of justice, reflecting David’s praise that "the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." (Psalm 19:7. ) Jesus dismantles the paradigm of violence when in the Garden of Gethsemane after one of his followers strikes "the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear," ( Matthew 26:51) the Master responds: "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." (Matthew 26:52.) This statement represents a major evolutionary development in both spiritual and temporal realms, challenging the status quo as did David in Psalm 58: " . . . in your heart you [rulers] devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.." (Psalm 58:2.) The Gethsemane passage also reminds me of the popular Isaiah quote, which is heard so movingly intoned in a Reformed Hebrew Saturday Shabbat morning prayer service: "They will beat their swords into plowshares." (Isaiah 2:4.)
Christ’s New Covenant with its Great Commandment eclipses all earth-bound judicial systems, which at best can hope to attempt to incorporate and reflect the tenets of Christ’s Law. By His Code’s perspective, domination and materialism will always be deemed inferior, even in the Imperial Roman model with its immense cultural accomplishments. Of course, the jurisdiction of Roman law with its Pax Romana did encompass much of the known world in that period, and Horace in his Herculis ritu could state that, "I will fear no insurrection nor violent death while Caesar keeps the world," and Augustus could be likened to the mythic Hercules and Aeneas, "Augustus shall be held an earthly God for adding to the Empire the Britons and redoubtable Parthians" (Ode III.5, Caelo Tonantem). Yet Christ through his Passion has founded a Kingdom, universal and eternal, which supersedes in dominion and majesty all principalities, thereby recalling the prayer, "The Kingdom is yours, Adonai, rising above everyone" (I Chronicles, 29).
With Christ’s triumphant entry into the City of David, we thoughtfully anticipate the divine mysteries of Holy Week. Jesus’ passage through Jerusalem, characterized by prophetic simplicity and the multitude’s fervor, proclaims the founding of a Kingdom superior to all, yet open to every soul, but with the price of Its formation a Passion of unthinkable proportions preceding a Resurrection never to be replicated.
Patrice Sheridan
Return to topThe New Social Outreach Committee
The Social Outreach Committee is the new name for the former Mission & Outreach Committee in taking responsibility for disbursing Advent funds to various charities. The Committee is composed of Father King, John Archer, David and Anne Ferry, Betsy Madsen, Sam Warren, and Ken and Shelley Wolfe. Its rationale, when selecting recipients, is as follows:
"Social mission is a vital part of our witness to Jesus. Our first priority is to the life of the poor of this city and to organizations which meet their several needs: health, legal support, housing, food, education. We also aim to enter more fully into the life of the Diocese and of the City, to both of which we are indebted. Additional gifts reflect our sense of belonging to the larger world, and our responsibilities to the world’s poor."
| 1) Epiphany School, Boston
|
$6000 |
| 2) Mass Housing and Shelter Alliance | $5000 |
| 3) Episcopal City Mission, Boston* | $5000 |
| 4) Hope Flowers School, Palestine | $3000 |
| 5) Assorted Campus Ministries, Boston | $3000 |
| 6) Interfaith AIDS Ministry, Boston | $3000 |
| 7) Boston Healthcare for the Homeless* | $3000 |
| 8) Refugee Immigration Ministry, Boston * | $3000 |
| 9) Afterschool Program, St James & St John, Roxbury* | $3000 |
| 10) Episcopal Relief & Development Fund | $3000 |
| 11) Westcott House (Seminary), Cambridge UK* | $3000 |
| 12) Greater Boston Legal Services* | $3000 |
| 13) Neighborhood Action, St John’s Bowdoin Street* | $1000 |
| 14) Emmanuel Church, Boston* | $1000 |
| 15) Christian Appalachian Project, Kentucky* | $1000 |
| 16) St Augustine’s Church, Brighton UK* | $1000 |
| 17) Common Cathedral, Boston* | $1000 |
| TOTAL | $46,000 |
*New this year.
The Advent’s own Tuesday Night Suppers receives $10,000 from the parish. This amount is not included in the Committee’s budget.
In the list above there are 11 new organizations receiving funds from this parish, and we will be giving you thumbnail sketches of each of them, starting here with the Refugee Immigration Ministry, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Christian Appalachian Project.
The Refugee Immigration Ministry (RIM)
RIM has as its motto: "Building community to serve uprooted peoples!", and its mission is "to serve asylum seekers and those detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service through social services, pastoral care and advocacy." Based in Malden, RIM was founded in 1985 and its Executive Director is an Episcopal priest. The chaplain is a Roman Catholic, and assisting seminarians are from various denominations. The ministry reinvented itself in response to the punitive legislation of 1996 which, RIM says, has made "a scapegoat of immigrants, including mandatory detention and expedited deportation.... Congress has now admitted that this legislation was ill-conceived ...".
RIM consists of 35 volunteers from 11 different countries and with diverse religious, cultural, national and linguistic backgrounds. These volunteers form three distinct, multi-disciplinary clusters, or teams, which seek to release refugees into the community and to help them to get established in society. A program to train more volunteers will begin this autumn.
Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS)
Based in downtown Boston, GBLS is a large organization with a staff of over 130. It evolved out of the Boston Legal Aid Society, which was founded in 1900. It now has an annual budget of over $8million and serves over 13,000 clients a year. However, they still have to turn away three out of five people who apply to them for help. Their main areas of expertise are: affordable housing and homeless issues; assisting people with disabilities, and their families; employment and welfare; and immigration.
Christian Appalachian Project
The Christian Appalachian Project is based in Lancaster, Kentucky. Its mission statement says it "...is an interdenominational, non-profit Christian organization committed to serving people in need in Appalachia by providing physical, spiritual and emotional support through a wide variety of programs and services." "Appalachia", in their definition, stretches all the way from New York State along the Appalachian mountains down to Alabama.
Programs include community development, education, crisis intervention, a used clothing store and economic development. CAP now provides funding of over $1.2 million. The project grew out of a summer camp started by a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Ralph Beiting, in 1958. It got its present name in 1962 and was incorporated in 1964. Fr. Beiting was Chairman of the Board of Directors until 1999, when he retired. The officers are now all laymen.
Michael Dawson
Now Hear This ...
"A Godly Admonition
[The
priest] … having often instructed his people how to carry themselves in divine
service, exacts of them all possible reverence, by no means enduring either
talking, or sleeping, or gazing, or leaning, or half-kneeling, or any undutiful
behaviour in them, but causing them, when they sit, or stand, or kneel, to
do all in a straight, and steady posture, as attending to what is done in
the Church, and every one, man, and child, answering aloud both Amen, and
all other answers, which are on the Clerk’s and people’s part to answer; which
answers also are to be done not in a huddling, or slubbering fashion, gaping,
or scratching the head, or spitting even in the midst of their answer, but
gently and pausably, thinking what they say; so that while they answer, As
it was in the beginning, &c. they meditate as they speak, that God
hath ever had his people, that have glorified him as well as now, and that
he shall have so forever. And the like in other answers. This is that which
the Apostle calls a reasonable service, when we speak not as Parrots, without
reason, or offer up such sacrifices as they did of old, which was of beasts
devoid of reason; but when we use our reason, and apply our powers to the
service of him, that gives them."
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!
(Thanks to Father King and to Julianne Turé for submitting these ever-timely
guidelines)
Father McClean’s Installation
On
January 6, 2001, the feast of the Epiphany, our own Father Charles McClean
was instituted as rector of Saint Mary’s Church, Castleton, Staten Island,
New York before a church filled to capacity, including a contingent from the
Advent who contended with a considerable snowstorm as they left Boston. The
Right Reverend E. Don Taylor, representing the Diocese of New York, presided
at the institution. One Advent parishioner briefly considered objecting to
the proceedings on the grounds that Father McClean was still very much needed
in Boston, but decided against it, considering that Boston’s needs would not
be a persuasive argument to a New York bishop. By special permission of the
Bishop of New York, the Office of Institution was taken from the 1928 Book
of Common Prayer, followed by a Pontifical Solemn High Mass.
Saint Mary’s
campus, comprising the Gothic grey stone church, a matching rectory, and their
shared garden, would look quite as much at home in the English countryside
as it does in Staten Island, a relatively quiet, suburban outpost of New York
City. The peaceful dignity of the church provided a singularly beautiful setting
for the solemn occasion. A rich and lively reception followed in the parish
hall.
Joseph D. McLellan, Jr.
A Roof for Rangoon – Part Two
You might recall my article
in last Michaelmass’s Smoke Signals about Holy Trinity Cathedral in Rangoon
needing a new roof. In response, the parish pledged $3,500 toward this expense;
several parishioners made pledges totaling another $3,500. As transmittal of
the money through conventional channels would have resulted in a confiscatory
government tax, we found a way to get the dollars directly to the cathedral.
Because of this, the exchange into the local currency resulted in the total
amount received in Kyat (Burmese currency) to be the equivalent of $10,500.
As a result of the Advent’s and parishioners’ generosity, the repairs have been
made to the main roof; with left-over funds, a covered walkway was able to be
built between the cathedral itself and the parish house, formerly a prohibitively
soaking walk between the two buildings during the Monsoon season.
With the costs of labor in the USA so high, it boggles the mind to see what ten thousand dollars can accomplish when the average daily wage is thirty-three cents per day. Further, I’ve never seen in this country a summary of labor costs that detailed income of $12.00 from salvaging of removed asphalt.
I here quote from the note of the Vicar of the cathedral, Fr. Samuel Htang Oak, in the January newsletter of Holy Trinity,
During the past two years we were able to renovate our old Cathedral by replastering and repainting the inside of the nave of the church; replaced the wood paneling with tiles; repaired some part of the leaking roof and repaired and repainted the belfry
Nothing is easy to us. When we first discussed about the renovation of our old Cathedral nobody hoped to get a lot of money. We dared not even dream of it, but God is very faithful to keep His promise to fulfill. Praise the Lord for the ex-parishioners of our cathedral who are living in the United Kingdom, U.S.A. and Australia for their thoughtfulness to us. And also we must give thanks to God for having connections with Deacon David Judson Hogarth from the United States. He has a great heart of concern for our struggle to raise funds to help our financial needs for the restoration of our Cathedral; and when he went back to his home parish [the Church of the Advent in Boston, he] organized the fund-raising. We must pray for them to have more richness in life in the Lord and to have stronger fellowship for God’s namesake.
We have not yet finished with the renovation of the Church. We cannot touch the two side chapels [or the] interior part of the Altar side and the Vestry which is still leaking badly.. The most urgent need is the rewiring of the whole church, and to clean and cut out the banyan trees growing happily on the church building every year. And the leaking of the roof above the nave and to repair and refix the hanging gutter.
If we are united in Christ there will be nothing that we are not able to do. If everybody is living for Christ there will be unity to work together wonders to fulfill the will of God in the life of individuals as well as within the community.
The Vicar and several members of the Cathedral’s parish council noted their gratitude to the Church of the Advent at a luncheon attended by over one hundred of the parishioners; at a special potluck supper at the end of my stay, the Cathedral Chapter presented a lacquer plaque with the portrait of Christ in gold leaf for me to bring back to the Advent, along with a note:
Thank you very much ...
Your thoughtfulness will always be remembered.
May God's Abundant Blessings Be upon you all.
From the Vicar, Assistant Vicar & all the parishioners,
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Yangon
The second highlight of this year’s visit was getting to know the people of the Holy Cross Theological College in Rangoon. The principal of the College, Fr. Dee, and his wife had me to dinner one evening, repeating the archbishop’s concern that there were not enough priests in the province of Myanmar who spoke English well enough to become bishops. This is particularly critical at this time, as the archbishop and three other bishops will be retiring in short order. I could almost say it was with malice of forethought that the principal invited me to meet with his students the following evening for two hours. "With how many of the students?" I asked. "All fifty-four of them," he replied.
And what students they are: the theological course at Holy Cross Seminary is four years long, for high school graduates. From seven in the morning until nine at night the students are busy with study or worship, or work, or eating. During the summer they go out to work in the rural areas, the Church in Burma being much more developed outside of the big cities! Such eagerness, alertness, such academic hunger, such devotion each of them displayed!
Well, hardly had an hour passed of my meeting with the forty-three men and thirteen women, ranging from eighteen years old to twenty-one before I was seized with a most frightening awareness: it appears that God is directing me to get back to Rangoon as soon as possible, to spend a semester there each year (the dry semester from November through March, thank you), instructing the students – and whichever of the diocesan clergy wish to participate – in spoken English. Turns out that during the period the present English teachers were learning the language, it was forbidden in Myanmar to speak any English. Thus, although most have a very good capacity to read and to write English, their ability to speak it is abysmal. Principal Saw Maung Dee put the clincher onto my enthusiasm when he indicated I would be paid just as are the other professors at the seminary, ten dollars per month! Happily, my coming retirement from MIT will supply what is lacking from Rangoon.
Third on my list of things to accomplish was finding a way to get the thousand books packed into thirty cartons from the undercroft of the Advent to the library at Holy Cross. Visits to the ministries of religion and education were fruitless; conversations with the British and U.S. embassies looked as if they, too, would be futile. Then, however, a senior official in one of the embassies whom I had met on the Hash Street Harriers’ run last year came up with a plan. It will involve posting one carton of books each month to an address in DC, whence they will go securely to Rangoon. No need to detail here how that will be done.
So, those who have interest in helping our fellow members of the Body in Rangoon have opportunity, either through financial gift (I’ll soon have a shopping list of all the needs of the Cathedral – from a few dollars for replacement of a scone to ten thousand dollars for replacing the electrical system or removing the banyan trees from the walls of the cathedral) or through joining the Book Posting Brigade – picking up a forty-pound box of books and taking it to the post office. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
P.S. You might be interested to read the sermon I preached at the Cathedral on Epiphany I this past January:
http://web.mit.edu/davidh/www/sermon07Jan01Rangoon.html
Deacon David
There are times when it is
hard to find God. No matter how hard we search, when we look at our individual
difficulties, be they health or emotional, we wonder how such a God could
cause such pain. My own test of faith began this past June when I was diagnosed
with cancer. Cancer that, they said, may not give me more than five years
to live. Fortunately, I believe they were wrong. I believe that God helped
me through this time. I had nine tumors removed from my leg and had to re-learn
how to walk. What God, I thought, would do this? After I had phoned my minister
and told him "I don’t believe in your God anymore," he said wisely, "You know
you don’t believe that. You are angry with Him." I knew then that he was right,
but I hated him for it nonetheless. I knew that, despite my poor prognosis,
it was He who would carry me through. I wanted to live, not die. And for the
first time, I realized how much I had taken for granted. As soon as I learned
how to walk again I booked a ticket to Greece.
My first order of business was to rent a scooter. It was a small Italian silver Piaggio, zippy and fast. What on earth was a woman with a good chunk of her leg gone doing riding a scooter? I had no business renting it, but God knows I wasn’t about to walk around the island. The scooter was no more than a two wheeled wheelchair – albeit one that ran sixty miles per hour.
As plants cannot flourish without sun, I could no more flourish without the richness of Greece. In the village fresh fruit and flowers were sold from woven bags that saddled a gray mule led by an old man with a fisherman’s cap and long mustache. The townspeople came out daily to pick the offerings. Seafood was captured daily and every port had the briny, fresh smell of saltwater and fresh fish.
We must remember that we are but a blip on the historical timeline. Those who came before us built great monuments, and while they are now in ruin, they stand as a different kind of monument – a testimony to man’s belief that there is something larger than he at work. There were the cliffs over looking Amoudi beach; the volcano that had erupted some forty years ago had covered them with lava and ash. Those who survived the eruption literally chipped their way out. I lay down on a flat volcanic rock at Amoudi beach and peered through the clear water to the colorful sea-urchins below. In the village, I had my requisite Greek-style Nescafé and explored houses that had long ago been abandoned; they were the last vestiges of an era past. From them I collected pieces of old pottery, volcanic rock spit up years ago, cracked tile that once lined what I imagined were, at one time, fabulous mansions on the mountain top. I suppose my point is this: that everything seemed so much grander than I. Indeed it was. Generations had come and gone, and now the younger people and the remaining wizened older ones had built new and equally beautiful homes. Their eyes had seen so much and I wanted to talk to them, learn from them. Impossible, however, since I don’t yet speak Greek.
Here, we have in some ways, lost our sense of lineage. How many of us can trace back our roots, can find our great-grandmother’s house still-standing? How many of our villages look the same as they did fifty years ago? I did not see one Gap or one Starbucks in Greece and Greece is the better for it. I hope it stays that way. So instead of yet another Gap tee-shirt I bought shawls from local artisans, a funny pink cap hand-knitted by a couple of older women who worked from a storefront that I imagined was actually their downstairs parlor. Greece is a contradiction: it is at once new and yet old. New perhaps to us: refreshing in that it has not changed much in the many years that I have travelled there. I can still count on seeing the same shops, the same restaurants, and perhaps some of the same people. It’s newness is that it is refreshing. New to us, perhaps, but not new to them. I found that when I embraced their culture, they embraced me and I made many friends in Greece, some of whom sent holiday cards to me (amazing they should arrive; the post is notoriously bad in Greece.)
I thrived on amber colored honey swirled with rich yogurt and walnuts, pomegranates and beet root drenched in garlic sauce, rich dark coffee made of Nescafé and milk. On a day trip to another island, I stood near the open door of the small boat and stuck my head out just to feel the wind on my face and watch the warm azure Aegean slip by. It beckoned, "Jump in", it soothed with its soft warm waters. On Greek roads there are no boundaries, nothing to keep you from falling off the ledge into oblivion, but oblivion had already tested me with cancer. I looked over the edge of the cliff and saw farmers’ fields in varying hues of beige and brown; they looked like slices of wheat bread fanning outward. Olive branches and roots were hand-tied into knots by local farmers, made into beautiful rosettes of green, brown, and black. I was no longer afraid of heights, no longer afraid I might die. If God had wanted me, he would have taken me in June when the prognosis was not so good.
So I rode that Piaggio with abandon. As I rode, I sang "Amazing Grace" as loudly as I could. A group of schoolboys hiding behind some rocks popped out and clapped and waved. I glided past them, down the hill, all the way down to the stretch of beach, to the seemingly endless blue waters.
Sadi Ranson
Return to topIn the Next Pew
Many
Advent parishioners know Jeff Pierce as the first line of defence against
disaster at the Church and its related buildings, the ever-ready helper who
keeps at bay the thousands of things large and small, that can go wrong in
an old physical plant. Some recognize him as the one who helps disabled communicants
maneuver their ways around various stairways. Or perhaps you recognize him
as the fellow who helped you get your car back from the police tow lot when
you parked it in a naughty place on Sunday morning. You would be correct in
all of these partial understandings of Jeff’s rôle at the parish, but
you would be seeing only the tip of the iceberg.
Jeff Pierce was born in Burlington, Vermont, a few years after his father, working for I.B.M., transferred there and built his family home in 1969. He grew up in the mountains where he could cut firewood and go skiing after school, and still be home in time for supper. He attended his family’s Christian and Missionary Alliance church, a fast-growing evangelical parish whose Sunday attendance numbers around five thousand at four services. Jeff began his higher education at Gordon College where he started out as a physics major. His love of reading led him to try out the program in English education before settling finally on music. While at Gordon, he met his wife, Alison, who holds B.A. degrees in both art and English from Gordon. While at Gordon, Jeff also first came to the Advent and started singing in the nine o’clock choir. It was a bit of a liturgical change of diet for him, but Jeff is flexible, and his early, extensive Bible studies gave him a context and an insight into the meaning behind the liturgy which might not have been possible for the average newcomer.
When he had taken all of the preliminary courses in music, Jeff determined that to get the intensive training he wanted in the field, his best course of action would be to leave the general liberal arts college for a more specialized music school. Hence, he transferred to the Boston Conservatory of Music where he earned his B.Mus. degree. Jeff’s study of orchestral composition required him to learn the idiosyncrasies of the instruments for which he writes, although if pressed, he will admit some partiality for the guitar. While his taste in music covers a very broad spectrum from the medieval and Renaissance periods through opera and very modern pieces, his emphasis at school was on church music. "Liturgical music has to be liturgically functional," says Jeff, who practices what he preaches. His senior recital was an Evensong celebrated at the Advent with a chorus assembled expressly for that evening.
Jeff and Alison are thinking about graduate school possibilities in the next few years, possibly alternating with one of them in school while the other works outside the home. One dream is to live for a time in Italy, Europe’s very own answer to Boston, where both music and art would always be accessible. Jeff is considering a career of teaching music history and theory in college some day, a variation on his earlier theme of teaching English.
Back at the Advent, Jeff’s duties are as varied as each new day. There is no end of little surprises too. When things go bump in the night up in the belfry, it is up to Jeff to determine whether one of God’s wild creatures has taken up residence there, and if so, to help it find a more suitable home. Several times, to his dismay, he has discovered tools that apparently were used to pry open the donation boxes for the poor. Once he found a pair of gilded lady’s shoes (size 8 as he recalls) forgotten in the church.
On Tuesday evenings, he can be found at the top of the stairway, directing traffic for the community dinner into Moseley Hall. Jeff and his fellow sexton, Matt Samolis, are currently making plans to complete some maintenance projects that have had to be deferred in recent years. As always, he attacks his work with patience and energy. The invisible work at the Advent makes its visible greatness possible.
Joseph D. McLellan, Jr.
Return to topChoir Notes
We welcome Caroline Ellen Bisson to the Advent (and Advent Choir) family; born on March 1, she weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz, and is the daughter of soprano Noël Bisson and Alan Cooper. She will be joining her sister Josephine for Mass on Sundays at the 11 o’clock Mass..
The Blue Heron Renaissance Choir
More good news for Noël: the Boston Globe’s reporter called the Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, "Boston’s answer to England’s Tallis Scholars". This choir had given a concert in the church of Desprez and Ockeghem, along with some English composers, e.g. Cornysh, Lambe and Aston. Several members of the Advent Choir sing with the Blue Herons.
Denise’s CD Update
Soprano Denise Konicek reports that the sound editing is done for her CD, and that she is waiting for proofs for its booklet so that it can go to manufacture for national distribution. The CD, on an ARSIS label, is called “Sunshine and Shadow” and contains songs from Dvořak and Shostakovich.
In the meantime, pre-production copies have been entered in the International Concert Artists Guild (ICAG) competition. In early February she learned that the disk had survived a 90% cut of entrants, with many very favorable remarks from the judges. She will go to NYC on March 27, with the rest of the quartet, to sing in the live semi-final. Winners will be announced (and will perform) on April 2nd in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall. If they win, they will go on a world tour at the ICAG competition.
The Hamburg
Boy Choir will be performing a concert of sacred music at the Church of
the Advent at 8:00 pm on Friday the 25th of May. Admission is free, but offerings
are welcome.
Choir Profile - Richard Giarusso
Baritone singer Richard
Giarusso joined the 11 o'clock choir last October after graduation from Williams.
He had studied voice there with former choir member Keith Kibler who still
has fond memories of the Advent after 20 years, and keeps in touch with the
choir. Richard is now in the doctoral program in historical musicology at
Harvard, following the same route as Noël Bisson. However, whereas Noël
is a mediaevalist, Richard’s interest is in late 19th. century
Austro-German composers, especially Bruckner. A secondary interest is in 20th.
century English composers, and he wrote his undergraduate thesis at Williams
on Vaughan Williams and Britten. Also at Williams he became interested in
the writing of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, and the ways in which Dr. Johnson’s
sense of personal fulfillment in his work changed over time.
Richard loves the vitality and musical richness of Berlin, and plans to spend part of this summer there. This will give him the opportunity both to enjoy the extraordinary variety of musical events there, and to research the performance history of Bruckner’s music in German-speaking lands, a subject which is of particular interest to him.
Upon completion of his Ph.D. Richard hopes to teach at a small liberal arts college, like Williams. Meanwhile he says that singing at the Advent is one of the most important parts of his life in Boston. He had known some of the choir’s repertory previously, but singing this music in its appropriate liturgical setting is a new and wonderful experience for him.
Michael Dawson
George Whitney and his wife
Dorothy live in Portland, Maine, and have been friends of the Advent for years.
They know us partly because, when he was an undergraduate at Bowdoin, George’s
roommate knew Fr. Hale’s son, also a Bowdoin graduate; Fr. Hale took them
all out to dinner. More recently he got to know of Mark Dwyer as Mark was
accompanist for the special programs at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.
He also knows us through a chance Internet friend at St. Andrews University
in Scotland, who gave George the Advent’s website address. It would seem that
the Advent appears on many webs, both on and off the Internet!
George Whitney studied the organ and choral training at the Guilmant Organ School in New York, from which institution he graduated with high honors. Following years of W.W.II Army service, he entered Bowdoin College, where he studied philosophy, graduating cum laude. As a young man he was organist at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portland. During and after college he was organist/choir director at Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Falmouth for 13 years, following that with a similar position at the State Street Congregational Church, Portland, where he remained 15 years. After that, he held other organist/choir director positions in both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, remaining a staunch Episcopalian throughout. He has taught at both Hebron Academy and Gorham State Teachers’ College.
Over the years, Mr. Whitney accumulated a library of books about church liturgy and music, and, after getting to know Mark, he decided that the best place to give them to was the Advent. Accordingly, Mark Dwyer and Father King rented a van and drove up to Portland recently, coming back with some 250 books. They contained many now out of print volumes such as plainsong manuals from England and this country, books on hymnology, liturgies (both Anglican and Eastern Church), texts on musical theory, manuals on choir and vocal training, conducting, Anglican doctrine, hymnals, and some church humor. And there are still enough books in Portland to justify another trip sometime in the future.
It has taken thirteen months to gather the books together in some kind of order and provide printed lists. All this entailed a great deal of e-mail correspondence with Mark, whom Mr. Whitney states was always a gracious and helpful representative of the Advent.
George Whitney must love the Advent, because he has given us the treasure it took him a lifetime to accumulate
The Whitneys and Michael Dawson
The Boston Harbor Deanery Meeting
The first 2001 General Meeting of the Boston Harbor Deanery was held on March 1 at the Cathedral. The Advent was represented by Betsey Madsen, Michael dela Vega, Ginnie Pierce and Louise Barnes. The business of the meeting included a report from the Diocesan Council, a report on actions taken at the Diocesan Convention and a symposium entitled Innovations in Urban Ministries.
The Diocesan Council is made up of clergy and lay representatives from each of the Deaneries. Betsey is the representative from the Boston Harbor Deanery and a member of the executive committee. The Council is very concerned with the growth of the church and a report by Suzanne Colburn described various initiatives to encourage that growth. The report from the Convention emphasized the election of Bishop Cederholm, and then described other actions taken including granting parish status to Trinity Church, Rockland and St. Elizabeth’s Church, Wilmington; establishment of five new ministry areas; and initiation of a companionship relationship with the Episcopal Anglican Province of Brazil.
But the symposium was the focus of the evening. The presenters described four opportunities for urban ministry in Boston today. Debbie Little described Doorbell Ministries that helps churches reach out to the poor and homeless by providing information, referrals, and support. Ruy Costa talked about a program at the Episcopal City Mission called Adopt-a-Room through which parishes have provided furnishings for newly renovated low income housing. Zina Jacque described exciting plans for a new Pastoral Counseling service that will be based at Trinity Church and provide affordable mental health services, personal and group counseling. And finally Liz Hall introduced an artist and poet from the Common Art project at St. John’s who spoke eloquently through his mosaics and poetry about opening the churches to the homeless.
All of these ministries need volunteer help and support. If you’re interested in learning more about any of them, talk to one of us and we can give you more information.
Ginnie Pierce
By any account 2000 was a good year for the Advent, and one of the measures are the data for attendance at Sunday Masses. It is difficult to make precise comparisons with 1999, because there was an extra Sunday in 2000, and the two Christmas Eve Masses in 2000 occurred on a Sunday. However, after making adjustments for these factors, we can safely say that overall Sunday attendance went up almost 10%. This result derives from a nearly 4% increase in communions, and a 25% increase in visitors.
Michael Dawson
Arts & Crafts Revival Associates
Seminar Religion and the Arts
Saturday, May 12, 2001 – 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Church of the Advent, Beacon Hill, Boston
Corner of Mt. Vernon and Brimmer Streets
Parish House entrance – 30 Brimmer Street
Arts and Crafts Revival Associates, a group of people with professional training and a variety of skills and experience, is based at the Church of the Advent, Boston, Massachusetts. Associates will serve as general consultants and will also provide design services, sources for liturgical arts and educational programs. They will advance the knowledge and appreciation of architecture, the vast range of liturgical art, the fine and decorative arts, garden design and flower arrangement. The group aims to stress appropriate taste and style while demanding high standards of materials and craftsmanship.
The heart of this seminar is in the exploration of creativity and spirituality of architects, artists and people immersed in the crafts. Speakers at the general session will address the issues of faith and the arts, architecture and the liturgical arts. Design demonstrations related to houses of worship include wood carving, an overview of garden spaces, their layout and use, plus flower arranging in the church. A display of contemporary design drawings inspired by the Gothic Revival style will contrast with vestments, sacred vessels and other important pieces of work designed throughout the years for the Church of the Advent.
May is a delightful time in Boston, and despite what you might have heard about traffic and parking, the committee has a positive and helpful answer. Registration will include parking in the nearby Boston Common Garage, within easy walking distance of the church.
Morning Prayer takes place in the choir at 8:30 a.m. followed by Mass at 9:00 a.m. in the Lady Chapel.
Seminar Schedule
9:30 – Registration, coffee and pastries in Moseley Hall
10:00 – Welcome
General Session – Presentation and Discussion
What motivates or inspires art? Is there a valid separation into classifications
of sacred and secular for so-called religious art? Is faith – any kind of
faith or a specific belief – the muse? These questions and more are the focus
of an architect, a priest, and a designer of liturgical arts as they share
their understanding, training, experience and personal creativity.
The Reverend Allan B. Warren, III, Priest
Mr. Vance Hosford, AIA, Architect
Mr. Davis D’Ambly, Liturgical Arts
12:15 - Lunch in the Courtyard Garden
Demonstrations and Discussion
Woodcarving
2:00 – Church Flower Arrangement
3:30 – Tour of Architectural Spaces
Display of Vestments and Vessels
4:30 – Tea in the Library
Registration - $ 25.00
Charles Street "T" Station
Park Street "T" Station
Registration deadline is Monday, April 30, 2001
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8 Sunday Palm Sunday
8:00 am Blessing of Palms & Mass9:00 am Procession of Palms & Sung Mass with the Passion according to St Luke
11:00 am Procession of Palms & Solemn Mass with the Passion according to St Matthew
9 Monday Monday in Holy Week
6:00 pm Mass10 Tuesday Tuesday in Holy Week
6:00 pm Mass11 Wednesday Wednesday in Holy Week
12:30 pm Confessions 6:00 pm Mass 7:00 pm Service of Tenebrae12 Thursday Maundy Thursday
6:30 pm Liturgy of Maundy Thursday with Foot Washing, Solemn Procession of the Sacrament to the Altar of Repose, Stripping of the Altars. Watch before the Sacrament until midnight13 Friday Good Friday
12-3:00 pm The Preaching of the Passion; Preacher: the Rev’d Dr. Kenneth A. Wolfe6:30 pm Liturgy of Good Friday with the Passion according to St John
14 Saturday Easter Even
9:00 am Morning Prayer6:30 pm Great Vigil & First Mass of Easter
15 Sunday Easter Day
8:00 am Mass 9:00 am Sung Mass & Procession11:00 am Solemn Mass & Procession
This web page was designed by Michael Dawson and posted by Deacon Hogarth on the Advent website on March 26, 2001