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Winter 2007 |
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St. Philip the Apostle |
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Issue 202 |
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"For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God." William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1942-1944 Dear People of St. Philip’s, What a joyful time we had this Christmas, my first Christmas as your Vicar! My family and I felt very blessed as we worshipped together. The worship opportunities offered in preparation for the remembrance of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ were tremendous: the children’s pageant filled my heart with joy and gladness; the Lessons and Carols service with San Augustine Catholic Church definitely fed my mind with the truth of God and my soul was satisfied with their gracious hospitality; celebrating IV Advent in the morning of Christmas Eve added to the anticipation of the wonder of what was to come that evening. The 7 pm Family Service was glorious with Christmas Carols, a children’s story time, and fresh new communion prayers that gathered us all together as one big family—children, parents, grandparents and friends—followed by the adult sermon as children relaxed over a video, and then fellowship with all. Finally, the formal Choral Eucharist for our “midnight mass” brought even more families and friends into communion with God and each other. It was a blessed time for all. I give deep thanks for all who worked well together to make it happen, offering their time and talent to give us an opportunity to worship in various contexts to fulfill what William Temple describes (above) as the purpose of worship. William Temple was Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, of which the American church is traditionally called , the Episcopal Church of the United States. St. Philip’s is part of ECUSA, part of the Anglican Communion. We are part of the Body of Christ that aspires to bring corporate worship into the lives of people who seek God through scripture, tradition and reason. Hence, we share in the corporate worship of the tradition of our church. It is a Sunday worship that brings comfort to people through its affirmation that Christ is present to us in a special and sacred way through the gathering of believers who invite the Holy Spirit to enter our lives in the sacrament of breaking bread and drinking wine. Bishop Temple was the leader of the Anglican Communion at a stressful time in the history of our world, during WWII, as England and the western world defended itself against the oppressive invasion of forces that sought their own glory over the glory of God. Anglican corporate worship brought solace and healing to this war-torn world. While we are not in the same historic time of stress, our times are also filled with stress, personal and global. Our Sunday morning worship can bring us peace and comfort, as we steady our souls to face the challenges of everyday life. The careful liturgy/worship planning that led us to fabulous Christmas Eve services is something I want us to do on an on-going basis. One of the first things I did as your new Vicar was to gather music leaders and Sunday school teachers and mentors to plan our Sunday morning worship time. We made some trial changes which we experienced for about three months. We then opened up a “town hall” meeting feedback session to give everyone, from young children to grandparent-age adults, the opportunity to say how things are going in our corporate worship. I quickly discovered that one of the wonderful things about a parish that has such a strong sense of “including everyone’s opinions” is that you won’t come up with a consensus or even a clear majority! But what we do notice is a strong community sense that we need to bring our Sunday morning corporate worship into better harmony with the needs of our Sunday school and youth programs which happen simultaneously. We also need to have some common understanding of expectations or “church etiquette” so that we can care for one another in worship. (continued on next page) |
