jstambaugh A Note from the Rector

A Note from the Rector – 6/7/2020

I want to congratulate two young men from the parish this week.  Michael Zorc and Elliott Brown both graduated from Lower Merion High School this past week.  Graduating high school is something to be celebrated and proud of generally, but these two young men and the rest of their classmates in the class of 2020 have had a particularly challenging Spring of their senior year and I am all the more impressed with their accomplishment in the midst of difficulty.  If you have the opportunity, please join me in congratulating them and wishing them the best in their next steps.   

Last Sunday, I attended a rally at City Hall that was sponsored by the NAACP.  I went because I felt that God was calling me to go.  I believed I needed to listen and give witness to the pain and suffering of African American in our community and in our nation.  I listened to mothers who told of the terror they felt each and every time their sons left the home for any reason because it feels like it is only a matter of time before they too will under someone’s knee crying that they cannot breathe.  I listened to the chants of I listened to African American community leaders and pastors who spoke of the depth of the suffering experienced by their communities in Philadelphia.  I listened to their calls for concrete reform to public policy.  I listened to their calls for reparations.  I listened to their plea that white people in America, and particularly white police officers would stop killing them.

  Last Monday, after a night of listening to police helicopters coming and going, I went over to City Avenue where I heard that there had been some property damage.  Over the course of the morning, I joined 40 or 50 neighbors from Overbrook Park, Winnefeld, and Penn Wynne in cleaning up broken glass and other debris.  I listened to the stories of our neighbors who are people of color.  They expressed a lot of sadness that their neighborhood had been damaged and grief that young people felt so lost and powerless and hopeless that they resorted to destruction.  There was anger that the stores and businesses they patronized and depended on were damaged.  Almost everyone I talked to said they could understand the impulse, even if they didn’t condone the action.  It was the mothers and the neighborhood teachers who were leading the clean up and restoration efforts, and I am deeply affected by the sense of dignity and personal agency these powerful women expressed.

I am writing this not to glorify what I did or to throw my hat into the political circus that swirls around these topics and distracts us from the truth.  I am not writing so that you will either agree or disagree with me. I am writing as a pastor and a priest whose call is to listen, to bring what I’ve heard to God in prayer, and then to listen to what God might be calling me and our parish to do.  I am writing to invite you all into this movement of listening and prayerful response.  

One step—not the only or adequate step, but one step—toward healing our country and our community is to learn to listen to others better.  I believe that one thing our church is called to do is to create opportunities to listen to difference, to listen to the stories of those who have been oppressed; even when, quite frankly, these stories are going to make us uncomfortable.  We are called to take what we’ve heard to God in prayer and to listen to God in return.  Done right, this process of listen and prayer will lead to other actions.    

Where do we start?  We start in our own neighborhood, looking for, recognizing, valuing and protecting the diversity that we find here.  Then we look at our partners.  We can listen to our friends in Darby Borough.  We can listen to, cherish, and build our relationship with our mother parish, Holy Apostles and the Mediator.  This is simple work but it is not easy work, because as we listen we are going to be called to change and change is hard.   

We are still in a pandemic, but an immediate opportunity for this prayerful work is on Monday, June 8.  The bishop has called the entire diocese to participate in a litany for those who have been slain by violence.  The Litany will be led by diverse voices from around the diocese and broadcast on the diocesan youtube channel (https://youtu.be/3xXN9tC9bc4) starting at 10AM.  It will end with noonday prayers led by the bishop.  I encourage each of you to join in these prayers, in full or in part, as you are able.  I pray that all of us will have the clarity and resolve to follow Jesus where he leads us in this time.  

jstambaugh A Note from the Rector

A Note from the Rector – 5/31/2020

On Sin and a Spiritual Discipline of Anti-racism

Three events in the last couple of weeks have been weighing heavy on my mind: the revelation of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by white men while he was jogging in a neighborhood not unlike ours; the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by four Minneapolis police officers while he was in custody; and a video of a woman who called the police and lied to them about being threatened by a black man, clearly using his race as a weapon against him because he asked her to leash her dog in a bird-watching park.  There are many issues at stake in all three events, and many things to say. What follows here is a theological and biblical reflection, not a politically partisan one.    

Sin is a liberating category.  Sin itself is not liberating.  Sin seeks to limit our freedom to be who God wants us to be.  But, the category, being able to name things as sin, that is liberating.  In a world where we don’t have the language of sin, we also don’t have the language (or the reality) of forgiveness.  If we’re all “good” all the time, then we constantly have to hide the fact that we really aren’t from others and from ourselves, and that hiding is the definition of bondage.  It’s an exhausting and perverse version of “keeping of with the Jones,” and it’s one of the ways sin works to divide and isolate people toward the purposes of fear and despair.

Racism is sin.  In God’s kingdom there is no room for it (Galatians 3:27-28; Colossians 3:9-11), but all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  That’s what sin is, the Greek word harmatia, translated in English as sin, means “falling short”, as if you were aiming at a target and your dart sticks in the wall two feet below the bull’s eye.  Sin is when our actions fall short of God’s vision of wholeness and reconciliation for the entire cosmos.  Sin can be quite a bit more complex than just individual actions, however.  There is a such a thing as systemic sins which are vast networks of individual choices, experiences, and histories that have built up for centuries, even millennia.  This is what the New Testament calls the “powers and principalities” of this world that work against the will of God (Ephesians 6:12).  As people who believe in the existence of God, we cannot logically rule out the existence of other spiritual forces.  I believe that some of these vast networks we call systemic sin are more than the sum of their parts, and that behind them are malign spiritual forces bent on destruction and evil.  What I am describing to you is racism: the cumulative effect of centuries of words, choices, actions, thoughts, economic systems, public policy, fearful hidden agendas, and more, all—I believe—being used and guided by the spiritual forces of evil with the intent to undo and make a mockery of everything that God wills and wishes for God’s creation.  Who can rescue us from such a body of death?  It overwhelms us and leaves us helpless in its wake.  Indeed, who doesn’t feel helpless watching these events unfold?  That’s the point.  We are helpless.  We aren’t going to win against systemic racism on our own.  But, thanks be to God for our Lord Jesus Christ, who emptied himself of his glory as God and took upon himself both all sin and all the suffering that results from sin, and through his life, death, and resurrection conquered sin, death, hell, and the grave once and for all.  

God’s kingdom that was inaugurated in Jesus Christ has not been fully consummated.  When we watch the news we want to cry out with the Biblical prophet, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help?…“Violence is everywhere!” we cry (Habakkuk 1:2).  But we cannot merely sit around and cry.  As the vanguard of God’s kingdom and witnesses to a different world, we are called to act.  What’s more, when we are baptized into the Body of Christ, we are freed from the power of all sin.  Death no longer has dominion over us.  The Church’s call to act against to the vast sin of systemic racism is threefold.

  1. A spiritual response.  Racism will never be solved by pure political will, because it has a significant spiritual component.  We must pray and fast for the destruction of racism’s domination over our society, which keeps both the oppressed and the oppressor in slavery to death.
  2. Physical acts to confront and dismantle systemic racism. Our prayers will invariably lead us toward concrete action.  That’s what prayer tends to do. 
  3. Physical acts to confront and dismantle personal racism.  Before I can be effective against racism’s systemic aspect, however, prayer and reflection will confront me with my own sin, my own racism. 

Remember, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  I was born with the stain of original sin, which in this case means that I was born into a system, a culture, that has ingrained certain racist tendencies into me.  I’d like to think I’m vastly morally superior to the person in the park who purposely used a black man’s race to threaten police violence, but spiritual realism informs we otherwise.  Naming sin as a reality in myself helps to liberate me from it.  

We are free from sin’s bondage by virtue of our baptism.  But, living in this fallen world and being enculturated in certain ways, means we must work to ingrain ourselves with God’s ways of thinking and acting.  The Church calls this the practice of spiritual disciplines.  Here, we need to practice the spiritual disciplines of anti-racism.  I will focus on just one spiritual discipline which is commended to us by the Apostle Paul in the second letter to the Corinthians: 

“Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

This isn’t talking about arguments on social media.  We are applying it to internal arguments and strongholds, turmoil and struggle within ourselves.  Obstacles that keep us from knowing God fully.  In short, we must learn to take every (racist) thought captive to obey Christ.  

The hard part is identifying racist thoughts.  We seldom examine our thoughts, either as we think them or later.  But, developing the ability to examine thoughts is key, and it takes practice.  Reading and listening to people who think differently than us helps.  Listening to God—the ultimate Other—through prayer helps the most.  

So, we identify a racist thought as it comes into our head. Then we renounce it in the name of Jesus Christ.  Literally, we say to ourselves: “I renounce this racist thought in the name of Jesus.”  The book of James explains why this works in spiritual terms, “Submit yourself to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee” (James 5:7).  In the words of Bob Dylan, “you’ve got to serve somebody.  It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”  Serving God means freedom from sin.  Pretending you don’t serve anyone is the saddest kind of slavery.  Submitting our sinful thoughts to Christ is act of spiritual realism and pure liberation.  It’s as simple and as difficult as that.  

Almost two years ago, we put our daughter, Nora, in a local pre-school program. Before school started we went to meet Nora’s teachers and classmates.  As we walked into the classroom, we discovered that both of Nora’s teachers and the majority of her assembled classmates were people of color.  My immediate internal reaction was, “This isn’t safe.  This isn’t what I was expecting.  We can’t leave our daughter here.”  Then I recognized those thoughts and reactions were racist, pure and simple.  I renounced them in the name of Jesus, and immediately felt at peace.  Nora has learned and grown as a student of that pre-school ever since (until the pandemic, actually).

Embracing my daughter’s pre-school was a very small and un-heroic action on my part.  But, the thoughts and actions that have built up over centuries into systemic racism are, in most cases, equally quotidian.  Our struggle against evil has to start somewhere.  For most of us, our part in dismantling racism is comprised, at least in the first instance, in small acts of spiritual realism and submission to the Christ.  It means struggling against our own sin out of the conviction that we are loved by God beyond our wildest imaginings—and so is everyone else.  

jstambaugh A Note from the Rector

A Note from the Rector – 5/24/20

We have all felt this long and terrible absence from our normal experience of Church.  As great as it is to be able to use technology to stay connected, it isn’t the same as meeting face to face.  We have missed receiving the Eucharist, singing together, and simply being with each other in the sacred space that we have all come to love—the building of Holy Apostles.  This past week, the bishop released a detailed, comprehensive plan that we will need to follow in order to re-open our building and begin worshipping together again.  This process is going to be challenging, and it is going to require creativity, patience, determination, and a firm trust in God.  We are going to have to be committed to finding a way forward together in uncharted waters over the course of the next 18 months or so.  The most important thing is that we are committed to caring for each other and journeying together with each and with Christ.  It is also important to remember that measures outlined by the bishop are temporary.  We will get through this together.  Here are some highlights of the plan for re-entering our building, along with my commentary that situates the plan for us.

+ When the Governor deems that Delaware County is in the “yellow” phase, and when CHA has met all of the protocols required by the diocese, we can begin having in-person worship together again with restrictions (see below).  The criteria for entering the yellow phase is that there are less than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents per day averaged over 14 days in the county, along with adequate PPE for health workers, and adequate testing available.  We are right on the county line, but we have to follow Delaware county because the majority of the land upon which the church is situated in located in there.  

+ In the yellow phase, we cannot have any worship gatherings of over 25 people.  Our average Sunday attendance in 2019 was 56, although it is less in the summer months.  Allowance also needs to be made for guests and visitors. Believe it or not, we often have more visitors in the summer (especially late summer) than normal, even as regular attendance is down. So, we will need to determine how many extra services we will need in order to comfortably accommodate everyone who wants to attend and make sure that everyone’s spiritual needs are met.  We will also need to create a system for coordinating who comes to which service in order to avoid overcrowding.  

+ Thorough disinfecting will need to take place in-between services.  Having one or more services outside when possible might help to alleviate some of the strain and cost of disinfecting.  

+ Masks will need to be worn by everyone except when receiving Communion.  I will be allowed to take off my mask while preaching and while praying the Eucharistic prayer, but I will wear a mask while distributing Communion.

+ Thankfully, we can celebrate the Eucharist together.  Bread and wine will be consecrated, but Communion will be received in one kind only—the bread.  

+ Strict social distancing will be observed.  We will have to sit and stand at least 6 feet away from each other (except those who live with each other), and we can’t shake hands or hug during the peace.  We will have to change the way we receive the offering. We will also have to change our habits for entering and exiting the building.

+ Congregational singing cannot happen for awhile.  This is because evidence suggests that singing can spread the virus farther than normal speech, up to 27 feet.  We can have a lead singer along with instrumentalists, as long as the singer is 30 feet away from everyone else (a potential challenge in our building, but we will be creative).  We can also creatively use our virtual choir recordings.  

+ Live-streaming the services and other on-line worship opportunities will continue.  Some of us may not be comfortable to come back right away and we will need to continue to offer other ways to connect.  One of the blessings of this time has been that we have been forced very quickly to adapt, and I hope we will continue to utilize some online services even after all restrictions have been lifted.  

Phew!  It is a lot to take in (the 26 page document is even more detailed!), but with God’s help we will continue our worshiping life together while doing everything we can to keep each other safe. There may be some of us who do not feel comfortable returning right away and that is ok.  There are tough decisions we all need to make.  Please know that however you decide to be involved with your church right now, you will be always be loved and supported.  No matter what!  As you read this note or read the bishop’s protocols, you might have questions or concerns.  Please reach out to me, or to John Day our Senior Warden.  I am more than willing to speak with you about any of this.  Like I said, this is going to require some patience and I want to make sure that we are all on the same page as much as possible.

As the vestry and I make plans for re-opening the building, it is important that we have more information to make the best decisions.  We have created a survey to help us in this task.  Please complete this short survey at your earliest convenience.  There is a convenient online survey, and I am also sending print surveys to those who I am aware do not have internet access.  If you would prefer a print survey, let me know.  I cannot stress enough how important this information will be for us.  There are no wrong answers.  Don’t be discouraged, trust in God, and remember that nothing can separate us from God’s love for us.  

Take the survey

jstambaugh A Note from the Rector

A Note from the Rector – 5/17/20

Today we observe Rogation Sunday, which is always the Sunday before the Feast of the Ascension (Ascension is this Thursday, May 21st).  Rogation comes from Rogare which is the Latin verb “to ask.”  Rogation is a time to ask for God’s blessing on agriculture and the resources of creation.  It recognizes these resources as gifts from God upon which all humans rely for life.  This aspect of Rogation days has often been marked, especially in Anglicanism, by a special form of procession called “beating the bounds of the parish” in which the parish congregation led by the priest would encircle the boundaries of the parish (usually a defined neighborhood or village), stopping at points to read Scripture and pray.  Especially In rural areas, an important part of these processions was to visit and bless farmlands and agricultural operations.  

This forms a Spring bookend to traditions of Autumn harvest blessings and of offering a portion of the fruits of our labor to God in thanksgiving for God’s blessings.  The Rogation Day trip around the parish is probably the origin of the Easter home blessing tradition.  For the last several years, our version of the Rogation Day celebration has included a procession to Wynnewood Valley Park next door, where we’ve read Scripture and offered prayers and blessings over God’s good creation that is represented there. 

Rogation-tide has also been a time to ask God for protection from calamities, including the ending of plagues and protection from natural disasters.  Here, it is important to remember that the Church has weathered many a pandemic in its 2,000 years history, and much more besides.  A special form of prayer arose in response to these calamities called the Litany.  The Litany as we know it originated probably in the 5th century.  Some scholars trace both the Great Litany and the first Rogation procession to a bishop named Mamerte who lived in 5th century France and held a Rogation Day procession with a call and response type prayer to ask God’s protection during a looming disaster.  The exact nature of the disaster, interestingly, is contested.  Some contemporary sources say it was a volcano threatening to erupt, others that it was a series of calamitous earthquakes.  One source claims it was an on-going attack on the city of Vienne by a demonic pack of wolves.  Whatever the case, the Rogation procession around the town and the tradition of praying the Litany as a petition for God’s protection has long been a tool in the Church’s toolbox of prayer.  It’s sort of like that giant monkey wrench you pull out when your home plumbing project takes a serious turn and you don’t have time to mess around anymore–that’s the Great Litany.  Rogation processions and litanies were common in Europe during medieval and early modern outbreaks of the Black plague.  In 1544, the Great Litany was the first part of the Latin Liturgy to be translated (and heavily edited) into vernacular English by Thomas Cranmer.  Cranmer was in a hurry to bring his version of the ancient prayer to the public as a response to England’s devastating wars with Spain and France.  Five years later Cranmer finished the first Book of Common Prayer, which stands at the fountainhead of our own style of worship.  

All that to say, it seems especially appropriate to keep the tradition of Rogation Day this year during this pandemic.  As part of our 10AM service this Sunday, we will have a small Rogation procession led by me and my quarantine-mates (my children).  I’ll pray the Great Litany–you’ll be able to follow along at home–while the kids march along with a processional cross and Deb records the whole thing on a camcorder.  It could be a solemn moment, a bizarre spectacle, or a complete disaster.  Probably it will be a little bit of all three.  However, pleading for the renewal of all creation and asking God for protection against grave dangers and an end to our affliction–all this is not a joke, and our intentions will be in the right place.  

There is another way you can participate in the celebration of the Rogation Sunday from your own home. Below is a short Scripture reading and prayer that you can pray alone or with your quarantine-mates in your own garden.   

Rogation Sunday Garden Devotions

Leader                          Blessed be the God of all Creation

Others (if present)       The Lord, our God, makes all things new

A reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 8:19-23)

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray

Gracious God, along with all your creation we wait with eager longing.  Help us to be revealed as your children. Let us fulfill our small part in the great work of reconciling all things to you.  Let this garden be a sign of that day when creation is freed from its bondage to decay.  Bring order, growth, and tranquility to this place.  Send your blessing on this garden, on all the plants in my [our] care, and in all the creatures who visit and whose lives are sustained here as I am [we are] sustained here.  This we pray in the name of the Resurrected Lord, whom Mary Magdalene recognized as a gardener on Easter morning, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  

jstambaugh A Note from the Rector

A Note from the Rector – 3/29/20

12 days.  As of the day I am writing, that’s how many days since I last received the life-giving food of Christ’s body and blood.  It’s been a decade since I’ve gone that long without receiving the Eucharist.  I’ve seen and heard many people talk about how this is a time to realize what we have taken for granted in our lives.   For me, the Eucharist is on the top of the list.  I am sure I am not alone.  The Eucharist has come up a lot, as I’ve spoken to people from our parish in the past two of weeks.  More than one person has wondered if we could do a digital Eucharist, where each person gathers their own elements of bread and wine and I bless them remotely over the internet live-stream.  I have been moved by these conversations and the desire to participate in the great Sacrament of the Church that they express.  I love and admire you all for the strength of your faith and your hunger for the healing food of the Eucharist.  

The thing about the Eucharist is that it is inescapably physical.  The Eucharist embodies the incarnate, the en-fleshed, body of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is made present in the elements of wine and bread for the physically gathered community of the body of Jesus Christ, otherwise known as the Church…otherwise known as you.  This is a material, personal, face-to-face act of thanksgiving and sacrifice.  While the internet can do many things for us, especially in this time of crisis, it cannot simulate the immediacy and intimacy of the Eucharist.  The essential physical nature of the Eucharist is expressed in the Book of Common Prayer in the only instruction during the Eucharistic prayer for what the Celebrant (the priest) must do with their hands.  When saying the Words of Institution–“This is my body…” and “This is the blood…” the priest must touch the bread and touch the chalice.   It’s not that I have magic hands or that there’s anything special about me personally.  It is that the priest (who is standing in for the bishop, actually) represents the entire gathered assembly, offering up everything we have as a sacrifice of praise to God and receiving everything back, blessed, broken open, and dripping with God’s grace.  Good WiFi is no substitute for the real thing.  

As a priest I could celebrate the Eucharist with only another member of my family present.  But to do this for my consolation only, would be (to my conscience) a selfish act.  The intention of the heart is key here.  I do not question the motivation of priests who are celebrating the Eucharist in the absence of a congregation.  I am personally grateful that many of my colleagues have continued to pray the best prayer of the Church (the Eucharist) and to offer up the body and blood of Christ for the healing of our lost and broken world.  But for us, the vestry and I decided that we would livestream Morning Prayer instead of Eucharist as our main service for the time being.

So, we’re in a pickle.  In direct consultation with the Commonwealth’s health department, the bishop has suspended in-person worship services through the first Sunday of May.  I cannot even express how sad I am about the implications.   We cannot gather in person for Palm Sunday, or any of the services of Holy Week, or on the most important and glorious and meaningful day of the entire year—Easter Day.  Nevertheless, the bishop’s decision is the right one.  We need to stay home to save lives and to reduce the pressure on our healthcare system.  This is what loving our neighbor requires of us, and to violate that love—even for the sake of something so intrinsically good as gathering together to worship—is wrong.  

As unprecedented as all this sounds, we are not alone in this.  Our ancestors in faith dealt with similar and even more difficult circumstances.  As the fly said when he fell into the preserves…I’ve been in much worse jams than this.  The Church has lived and faithfully thrived through much worse jams than this.  It is also helpful to remember that not too long ago the norm in the Episcopal church was Morning Prayer three Sundays a month and Eucharist one Sunday a month.  In the Middle Ages, despite daily Eucharists celebrated in most churches, the average faithful Christian would only receive the Eucharist once or twice a year—perhaps only on Easter and Christmas.

The Book of Common Prayer also offers a way forward for us who so desperately want and need the Eucharist:

“If a person desires to receive the Sacrament, but, by reason of extreme sickness or physical disability, is unable to eat and drink the Bread and Wine, the Celebrant is to assure that person that all the benefits of Communion are received, even though the Sacrament is not received with the mouth.”

BCP, page 457

This concept is known as Spiritual Communion.  Even though we cannot receive with our mouths, God’s grace is imparted and made present to us through the holy desire and intentions of our hearts.   We are embodied people and Spiritual Communion is no permanent substitute for the material Eucharist, but in this time, it will carry us through.  So going forward into Holy Week we will create opportunities to make Spiritual Communion and to sharpen the desires and intentions of our hearts toward union with God and each other.  And when this thing is over, and we can gather again, we are going to have one heck of a party and one heavenly Eucharistic feast together.  

Right now, do not doubt that God’s loving presence is everywhere.  God is with you right now.  God hears our cries and sees our desperate moments.  Lord, hear our prayer and let our cry come to you.  Lord make speed to save us.  God make haste to help us.  Amen.   

jstambaugh Uncategorized

A Note from the Rector – 3/22/20

None of us intended to give up other people for Lent, but here we are.  It has been an interesting and difficult week. Between the total upheaval of our daily routines and the general chaos of the world, it has been incredibly overwhelming, to say the least.   But there are so many hidden blessings everywhere. One enormous hidden blessing that I would have never expected has been praying the service of Compline every night with about twenty of you.  We’re praying and checking in with each other using a great online application called Zoom. The great thing about Zoom is that you can simply follow a link (you’ll find the info here).  You don’t have to download and install anything. Or, if you don’t have the internet or you don’t have a computer or phone that will work with the video option, you can simply call into the meeting with a toll-free number.  I want to encourage every member of the parish to try to connect to Zoom Compline, at least once in a while. It is a great way to let everyone know how you are doing, to ask for anything you might need, and just to see some friendly faces and hear some friendly voices.  If you need help figuring Zoom out, please call me, and I will work to get you set up!

This feels like a time of exile, even of wilderness.  While it is true that the Body of Christ is and must stay connected to each other, our tradition also has a lot of resources about the spirituality of solitude (which is not the same as isolation), and the spirituality of journeying through desert places, and finding their hidden strength and sustenance.  Think about the Children of Israel who were in the desert for 40 years, learning to trust God above all else before entering the Promised Land. Think of the early monastics we call the Desert Fathers and Mothers. These were folks who left their entire lives and moved out to the deserts of Egypt and Palestine to be alone and to pray.  Some of them eventually formed communities but many lived the lives of hermits, spending most of their time alone in deep and intentional prayer. This is a golden opportunity to explore intentional ways of praying—like Compline, like Morning Prayer, like the Jesus prayer, and the Rosary.    

So, my encouragement here is a bit paradoxical.  On the one hand, we need to stay connected and be a lifeline for each other.  We need to call each other and pray with and for each other virtually. I will continue to call and be available for calls and continue to utilize other technologies to keep us from being isolated from each other.  This is really important. Thank God for the technology to live-stream services and hold online and phone gatherings. On the other hand, this may be time to explore the spiritual discipline of solitude. This may be a time to simplify our lives and discover what matters most.  This time has the potential to reveal a lot about ourselves to ourselves. God is speaking to us even in the midst of chaos, fear, and confusion. The spiritual practice of solitude is about taking time to be quiet and listen to what God is saying. 

I know one thing—in quiet and solitude as in the laughter and warmth of community, God is present with us wherever we are.  God has not abandoned us to our own devices, and nothing can separate us from God’s love for us.  

May God richly bless you in this time.  May God’s protection be on you and those you love.  And may God’s infinite love and mercy be revealed to you in the smallest strangest ways in this coming week.  

PS – Don’t forget to pray the Parish Intercessions. If you need a copy you can find it here.
My cute puppy ate my print copy.

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Coronavirus Update from the Rector

Dear Holy Apostles,

Grace and peace to you from God.  The consensus of the CDC and other health officials is that, along with washing your hands, social distancing is a vitally important part of mitigating the spread and severity of coronavirus (COVID-19) in our community.  Social distancing means keeping away from large gatherings and creating a wider “personal bubble” when you are out in public.  And most importantly, it means staying home and away from others when you are sick.  These steps are essential parts of taking care of ourselves as well as loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

However, the danger is that in the process of social distancing we will end up emotionally and spiritually isolating ourselves.  In other words, I worry our reactions to the COVID-19 health crisis—especially reactions that are driven by fear—will only add to one of the pandemics that has gripped our society for some time, the virulent and insidious pandemic of loneliness, isolation, and despair. 

Emotional and spiritual distancing isn’t going to help anyone.  There is, in fact, a direct link between spiritual health and physical and emotional health.  This essential connection has not diminished because there is a new and scary public health emergency.  We need to maintain our spiritual connection to God and each other.  The question is:  how do we as a church take prudent precautions against the spread of infectious disease while maintaining a sense of community and spiritual care which imbues life with meaning and makes it worth living in the first place?  This is a difficult but not impossible balance.  I wrote last week about the precautions we are taking at church including wiping down high-touch surfaces before and after services, exploring alternatives to handshakes and hugs during the Peace, and increasing the amount of hand washing that goes on before Holy Communion.  I also wrote about the sufficiency of only taking Communion in one kind, the bread.

At this time I want to reiterate what you have undoubtedly heard from many sources: please stay home if you are sick.  Also if you are sick, let me know so that your faith community can provide you with support.  This is a time for solidarity not stigma.

If you are a member of a group that is particularly at risk of serious health complications, please consider your options for spiritual and emotional support carefully.  If you feel comfortable coming to church, please do so, as long as you are not sick.  A second option is that I am more than willing to bring the Holy Sacrament to you in your home.  I am currently healthy and will be monitoring my health carefully.  With God’s sustaining help, I will be available for eucharistic visitation, pastoral visits, and prayer.

Another option is to participate in our worship services digitally.  We are working to make digital options available by this weekend for those who are sick or who want to stay at home.  Digital interaction is not the same thing and face-to-face interaction and participation, and it is not sufficient or sustainable in the long-term.  But as a short-term stopgap it may be the best option for some to connect.  Be on the lookout for links to livestreams of services and other activities. 

Unless the bishop tells me otherwise, I will not be cancelling Sunday Eucharist or weekday Morning Prayer.  During this difficult time we need more prayer and more sacraments, not less.  As one of my friends put it, the prayers of the faithful are the most powerful tool we have in times of crisis.  I stand firm in my conviction that the sacrament of the Eucharist is given by God for the healing of the whole world.  It is more important than ever to continue to offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God and pray for grace and healing on behalf of a broken and anguished world. 

In consultation with the vestry, I will be making decisions about whether to cancel other church activities on a case-to-case basis, including Lenten group activities, Bible Study, and various committee meetings.  I spoke with the Rev. Doris Rajagopal today about the Darby Mission Supper next Tuesday night.  She has not cancelled the supper at this time.  Assuming nothing changes in the next several days, I would like for us to go forward with providing the meal.  However, I am strongly discouraging folks who are at high risk of health complications due to coronavirus from attending the meal.   When the time comes we will decide with Doris whether to deliver the food and leave, or to stay with a smaller group of volunteers and help serve.

Most importantly, don’t isolate yourself from this lifegiving body, our church.  Even if you cannot be physically present please reach out.  Call me if you need to talk.  Call each other.  Let’s check in on each and make sure we’re okay.  Above all else, pray for each other and for the safety and well-being of our community. 

Know that God is with us in difficult times.  God has not abandoned the world.  Jesus came into the world as a human to live among us and to demonstrate that God’s love is in solidarity with human suffering.  We are Christ’s body.  We are called to demonstrate to a suffering and fearful world that God is still present with us now. 

Peace & Good,
James+

jstambaugh Uncategorized

Christmas Worship Schedule

Christmas Eve

December 24th, 2019

Holy Eucharist, Rite II – 5PM
A joyous service that may be especially attractive to families with young children (though children are always welcome at EVERY service at Holy Apostles). This service will end with a candlelit singing of O Holy Night, a favorite tradition for generations of Holy Apostles members.

Holy Eucharist, Rite II – 10PM
A solemn, joyful service with full choir. This service ends with candlelit singing of O Holy Night, a favorite tradition for generations of Holy Apostles members.

Christmas Day

December 25, 2019

Holy Eucharist for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, Rite II – 10AM

A quiet service of peace and joy to celebrate the wondrous Incarnation of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day.

jstambaugh Announcements

Pancakes with Santa

Join us Saturday, December 7th for a special breakfast and a visit from Old Saint Nick. Doors open at 8AM and breakfast will be served until Santa departs at 11AM.

Crafts and other activities will also be provided.

Admission

$3 for ages 3-12
$5 for ages 13 and up
children under 3 are FREE

Proceeds go toward supporting the outreach ministries of Holy Apostles.