Mission Statement | Thank-you from Jim | Sr Warden's Report | Directions | History | Staff | Vestry | Vestry Minutes
From the Senior Warden
When I was reminded, I had to provide my article for May's Call I was unsure
of what I wanted to communicate, but then I checked my email and found
Bishop Susan's Easter message in Tidings. The Tidings is the weekly newsletter
from our diocese. I was not sure how many of you subscribe to the newsletter
and really liked the message Bishop Susan wrote so I am sharing it with
you, my church family.
Bishop Susan Haynes:
“A little over five years ago, just prior to Lent, we shuttered our church buildings and entered a time of pandemic exile where we tried to do church — physically scattered
and spiritually fraught, frightened and lonely. We missed our sacred spaces, we missed our holy liturgies and most of all, we missed the physical presence of each
other – our communities. It took a long time for us to come together again; and when we did, things were not what we expected. We wanted and looked for the same
church we had left. Instead, most of us found fewer numbers of people, strained budgets, and divided opinions about how to proceed.
Today, most of us can agree on one thing, that the church we came back to after Covid is not the same church that we left. What is our reaction to that? For many of us, the reaction
is to be afraid. When faced with uncertainty, we naturally revert to fear. Why is that? Neuroscientists tell us that fear is an instinctive thing that gets activated without our
even willing it. We’ve all experienced being confronted with a threat only to feel instinctively that we should fight, flee, freeze or sometimes appease. These kinds of instinctive survival
reactions can override higher levels of thinking and completely take over our responses. We do things without thinking. When we experience fear, it is hard to hope. Hope is
not a feeling that gets instinctively activated.
Easter is a time to remind us of our hope. We live in a culture of fear these days…fear and anger that grips us and activates that part of our brain that is reactive and instinctive.
However, we are an Easter people. Throughout Scripture, angels and prophets exhort us not to be afraid…to choose life over death…hope over fear. Easter is a reminder that Death has
lost, and Life has won.
When Mary approached the tomb on Easter morning and discovered the stone rolled away and the body gone, thinking that the grave had been robbed, her instinctive reaction was to be afraid.
Even when she talked to the “gardener,” she was so distraught and afraid that she couldn’t see him for who he was. She was only able to be restored to hope when Jesus called her by name:
“Mary!” The Jesus who knew her intimately spoke her name and activated that part of her brain that could connect with hope.
We celebrate Easter because we need to hear Jesus speak our name and be reminded that death does not have the last word. We are called to life. Many of us are afraid
that our churches are dying. But Hope compels us to understand that the Church is not dying. It is quite possible that the churches we thought we had are dying. Perhaps they ARE going
away, never to return. But the Church that God is giving to His Easter people today is not dying. The Church, the Body of Christ, is speaking Life as the last word, not Death.
Listen for Jesus to speak your name. Embrace hope as he tells you to get to church where He is headed to meet you. As you are going, speak the names of those you encounter and invite them
along. Everyone is longing to be known and for their name to be spoken. Everyone is longing to be enfolded intimately into the circle of Christ – the Church. This is the Church and the
Hope that Christ gives us. Alleluia!”