FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE Volume 64 Number 5
MAY 2014
The Episcopal Church of Saint Michael Pacific View Drive at Marguerite
Corona del Mar
California 92625
...From the Desk of the Rector
BELOVEDS IN CHRIST,
O
nly months before he would be asked by King George VI to form a government to lead England,Winston Churchill walked into the home of friends on a chilly evening, sat down by the fireplace, and stared silently into the flames. Resin-filled pine logs were crackling and hissing and spitting as they burned. Suddenly in his bulldog growl, Churchill remarked: “I know why logs spit. I know what it means to be consumed.” The first disciples, between the Resurrection and Pentecost, knew what it meant to be consumed -- consumed by change and uncertainty During that first Easter Season, they had to live as we so often find ourselves living in this Easter Season: “in between” -- “in between” . . . In between the “good old days” of being with Jesus, and the “brave new world” of living in the Spirit. Like it or not, life put them on the Ferris wheel of change -- that cycle which accompanies all change: the movement from orientation to disorientation to reorientation. An ending has taken place that needs to be acknowledged and embraced, not denied. No longer will they be able to look Jesus in the eye to ask a question, to receive a rebuke, or to get an “Attaboy!” How will they now live? How could he be visible, but then invisible? Within space and time, yet beyond it? How could he eat fish, yet walk through doors? How could Jesus at once not be a ghost, yet also not be palpable? How do you conceptualize a state of existence that is unparalleled, yet is identifiable with the old person? How do you put into words a completely different state of being, a wholly new mode of existence? Transitions --holy or unholy-- are made up of endings: a death, a divorce, a move from one way of living to another. Such significant changes inevitably bring confusion and doubt, groping along in the dark to find one’s way. If things turn out well, the transition takes us to the other side, to the place of a new beginning. Nevertheless, the process of change is never pain free, and it most always is consuming -- frequently making you want to spit. The first disciples returned to basics, to what works. They returned to familiar places and relied on prayer. The poet Francis Thompson speaks of the connection that such single-minded prayer brings to a person or to the community caught up in the throes of transition: O world invisible, we view thee O world intangible, we touch thee O world unknowable, we know thee Inapprehensible we clutch thee. continued on page 2
& All Angels 949.644.0463
www.stmikescdm.org
SAINT MIKE’S TO OFFER ONLINE STUDY PROGRAM Check out “The Well” by Melinda Rader and Susan Caldwell
W
e’re beginning something new and exciting at Saint Michael & All Angels, a program of online study. Do you remember the survey forms that we sent in the end of the year statements in early January? The Adult Christian Education Committee tallied the answers, assessed the results, and decided to move forward with online education. We are partnering with The Rev’d Chris Yaw, the director of ChurchNext. If his name sounds familiar it’s because Chris participated in a ministry study year at Saint Michael’s back in 1998-1999. Now located in Kansas, he is managing the ever growing and expanding ChurchNext Online Study Program. Ecumenical and international, ChurchNext will be a great resource to our adult Christian education program. Within the ChurchNext program, we have our own, unique school, which we named: “The Well: For Learning, Refreshment and Inspiration” Beginning on May 4, parishioners may sign up to participate in an online class titled, “Introducing Episcopal Worship with James Hamilton.” For regular parishioners it will be a great opportunity to get the “why” of our worship practice. For inquiring and continued on page 7
BUILDING OUR F AITH: L OVING CHRIST AND SER VING OUR COMMUNITY FAITH: LO SERVING