Seasons of the Spirit | Lent/Easter 2021 | Issue 38

S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

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Inside: Lent reflections I John Jenkins joins clergy team I Webinars, groups and more for Lent and Easter

Sarah Bartenstein

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place

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ne of the things we’ve tried to emphasize over the years at St. Stephen’s is the importance of listening to one another’s experiences of God. Where do you sense God’s presence or activity in your life?

How is God perhaps trying to get your attention? Is God a comforting,

By Gary D. Jones guiding, prodding, or challenging presence? And when you have felt worried, troubled, or afflicted, what have you known of God’s angels ministering to you?

Often, when we hear other people reflecting on how they have, however dimly, experienced the holiness and the divine in their lives, something is kindled in ourselves—“Yes,” we ponder, “something like that has happened to me, as well; come to think of it, God has likely been reaching out to me recently in ways I overlooked.”

Jesus was known for hanging out with those regarded as notorious sinners, people whom religious authorities suggested were far from God. But Jesus said the kingdom of God was within them; he told parables that suggested God was closer to tax collectors and Samaritans than to scribes and Pharisees; and he praised the faith of the most unlikely people, like a Roman centurion, and he insisted that it was people’s faith that made them well, not magic on his part.

In inquirers classes, I’ve often tried to explain the symbolic significance of the costumes that clergy wear, and when I’ve gotten to the miter—the pointy hat that bishops sometimes wear to symbolize the “tongues of fire” that descended on heads at Pentecost—I’ve somewhat heretically suggested that it might be more fitting if the entire congregation wore miters as a symbol for the bishop, rather than the other way around. The

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truth is, the Spirit is at work within every one of you. That’s one reason our worship videos often featured more laity than clergy.

It’s true that, concerning the things of God, “now we know only in part,” as St. Paul said. So, listening in humility to each other’s partial experiences of the divine stands to give each of us deeper insight, a more complete picture of something each of us knows partially: the mysterious, healing love and presence of God among us.

That’s why our Sunday evening Celtic services have lifted up lay people to give reflections, rather than asking clergy to give sermons. It’s why we’ve featured weekly meditations by lay people in our bulletin insert called The Spirit. It’s why we have had so many lay people “licensed” by the bishop to preach. It’s why we revived the ancient practice of having subdeacons who represent the laity at the altar. And it’s why the central feature of our Emmaus Groups is holy listening, as participants reflect each week on their experience of the divine.

Many of our Emmaus Groups have been meeting by Zoom during the pandemic, but except for our beloved Advent meditations, we’ve been missing the regularity of one another’s voices and the fuller experience of God that comes from communal listening and reflection. So, a year after we all began to learn about social distancing, we asked several people to reflect in this quarterly magazine on their experience of God in a time of separation, on faith in a time of pandemic, and on possibilities for the observance of a holy Lent in the days and weeks ahead.

The beauty, wisdom, insight, and faithfulness in these reflec­tions remind me of something I can sometimes forget if I am separated from others and forced to be alone in a place of wilderness: “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.” ✤ Read about a Lenten book study Gary will lead, page 15.

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

Writing blessings By Anne Shotwell Occasionally I’ve given things up for Lent, but more often I’ve taken something on. One year I spent all of Lent writing an extended reflection on John 14. I still love going back to re-read what I wrote that year! Another year I wrote snail mail thank you notes to a different person each day during Lent. This started out being a very easy exercise. By the end of Lent I was having to dig deeper to decide who I would write to each day.

This year my Lenten exercise is part of a year-long discipline. By the time I turn 74 next January, I hope to have written 74 different blessings, often as poems. Near the end of 2020 I wrote this one.

L E N T /E A S T E R | S P R I N G 2 0 2 1 Issue Number 38

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A Blessing on Each of your Glimmers of Hope

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One of my jobs In these uncertain times Is simply to hold onto hope By looking for the planets In the dark night sky; By speaking to a stranger Through a mask On the street; By folding and sharing A basketful of blessings In the form of origami cranes; By praying In silence With a zoomful of friends; And by asking God’s blessing On each of your glimmers Of hope.

How are you holding onto hope? © 2020 anne shotwell

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18 Reflections on Lent The Rev. John Jenkins joins our staff Knit together in love Solemn Communion preparation Read me a story Contemplative Chapel offerings expand Three ancient saints offer wisdom for 2021 Support for parents in a pandemic The Apocrypha, an English novel and an angel ReWork marks successes in trying times An Easter book study Reflections on joy Thank you for stocking the pantry Different, but special: Advent and Christmas in 2020 Inviting, grounding, serving

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Seasons of the Spirit Sarah Bartenstein, editor; Steven Longstaff, designer Contributors: Janet Allen, Cate Anthony, Liz Bartenstein, Charles Caldwell, Donny Dunn, Wilda Ferguson, Jane Fergusson, Scott Finn, Nancy Joy Hein, Gary Jones, David Knight, Barbara Massey, Claudia Merritt, Craig Merritt, Jay Paul, Allison Seay, Anne Shotwell, Betsy Tyson

On the cover The Baptism of Jesus; stained glass window in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit Photo by Sarah Bartenstein

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Setting our hearts on the things that endure

By David Knight

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o recently it seems, it was Christmas Eve. I remember being in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd administering Communion late that night. There was plenty of time to sit quietly between times when people came forward. Here we were in that sacred space beautifully adorned as usual for Christmas. We were being bathed with the most glorious organ and instrumental music even though we could not sing. We were there to receive Communion as we celebrated the birth of the Christ Child. Yet Christmas was different this year. The church was not packed to the doors as usual. People were dispersed throughout the pews in order to keep a safe distance from each other. Everybody was wearing a mask. As I looked out over those gathered, emotions welled up from within me—so many memories—yet what came over me was the powerful sense that while so much has changed over this past year there are things that endure: music, the beauty of the season with its message of hope, and the sacrament that has sustained people over the centuries. Yes, much was different this year, yet some important things endure.

thoughts and actions? During these dark times of division around us, I am reminded of the words of Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “The arc of the moral universe is long. But it bends toward justice.”

That bending toward justice, however, is not automatic. It requires from you and me intentional thinking and action. On Ash Wednesday we pray that God will accept our repentance for the wrongs we have done, for our blindness to human need and suffering, and for our indifference to injustice and cruelty. Yes, many things are different this year. Yet there are those things that endure. May our hearts be set on those very things.

Here we are again in Lent, perhaps feeling like we have been giving things up for a whole year. What more could we possibly give up?

How long, O Lord, how long? Yet even now, especially now in fact, Lent provides you and me with an opportunity. The word “Lent” means “lengthening of days.” As Lent progresses the days become longer; there is more and more light. Could it be that during this Lent particularly, you and I might use this precious time to focus our attention on ways that the Light of Christ might illuminate our

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ✤

The following prayer from the Book of Common Prayer captures the very spirit of this holy season. It is said on Good Friday, at the Easter Vigil, and at ordinations. It is my favorite prayer of all. I hope it might be helpful to you as well.

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Little Easters

By Nancy Joy Hein Years ago, I participated in Education for Ministry. At that time EFM used questions to explore the deeper meaning of the reflections group members shared with one another. I have never forgotten the last question: “What has brought you up short?”

Today I would say that almost everything about the past year has brought me up short. Over and over again I have seen how my quick, habitual responses to people, places, and things have often been flat out wrong. It has been humbling and discouraging to understand this.

So why now? The best I can come up with is that the pandemic’s forced stopping—of almost everything—has provided an opening. And it was into that open space that I began to see pieces of hopefulness. Quieted down, I saw moments of grace, kindness, and seeds of promise.

For me, as a new season of Lent begins, Easter may already have come. What if in this messy, hard year, there have already been many little Easters? Through this slowing down and these gifts of humility, I’m seeing tiny moments of resurrection, and new births blooming in the world.

May my response always be “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”

Thanks be to God. ✤

Noli Me Tangere by Titian

A gradual greening of shoots

By Charles M. Caldwell “Do not touch me!” are four of the most emotionally disturbing words in the Bible.

Jesus says them to Mary Magdalene in John’s account of the Resurrection. One moment she has the joy of realizing that her beloved teacher is alive and the next moment she’s told to curb her most natural instinct to embrace him.

When I think about all the things I’ve given up the last 12 months, the one I miss most is human touch. I miss shaking hands with a new acquaintance. I miss sitting with my friends across a dinner table. I miss hugging my friends and my daughter when she drops by for a quick visit. I can’t even approach a friend closely enough to speak confidentially to them. I miss sitting in church and feeling the loving support of that family. I miss drinking the wine from the chalice during Communion.

It feels like I’ve given up a lot in a never-ending Lent, but I know Easter will come. This Easter will be as different as the Lent that has passed. It will not come in a moment of glory, with trumpets. I think it may be more like the resurrection I see in nature: a gradual greening of shoots pushing up through the earth slowly, and then one day, the world is in bloom. When this long pandemic ends, I wonder how long it will take for me to feel comfortable taking someone’s hand or hugging the people I love? I wonder how long it will be before I can take a stranger’s hand and say, “The peace of the Lord be with you.”

When that day comes and I don’t hear a voice in my head saying, “Don’t touch them,” I will know, “The Lord is risen, indeed,” no matter the date on the calendar. ✤

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LENT/EASTER | SPRING 2021

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THE KINGDOM IN ALL OF US

By Craig Merritt

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his Lent seems to require something different. We know that Lent is for reflection, discipline, self-assessment and some meaningful self-denial. But we have done those things ad nauseam for many months. Family members beyond driving distance feel like strangers; workplaces are closed or abandoned for the safety of a laptop in a kitchen, den or bedroom. We ponder why so many people have suffered a brutal death from a cause unknown such a short time ago, as we go numb in front of a television purveying grade B movies and horrific news.

Yes, I mourn all of this deeply. But my mourning easily crosses the line into wallowing, into an abnegation of the life-giving Christ at the core of creation. So I am called to hear Mark’s Gospel when it reports Jesus saying that the Kingdom “is at hand,” that the Kingdom “is here—now.” And to absorb the revelation that the Kingdom of Heaven is “within me” and thus necessarily within every person.

Do I possess the courage to spend this season reconsidering the Kingdom within me, you, and everyone? The task demands not only a cataloging of my selfishness, pride, fears, and ignorance. It demands a serious look forward, informed by the experiences of this past year. What can I really live without? When I can again interact with people in a more normal way, will I conduct myself with a deeper sense of their preciousness? Shall I curse the attitudes and beliefs of strangers, or try to inhabit their worlds with more imagination and compassion? What have I learned, and how will I use it to reveal the Kingdom that is already present in all of us? ✤

A NEW WILDERNESS

By Barbara Massey Soon after Jesus was baptized he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he spent 40 days fasting. He went voluntarily there to be alone, to pray, even to face temptation, to prepare for his work on earth.

In many ways we, too, have been in a wilderness since the Lenten season of 2020. But we didn’t go there voluntarily. We were thrust into a time we never imagined would last so long.

And we, too, have faced many temptations. We have been tempted to be discouraged, distraught. Our lives have been turned upside down.

But now, a new “wilderness” appears. The time of Lent is here again—a wilderness where we can go voluntarily. This wilderness

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can be a time of revelation, not a place for wandering aimlessly. It can be painful, but also comforting. It can be a time of release, but also a time of restoration.

This wilderness can be a time for thinking about what we can add to the way we live our lives from this time forward.

For many the pandemic has become a time for simplifying, for clarifying, for participating in new interests, for enjoying nature more deeply. In the pandemic wilderness we have had time to know ourselves and to depend on God’s presence to see us through.

Scripture tells us that at the end of the 40 days the tempter left Jesus and that angels came and waited on him. What awaits us at the end of our 40 days in the wilderness? Could it be that spending these days in this wilderness will be the beginning of living our lives, in a different, and yes, even more fulfilling way? ✤

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

Tended by angels

A NEW LIFE By Wilda Ferguson As I began to think about Lent, my first thought was ... ugh. Twenty-twenty was an entire year of giving up: isolation from friends, family and St. Stephen’s because of the pandemic; sadness because of the unrest in our public life; loss of my companion dog and moving from my home of 38 years.

I realize I have allowed these fears, sadness and loss to dominate my thoughts. I will focus on giving up this pattern. I will seek every opportunity to be proactive in following the protocols to avoid getting COVID-19. I will listen with an open mind to try to understand the struggles in our public life while always remembering we are all God’s children. I will also appreciate the new friends and memories I am making at my new home at Westminster Canterbury, especially my new dog friends Bentley and Posey!

I’ll give more attention to how I can reach out to others to balance attention to me. May this be a way of life, not just a practice for Lent. ✤

Looking toward an Easter of healing

By Donny Dunn

Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

THE COLLECT FOR ASH WEDNESDAY, THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

For over five and half centuries, the “observance of a holy Lent,” which the Ash Wednesday Liturgy calls us to be about, begins with a prayer that “collects” our memories of God’s love for us together with our need to receive “new” hearts that will be able to acknowledge our sin and obtain through God’s mercy “perfect remission and forgiveness” of our estrangement from God and one another, the goal of Lent’s work. The sign of the beginning of this work was a cross of ashes placed on the forehead of each penitent and it was continued through the repetition of the Ash Wednesday collect at every worship service throughout Lent.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on we will not be able to receive the sign of ashes as we have in the past, but I know we shall perhaps understand the need for remission, the reduction of the signs and symptoms of estrangement from God and from each other, far better than we have known it before. I pray when the Easter of Healing comes, we will work to rebuild the bonds of love where nothing is hated and all is forgiven.

Keep up the good work. We will need to pray very hard between now and the Healing. ✤ S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

LENT/EASTER | SPRING 2021

By Jane Fergusson I have been turning a phrase over and over in my mind for the past year: “May you live in interesting times.” Often attributed as a traditional Chinese curse, it has taken on a different and very real meaning. These are interesting times, indeed. And that’s understating it by quite a bit. Raging wildfires, widespread protests over racial injustice, a contentious election cycle culminating in the sacking of the U.S. Capitol. All of this while in the throes of this deadly pandemic. Keeping the faith during this time has not been easy.

It was during Lent last year that we first were told to stay home, and since then, we have not emerged. We have spent a whole year in the desert, in fasting and waiting and prayer. And now we are entering into the Lenten season again.

How do we re-enter something that we never really left? What can we do to fast when there are so many things we already abstain from?

One part of the story that I had forgotten is that after his 40 days in the desert, Jesus was tended by angels.

I imagine it to have felt like a great light, powerful yet soft and diffuse, entering the body through pore and fiber. Emanating from the very core. A healing whisper, a great gentleness.

Perhaps we can use this Lent as our preparation to be ministered to by angels. Vaccines and re-openings are within sight now. It will not be an easy road, but there is no other path than to stay the course. The demons are already here, but the challenge of Lent is this: in our battered, weary state, can we keep going? Can we keep the faith? To hold fast to our trust in God is difficult when it seems that we have been denied so many things, when we are hungry and lonely and hurting. But the angels are coming. The horizon is beginning to lighten. So my Lenten practice this year, my one goal in these next 40 days and beyond, is to hold onto hope. ✤

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NO GOING BACK— ONLY FORWARD

By J. Scott Finn

John Jenkins to join o VIRGINIA NATIVE BEGINS NEW MINISTRY MARCH 15

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any years ago, the Rev. David Bargetzi, Chaplain at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Auburn, Alabama, suggested that instead of “giving up” something for Lent, we should consider “taking on” a discipline.

That idea certainly seems even more powerful now during this pandemic, when we have had to rearrange our lives and stop doing “normal” activities, in essence “giving up” so many things in order to keep our community healthy.

Since I don’t have to juggle schooling children at home while simultaneously learning to telecommute and order groceries online, this time feels like a kind of hibernation, a slowing down, which has allowed me to reflect on a closer examination of: “What is important?”

“What are the things that really matter?”

Fasting last year for Lent was a powerful and profound way to prepare both for Easter, and what was to become this prolonged pandemic.

Rather than thinking of fasting as “giving up” or “going without,” it became a deliberate opportunity to examine the many ways I am grateful, and to focus my energies on what I could do, instead of the things I could not.

Since then, and as we continue in the evolving environment of the virus, I continue to increase my weekly donations to the food pantry for those who are “going without” without choice, to share that which I have been given.

People wistfully talk about finally “returning to normal.”

But I am fundamentally changed, and I am going forward into a different world. I don’t wish to go back, but rather I anticipate the joy of gathering again, and continuing to more fully appreciate so many things I have taken for granted.

I will watch the sunrises and sunsets with renewed joy in their infinite beauty. ✤

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he Rev. Gary Jones, St. Stephen’s rector, has called the Rev. John Jenkins to serve as the newest member of our clergy staff. John’s first day at St. Stephen’s will be March 15.

Since July 2015, John has served on the clergy staff of historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Augusta, Georgia, where he has focused on stewardship, empowerment of lay ministry, adult formation and spiritual practices, children’s formation, racial justice, and more recently, responding to the creative and strategic challenges and opportunities posed by the pandemic.

The Virginia native is a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee). Before entering seminary, John worked in fundraising and management in educational and non-profit institutions, including Historic Richmond Foundation, VMI and Virginia Commonwealth University. In Montgomery, Alabama, he was executive director of Rebuilding Together Central Alabama, which is similar to Rebuilding Together Richmond, the organization coordinating repairs and modifications that enable low-income senior citizens to remain safely in their homes—an effort in which St. Stephen’s volunteers have taken part for several years.

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

n our clergy team John is the son of the Rev. Martha Jenkins, a retired Episcopal priest who is active in our parish, and his late father, the Rev. Blair Jenkins III, was rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, South Boston, Virginia. John has two children at St. Andrew’s School, Sewanee: his son John Turner will graduate this spring, and his daughter, Ellie, is a freshman.

Gary says, “To a person, everyone who met and interviewed John Jenkins, from vestry members to clergy and staff, came away from the experience with the conviction that John is just the person we’ve been looking for, and trusted church leaders around the country confirmed that John is the gifted priest so many churches are now seeking. John is delightfully personable and kind. He is smart, curious, and deeply faithful. He understands the rigors of parish ministry, and he gives his all for the well-being of God’s people.”

Gary notes that John is “steeped in the riches of our Anglican tradition. He was reared in a family of priests and siblings devoted to the expansive spirituality of the Episcopal Church, and one quickly senses how our generous spiritual tradition saturates John.”

The Rev. Will Stanley, vicar, says, “I could not be more thrilled to welcome John to our clergy staff. He is deeply thoughtful and exceedingly kind—gifts which will only strengthen our already strong team. I’m particularly excited that John will help give vision and depth to our work with young people and their families. And perhaps most of all, I’m excited to have him as a colleague and friend for years and years to come.”

With our other clergy, John will share ministry in areas such as liturgy, teaching, preaching, and pastoral care. In addition, he will work closely with the outstanding staff we have in place to tend to children, youth, and families, particularly Allison Seay and Betsy Tyson. John will help re-start the internship program which was such a great success here several years ago, when St. Stephen’s Church recruited recent college graduates to serve for two years while exploring a possible vocation to parish ministry. Past interns have “graduated” to serve as children’s ministers, youth ministers, educators, and clergy.

“John’s enthusiasm for ministry with youth, children and families endeared him to our devoted staff who are already envisioning this important part of our life, as we begin to emerge into a postpandemic world,” Gary reflects.

John learned about the open position as he drove to Richmond in November: “It’s a long way from Augusta to Richmond, so while driving to my mother’s for Thanksgiving, I happened to mention my destination while talking with a former rector of St. Paul’s Church [Augusta]—who immediately asked whether I knew anything about St. Stephen’s.”

As John recounts, “I’ve known about St. Stephen’s for 20 years!”

Not only was he familiar with the church from his time living in Richmond, but, “for years I’ve enjoyed a steady drip of stories about the spirit of the parish from my mother. Lots of retired clergy relish the culture and community of St. Stephen’s; that speaks volumes.”

When John previously lived in Richmond, before he was ordained, John’s rector, the Rev. George Muir, has previously served he attended the Church of the Holy Comforter, where the Rev. churches in Richmond and is not only familiar with St. Stephen’s, Claudia Merritt was serving as rector. “What is striking about John is his demeanor,” says Claudia. “He is so open and kind. When but was enthusiastic enough about our Celtic service to adapt it for use in Augusta. So John is familiar with that part of our talking with him, it’s clear that he’s present and listening.” Claudia worship life. recalls, “I first met John about 17 years ago and even then was aware of his deep faith. Seeing it blossom into his priesthood is a joy.

“That’s how you know a church, from the stories people enjoy John will be a wonderful addition to the St. Stephen’s community.” sharing about their church!” John remarks. “So for years, at summer vacations or visiting Richmond, I’ve heard these stories, Allison Seay, associate for religion and the arts, was among the and, of course, there’s always a Seasons of the Spirit on the coffee staff who interviewed John on Zoom calls. She says, “I observed in John an energetic intellect. He seems to me to be sincere, table! So, for a while now, though I’d never set foot inside, I’ve felt a lively admiration for this holy place.” confident, motivated and ambitious. He is articulate and seems incredibly knowledgeable about How Church Works. I think he John concludes, “The discernment process has been the very finest will be a great gift to all of us.”

I’ve experienced, and every person I have had the pleasure to meet in the course of our conversations is someone I would hope to Junior warden Lynn Ivey spoke with John during an interview with the executive committee of the vestry. “I am impressed befriend and work alongside. Now, I look forward to the slow work of making a life for myself in this familiar and yet entirely with John’s professionalism and deep commitment to the church new place, among gifted colleagues and in authentic ministry and its ministries,” he said. “I feel that his non-church career experiences will complement our clergy and staff.” Lynn also with this vibrant parish of God’s people. I am positively delighted, and humbled.” ✤ appreciates that John has connections to Richmond.

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LENT/EASTER | SPRING 2021

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Tangible signs of love

Liz Bartenstein

The prayer shawl ministry continues in the pandemic

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f ever there were a time to put more emphasis on tangible manifestations of prayer, a prolonged global pandemic is that time.

In earlier times, Maureen, Anne, and many others would gather weekly, have supper at Wonderful Wednesdays, and then pray and knit as a group in the lounge at St. Stephen’s. After In my role at the front desk, I’ve heard from so that, a clergy person would bless them, usually many of you on the phone, “I miss seeing you.” We during a Sunday service where parishioners could miss seeing you, too. So much. It’s often difficult to also touch the shawls on their way to receive

By Liz Bartenstein feel that anything we’re doing is of much import if we Communion. The blessed shawls would then be aren’t doing it together, in one another’s physical presence. After delivered, one by one, to individuals who might need or all, Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in appreciate a shawl and the prayers it represents. Shawls go to my name, there am I in the midst of them.” someone who has lost a loved one, someone going through a difficult time, or someone celebrating a new chapter such as And yet many of us have found that there are things we can do the arrival of a baby. to stay connected, and to feel the presence of one another while not being physically gathered. In addition to worshipping and While the knitters aren’t able to gather in this way right now, meeting virtually, parishioners in every part of this community one thing hasn’t changed. Knitters still pray as they knit, have found ways to offer expressions of Christ’s love incarnate. “weaving prayers right in,” as Maureen puts it. She says, “It’s a continuum of proceeding to do what you need to do for One of those ways is the prayer shawl ministry. The team of yourself and others during a difficult time.” knitters who used to gather regularly and knit shawls, praying at the beginning and the end of their time together, has continued Knitter Donna Romenecki has also remained active, as has their work amidst the pandemic. In fact, several knitters’ efforts her mother who lives elsewhere. Donna recently delivered have been especially fruitful. several shawls to the church, adding to a growing stock that continues to go out to members of the community. Now, As you might imagine, the knitting practice has changed however, they are delivered on doorsteps. significantly in the last year or so. Many folks have retired or moved, and one of the founding members, Anne Satterfield, Perhaps two or three can be considered “gathered” when one passed away this winter. wraps a shawl around their arms and feels its warmth. In fact, you might say the whole congregation is woven into those As longtime knitter Maureen Field put it, “Knitting lost its luster.” fibers.

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‘O taste and see’

Solemn Communion at St. Stephen’s Church TUESDAYS, FEBRUARY 23; MARCH 2; MARCH 9; MARCH 16; MARCH 23

A five-week series during Lent The great Italian educator Maria Montessori penned a prayer that Sofia Cavalletti, who would become the co-founder (with Gianna Gobbi)

By Allison Seay of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, considered her invitation to work: “Help us, O God, to enter into the secret of childhood, so that we may know, love, and serve the child in accordance with the laws of thy justice and following thy holy will.”

Cavalletti, a woman of noble birth, a prominent scholar, writer, and member of the Vatican Council for Jewish-Christian relations, would devote her life’s work to children: to their psychological development and spiritual integrity and to the nurturing of their religious lives. Her development of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, based on the principles of education first developed by Montessori, began in 1954 in what is now a famous and fateful encounter when she reluctantly agreed to do some Bible study with her nephew and two other children. It was here that she first glimpsed, in those three children, a uniquely contemplative and patient joy that would set into motion a life of study and exploration of the religious desires and wonders of children.

Cavelletti writes in her introduction to The Religious Potential of the Child, “Our observations of children for over forty-five

years have enabled us to see certain ‘constants’ in their responses, according to their developmental stage, to the Christian message.

These ‘constants’ transcend socio-economic factors, as well as the geographical or cultural differences of those to whom the message is proclaimed. Moreover, these ‘constants’ have convinced us that the responses of the children are not sporadic or circumstantial; rather, they are indicative of deep, vital needs in the child. What we are seeing is not the response of a particular child who comes from a particular background but the response of ‘the child’ to the Christian message.”

One of my favorite anecdotes about Cavalletti is that for all her accolades and distinctions— born into a prominent Roman Catholic family and well-educated at prestigious universities, author of several books, a highly regarded and internationally known scholar, translator, and historian—when asked how she spent her life, said with utmost sincerity: “I was a catechist.” Her work in collaboration with Gianni Gobbi spanned more than 50 years and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is now the centerpiece at St. Stephen’s for the spiritual formation of children.

In their work, they explain that around the age of 7 (or first grade), children enter what is known as the age of reason, a profound phase of development, and one in which the religious formation of the child is particularly impressionable. It is an intensely sensitive time that we believe the church should take great care to nurture, and because the Eucharist is the focal point of the Christian life, there is some understanding that the whole catechesis is, in essence, a preparation for an appreciation for Holy Communion. At St. Stephen’s, we believe in a preparation that is characterized by solemnity, deep seriousness and sincerity of heart. In this developmental phase, children are uniquely engaged in the task of self-creation, becoming Solemn Communion, continued on page 12

Children’s literature opens a window on our faith ‘Stories We Love’ offered on Wednesdays

Parents are their child’s first teachers, and this includes teaching about God. We teach about God and God’s love for the world by our example and our own love for God. Learning about God begins with wonder and curiosity, something that comes naturally to children.

Allison Seay

We can talk with children about God throughout our daily routine: during meals, in the car, and reading books. What better way to foster a child’s curiosity than to open a book and connect with a character, a story, and illustrations?

S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

By Betsy Tyson

A new weekly offering, “Stories We Love,” began during Epiphany and continues in Lent.

Each Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Zoom, we read and talk about a picture book that has particular resonance for the Gospel for the coming Sunday. All are welcome and we hope you will share this news with other families you know. The Zoom link is available at ststephensRVA.org/children. No registration is needed.

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Solemn Communion, continued from page 11 more aware not only of their own moral compass but of a discerning inner voice, a sense that he or she is, as Cavelletti says, “a carrier of God’s secret.”

To say we ever fully understand Eucharist is to dishonor the sacred mystery of it, but we believe that people of any age can benefit from renewed and solemn attention to the experience of receiving, fortifying a hope that in tasting of the sacrament one might see and feel anew something of the holy mystery it contains. This particular preparation— called Solemn Communion—is a fiveweek series based on meditations from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd whose conviction is that even very young children have a religious life in which the intimate presence of God is known. While our offering for Solemn Communion is designed with the dignity and creativity of the seven-year-old (and older) child in mind, with companion presentations given to parents of children entering this age of reason, all are welcome and invited to participate.

During five one-hour sessions, children are presented with the parables of the True Vine, the Found Coin, the Found Sheep, and the Forgiving Father—known as the Parables of Mercy. While the circumstances of this year prohibit us from the customary all-day retreat and larger celebration with the whole parish, our faith teaches us, particularly after such prayerful preparation, that the receiving of the bread is a profound experience, and one which honors all of us.

At the conclusion of these five weeks, participants are invited to the Rite of Reconciliation. Details are forthcoming.

Presentations for Solemn Communion are held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Zoom, led by our trained catechists and St. Stephen’s clergy. There is no charge for this offering.

Registration is required, which you may do by sending an email to Allison Seay at aseay@ststephensRVA.org.

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‘Contemplative Chapel’ provides an opportunity to rest in God Wednesday evening group continues as Thursday daytime group begins

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ast summer, the Rev. Gary Jones offered a four-week, Zoom-based experience of centering prayer and Lectio Divina.

The Wednesday evening gathering proved so popular, and such a welcome respite for those who participated, Gary extended it beyond the original four weeks. And he has continued to offer it–even on the day before Christmas Eve. At times, nearly 100 people have logged on. Many are St. Stephen’s parishioners, but others have somehow heard about this offering as far away as the Pacific Northwest, and have joined in.

Each session begins with a very brief welcome and reflection, followed by a time of “Holy Reading” or Lectio Divina. Using a short passage of Scripture, Gary guides participants through a meditative engagement with the passage. Lectio Divina is often thought of as a way of listening to the words of Scripture, as if we are in a conversation with Christ, and Christ is initiating the conversation.

This is followed by a time of centering prayer.

It may seem unusual to invite people to join a Zoom gathering at which they remain silent, but clearly the consistent and enthusiastic participation suggests that this hour is something folks hunger for. In this time when we are apart, these sessions have offered time and a place to rest in God and rest in one another. It is as if our souls can breathe.

As Gary writes, “The truth is that human beings are made for this. There’s nothing simpler or more natural than our God-given capacity for contemplation.” He notes that practicing with others is powerful and provides the support needed to maintain a practice—even if you’re on Zoom and others cannot see you.

Information and registration for this free group are available at ststephensRVA.org/ contemplativechapel, where you’ll plenty of related resources and a link to Gary’s weekly pre-session reflections.

NEW DAYTIME SESSION OFFERED IN LENT

As the Wednesday sessions continue, we will offer a second opportunity, this one during the day. While the Wednesday evening group is quite large, the Thursday group—which will meet at noon—will be limited to 15 people. In this space, participants will gather, introduce themselves, practice Lectio Divina, and then be silent together and with God. This pilot group will begin Thursday, February 18, and continue through March 11. You will need to register each week for one of the 15 spaces using registration links posted on the Contemplative Chapel page. If you have questions about the Thursday group, please contact Claudia Merritt at cmerritt@ststephensRVA.org. We will use what we learn from this Lenten group to plan future offerings.

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

Kayleen Asbo offers multi-part Lenten series Three Christian mystics point the way to living through pandemic and social upheaval

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n tumultuous times—a pandemic, political upheaval, racial injustice and strife—how can you make your heart a refuge?

When the world is falling apart, what steps can lead to an internal anchor of stability and serenity? How can nature, art, music, poetry and silence become doorways to the Divine?

During a six-week Lenten series, Kayleen Abso will lead participants through an exploration of three towering figures of Christian mysticism who lived through three of the most tumultuous ages in human history.

Dr. Asbo has led several seminars and workshops for St. Stephen’s, both in person pre-pandemic, and online during the time that we’ve been physically separate. Her weekend retreat focusing on Dante’s Divine Comedy just before Holy Week 2019 was enthusiastically received, and we’ve asked her to return on several occasions, personally and virtually. As the latest expression of the “New Abbey” we strive to be, we are thrilled to offer this latest webinar in which you can learn from the perennial wisdom these three mystics discovered, illuminating a pathway to resilience, tranquility, and transformation even in the face of outer obstacles.

St. John Cassian fled the political turmoil of Egypt during the fall of Rome, carrying with him 10 years of research on the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Taking refuge in the cave of Mary Magdalene in Provence in the year 415 AD, he wrote two foundational guides to finding our way to a balanced life and spirit of equanimity.

Six centuries later, these same writings on virtue and vice had an enormous impact on Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Enclosed in a strict monastery at age eight as the companion to an austere anchorite (a hermit), Hildegard was shaped by the rhythms of Benedictine life. After a mid-life awakening and release from her stone cell, Hildegard became a composer, artist, theologian, botanist, authority on natural medicine, revered spiritual director, abbess, and counselor to political and religious figures alike.

In the 14th century, Julian of Norwich lived a full life as a wife and mother in England before her family was destroyed in the Black Plague. Surviving her own near-death experience, Julian elected to become a voluntary anchorite, and remained enclosed inside two tiny rooms attached to a local church where she prayed without ceasing for the welfare of the world for the rest of her life. Despite her bleak background and enduring confinement, Julian went on to become the first woman to be published in the English language. Her Revelations of Divine Love is a magnificent and joyous guide to finding serenity and peace in the midst of darkness and suffering. It ends, astonishingly, with the utter conviction that All shall be well.

S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

Julian of Norwich

In this six-week creative seminar, guided by the lives and words of John Cassian, Hildegard and Julian, participants will find a rhythm where we connect more deeply to our hearts through contemplative practices rooted in ancient monasticism.

In addition to the Thursday evening webinars, the Rev. Cate Anthony will host a Zoom meeting on Sunday mornings for participants to share their own creative work.

Each presentation will begin and end with 10 to 15 minutes of prayer practice, and participants are invited to create a sacred space in their homes for these sessions, if they wish.

To register for this free series, visit ststephensRVA.org/asbo.

WEEKLY SESSIONS THURSDAYS AT 7 P.M. FEBRUARY 18-MARCH 25

Individual sessions are described on our Web site at ststephensRVA.org/asbo

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‘Parenting with Resilience’ videos available on demand Two recent Parenting with Resilience webinars are available for on-demand viewing.

In December, the Rev. Will Stanley hosted a webinar featuring Meredith Southwell, LCSW, presenting “10 Tips for Parenting during the Pandemic.” Meredith is a licensed clinical social worker with seven years’ experience providing therapy to children, adolescents, and families. She has additional training in spiritually integrated psychotherapy. She joined the staff at the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care in 2018. Meredith is also herself parenting during this pandemic and was glad to present on a topic of both professional and personal relevance.

In February, Anne Tolley Jones, a school counselor, spoke about the mental health challenges facing children and their parents in the pandemic. She identified ways parents can do the tough work of identifying when and if further clinical support might be needed.

Navigating these questions in a time of pandemic is a unique challenge, so we were glad to be able to provide this practical support.

Though she now works at St. Matthew’s Parish School in Pacific Palisades, California, Anne was born and raised in Virginia and attended the University of Virginia. She has a master’s degree in education from James Madison University with a concentration in school counseling through the graduate psychology department.

If you missed either of these webinars, or you simply want to watch them again or share them with others, visit ststephensRVA.org/resilience.

More Parenting with Resilience events are in the works; we’ll provide details in the eSpirit and the family ministries newsletter. If you have questions, please contact the Rev. Will Stanley, wstanley@ststephensRVA.org.

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SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

God’s healing: a Lenten book study with the rector

Gary Jones leads discussion of Tobit and ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’ If some people really see angels where others only see empty space, let them paint angels.

JOHN RUSKIN

This Lent, the rector will offer a casual study and discussion of two very different works. We’ll read the ancient and beloved Book of Tobit (it’s in your Bible, if your Bible includes the Apocrypha), along with the contemporary English novel, Miss Garnet’s Angel,

by Salley Vickers.

The story of Tobit features as a parallel narrative in Miss Garnet’s Angel, so we’ll get acquainted with Tobit first, before turning to Salley Vickers’ novel. The archangel Raphael (“God’s healing”) features prominently in both—very timely for us today.

On Sundays at 3 p.m. on Zoom, February 21 through March 21, the group will consider the Apocrypha generally and the Book of Tobit specifically, followed by reading and discussion of Miss Garnet’s Angel.

The novel is a book of self-discovery and spiritual awakening; art and beauty; love, healing, and mystical encounter, all set in Venice. The Book of Tobit features an angel in disguise, who is God’s answer to an older man and a younger woman who have lost all hope and asked to die, and Tobit is the only book in the bible with a dog that is depicted in a favorable light–a faithful traveling companion for an important quest. It’s mysterious and engaging.

The intertwining narratives of the novel and this apocryphal scripture invite us to ponder our world and our own lives in a fresh, even mystical, new light.

In addition to a Bible with the Apocrypha, you will want to obtain a copy of Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers. For your convenience, we have ordered several paperback copies from the

Raphael Curing Tobit of Blindness, by Simon Hendricksz van Amersfoort

publisher. Call the parish office to make sure there are copies still available, then pick one up outside the Somerset Avenue parking lot doors to the parish house, and leave a check payable to St. Stephen’s Church for $18, or use our online giving platform (select “Bookstore” from the dropdown menu).

The novel is also available in electronic format for Kindle or Nook e-readers, and used copies of the book are available from several booksellers online, including Thriftbooks.

Registration is required for this free online offering. Visit ststephensRVA.org/Tobit.

The intertwining narratives of the novel and this apocryphal scripture invite us to ponder our world and our own lives in a fresh, even mystical, new light.

S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

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In a tough year, this ‘high touch’ program has helped members meet career goals

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n the face of 2020’s many logistical and public health challenges, during the last quarter, ReWork—an employment initiative foudned by St. Stephen’s, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the City of Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building, Challenge Discovery and other partners—has connected five members with new employment opportunities, and six additional members have enrolled in higher education courses to prepare for future employment.

ReWork refers to its participants, not as clients, but as members.

The organization is especially proud to highlight member Kim H., who has been with the program since 2019. Kim was recently hired as an administrative assistant in the East End Office of Community Wealth Building, (OCWB), a major partner of ReWork.

“It’s been heartening to know that whenever potential or current members come to OCWB, it’s a ReWork member who greets them at the door.” said Diana Vasquez, director of ReWork’s employment services (shown in the photo chatting with a member).

“Kim is such a wonderful ambassador for ReWork. She is willing to tell folks about her employment journey with us and connect with participants on a peer-to-peer level. Her role at OCWB, along with a part time job with CARITAS, puts Kim significantly closer to a living wage career that she is passionate about.”

ReWork is also happy to announce a new partnership with the Driving Teacher RVA. “Transportation is a significant barrier for over half of our members,” explained Ms. Vasquez. “ReWork believes that in

order to truly thrive, individuals need a car and driving license, in addition to having stable employment, child care and housing.”

Ms. Vasquez noted that resources to help East End residents obtain a driving license, even under regular circumstances, are limited.

“Now with the pandemic causing the DMV to have incredibly limited testing availability, many of our members have had a very difficult time trying to acquire a license. Our Driving Teacher RVA partnership allows students to do the training online and then meet directly with driving instructors to practice driving skills with a company car,” she said.

ReWork’s Car Ministry is another opportunity to close the gap on acquiring reliable transportation.

“Our goal,” Ms. Vasquez says, “is to make donated vehicles available to our members as reliable work transportation.” If you have a reliable vehicle to donate, please contact her at diana. vasquez@reworkrichmond.org.

ReWork came about when the leaders of St. Stephen’s centennial capital campaign committed to giving a tithe of campaign funds to improve lives in our community, and began working with St. Peter’s and city leaders on a shared vision for helping East End neighbors find long-term, family-sustaining careers. After years of planning, the organization launched in 2019 with offices at St. Peter’s. Additional partners joined the effort, including churches and community organizations. St. Stephen’s continues to be involved as a major funder and through volunteer efforts by parishioners.

ReWork seeks donated vehicles to provide members with reliable work transportation.

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SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

Dan Currier

ReWork members overcome challenges

May Fair House offers virtual store You can purchase gifts and more for curbside pick-up May Fair House is the food and gift shop managed by volunteers with the Women of St. Stephen’s. The shop raises thousands of dollars annually for grants to support local women and children in need through the sale of merchandise and food. Volunteer cooks prepare tried-and-true recipes in St. Stephen’s kitchen which are then frozen and stored in the shop’s freezer—though few of these popular casseroles, side dishes, desserts and baked goods remain in stock long.

During the pandemic, the shop has adjusted to the need to remain closed to the public by offering phone orders of the kitchen classics and online orders of picture frames, baby gifts, clothing and accessories, tabletop items, holiday items and paper goods, and home and garden décor—all for curbside pick-up.

As the United States, including our own region, copes with the expected winter surge in COVID-19 infections, volunteer cooking teams have needed to suspend cooking for awhile, but there are still some items available for purchase from the shop’s freezer, since director of kitchen ministries Stan Barnett continues to prepare many classics. To order, call 804.282.3004 during shop hours, Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

The e-commerce site, created by parishioner and volunteer Fern Newsom, and parish staff members Becky Lehman and Christi McFadden, continues to offer a variety of items, with new merchandise arriving all the time. This 24/7 platform is ready when you are. Make your selections online (mayfairhouseonline.com), pay for them on the site, and pick them up curbside.

Food and merchandise orders are available for curbside pick-up Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Remember to visit the site often since it is refreshed with new arrivals all the time. And your purchases support outreach grants!

S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

Suppers to go and more The Café @ St. Stephen’s offers delicious take-out dinners in addition to a breakfast and lunch menu During the pandemic, so many things seem to be outside our control, even as the promise of vaccinations provides some light at the end of this long tunnel. The ordering of our lives has been upended for more than a year, with school-age children being at home as adults try to do their own work in a virtual environment. Those of us who made Wednesday or Sunday church suppers a regular and welcome practice miss the fellowship— and the knowledge that we didn’t have to plan or prepare meals on those evenings.

The Café @ St. Stephen’s, one of the most visible expressions of our “Village Green,” is here to offer some respite. While the café cannot welcome people indoors at this time, it continues to offer curbside service and phone and online orders for breakfast, lunch, drinks and snacks, and even for suppers-to-go! Delicious dishes, from imaginative chicken entrees to flavorful salads, hearty soups to inventive quiches, are available Monday through Friday, with a menu that changes each week.

You’ll find the week’s choices on the café’s online ordering platform (cafeatststephens.org), recently revamped by Liz Bartenstein and Christi McFadden.

You can order and pay for your selections online, or call the café at 804.288.3318.

Since each item is made to order, the café staff asks for three hours’ notice before pick-up for these supper dishes.

The café continues to offer coffee, tea, espresso drinks, smoothies, and breakfast and lunch dishes each weekday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and drinks and snacks from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The café is also open during the farmers market each Saturday morning.

We look forward to welcoming customers back into our café once it’s safe to do so, but in the meantime, remember to take advantage of online and phone orders, curbside pickup, and–in warmer weather–outdoor seating.

COCO PROVANCE JOINS OUR STAFF A former parishioner and active volunteer, Coco Provance, has returned to Richmond after living in Maryland for the past few years. We are delighted that she’s agreed to join our administrative staff.

Coco has been a volunteer for our farmers market and our bookshop, as a volunteer cook for the May Fair House, as a Sunday school teacher, and as a St. Stephen’s volunteer at Peter Paul. Just before moving to Maryland, she chaired the farmers market project team here. In fact, Coco is a big fan of gardens and gardening, “relentlessly attempting to grow enough vegetables for dinner,” she says.

The Johns Hopkins graduate has more than 25 years of experience in university, nonprofit, and foundation operations. Her chief area of focus is membership, though she assists in other areas, as well. We are excited to have Coco back at St. Stephen’s, both as a parishioner and a staff member!✤ LENT/EASTER | SPRING 2021

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The language of joy The blurriness of joy and the precision of pain— I want to describe, with pain’s sharp precision, happiness and blurry joy. I learned to speak among the pains.

What is it about joy that eludes our speech? We do indeed learn to speak among the pains, as Amichai notes. I wonder if this is because, especially for us Christians, while the pains are so immediately and tangibly woven into creaturely life, joy is made of something too big to fully comprehend. In the Gospel of Mark, we hear that after the resurrected Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome they “went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:1-8). This is where the story of the resurrection ends in Mark’s telling, and many have worked to make sense of this reaction through the ages. For my part, I wonder if in the seeing of the resurrected Jesus, the women came right up against something so big that they couldn’t even begin to make any sense of it—and so rather than try, they simply said nothing at all.

The thing about joy is that it is a much deeper experience than simple happiness, which is a lighter emotion and so more readily and frequently accessed. For its part, joy is heftier, caused by experiences which speak to the whole magnitude of the miracle of being alive: a perfectly ripe peach dripping juice down your chin. The swift intake of breath when you look into your beloved’s eyes and see that they already know what you were preparing to say. The sense of spring come into the soul after a mother’s death. These experiences are, as you perhaps may be able to see, harder to articulate: the ability to tell you in objective detail what makes each joyful is evading me even now, even as I know that they are joyful, they are. Perhaps the one thing I can say is that identifying joy is often apophatic: we are able to tell what it is by the conviction of what it is not—joy is not the wrench of a broken heart, the breathlessness of rage, the silence of injustice.

But it does need these things in order to be seen—and perhaps that is what we can say about joy, that it shows up in the middle of our lament and in doing so, slippery and elusive though it is, helps dull pain’s sharp precision for a moment. ✤

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Sarah Bartenstein

So the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai reflects in his poem “The Precision of Pain and the Blurriness of Joy: The Touch of Longing is Everywhere.”

Earlier in the poem, Amichai wonders at how exacting humans can be in the doctor’s office as they describe pain to

By Cate Anthony their physician, using particular language to convey our experience exactly: throbbing, wrenching, gnawing, burning, sharp. We humans are very good at describing clearly what hurts—and yet, Amichai notices, when we turn to a language of joy we lose our precision and instead find our self-expression blurred and incoherent, robbed of its magnitude by our inability to muster language which cuts right to the heart of what it means to be joyful.

Sculpture depicting the return of the prodigal son in the Bishop’s Garden at Washington National Cathedral.

A story of home Book group to focus on ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’ During the past year many of us have been in our homes, perhaps more than we would like. For some of us this has been easy and a source of comfort. For others of us, home has been a challenge,

By Claudia Merritt a source of frustration. I’ve been intrigued by this notion of “home.” The story of the Prodigal Son has been more present for me than usual for it is, among other things, a story of home. It’s a story of finding home, going home, and being home. It is a quest for “true home.”

The noted theologian and author Henri Nouwen also contemplates “home” and what it means, where it is, how to get there. He is awakened to these wonderings when he encounters Rembrandt’s painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” He writes, “the painting contained not only the heart of the story that God wants to tell me, but also the heart of the story that I want to tell to God and God’s people. All of the Gospel is there.” In this group we will read Nouwen’s book of the same title and contemplate our true home and how we travel there.

This group will meet over Zoom, for four Mondays in the Easter season at 7 p.m., beginning April 12. To register, go to ststephensRVA.org/prodigal. If you have questions, please contact me at cmerritt@ststephensRVA.org SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

Life and joy: the soul, my child, a feather

By Allison Seay

It is important to realize that in the first period of a child’s growth, his environment and the impressions it produces are, one might say, engraved on his soul in an indelible way. A mother who takes her child with her to church provides him with an appreciation for religion which no teaching could arouse. MARIA MONTESSORI

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et me be clear: I am a mother who has not brought her child to church each week. Even before the pandemic, when I could have, I didn’t. Now, though there is time and space and diocesan permission for us to come every Sunday and receive the bread, I often come alone. It is a long list, the ways I am imperfect, selfish, the ways I am sure I fail—myself, my son, perhaps my God. If it is true that the impressions of an environment—the home, the church, the world, all the people inside it—are imprinted indelibly on the soul, then they are surely marks of a true and trying life, not a perfect one. I find some comfort there.

My practice these days has been simple and hard: I am trying to consider the responsibilities of my life as gifts, not weights. It is my belief that human beings are obligated to take care of what takes care of them—for me this means the Earth, the Church, other people, art, and the systems from which I benefit and on which I depend, particularly those systems (food, privilege) which rely on the hidden suffering of others. It is not so difficult to feel the immense, if not impossible, weight of this obligation.

So I am doing a new thing, trying to think differently in order to live differently—not as therapy toward self-improvement, exactly— but as antidote to all the ways the world has of tricking me into despair and exhaustion. I am trying to consider my responsibilities as prisms, as joys, or as joys within the weights: mother, Christian, sister and daughter, wife, citizen, worker.

I want to think of these as delights and gifts and honors, whose joys are within the difficulty and are never difficulty alone.

When I took my son to church with me recently, I knelt beside him in the chapel and we each received the bread. (Standing, he is as tall as I am on my knees; its own revelation: I must, in order to meet his eyes, all but bow down.) We locked eyes and it was silent. I know him well enough to know he was trying to remember what to say: he almost said ‘thank you’ and caught himself; I knew he was looking for ‘Amen.’

What came instead that I alone could hear was a whisper to the bread itself: “God is with us.”

It is the sentence we speak when we light a candle at dinner— God is with us—and sometimes, I admit it, this is the extent of any explicit religious formation in our home. But, if that sentence alone is imprinted on the soul, I pray it will make up for whatever else might compromise it. This is what I mean by S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

a thing being both weight and gift, responsibility and joy.

My practice is in noticing how it feels to live this way, even on the days I know I am failing. Maria Montessori says that children, “like the voice of Christ, teach us a lesson in forgiving. ‘Not seven times, but seventy seven times.’ From the depths of his nature, the child repeatedly pardons the adult and strives to flourish despite the latter’s repressions.”

Thank God, who is certainly with us. Yes, God indelibly is.

If anything of this house has imprinted on my child’s soul some joy, some gratitude, beauty, kindness, affection, respect, then it has imprinted a religion. If something has imprinted upon him a feeling of both being held and also of holding, then it is the imprint of Christ himself, the imprint of love we share. All of us are being held. All of us are holding.

I keep with me a feather I found years ago when I was sitting in a field many miles from town. A feather caught in the fold of my dress there on the grass. I had been looking at wildflowers and it was June in the late morning. I remember a sense that everything felt something more than charmed— lit, charged with the grandeur, clothed in majesty. One of those rare, fleeting, divine moments of rightness. I said out loud to no one, I love this world. I remember the feeling of saying it as clearly as I remember my own name.

The feather became an emblem, a reminder of something. Sitting in that field, I tried to imagine the bird whose feather I held. Unseen, flying, as unaware that anything of itself had been lost as it was unaware of me, and that anything had been found, or anything given. There I was, alone with a feather, ridiculous, in love with a world I do not understand, a world I love to a point of hurting for the ways it is broken and breaking, a world I love for taking care of me in spite of myself. We are part of something much larger, the emblem reminds me, a system beyond all systems—one of gift-giving and gift-receiving, one of love and care and joy and weight.

If it is true what they say—that we don’t go to church; we are the church—then this, too, is a great responsibility.

We are, knowingly or not, giving one another gifts all the time just as we are also receiving them, sometimes taking or wasting them. The responsibilities of our human life are deep. And the indelible impressions on the soul are real.

Thanks be to God: the joy is in the weight. And we do not bear it alone.

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Thank you for keeping the pantry stocked One of the devastating consequences of the pandemic and its effect on the economy has been an increase in the number of people needing assistance to feed their families. Fortunately, St. Stephen’s continues to be able to provide that help, thanks in large part to you. Anna Jones, who coordinates our weekly distributions, reports that since November we have been serving an average of 40 households or 107 individuals per week. In addition, we provide 300 bags of groceries each month for Virginia Supportive Housing.

“The amazing thing continues to be the community’s response to the need for groceries,” she says.

At times in the past, she has had to shop in order to supplement the donations we need to meet demand. Thanks to food drives at St. Catherine’s and St. Christopher’s schools, faithful parishioners and others who drop off food every single week, she says, “we end up with what we need, and can operate from a place of abundance instead of scarcity.”

Generous farmers market vendors donate fresh produce, eggs, and other foods, and Stan Barnett, our director of kitchen ministries, prepares soups, all of which supplement the staples you donate.

At a time when many of the ways parishioners engaged in outreach ministries are not available to us, donating food on

Left: the freezer donated to our pantry by FeedMore. Above, bags of groceries to be delivered to Virginia Supportive Housing. Sarah Bartenstein photos

a regular basis remains a simple yet important way to help others. Canned and boxed, shelf-stable foods are needed, such as tuna, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce, healthy cereal, canned fruit, beans, and vegetables are all needed. Thank you for your continuing support.

Annual meeting, vestry elections move to the spring Ordinarily, St. Stephen’s Church holds its annual parish meeting and vestry elections in early February. Given that we are not able to safely gather in a space like the large Fellowship Hall at this time (and it’s too cold to be outside), nor to accommodate enough people to constitute a quorum, the vestry has elected to postpone the annual meeting and election until the spring. As Seasons of the Spirit headed to the printer, the date had not yet been decided, but we will keep you posted through the eSpirit.

Becky Boyers will chair the nominating committee for the election of six new vestry members.

Details of the nomination process and how you can participate will be available in the eSpirit and on our Web site. Thank you to retiring vestry members Mary Bacon, Orran Brown, Bob Dibble, Mollie Mitchell, Alston Williams, and Wesley Wright. Thanks also to Bob, Alston, and Wesley for offering to remain on the vestry for awhile to bridge the gap until a new vestry class can be elected.

Vestry officers are Allison Koschak, senior warden; Lynn Ivey, junior warden; Bobby Fauntleroy, treasurer; and Jim Price, register. ✤

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St. Stephen’s Vestry Term expires 2022 Bobby Fauntlero, Treasurer L.H. Ginn Alice Goodwin Lynn Ivey, Junior Warden Allison Koschak, Senior Warden Shelley Spalding Term expires 2023 William B. Armstrong Alison Fauls Barbara Massey Benita Miller Blair Nelsen James H. Price, Register

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

Ministry in a time of extremity When the going gets tough…

St. Stephen’s Church is grateful for the 775 families and individuals who have made a financial pledge to support the many ministries of St. Stephen’s for 2021. We are in awe of you who have gone the extra mile to support our church. You inspire us!

And we are moved with compassion for those who are struggling this year and are unable to make a pledge. We are aware that you are supporting St. Stephen’s with your prayers, a powerful expression of love for your church and the communities we serve.

We are especially touched by the number of first-time pledgers; many people have only known St. Stephen’s Church in a time of pandemic.

These people have never been able to worship in our beautiful building, and they are expressing their great appreciation for our church’s many ministries in this time of extremity.

One thing seems certain in this time of uncertainty: the post-pandemic world is going to be quite different from the prepandemic world. That’s true of the church, as well. Deep faithfulness and inspiring generosity have been hallmarks of our parish for generations, and the light of St. Stephen’s Church is now poised to shine more brightly than ever. If you are able to join others in making a pledge for 2021, a time of some continuing extremity for the church and the world, we welcome more and more witnesses to the good news of God in Christ: the news that whoever you are, this church community is here for you. ✤

All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

JULIAN OF NORWICH

HOW DO I MAKE A PLEDGE? There are several ways to pledge for 2021: • Call the church office at 804.288.2867, ext. 305 and request a pledge card and return envelope; • Complete a pledge card found at the Somerset parking lot door and drop it in the receptacle at that door; • Pledge online at ststephensRVA.org/pledge; • Contact Christi McFadden at cmcfadden@ststephensRVA.org to make your pledge or to set up a recurring pledge online.

S A I N T S T E P H E N ’ S E P I S C O PA L C H U R C H

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Advent and Christmas in a pandemic The people of St. Stephen’s rose to the occasion

By Sarah Bartenstein Above and bottom photos: Scenes from the Live Nativity

Y

es, Virginia, Advent and Christmas were different in 2020.

At St. Stephen’s Church, clergy, staff, and volunteers worked diligently and creatively to ensure that these seasons were joyful, even when we had to forego beloved traditions.

The annual Holiday Memorial Service provides a time and place for families to gather and remember children who have died, children whose absence is felt more acutely during holidays that tend to emphasize togetherness and family gatherings. Of course, this year, we were all feeling some sense of isolation, so it was important to do what we could to help those feeling a special kind of grief to feel less alone. Since we could not offer this city-wide service in its usual form indoors, we did something different. Staff and volunteers distributed luminarias throughout the grounds where family members could walk at their own pace, perhaps remaining at one luminaria to pray and remember their child. We also provided paper, pens, and a display for prayers and messages outdoors.

During Advent, we not only posted Sunday worship videos, but added a second service, called “Wondering about the Gospel in Palmer Hall.” Staff videographer Dillon Gwaltney recorded Betsy Tyson, Allison Seay, the Rev. Will Stanley and the Rev. Cate Anthony in Palmer Hall for brief services that included lighting the Advent wreath, reading and reflecting on the Gospel, and saying prayers.

Parishioners were invited to sign up to come to the church after watching either or both of the weekly videos to sit in a pew, pray, listen to instrumental music, and receive Communion (bread only).

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Allison and Dillon also produced videos from our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atria, one for each Sunday in Advent.

When you can’t hold the annual Advent Fair, Betsy Tyson offers the next best thing: “Advent in a Bag” containing resources and activities at home. Also available: Advent wreath kits. No Advent fair, no problem. (We’ve since had bags for Epiphany and Lent!) continued

Photos by Sarah Bartenstein

SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT

One tradition not affected by the pandemic: daily Advent meditations. Parishioners, clergy and lay staff wrote beautiful, moving reflections that went by email to subscribers each day during the season. Thank you to all who wrote these messages, which were gratefully received by nearly 1300 subscribers.

This church loves Christmas pageants. A children’s pageant and a youth pageant have been held every year for decades. While it was not possible to hold these services in their usual form, Betsy Tyson and the Rev. Cate Anthony pulled together children, youth, and parents to offer a truly beautiful Live Nativity outdoors a few days before Christmas Eve. Children and teenagers dressed in costume (many no doubt wearing warm layers underneath) and staged tableaux on the lawn outside the church, complete with live sheep, goats and a donkey. Parishioners signed up to walk through the scenes at intervals (masked and distanced, of course) to make sure everyone remained safe. Our café offered hot drinks for folks, as well. Thank you to all who made it such a beautiful, holy experience.

Outreach efforts continued, as well. In addition to our weekly food pantry distribution coordinated by Anna Jones, Stan Barnett continued to prepare fresh, delicious, healthy soups, packaged in quart containers for our clients; the soup is stored in the pantry’s new freezer from FeedMore. When the church received unexpected food donations, Stan prepared to-go New Year’s Day meals for pantry clients.

When outreach director Ron Brown started his job here on December 1, he was immediately pressed into service to figure out—with parishioner Nancy Thompson and Communities in Schools staff member Suzy Blevins—how to hold the Christmas Shop which we began just last year at Fairfield Court Elementary School. In the face of time constraints and physical and logistical challenges posed by public health guidelines for the pandemic, everyone rose to the occasion. And by everyone, we mean not only those who provided leadership and coordination, but those of you who quickly and generously responded by purchasing toys, books, games, and clothing for the shop. Two hundred and seventy-nine children received gifts as a result of these efforts. This came on the heels of an effort by Nancy, Suzy, parishioner Betsy Fauntleroy, and Will Stanley, to ensure that the Thanksgiving dinner box tradition continued in the pandemic. Thanks to them and to you, we were able to provide holiday meals to those in need.

Stan Barnett prepares meals-to-go for pantry clients.

In addition to these beautiful videos, the church was open for three two-hour periods when people could sign up to come inside, see the decorations created by our flower guild, listen to instrumental music, pray, and receive Communion. For those who could not physically come to church, we livestreamed these periods so that they could see the decorations and hear the live music—and feel connected to their beloved church on Christmas Eve. A time to receive Communion was also offered Christmas morning.

Through all of these events, we relied on the talents and the efforts of our buildings and grounds staff, our altar guild, our flower guild, and our choir.

When we are forced to relinquish customs and traditions we’ve held close for our entire lives, it can be heartbreaking. At the same time, being pushed to re-think some of those traditions can release creativity, appreciation, camaraderie and joy. Thank you to all who helped that happen in 2020!

Christmas Eve may have presented the greatest challenge of all: how, in a pandemic, to provide a holy, joyful, and meaningful experience on a night when people are accustomed to gathering with family and friends in our beautifully decorated church to sing hymns and carols, hear stirring performances by our choir and musicians, hear a sermon, and receive Communion. Clergy, staff, our choir, readers, chalice bearers, and many others pulled together to create not one but two videos—one especially for families with young children, and another that brought together many of the elements that make the 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service so beloved.

Nancy Thompson and Ron Brown sort gifts for the Christmas Shop.

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SPIRIT

Presorted First Class Mail U.S. Postage PA I D Richmond, VA Permit No. 320

LENT/EAST ER | SP RING 2021 Issue Number 38

ST. STEPHEN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 6000 Grove Avenue l Richmond, Virginia 23226 ststephensRVA.org

Parish Staff To reach a staff member, call 804.288.2867 or send an email using the initial and name provided in parentheses, with @ststephensRVA.org.

Janet S. Allen (jallen), Associate for Membership & Development The Rev. Cate Anthony (canthony), Associate Priest Stan Barnett (sbarnett), Director of Kitchen Ministries Liz Bartenstein (lbartenstein), Hospitality and Pastoral Care Sarah R. Bartenstein (sbartenstein), Director of Communication Larry Bidwell, Sexton and Assistant Market Manager Ron Brown (rbrown), Director of Outreach Chris Edwards (cedwards), Director, St. Stephen’s Choir Dillon Gwaltney (dgwaltney), Communications Associate/Video Producer Melissa Hipes (mhipes), Finance Chris Holman, Sexton The Rev. John Jenkins (jjenkins), Associate Priest (3/15/21) Anna F. Jones, (ajones), Farmers Market Manager The Rev. Gary D. Jones (gjones), Rector The Rev. David Knight (dknight), Assisting Priest for Pastoral Care Betsy Lee (blee), Parish Administrator Becky Lehman (blehman), Hospitality & Communications Christi McFadden (cmcfadden), Finance The Rev. Claudia W. Merritt (cmerritt), Associate Priest Coco Provance (cprovance), Membership Allison Seay (aseay), Associate for Religion & the Arts The Rev. William S. Stanley (wstanley), Vicar Brent te Velde (btevelde), Director of Music Betsy Tyson (btyson), Chaplain to Palmer Hall Greg Vick (gvick), Organist Tyronn Wilkins, Sexton The Café @ St. Stephen’s 804.288.3318 Phin Generelly, head barista Claire Hackley, barista Annie Ward Love, barista Brianna Maurice, barista Bou Zintseme, barista Our Missionaries Heidi Schmidt, Monica Vega

The mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

AN OUTLINE OF THE FAITH, THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

St. Stephen’s Church is A Village Green: Inviting Since ancient times, Benedictine communities and parish churches have served as centers of village life, embracing friend and stranger alike. We strive to be a beckoning, welcoming, and centering presence today, offering hospitality, belonging, and life-giving practices for all people.

A New Abbey: Grounding In a culture that can be overly distracted and enamored with the new, we are focused on preserving enduring wisdom, spiritual insights, and ancient liturgical practices of prayer and contemplation that nurture the soul and lead to eternal life. In an age of electronic engagement, virtual connections, and increasing loneliness, we continue ancient practices that attune human beings to the Divine, to one another, and to our own souls.

A Healing Community: Serving In his day, Jesus was known as a prophet, a rabbi, a teacher of wisdom, and the leader of a social movement. But he was known primarily as a healer. As individuals and as a church community, we seek to incarnate the One who binds, heals, and nurtures, especially where forces in our society tear, wound, or divide. As Teresa of Avila put it, we seek to be Christ’s hands, feet, and eyes in the world; we are Christ’s body on earth.