2021 EASTERTIDE
THE PARISH CALL ST. THOMAS' CHURCH, WHITEMARSH
INCLUDES CHOIR UPDATES, EPISCOPAL CHURCH CLUB MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION, AND MORE
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1
PENTECOST SERVICE TIMES
2-3
"THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS" - S. WERNER
4
"EUCHARISTIC PRAYER 'D' IN EASTERTIDE" - M. SMITH
5
LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE ANNUAL PLANT SALE
6
"CHOIR AND CORISTERS IN CORONA-TIDE" - M. SMITH
7-9
"THE LIFE INTO WHICH WE ARE BAPTIZED" - M. BURDETTE
10-11
"ST. THOMAS' OUTREACH - PARTNERING WITH ECS" - K. SCHNEER
12
RECTOR'S BOOK CLUB READING LIST
13
JOIN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA
PENTECOST SERVICE TIMES SUNDAY, MAY 23RD 7AM - RITE I SPOKEN SERVICE 9AM - RITE II SERVICE WITH MUSIC 11AM - FRITE II SERVICE WITH MUSIC RSVP ONLINE AT WWW.STTHOMASWHITEMARSH.ORG
The Stations Of The Cross BY SHARON WERNER
The Adult Spiritual Formation, Children, Youth & Family, and Worship & Arts Commissions worked together to provide a Stations of the Cross experience for Lent. The Stations of the Cross are a 14-step devotional experience that commemorates the passion of Christ and some of the events of Good Friday. The 14 stations focus on specific events from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his entombment. A stop at each station is for reflection and meditation on a specific event. Our goal was to reach as many congregation members as we could and make the Stations experience available to all those interested. To that end, the commissions assembled a walk-through of the fourteen stations around the beautiful St Thomas campus. The walk-through started inside the Narthex, which was open Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday from 10am-7pm. Participants could follow a printed brochure and download an audio file from a QR code to listen to as they walked. For those unable to walk through in person, there was also a video link sent out to view at leisure from home. We hope many of you were able to participate. A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who helped with this project from the commissions, staff and our readers! He is Risen!
"I just walked the Way of the Cross on our lovely grounds . . . it made for a lovely and intimate "walking prayer" experience. I know all the work that went into the practice, so I wanted to express how truly appreciative I am…” -- Grateful St. Thomaser
Eucharistic Prayer "D" in Eastertide BY MICHAEL SMITH, MINISTER OF MUSIC
In our Book of Common Prayer, there are four different Eucharistic Prayers provided, each with a different tone and structure. All of them contain similar elements, some of which can be traced back to Jewish liturgy: the Sanctus (Kiddush) and the blessings over bread and wine. During Lent, we used Prayer C, which is the most contemporary of the prayers. With phrases like “interstellar space” and “this fragile earth, our island home”, it is a prayer for a church that has witnessed the space age. During Eastertide, we are using Prayer D, which is one of our most ancient prayers. It’s adapted from the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, who died in 379 A.D. It is still in use in the many Orthodox and Coptic churches. If some of the language sounds familiar from Prayers A and B (which we use most often), that’s because large chunks of Prayer A and B are drawn from this older prayer; in a sense, prayer D is one of the sources of our Eucharistic liturgy. It’s fitting to use this prayer during Eastertide, when we read from the Acts of the Apostles, and then to pause and reflect that the prayers of those first Christians, gathered around a table, were passed down through generations to become this prayer some 300 years later, and now we are praying it in continuity with them a few millennia removed. This calls to mind a passage by Dom Gregory Dix, one of our great Eucharistic theologians, who is speaking about Christ’s command to take, break, bless, and give the bread and the wine as His body and blood:
"It’s fitting. . .to pause and reflect that the prayers of those first Christians, gathered around a table, were passed down through generations to become this prayer some 300 years later" "Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth...while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonisation of St. Joan of Arc - one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei-the holy common people of God.”
St. Thomas' Landscape Committee
Annual
Plant Sale Saturday, May 15 from 10am to 1pm at St. Thomas' Barn Plant material will include an assortment of perennials dug and divided from parishioners gardens and annuals and vegetables started from seed. Plants will be located on tables with ample spacing outside the Barn and will be priced in increments of $5 to keep making change to a minimum. Cash only.
Choir And Choristers In Corona - Tide BY MICHAEL SMITH, MINISTER OF MUSIC
Our choir and choristers have been meeting as regularly and safely as we can during this time. Most recently, our choristers have begun rehearsing outside and our adult choir has been meeting on Thursdays to work on a special recording project for the bishop (stay tuned for details). We are cautiously optimistic about returning to a full schedule in the fall. (ABOVE) CHOIR MEMBERS JANE HAMILTON AND LANGE MNGXATI HARD AT WORK (BOTTOM LEFT) CHORISTERS AND CHOIR MEMBERS AT SOCIALLYDISTANCED REHEARSALS
So many of you have felt isolated and deprived of singing over the past year. If you would like to try joining our choir (or know of a child age 8 and up who would like to join choristers) please reach out to Michael Smith (msmith@stthomaswhitemarsh.org ) for more information. Our choirs have a lot of fun, care for each other spiritually and emotionally, experience great pride in learning and performing challenging music, and take an active role in leading our worship. Maybe you would like to give it a try as a way to make new connections as we move, God-willing, towards gathering together more safely.
The Life Into Which We Are Baptized BY THE REV. DR. MATTHEW E. BURDETTE
I want to tell you about a baptismal preparation class that, with the partnership of Elizabeth and Steve Bitterman, I facilitated this past Lent. But first, it is worth taking a moment to revisit what we are doing when we baptize someone, and why baptism is the sort of thing one prepares for. At the conclusion Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, having been raised from death, appears to his disciples, and he sends them out to witness to his resurrection, commissioning them now to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything” he had commanded them” (Matt. 28:19-20). The so-called “great commission” is a familiar enough passage of Holy Scripture that we may fail to notice some of its oddity. First, a subtle shift has occurred. Until his crucifixion, one could have believed that the things Jesus taught were wonderful and right, and that his message just as easily might have been taught by some other faithful or enlightened teacher. With his resurrection, it becomes clear that Jesus is himself the central mystery of the kingdom of God which he could speak of only by parable and analogy. With Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples come to see clearly that Jesus is not only the teacher, but is himself the teaching. He who preached is to be him who is preached. “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” are now understood as singular “name”:
Those who are involved with God are inescapably involved with Jesus and the relationship he has to God as his Father, bound by the love who is the Holy Spirit. Second and relatedly, the content of Jesus’ preaching had been that the kingdom of God was “at hand.” (While we’re being so precise, I should mention that the author of Matthew’s Gospel uses the metonym “kingdom of heaven,” presumably to avoid impious overuse of the word “God.”) Jesus’ hearers were not removed from this broken and sinful world, but rather, in Jesus’ company, they were surprisingly also in God’s company, so that the hoped-for future with God came to be present when Jesus was present. The miraculous signs Jesus performed were a snapshot of this reality, that the kingdom of God was somehow made present in the midst of the ongoing injustices and cruelty of the world. Jesus’ resurrection was the climactic assertion of the presence of God’s kingdom, and the events of the Gospel account might well have concluded with Jesus rising from death and establishing his kingdom on earth. (Incidentally, this is exactly what the disciples expect him to do. They ask Jesus about it in Acts 1:6.) But instead, Jesus sends the disciples out; they become apostles—“sent ones.” Jesus preaches the presence of God’s kingdom, but rather than establishing that kingdom finally, Jesus commissions his church, assuring them that he is invisibly with them, always and “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20)
As Jesus made disciples, so too the church will make disciples; and as Jesus proclaimed the reign of God in the midst of this sinful world, so too the church is commissioned to present the reign of God in the world. Taken together, these two oddities tell us a great deal about what it means to be initiated into life with Jesus. To receive what Jesus taught is finally to receive Jesus himself, and to receive him entails being taken up into his relationships. Jesus called God his Father, and so we who are baptized into him get to call God our Father. Jesus loved others wholly, and so we are freed to love without reserve. Moreover, the love with which Jesus loved was the very love of God; God was presented in his presence. So also with Jesus’ church. We who are baptized into Jesus are so identified with him, and so caught up in his relation to God, that we are called to imitate his vocation by proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and allowing God to use our community as the place where God makes his kingdom known in the midst of a sinful and hurting world. Baptism puts us where Jesus is: Before God as his beloved children, and situated before the world as bearers of God’s presence, especially in those places where God intends to make his presence known—in the dark places where God’s light is most needed. .
"Baptism puts us where Jesus is: Before God as his beloved children, and situated before the world as bearers of God’s presence, especially in those places where God intends to make his presence known. . ." And what all of this means is that baptism is no small thing. It is barely for children. To undergo baptism is primarily a decision of adults who have come to believe the good news, and only by extension is baptism a rite the church offers to the children of the baptized. Those who offer their children to God in baptism do so, not to keep their children safe, but because the life given by Jesus is worth the cost of following him. Any who make baptismal promises on a child’s behalf must therefore be equipped to model what life with Jesus looks like.
Which brings me back to the baptismal preparation class. Concerning baptism for children, the Book of Common Prayer says that “Parents and godparents are to be instructed in the meaning of Baptism, in their duties to help the new Christians grow in the knowledge and love of God, and in their responsibilities as members of his Church” (p. 298). We have had a number of families request baptism for their children this year, and during Lent, nine families—my own family included— met for six weeks over Zoom to discuss baptism, the basic elements of the Christian life, the Episcopal Church, and what it means to be a member of St. Thomas’ Church. It was an opportunity for St. Thomas’ families to get to know one another, share experiences of faith, and return to the basics of what it means, not just to follow Jesus, but to raise children in the knowledge and love of God in Christ. It is a privilege to journey with these families as they prepare to present their children to God in baptism, and I am confident in their commitment to uphold their baptismal promises and to support their children in the same. We will welcome these children into the church on the Feast of Pentecost, Sunday, May 23.
St. Thomas' Outreach : Partnering With ECS BY KATHLEEN SCHNEER
I would like to share a story with you that emphasizes the importance of our support, through Outreach, of our Outreach partners, like Episcopal Community Services (ECS) and the programs they are engaged in, which are doing great good and making a difference in lives. At the center of everything ECS is doing to challenge poverty is their MindSet program. Free for all accepted participants, MindSet pairs one-on-one coaching with group training to help individuals set goals, develop skills, and achieve selfsufficiency.
Unlike many other programs, MindSet uses a long-term approach that supports the whole person. They enable participants to develop all of the skills needed to become self-sufficient by providing training, individualized coaching, and mentorship in four core areas: Health and Wellness, Employment, Education, and Financial Management.
"MindSet pairs one-on-one coaching with group training to help individuals set goals, develop skills, and achieve self-sufficiency. " Recently the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union (PFCU) invited their financial literacy partners to participate in a PFCU virtual financial literacy contest. The contestants were asked to answer one of the following prompts through an essay, poem, song, work of art, or any other creative medium: What does financial security mean to you? What financial advice would you give your younger self? First and second place prize winners received a $1,000 or $500 award. One of ECS’s MindSet participants, Lillian Holt, won first place!
In addition to creating and I hope you enjoy Lillian’s winning completing their own customized curriculum, MindSet participants will creative short poem, “Dreams We Can Afford.” also receive cash incentives for finishing activities and a 2-to-1 cash match on the money they save within a designated bank account.
The Dreams We Can Afford BY LILLIAN HOLT It's really not in the budget right now. You'd have to get a second job. If it's not on scholarship, I don't know what to tell you. You know we can't afford that. Well, what can we afford? Food, clothing, shelter, Paid for by labor With no shortage of gratitude, of course Some of the most basic needs for survival, we've gotGod's good! Yes, you might not starve The lights won't be shut off until next week Still have hot water on the 16th? Miracle! But until there's confidence Not a threat, not a constant worry Not a continuous flow of mental math Not barely being able to make ends meet We are just struggling to get by And once we're finished striving, We've made it! Our investments will have been worth it We see the benefit of sacrifice Our time, our freedom, our strength Then we inhale, exhale, inhale again Head above water, clear blue sky Endless fields ahead all the way until horizon Then we can dream When the bills aren't right in front of us When we close our eyes and don't see debt We can look past the end of the pay period We can plan a trip Take a break Rent a movie! Something Something Something Something
extraneous extravagant expensive extra
And look, Ma, no guilt! Wouldn't that be divine?
2021 2021 Rector's Rector's Book Book Club Club Last Saturday Of Each Month At 10:00am JANUARY 2021 "Being Christian" By Rowan Williams
JULY 2021 "The Everlasting Man" By G.K. Chesterton
FEBRUARY 2021 "You Are What You Love" By James K.A. Smith
AUGUST 2021 "The Second Mountain: The Quest For A Moral Life" By David Brooks
MARCH 2021 "The Presence Of The Kingdom" By Jaques Ellul
SEPTEMBER 2021 "Jesus Of Nazareth" By Pope Benedict XVI
APRIL 2021 "Theology In Outline: Can These Bones Live?" By Robert W. Jensen
OCTOBER 2021 "Martin & Malcolm & America" By James H. Cone
MAY 2021 "Enriching Our Vision Of Reality: Theology & The Natural Sciences In Dialogue" By Alister McGrath
NOVEMBER 2021 "Why Liberalism Failed" By Patrick Deneen
JUNE 2021 "The Story Of Christianity" By David Bentley Hart
DECEMBER 2021 "To Light A Fire On The Earth: Proclaiming The Gospel In A Secular Age" By Robert Barron
Visit The Announcements Page on stthomaswhitemarsh.org to for a link to the virtual meeting, or scan the QR code to join now.
Join The Episcopal Church Club Of Philadelphia The club was founded in 1895; this it is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The mission of the club is to encourage the future clergy leaders of our diocese, provide needed financial aid for seminarians from the diocese, exchange ideas for strengthening churches, promote spiritual enrichments and Christian, fellowship, and have an awareness of matters of religious, civic, and national concerns. Membership is open to all clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Church. Dues are $25/yr for an individual, $50/yr for a family and $100/yr for a sustaining membership. Several St. Thomas’ Church members are involved so it would be a perfect way to get to know others from your church community. For more information or to join, please contact Bill Potts: bpotts3812@gmail.com or 215-646-3526
Stream both services live on Youtube or visit www.stthomaswhitemarsh.org to RSVP for in-person service
Family Table Service 11:30 AM
sy a d n u S n O s U ni o J
St. Thomas' Church, Whitemarsh 7020 Camp Hill Road Fort Washington, PA 19034
Sunday Service Rite II With Music 10:00 AM