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The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan
Do Not Lose Heart: A Sermon for June 9, 2024
Episcopal Church of St. Martin
Mark 3:20-35
My graduation from Harvard Divinity School at the tender age of 26 was one of the happiest days of my life. I was surrounded by family and friends, the weather was gorgeous, and I had accomplished one of my first big academic goals.
Don’t get me wrong; my time at HDS was not perfect. I struggled mightily with vocational issues and I often felt misunderstood by other students, who could be antagonistic to those of us who professed our faith openly. But I made good friends, was gifted with fabulous mentors, and had even been taught by one of my idols, the poet Seamus Heaney. All in all, I soaked up the atmosphere of intellectual rigor and curiosity until I could almost feel it coming out of my pores. The graduation ceremonies were simply splendid, with all the pomp and ceremony a medievalist could desire, and when I look back at pictures from that day I can see that I was ablaze with joy.
Last month, the Harvard Corporation declined to allow 13 seniors to graduate because they had been suspended due to actions they took while participating in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. This decision came after the Faculty of Arts and Letters had voted to reinstate the students to a list of those receiving degrees. Many faculty have strongly criticized both the original disciplinary measures against the students and the Harvard Corporation’s decision to keep them from graduating with their class. There were walkouts during the graduation ceremony and other signs of support for the 13 students at the heart of this case, as well as indications of a counter-protest, such as a banner proclaiming that Jewish Lives Matter.[i]
Just telling this story makes me nervous. I know that there are differences of opinion in this room about the war in Gaza, about the relationship between Israel and the United States, about what counts as antisemitism, and about student protests and the limits of free speech on campus. I know that these issues are far from hypothetical or abstract. Many of us have deep connections to people who are more directly a part of this conflict, or maybe even see ourselves as part of it, for any number of important and legitimate reasons. Our own campus here at UC Davis and the wider Davis community are very much caught up in this same moment in history and the difficult choices people are making are just as real and fraught here as they are anywhere else.
I chose to focus on the situation at Harvard for this sermon because I genuinely wonder what I would have done if my graduation had been last month instead of nearly 30 years ago. Would I have stayed away? Would I have walked out? Would I have found some other means of protesting? I don’t think that I personally would have been on the side of the counter-protestors, but I know and love people who likely would have made that choice.
Talking about something this polarizing is not an easy thing for someone as basically conflict averse as I am. But not talking about it doesn’t make it go away, nor make our communities any more cohesive or even safer. It just leaves us all wondering where other people stand and whether it is okay to share our perspective. Talking about difficult topics with honesty, even being willing to admit that we’re internally conflicted, while continuing to show respect and good will to those with whom we disagree, ought to be a norm in the church. It takes practice, though, and we must be prepared for some inevitable missteps and to be the victims or even perpetrators of unintentional hurt. Impact counts, as well as intent. And with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must turn those courageous conversations into just and courageous action.
Jesus was a master of courageous conversations, and his words were always backed up by action and a willingness to suffer for the sake of doing what was right. In today’s Gospel passage we see him in the thick of controversy. It is easy to think of Jesus as a classic nice guy, someone who went around healing people and hanging out with nobodies and eating with anyone who would accept his company. While there’s some truth to this characterization, it misses the more radical side of Jesus and his mission–to free captives, to liberate people from oppression, to undo the systems that kept people hungry and afraid. He was not passive, nor was he under any illusions that his message was not going to be seen as dangerous and even outright seditious.
Biblical scholar Ched Myers claims that it is in this very passage that Mark “comes clean” about his understanding of Jesus. Myers says that Jesus is giving notice that he “intends to overthrow the reign of the strong man” [the religious and political establishment] and to set free anyone who is being kept down or preyed upon by tyrants. He writes, “Jesus has turned the tables completely on his opponents: it is they who are aligned against God’s purposes. To be captive to the way things are, to resist criticism and change, to brutally suppress efforts at humanization”–that, he concludes, is the greatest sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit.[ii]
The Church today, just like the religious authorities in first-century Palestine, can be resistant to change and criticism. Leaders of our nation, too, have a history of suppressing efforts at humanization, and in fact are adept at trying to dehumanize and even demonize people they consider enemies. It takes both courageous speech and courageous, sacrificial action to turn the tide when people are “captive to the way things are.” In my lifetime, perhaps the biggest change I have seen in this regard is in the way we treat members of the LGBTQ+ community.
When I was in high school, a couple of friends “came out” to me, I assume because they considered me a safe person. I’m so grateful to them for showing that kind of courage and trust at a time when the word queer was considered an insult and AIDS was a topic that frightened and divided people. Back then I literally couldn’t imagine a church where we could talk about things like sexual orientation and gender identity, let alone be affirming of anything that varied from what we considered the norm. Fast forward to today, with our expansive welcome, our statement of commitment and action, our brightly-colored rainbow crosswalk out front–and it’s amazing how far we’ve come.
But actually, stop. Don’t fast forward. If we fast forward we might forget or ignore the decades and years and months and days and hours of blood, sweat, and tears that people poured into making change happen, in the church and in the wider society. We might forget or ignore the courage it took, the sacrifices that were made, and the ways that the church actively harmed people and slowed progress. We might forget or ignore the people whose families and faith communities thought they were ill or possessed, rather than seeing them for who they were: people who were struggling, sometimes literally dying, to be seen and accepted, to be recognized as fully human and unconditionally loved by God.
Jesus didn’t ignore or forget any of these people in his lifetime. Jesus very much lived his life as one of those people, misunderstood by his family and misdiagnosed by authorities who were threatened by him and wanted him stopped. Jesus doesn’t ignore or forget these people today–people who resist the status quo, who fight for change, who speak out against injustice, people who are being harmed by the way the world is and who long for things to be different. Jesus loves them. Jesus is one of them.
We live in a time when it is easy to see our church and our world as a house divided. It is so hard not to give in to cynicism or despair. In his letter to the people of the church in Corinth, a people facing persecution and affliction, Paul says simply, “And so we do not lose heart.” To lose heart means to lose our courage, our faith, our hope–to lose the thing that motivates us to keep going. We do not lose heart because we believe in a God who sticks with us no matter what, a God who was willing to go ahead of us into the thick of things, into conflict and division and strife, and stand firm and unafraid. We do not lose heart because we follow a man who blazed a trail for peace and righteousness, freedom and forgiveness.
It happens that the commencement speaker at Harvard the year I graduated was Vaclav Havel, the influential philosopher, writer, and dissident, a man who was imprisoned multiple times for his beliefs and his brilliant expression of them. Havel once said, “Either we have hope within us or we don’t. It is a dimension of the soul, and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the World or observation of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.” Let us orient our spirits toward hope. Let us not lose heart. Let us continue to have courageous conversations, to work for justice and peace, following the example of people from all walks of life who have shown us how it is done, not least of them an itinerant rabbi, a carpenter’s son, who took on the strong man and won. Amen.
[i] I looked up several news articles about this, including https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/05/22/harvard-corporation-wont-give-diplomas-to-13-students-despite-faculty-vote
[ii] Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus (Obis, 2008).
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We will have a single service at 10am only, offered in person and online. Here you can find worship information, including announcements, bulletins, hymn supplements, and links to access online worship.
BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE10AM Bulletin for Sunday, June 2, 2024DownloadPrinted paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service. Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders. Masking will be optional. If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTSAnnouncements for the Week of Sunday, June 2, 2024_DownloadAbove you can find the announcements for all the services.
ONLINE WORSHIP INFORMATIONOnline Supplement & Hymns for 10AM Service, Sunday, June 2, 2024DownloadHOW TO ACCESS ONLINE SERVICES via Zoom, computer or iPad:
+ https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
+ Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
* via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
* Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
* Youtube Channel:* Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
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Below you can find the Vestry News and Review, a monthly message from the Vestry. These are sent out periodically via our newsletter and posted here.
If you are not signed up to receive our newsletters, you can do so by going to this link and scrolling down to sign up.
Vestry News and Review, message from the Vestry May 31, 2024:At the beginning of March, the Vestry met for a couple of days at the Mercy Center in Auburn for our annual planning retreat. You might wonder what goes on in these meetings. You might be thinking of:
- A lavish social gathering,
- An ice breaker, so this year’s Vestry members can get to know each other,
- Team-building exercises,
- A review of “the St. Martin’s story thus far”,
- A quick course in the church finances, since the Vestry’s central role is to manage the finances,
- An exploration of our current needs and goals,
- A chance to worship together, and
- Planning for some initial (“baby”) steps. This may sound like a blend between a big party and a 48-hour committee meeting, and that’s not entirely out of line. We tried to intersperse our fellowship moments into the important but “less fun” activities. There was a presentation of some of the challenges that face main-line Protestant churches in general, and where St. Martin’s in particular is starting out the year. This year, there were some grown-up discussions of the parish that we currently are, the one that we would like to become in the future, and what we can do to help get from here to there. There were other discussions about some repairs we are facing that are potentially expensive, and how we strike a balance between our immediate needs and longer-term needs. If you want to know what we “decided”, we’re not at that point yet, but I think we made a good start at fleshing out some of the important questions.
I’ve been remiss by waiting over two months to write up this summary, and we’re hoping to have regular reports from the Vestry in the months to come. These will probably focus on specific issues that were discussed at the most recent Vestry meeting, and so they should be briefer.
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Rev. Pamela Dolan
Trinity Sunday Sermon
“Three Things”
May 26, 2024
We Christians sure have a thing for the number three, don’t we? There are three years in the lectionary cycle, three synoptic Gospels, and three days between the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Episcopalians, in particular, are famous for invoking the three-legged stool as a way of explaining how we understand authority. We are not part of what some call a sola scriptura tradition, which is to say that we do not depend only on the Bible for our decision making, nor do we read it in a vacuum. We look at Scripture critically, using historical and cultural context, literary and textual analysis, and other tools to aid our understanding. We are free to use the wisdom and insights of others who have read and interpreted these texts over the centuries, and to use our reason, experience, and even scientific knowledge to make sense of what we read.
And it works the other way, too. Our reason and experience cannot be the only criteria we use to make important decisions, whether as individuals, a community, or a denomination. What the church has taught about an issue and what the Bible, carefully interpreted, has to say about that issue should also come into play. And so it goes, each leg of the stool working cooperatively with the others.
By calling Scripture, tradition, and reason a three-legged stool, we are suggesting that they need to be held in balance. If we abandon any one of them or make one of the legs too long or too short, we risk losing our balance and falling on our ethical and moral backsides, so to speak.
The three-legged stool, while a very handy metaphor, is not actually an official teaching or doctrine of the church, unlike the Holy Trinity, which we commemorate today. Preachers, and sometimes their congregations, tend to dread this day, because it is nearly impossible to say anything about the Trinity that is not (A) unintelligible or (B) deadly boring or (C) heretical or (D) all of the above.
The word “trinity” isn’t in the Bible. It’s an idea that developed over time, based on the experience that people had with God. The Trinity is both the most important thing, the closest to a correct thing, that we can know about the nature of God and also is an incomplete and imperfect explanation, like all other explanations. We are talking about God, after all. It is a truism to say that if we could explain or understand God, then it wouldn’t be God we were talking about.
To quote Teresa of Avila, a revered Doctor of the Church, “All concepts of God are like a jar we break.”
When we look at today’s Gospel, it should not be much of a shock that Nicodemus becomes increasingly confused during his conversation with Jesus. Nicodemus was a very important person in his time and place, a member of the Sanhedrin, the council of the seventy most outstanding Jewish leaders. He likely had some pretty firm concepts of God and how the world in general worked, and Jesus is breaking those jars left and right. And to be clear, Jesus does that regularly to Christians who are willing to listen and be in relationship with him, so it’s not because Nicodemus was Jewish that he didn’t understand what Jesus was going on about. It was because Jesus was talking about God and the Spirit and other things that it is really, really hard to wrap our brains around.
It may well that Nicodemus never entirely understood what Jesus was talking about, and yet the important thing we learn from later passages in the Gospel is that his encounter with Jesus had a profound impact on him. He spoke up for Jesus when others wanted him arrested and brought lavish provisions of myrrh and aloe to help bury him. His life seems to have taken a new direction after encountering Jesus.
And so it should be for all of us when we encounter God, whether that happens through reading Scripture, or participating in the life of the Church, or seeking the face of Christ in everyone we meet. Faith changes us. Jesus changes us. Being in relationship with a loving and liberating God changes us. It changes how we see the world, how we behave, how we treat other people and all creation.
The sacrament that most embodies this fundamental change in our orientation toward life is the sacrament of baptism. It also seems to be what Jesus was talking about when he said that we all need to be born of water and the spirit; baptism certainly is a form of rebirth. The Catechism of the Episcopal Church (which doe exist! And can be found way in the back of the Book of Common Prayer), says that “the outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Christian baptism, to state the obvious, is a trinitarian act. We name the three persons of the Trinity in every baptism because we want to be clear that the person being baptized is being incorporated into the entirety of God’s identity, the whole relationship that is the God of love.
The trinitarian nature of baptism is so essential that the Catechism can’t seem to find any other way to explain the sacrament. It goes on to say that “The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.” Did you hear that? Another trinitarian formula: union with Christ, birth into God’s family, and new life in the Spirit. Baptism is essentially relational and transformational. It symbolizes new life. And so it is impossible without the Trinity.
At the risk of going around in circles, I want to state, or restate, three fundamental things we know about God: God is love. Love is relational. God is relational, or better, God is Trinity. If we take as our starting point that God is love, then it is a little easier to see how necessary the Trinity is as a means to getting closer to knowing God.
Love doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s not that we can’t love ourselves–we can and we should. But even that love has a source, and it’s not us. Furthermore, a love big enough to be called God can never stay inside, isolated. It just can’t. If you’ve ever been in a really good mood, having a really good day, and just generally in love with life and your own place in it, you know that it is impossible to keep this feeling to your self. You have to share it. You can’t wait to be nice to the barista at Starbucks and give an extra-big tip. You smile as you wave someone ahead of you into your lane in traffic. You call a friend just to say hi, and maybe do something nice for someone you don’t even like that much. You can’t help yourself! That feeling of effervescence, of effusive goodwill, is just like the tiniest of bubbles in the overflowing magnum of champagne that is God’s love.
“God is love therefore God is relationship therefore God is Trinity” is not a concept, a jar that needs to be broken, or at least I don’t think it is. It is the logic and the poetry and the truth that undergirds yet ultimately overrides all our concepts. The God who is love must express that love in relationship: with Godself, in the form of the Trinity; with us, by sharing Jesus and the Holy Spirit with us; and in all creation, which sings and shouts of God’s goodness and love through its very existence. See, that’s three things again: love, love, and love. Amen.
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Rev. Pamela Dolan
Pentecost Sermon
“Gifts of the Spirit”
May 19, 2024
“Madainn mhath, a chairdean!” Or, to say that again in plain old American English, “Good morning, friends!”
That is now the second time this morning that you’ve heard me at least try to say a few words in Scottish Gaelic, a language that I have been studying on Duolingo for about a year now and with which I am making very little headway. I can name a few farm animals–I especially like “tunnag,” which means duck and, of course, “gobhar,” which means goat–and I can order a whiskey, but I’m not sure that’s the basis of a very productive or meaningful conversation. The whole process of trying to learn Scottish Gaelic has been an ongoing lesson in humility for me.
My initial impulse to study Gaidhlig came about when I was preparing for my sabbatical and our family trip to Scotland. Now, if we’d been going to a country where the primary language was something other than English, then studying that language would have been a practical thing to do. I brushed up on Italian before we went to Rome, and French before a trip to Provence.
But, as my family was quick to point out, everyone in Scotland speaks English! I knew this to be true from having lived in St. Andrews for a year during college, but I did a little research anyway, and it turns out that over 90% of households in Scotland consider English their first or only language and (not to put too fine a point on it) in a recent census more households claimed Polish or Chinese as their mother tongue than Scottish Gaelic. Unless you head to the Outer Hebrides or one of the other remote parts of the Highlands, you’re unlikely to even hear it spoken in any sort of communal fashion at all.
So, why did I persist in studying it?
All I can say is, I wanted this trip to be more than a vacation. I was going on pilgrimage, and I thought that adopting a stance of unknowing, of wonder, of beginner’s mind, was going to be important for my inner journey, as well as my outer one. I wanted to understand the history and the culture of the land—and language, even an endangered, rarely-spoken language, is always a deep connection point to history and culture. I found this assertion from the United Nations helpful. They write, “Indigenous languages are not only methods of communication, but also extensive and complex systems of knowledge that have developed over millennia. They are central to the identity of indigenous peoples, the preservation of their cultures, worldviews and visions and an expression of self-determination. When indigenous languages are under threat, so too are indigenous peoples themselves.”[1]
Scottish Gaelic is one of many, many languages that has been pushed nearly to extinction by the forces of colonization and globalization. In a story with parallels to our own country’s history, Gaelic was legally banned as the English took over the country, and even sometimes violently suppressed. It took courage, commitment, and resilience for the Scottish people to keep it alive, along with the traditional culture it represents.
The story of the first Pentecost has taken on deeper meaning for me as I’ve found myself thinking more about what it means to speak a new language, recognizing that it communicates not just simple meaning but complex systems of knowledge, identity, and self-determination. It cannot be an insignificant thing that the first gift of the Holy Spirit was the gift of language. The disciples, as far as we know, were all speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus (which, by the way, is another endangered language today[2]). Some of them may have had some familiarity with other languages, but showing off a second language is not what is happening in this passage from Acts. Let’s be clear: the disciples have not been taking classes on Duolingo! When they begin to speak in other languages, it is entirely “as the Spirit gave them [the] ability” to do so.
By receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples can reach new people, people from every nation under heaven, people that even Jesus did not touch in his earthly life. That’s what Pentecost is all about–the Spirit empowering followers of Jesus to do more together than we could ever do on our own, no matter how faithful and hardworking we might be. When we talk about the Church “meeting people where they are,” this is our first and most glorious example. It’s part of what turns an assortment of friends and strangers, in groups and outgroups, into the single community we call Church.
Language matters, because language is how we reach people, touch people, but also because it is how we learn from other people. Attempting to speak someone else’s language is a sign of deep respect, and it requires both humility and courage. When I was a little girl we lived on an island where none of the other children spoke English. Somehow my brother and I managed to play with these kids, and they with us, day after day, without ever understanding each other’s language. But I think that’s in large part because we were children. We were curious and unafraid of new things; we weren’t so worried about looking foolish or inept. That playfulness, that curiosity, is a gift that the church needs to recapture if we want to truly engage with the world around us and share the good news with more people. When we are learning new languages, whether literally or metaphorically, we are showing that we care and that we are willing to step out of our comfort zones. Our speech may be halting and imperfect, but it is our curiosity and humility, as well as our courage, that will reach people and help us connect in a mutual and respectful way.
The other thing that I take away from the Pentecost narrative this morning is how important it is to tell stories. Peter had a story to tell, a stirring story about men and women, young and old, seeing visions and dreaming dreams. The Church today has great stories to tell, also, stories that we need to learn to share, first with each other and then with the wider world. Today our walls are literally lined with these stories–stories of courage from around the Diocese, stories of communities of faith that are finding ways to reach out using new methods, new ideas, and sometimes new languages, to build up the Beloved Community and to care for God’s beautiful creation.
We are part of that story. You are part of that story. I hope you will take the time to read these particular stories of courage and be inspired, so that we can continue to dream our own dreams, dreams given to us by the Holy Spirit, and bring those dreams to life. And then write down the prayers that the Spirit whispers in your heart or shouts in your veins, and be prepared for something real and tangible to be asked of you and of all of us.
Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes has written a beautiful reflection about Pentecost that captures many of these same themes. He says that on this feast day,
“We embrace diversity, and learn to listen to each other,
to see from another’s perspective,
to give voice to a life other than our own,
to make central a language that’s not our own,
to communicate grace that’s not on our own terms. […]
On that Pentecost day I don’t imagine they were eloquent.
They spoke in halting Phrygian, mangled Mesopotamian.
It probably took some back-and-forth, some double-checking.
It required not just proclaiming but listening, relating,
and patience on the part of the hearers,
and courage and humility on the part of the speakers—
willingness to be beginners, to risk, to appear foolish,
to forgo the safety of being in the dominant group.
Pray for such humility and courage, to risk for the sake of love,
to be foolish for the sake of relating,
to let other people’s reality be real.
In such loving, the Holy Spirit will speak, loud and clear.”[3] That’s the spirit of Pentecost—to risk for the sake of love and be foolish for the sake of relating. Pentecost is our annual reminder that what we did yesterday is over and today is not the day for longing, regret, or nostalgia. God is always and forever singing a new song, breathing a new creation into being. Be of good cheer, my friends. Slainte mhath, a chairdean. Amen.
[1] The report continues, “The threat is the direct consequence of colonialism and colonial practices that resulted in the decimation of indigenous peoples, their cultures and languages. Through policies of assimilation, dispossession of lands, discriminatory laws and actions, indigenous languages in all regions face the threat of extinction. This is further exacerbated by globalization and the rise of a small number of culturally dominant languages. Increasingly, languages are no longer transmitted by parents to their children.”https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/04/Indigenous-Languages.pdf
[2]https://www.amesall.rutgers.edu/languages/125-aramaic#:~:text=The%20earliest%20attested%20inscriptions%20in,although%20it%20is%20severely%20endangered.
[3] https://unfoldinglight.net/
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Rev. Pamela Dolan
Rogation Sermon
“Bless the Things”
May 5, 2024
Have you ever wondered why the Church blesses things? Not just people, but food and boats and houses and backpacks—all kinds of things. In today’s collect we are reminded that God has prepared “such good things as surpass our understanding” and we pray for the ability to love God “in all things and above all things.”
As a bit of an aside, I must admit it makes me ridiculously happy that even our eloquent, beautifully written Prayer Book repeatedly uses the word “things” in this prayer. It’s one of those words that writing instructors prohibit, but its aptness here is that exception that proves the rule. Not to mention that it’s been in common use in our language since the early 12th century, so we can imagine many, many generations of English speakers have found it necessary. Things! Such good things! Life is full of them, and when we recognize them all as a gift from God then they do indeed surpass our understanding.
And that, in essence, is why we bless things. It is a way of recognizing that all that we have comes from God and that literally any “thing” that exists can be a portal to love of the one who made all things, seen and unseen, in heaven and on earth. We can indeed love God in all things, even as we are encouraged to always strive to love God above all things. And so, we bless some of those things, thanking God for them and asking God not only for protection, but also that we may be worthy of the gifts we have been given,
Rogation Sunday is a day that is all about blessing things. The word rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning “to ask”—so rogation days are a special time of prayer, of asking for God to bless and protect the places and elements that make life possible.
Church of England Bishop Alastair Redfern explains it like this, “Rogation is an ancient church festival to seek blessing for a community and its sustenance, which reflects the beseeching of God for protection from calamities. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it: ‘Rogation Days are the three days preceding Ascension Day, especially devoted to asking for God’s blessing on agriculture and industry.’ Rogation invites people to ask for blessing – for a particular place; for all its inhabitants; for every endeavor to promote the common good. It is totally inclusive – joining everyone in seeking sustenance and a commitment to play their part in its provision.”1
At the ten o’clock service today, I’ll have a few props with me to share with the children or the young at heart who might be in attendance. They are: a candle, some oil, water, bread, wine, and a bowl of dirt. The thing that all these objects have in common is that they come from the earth and that, in the rites of our church, they can be blessed by a priest as a sign of our setting them apart for God’s good purposes.
Candles, traditionally made from beeswax, are blessed at Candlemas, a holy day celebrating the first time Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem and reminding us that Jesus is a light to all nations.
Oil, which we generally make from olives or avocadoes or similar fruit, is blessed either by a bishop, when it is going to be used in baptisms, or by a priest, when it will be used for anointing the sick.
Water, of course, is found everywhere where we find living beings, both plant and animal. Like oil, water is blessed at baptisms; just as it is essential for life, it is an essential ingredient in our two main sacraments. We also have on hand whenever we want to bless something like a house, and we use it to help us remember our baptism.
Bread and wine are basic foodstuffs and are blessed every time we share the Eucharist, which is a sacrament of thanksgiving as well as of nourishment and nurture.
But what about dirt? When and why would we bless dirt?
There are really only two times in the annual cycle of the church year when we are likely to even talk about dirt. The first is on Ash Wednesday, when we focus on the earth, the ground, as the place from which we come and to which we will return. And the second is today, when we celebrate Rogation Sunday and ask God to bless the soil that will grow the food that we need to keep us alive and healthy.
Soil isn’t just a nicer name for dirt, by the way. Soil, especially that stuff we call topsoil, is a miracle. One of my all-time favorite sayings is, “We owe our existence to six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” Isn’t that something? If you want to know how complex and alive soil is, consider that a handful of healthy soil has more living organisms in it than there are people on the planet. We literally walk around on a complex web of life all the time and can go days, weeks, or a whole lifetime without even noticing.
That’s why we bless things. We need these reminders that everything comes from God and the more basic and common something is the greater the likelihood that we can’t live without it, or at least that we wouldn’t want to if we could. Bread and wine. Beeswax. Oil and water. And dirt! What a great and beautiful thing it is.
I’ve adapted a traditional Celtic prayer of blessing to share with the children this morning, and I’ll end with that.
Bless to us, O God, the earth beneath our feet. Bless to us, O God, the path whereon we go. Bless to us, O God, the people whom we meet. Bless to us, O God, every green plant we grow.
Bless to us, O God, the bright sun that warms the ground. Bless to us, O God, all water the whole world round.
Amen!
1https://theclewerinitiative.org/blog/what-is-rogation-sunday
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Anthony Amato
“Abiding in Christ”
April 28, 2024
Good morning! When our rector, Rev. Pamela, asked me to give today’s sermon, I admit to having felt some anxiety, maybe even some fear. I’m the type of person, after all, who gets nervous coming up here just to give the announcements. I’ve only recently become comfortable speaking in front of crowds after 5 years of public school teaching, and I’ve never officially preached in my life. In situations like this, I remind myself that even Moses had a fear of public speaking: “My Lord I have never been eloquent,” he says, “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” I always take comfort in God’s reply, “I will teach you what you are to speak.” As I began to study today’s scripture readings, I realized that God was teaching me what to say, but he was doing so through scripture, and any remaining doubts – any fears that I was feeling – all but vanished as I began to appreciate that I would be crafting a sermon based on some of the most beautiful passages the Bible has to offer.
In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus is sitting with his disciples at the Last Supper. He is saying and doing all he can to prepare his closest friends for the hardships and persecutions that await them after he’s gone. Amid their confusion and concern – their fear and anxiety – Jesus explains to them that he is like the center of a grapevine, and anyone who abides in him, will be like one of the branches. They’ll be connected to Jesus forever, and he will be the source of their spiritual nourishment for all eternity. He also tells them that if they abide in him, they can ask for whatever they wish, and it will be done for them. This Gospel passage in isolation does much to emphasize the divine generosity of God; God gives us everything, and asks for relatively little in return. One of the things he does ask of us is that we abide in his son, but how exactly do we abide in Christ?
This is an extremely loaded question, and one that could potentially be answered in a lot of different ways. Some Christians argue that abiding in Christ is as simple as being baptized and professing one’s faith that Christ is the Messiah. In fact, one of the many things that Christians disagree about has to do with whether good works bring about
salvation, or whether it is enough to “accept Jesus as your personal savior.” John, the traditional author of two of our readings today, would probably argue that this is an unproductive way of looking at this question. Now, it is true that the First Epistle of John says the following: “God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.” Simple, right? So long as someone confesses out loud that Jesus is the Son of God, then it must be the case that they automatically abide in him. Not exactly. Verbal endorsement of the idea that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God is not enough, and like most verses in the Bible, it’s generally a good idea to read the full passage before making a final opinion. While John does say that those who confess the divinity of Jesus ultimately do abide in God, he also says this: “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” He goes on to argue that because God is love, “those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” So yes, having faith in the fact that Jesus is God’s son – and all of the beautiful complexity and mystery that entails – is ultimately how we stay connected to God. But demonstrating this faith is not as simple as verbalizing it.
To abide means to “live by,” meaning we must live by our faith, not just confess it, not just proclaim it. What John is saying is that when we show love to our fellow humans, to our brothers and sisters, we are making a God that we cannot see, a God that we can nevertheless know. We’re actually making God come alive in a way similar to Jesus when he walked the Earth and physically embodied God’s divine love. Now, unlike Jesus, we are not perfect images of God’s love, but we are each called images of God nonetheless. And this is what living as true, albeit imperfect, images of God entails: loving others as God loves us! When we love others, we make an invisible God visible. So no, it isn’t enough to say we believe in Jesus, if we aren’t sharing his love with others. We aren’t actually rooted in Christ the way the branches of a vine are rooted in its center, if the fruits of that vine – gifts of love, charity, compassion and forgiveness – are not being shared, particularly with those we might not like so much.
My friends, abiding in Jesus isn’t as simple as going to church every Sunday and reciting the Nicene Creed. Abiding in Christ requires loving God, and loving God requires loving others. As a concept, this
sounds simple enough, but as every human being sitting in this room can attest to, loving others, even loving those closest to us, is not always easy. Myself and five dedicated coworkers teach for the state preschool program at an elementary school in Woodland. Many of these young children (ranging in age from 3 to 4) exhibit early signs of autism; others struggle with managing intense anger and sometimes violent defiance.
Ask one of us how hard it can be to love a child who’s red in the face, trying with all their tiny might to land a punch or sink their nails deep into your skin. Ask someone who’s terrified by the current state of our country how hard it is to love those who vote or think differently than they do. Ask a child who lost her entire family to a missile explosion how hard it is to love the country responsible. So yes, the call to love can be challenging. It can even feel impossible. But loving others, especially in situations where it seems futile, is the exact kind of love that mirrors the sacrificial love of Jesus. Imagine how hard it must have been for him to love humanity after we put him to death on the cross. Yet he still pleaded: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
We are called not just to believe in the power of this love, but to imitate and embody this love ourselves. The real test of our abiding in the vine comes when we face situations where loving is hard. And fear, like the kind I spoke of earlier, can be one of those things that impedes our ability to love. Fear has the power to stop us doing even those routine acts of love we perform daily, like going to work or doing whatever it is we do to keep our communities happy, healthy, educated and looked after. I bring up the challenges associated with love, not to discourage us or make us feel ashamed when we fall short, but to remind us that faith in the power of God’s love will always be able to cast out fear. And I felt that fear leave me when I prepared for this sermon. At yesterday’s Fearless Faith Revival in Roseville, I was privileged to see the work being done at the parish level to fight injustice and protect our planet – this is work that was made possible by courage, because loving can so often be an act of courage.
Each of us will fall short in our endeavor to love others the way Christ loved us. Experiencing fear is, after all, part of what makes us human. In those moments when we find the courage to place our fears
on Christ’s shoulders, we prove to ourselves and to others that love always has the power to drive out fear, and what remains is a newfound confidence in ourselves that we can do what God calls each of us to do each and every day. Moments like these are when God’s love is perfected in us, meaning His love is made wholly manifest in this world. And even when we succeed in bringing God’s love to life; Jesus warns us that we, as fruit-bearing branches, will still be pruned. Even when we’re doing everything right, we’ll still face things like hardship, sadness, loss and even trauma. But God does this so that we may bear even more fruit later on. This isn’t punishment, but preparation for the life after this one, a perfect and everlasting union with God predicated on love, his truest essence. Here is how Jesus summarizes the nature of this relationship: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This is the awesome power of God’s love. And when we find the courage to love others, even those we find difficult to love, God is glorified in us, and we are worthy of being called his “disciples.”
Loving others makes an invisible God visible. Amen.
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Here you can find all the sermons and recordings from Holy Week 2024.
Good Friday, March 29, 2024“Reflections on Good Friday,” by the Ven. Margaret Grayden, textEaster Vigil, March 30, 2024“And then what?” by the Rev. Pamela Dolan, textEaster Morning“Amateur,” by the Rev. Pamela Dolan, textThe post Holy Week Sermons appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
Dear Ones,
It is a beautiful time of year here in Yolo County, and we have much to celebrate in our local community. At the same time, when we broaden our view, the situation appears much more troubling. Genocide, war, species loss: the bad news is loud, real, and insistent.
I feel so strongly the words of the Psalm 4: “Many are saying, ‘Oh, that we might see better times!’ Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O God.”
It might seem self-indulgent, even shallow, to remind us again of the importance of rest during times of stress and anxiety. But remember, all of life has a rhythm. Our breath and our heartbeats remind us of that. Poet John O’Donohue once expressed it by saying, “It is the holes in the lace that make it beautiful.”
Rest is much more than just napping (although I do love a good nap!). Rest, to repeat what Tricia Hersey says in her book Rest is Resistance, can be anything that connects the body and the mind. It can be singing, or reading a poem, or going for a walk, or flexing your creative muscles. The Irish call it “keeping body and soul together.”
I hope that St. Martin’s can be for you a place of rest–not because we avoid hard topics but because we face them together, in a space of solidarity and compassion. The more we take the time to be together, to get to know each other well, to laugh and cry and eat and pray together, the stronger we will be as individuals and as a community.
Blessings,
Pamela+
A message from 4/19/2024
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SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the announcements for all the services.
Announcements for the Week of Sunday, March 31, 2024DownloadBULLETIN INFORMATION FOR EASTER DAY 8AM & 10AM SERVICES
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s Easter Day 8am and 10am services. The 8am service will be in person only. The 10am service will be offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service.
Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Masking will be optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
Easter Day BulletinDownloadONLINE SUPPLEMENT WITH HYMNS FOR EASTER DAY 10AM SERVICE
Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Click below for the online supplement with hymns:
Easter Day Online Supplement with HymnsDownloadHow to access online services: via Zoom, computer or iPad:
+ https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
+ Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
* via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
* Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
* Youtube Channel:* Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
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St. Martin’s News: 4/19/2024Here you can find weekly news and events at the Episcopal Church of St. Martin’s. This changes every week.
St. Martin’s at the Fearless Faith Revival
Our parish’s efforts to build on the important work of becoming a zero-carbon church will be featured at the diocesan Revival in Roseville on Saturday, April 27. St. Martin’s is one of the Stories of Courage that will be displayed at the immersive exhibit. Our work with Seeds of Justice and land-based ministry really stands at the intersection of social justice and care for God’s creation and we’re proud to have others in the diocese learn more about it. If you can volunteer to help staff this exhibit, let Rev. Pamela or the church office know. For more information about the Revival and to register: https://www.fearlessfaith2024.org/
Save the Dates! Worship and Events Now through June
Sunday, May 5: First Sunday, Rogation Sunday, and Scout Sunday!
The first Sunday in May also coincides with Rogation Days, one of the times set apart by the Church to pray for farms, gardens, and church grounds. To top it all off, we’ll use that Sunday to welcome our Boy Scout troup and renew our relationship with them.
Saturday, May 18: Rogation-themed Spirituality in Nature Gathering at Forbes Ranch. A short, informal worship service and opportunity for reflection in the beautiful almond orchard at the Forbes Ranch in Esparto, followed by a picnic dinner.
Sunday, May 19: Pentecost Sunday. On Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles; this great feast day is also known as “the birthday of the church.” Wear red and bring cupcakes to share!
Sunday, June 2: Ministry Fair and End-of-Year Picnic. A combined service at 10am only. This is a First Sunday and a Ministry Fair, and the end of our program year. If you are a ministry leader and want to share the great work you do in and for the church and the world, here’s your chance.
Updates on Stained-Glass Window Restoration Project
We are posting updates regularly on our website. You can read about the formation of a Stained-Glass Window Task Force and other updates here: https://churchofstmartin.org/2024/02/16/upgrades-and-repairs-to-stained-glasswindow#currentwindowupdate
Missed our Holy Week services or want to rewatch?See our Holy Week website hub HERE.
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The Rev. Pamela Dolan
“Love Life or Lose it”
March 17, 2024
Text: John 12:20-33
The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan
Sermon for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Text: John 12:20-33
“Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
This is a startling idea if we take it seriously. It might make us think about some admirable heroes of the faith, saints and martyrs, who manage to live very simply and devotes themselves entirely to God—a monk in the Egyptian desert, perhaps, or Mother Teresa, or someone like Father Damien, who cared for the lepers on Moloka’i until he himself contracted Hansen’s Disease and ultimately died from it. But it doesn’t really seem like something we can aspire to ourselves.
Worse yet, some people who do try to take this admonition seriously become nags and killjoys, people who are so focused on being “good” and avoiding all worldly temptation that they take no pleasure in life—and they don’t want you to take pleasure in it, either. There are countless caricatures in pop culture depicting Christians who get all hot and bothered about so-called sins like dancing and drinking and playing cards, but who don’t notice their own greed, racism, homophobia, and the like, real sins that actual harm to other human beings and the earth.
Many Episcopalians take great pride in saying that we’re not like those Christians, that we appreciate the beauty of creation, rejoice in how God’s glory is made manifest in the world, as well as being open to partaking of a good glass of wine or a nice single-malt now and then. During Lent we might give up chocolate or some other favorite indulgence, but overall we’re much less prone to asceticism than some of our other Christians siblings.
Still, it’s not like we can just ignore how frequently Jesus talks about giving things up, letting go of earthly attachments, even giving away our possessions. In today’s Gospel he goes so far as to say we should hate our life in this world.
So, which is it? Is life in this world a precious and wondrous gift or something to be despised in exchange for eternal life?
Three things help me strongly affirm the Gospel understanding of life as gift, and this world as beloved by God.
First, “the world” in John’s Gospel doesn’t mean the natural world, or Creation. “The world” can more accurately be thought of as the corrupt systems and powers that control so much of our lives and distort God’s good purposes. You might call this “empire” or “the system,” but whatever you call it, it is unjust and works against human flourishing and the creation of Beloved Community. So, when the Gospel of John talks about hating the world, it is saying something like the promise we make in Baptism to “renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.”
Second, it helps me when I think more carefully about the metaphor Jesus offers us of the grain of wheat that dies so that it may bear much fruit. When a seed germinates underground, there is usually a husk or coating that must break open and be left behind to make room for new growth. Life in Christ is like that. There are aspects of our worldly life that need to be shed and left behind so that we can become the unique persons God created us to be. This is not about self-hatred, but about the necessity of change, growth, and non-attachment to the status quo.
Finally, there is my own experience of the world as an infinitely beautiful, infinitely precious place. When I wish to see Jesus, I need look no farther than the faces of my children or the wonder of a redwood tree. I know you have those experiences, too—moments that take your breath away with their sweetness and wonder. Those moments are of God. They are holy. God doesn’t hate the world God has made—and neither should we.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and so I really must share one of the ways that Celtic spirituality might help us think through this apparent paradox. When the early Celtic Christians went on a pilgrimage, they didn’t draw up plans to go to Jerusalem or some other holy city. Instead, they built something called a coracle or a curragh—a very simple, small round boat, without oars. Priest and author Mary C. Earle writes,
“In Celtic practice, you got in the boat and entrusted yourself to ‘currents of love,’ which meant the currents of the sea or river. You got into the boat and let go. You got into the boat and you physically cast yourself on the mercy and love of God.”[i]
For these people pilgrimage was a radical act of letting go, of dying to all their expectations of comfort or control. They placed themselves entirely in the hands of God and what they saw as a loving, benevolent natural world. Wherever they landed was where they were meant to be. They called their landing place “the place of resurrection.” It was likely that they would die wherever they ended up—after all, how does one navigate back home in a boat with no oars? But in this way of seeing the world, death is just the doorway to resurrection, and the entire created universe is good and holy and can be a place of new life.
As Earle says, “We live in this world not of our own making. We are here for numbered days, and we are here both to bless and to enjoy the world God has created. Our earthly life truly is transitory. And it is a gift.” Maybe today Jesus is calling us to live our life as this kind of pilgrimage: a pilgrimage of radical, fearless faith, and of living fully in the present moment, trusting that God will carry us home. Amen.
[i] Quotes are from Mary C. Earle, Days of Grace: Meditations and Practices for Living with Illness.
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The Rev. Pamela Dolan
“Believe: Reconsidering John 3:16”
March 10, 2024
It’s a bumper sticker. It’s a sign held aloft in a sports stadium. It’s a soundbite. It’s John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” This single passage has also, unfortunately, been used as a weapon to hurt and demean people who don’t follow a very specific way of being Christian. It’s that history of abuse, more than the words of the verse itself, that so often make this a difficult passage for people who are seeking a liberating, loving, life-giving relationship with God.
Context is critically important when you’re wrestling with a difficult passage, so let’s take some time to look at the context that surrounds John 3:16. In this case I’m not going to talk much about historical or cultural context, as important as those are, but primarily about narrative context—that is, what is happening in the Gospel of John just before today’s passage begins.
This chapter of John begins with the appearance of a character named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who comes to talk with Jesus at night, in the cover of darkness. Nicodemus was a deeply faithful religious leader, and he comes to Jesus trying to understand how this teacher, who is the source of so much controversy and conflict in his community, could also be the one doing all these good and seemingly holy things, like healing the sick and casting out demons. It seems to Nicodemus that there’s a contradiction here, and he is looking to Jesus for an answer.
Jesus, in that way he has, does not answer Nicodemus directly but tells him that “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” This becomes an exchange that leads to Nicodemus, and most of us readers, only becoming more confused. Questions of birth and rebirth, allusions to baptism, and references to the freedom of the Holy Spirit to blow where it will, swirl through the first part of this chapter.
Then, just before the passage we have today, there’s a shift in tone and maybe in voice. The emphasis turns to a question about belief. Jesus, or maybe John, says:
“If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” And then the first verse from today’s passage immediately follows: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Some Biblical scholars argue that these verses are meant to be read as a narrative aside, more John speaking directly to his audience than Jesus speaking directly to Nicodemus. Whoever is speaking, there is a strange quality to these lines, which shift in and out of different perspectives, eventually referring to Jesus in the third person as “the Son of Man” and talking about events out of chronological order. Jesus, or John, speaks here about the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ as a kind of eternally present reality, not as historical events that haven’t yet happened. As Professor Lance Pape puts it, “On balance, it is probably best to take these verses as depicting the words of Jesus, yet the ‘meta’ character of this discourse is striking — here we see Jesus offering a Christological reflection on himself.”[i]
I promise I’m not giving you all this context just to avoid talking about what’s difficult about John 3:16. One point I want us to take away is that this whole passage is anything but a bumper sticker or a sound bite. It’s complicated! Reducing it to something not just simple but simplistic does a disservice to the text and to all of us who struggle with it. Don’t mistake the certainty that some people feel about this verse for incontrovertible truth.
You’ve probably heard me say before that believing in God and having faith in Jesus is not the same as giving intellectual assent to a theory or principle. When it comes to God, and especially to Jesus, belief is about trust, about placing your life in someone else’s hands, about being willing to be guided by a power and a love far greater than anything our intellect or even our imagination can apprehend.
Let me say it more clearly: Believing in Jesus so that we can have eternal life does not mean following certain religious rules so that you don’t go to hell. If that’s the interpretation of John 3:16 you’ve heard or assumed all your life, please sit with that for a minute.In fact, I hope you will take time throughout the rest of Lent to dwell on the necessary corrective of John 3:17, which says: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Jesus came to offer salvation, not condemnation, eternal life, not despair. The love of God for us is unconditional. Why do we even need to believe anything, then? Why didn’t Jesus just swoop in, fix everything, save everyone, and leave out all this talk about belief? To begin to answer this, let’s go back to that image of Jesus being “lifted up” so that we can look at him and live, just as the Israelites were advised to look at the serpent in the wilderness, lifted up by Moses so that everyone who looked at it would live.
There’s something about true salvation, truly eternal and abundant life, that requires us to face reality. I believe that’s what it means to look at Jesus “lifted up”—we need to look squarely at Jesus crucified, at the powers and principalities that demanded the death, the execution, of this young teacher and healer who spoke so persuasively about liberating captives and bringing good news to the poor that people started to believe that a different way was possible. Something in us, in our world, did that terrible thing—and continues to do unspeakably terrible things to this day.
And, we also need to look squarely at Jesus “lifted up” in the sense of Jesus being exalted, living forever at the right hand of God, going ahead to prepare a place for us. All in all, we are called to face reality, to live in truth and light, not to look away from things that are either too troubling or too beautiful for us to understand. We need to look in order to live.
Of course we are always free to choose shadows and darkness, to choose distraction or numbing, to choose a life half lived. But if we want the fullness of life, the abundant life that God desires for us, then looking away is not an option.
When you’re struggling with a passage in the Bible, think about whether the interpretation you’ve learned makes life feel more abundant, more vital, more compassionate. Use your reason and experience to ask questions like, “Does this image of God liberate me from prejudice and conflict? Does it move me into a more loving stance toward my friends, my family, and even those people I find oh so difficult? Does the life it guides me into look like the life of Jesus, who was good news for the poor, the oppressed, and the broken-hearted?” Do I believe that this passage, interpreted this way, fits with everything else I know about the God who created the world and called it good?
Which brings us back to that simple word “believe.” Writing about his own struggle with depression and despair, the wonderful novelist John Green has said, “Etymology dictionaries tell me that ‘believe’ comes from proto-Germanic roots meaning ‘to hold dear’ or ‘to care.’ I must choose to believe, to care, to hold dear. [And so] I keep going.”[ii] This captures for me the sense of what it means to believe in Jesus. We too can choose to believe—not in a simplistic formula, but in life and in the God who made it and sustains it, who loves us and loves our enemies, too. We can choose to look at the world in all its terrible beauty, choose to look because we want to love it, to care for it and for one another, to hold it all dear. And in making that choice we will have life, and have it abundantly. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-john-314-21-3
[ii] John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet(Dutton, 2021).
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Holy Week 2024Here’s our hub to find out more information about our special services and events. Note: Asterisked worship times were offered in person and online. For more details on how to join our online services, go here.
Maundy ThursdayMar. 28, 2024Maundy Thursday’s 7pm* worship service commemorates the Last Supper, at which Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” We will have optional foot washing during the service and the service will conclude with the Stripping of the Altar.
Maundy Thursday Recording
Good FridayMar. 29, 2024 12pm Stations of the Cross service. * 8pm Proper Liturgy worship service. * Compline (online only) will be offered at 8:30pm. Good Friday Recording
The Great VigilMar. 30, 2024At 8pm* there will be a Great Vigil worship service, in anticipation of our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. This service will include dramatic readings of the scriptures. After the service, you’re invited to a short reception in the narthex. We’ll be serving chocolate and other goodies, sparkling cider, and champagne. The Easter Vigil is a feast for the senses and the moment when the Lenten fast ends.
Vigil Recording
Easter DayMar. 31, 2024Holy Eucharist at 8am (in person only) and 10am (online and in person). After the 10am service there will be an Easter egg hunt! Join in the fun after the 10am service, when we hold an Easter egg hunt for children of all ages. Bring your Easter baskets. We will have a special Easter Coffee Hour–we invite you to bring sweet or savory finger food to share, if you wish.
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The Ven. Margaret Grayden
“Remember Your Baptism”
February 11, 2024
“Remember your baptism!” I’m so conditioned now that whenever I hear that phrase, I’m tempted to duck on the theory that someone—here’s looking at you, Ernie—someone with a sprig of rosemary is about to fling holy water in my direction. In all seriousness, I appreciate those periodic reminders that come with asperging, or the ritual of asperges—the technical term for sprinkling a congregation with holy water. It is important to remember, or if we can’t remember our actual baptism because we were baptized as infants or very young children, to nonetheless take time to think about its significance. To remember our baptism in this sense is to remember our core identity—who we are, and whose we are.
Jesus had a very memorable baptism, one which made it perfectly clear who He was and whose He was. The heavens were torn apart, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and a voice from heaven proclaimed Him the beloved. Wow. My experience of baptism wasn’t nearly that dramatic—at least, not in the externals (the inner experience of baptism is a different story—but that’s another sermon). And yet, one of the interesting differences between Mark’s account of the baptism of Jesus and the accounts of Matthew, Luke, and John, is that in Mark’s version, there is no indication that anyone other than Jesus saw what He saw and heard what He heard. You could say that in Mark, we get the experience of Jesus’s baptism from the perspective of Jesus himself, as opposed to the perspective of eyewitnesses. The language here is personal—Jesus hears a voice say to Him, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”[1] Compare this to the account in Matthew, for example, in which the voice says (as if to a crowd): “This is my son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased.”[2] Or consider the version in John, which is told from John’s perspective as a witness to the baptism: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”[3]
The gospel reading appointed for this First Sunday in Lent covers a great deal of territory in just a few short verses. It starts with the baptism of Jesus, but then moves immediately to the temptation in the wilderness, and concludes with Jesus proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near, and it is time to repent and believe in the good news. If some of this sounds familiar, it should—we heard parts of it in Epiphany, when we marked the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. These three events or episodes in the earthly life of Jesus, as it were, appear in all four gospels. This liturgical year, we hear Mark’s version, which is full of urgency and drama, but light on details. It’s as if Mark is in such a hurry to share the good news that he offers a high-level summary rather than a play-by-play. In Mark’s version of the temptation, we learn only that Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days, that he was tempted by Satan, and that the Spirit, wild beasts, and angels were also present. In Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts, by contrast, we get a whole dialogue between Satan and Jesus, including the particulars of the temptations and how Jesus responded to them (for example: Satan says: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus replies: “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”[4])
This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with us, the people of God gathered in this particular time and place? Lent is the season of the liturgical year in which we are encouraged to engage in self-examination and repentance in preparation for Easter. The forty days of Lent echo the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness immediately after his baptism, fasting and battling temptation. Jesus’s journey is our journey—the specifics differ, but the general arc is the same. Each of us has had the experience of being called by God and responding to that call; something (or to be more precise, Someone) has drawn us to church and keeps us coming back when we might choose otherwise. Each of us at some point has found ourselves in the wilderness—either literally or metaphorically—battling temptation. And God calls each of us again and again to turn away from sin, from that which separates us from the One who created us and loves us beyond measure, and to turn toward Jesus—in short, to repent and believe in the good news. In fact, as pastor and theologian Chelsey Harmon has noted, some baptismal liturgies dating back to the second century include a series of renunciations and commitments that mirror the very Lenten journey summarized in today’s Gospel text.[5] This is certainly the case in our particular stream of Christianity, the Episcopal Church. Take a look at the service of Holy Baptism in the Book of Common prayer and think about that. And if you have been wondering if God might be calling you to be baptized, pay attention to that nudge from the Holy Spirit and reach out to one of the clergy. Lent is the perfect time to prepare for baptism.
Just a few days ago, on Ash Wednesday, we were invited, in the name of the church, to the observance of a Holy Lent. There are many different ways to do this. Here are a few possibilities. Try a new spiritual discipline or practice, such as Morning Prayer, Compline, or Centering Prayer. Engage in works of service, such as collecting food items and toiletries for students at CA House and The Belfry. Consider giving up something important to you during Lent, such as a favorite food or activity, in order to better focus on God. Make time to gather with others to study and pray. Our rector Pamela is teaching a class on the prayer book, and Helen Campbell is offering a discussion group exploring the theme of forgiveness. There is more information about each of these Lenten opportunities in the announcements. Remember that it isn’t so much what we choose to do to observe Lent that is important. Rather, it is the spirit in which we do it that matters. May we continually strive to cultivate a spirit of humility and openness, so that, in the words of today’s Psalm, we can pray: “Show us your ways, O God, and teach us your paths” this Lent and really mean it.
[1] Mark 1:11; see also Luke 3:22
[2] Matthew 3:17
[3] John 1:32
[4] Luke 4:3-4; see also Matthew 4:3-4
[5] https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2024-02-12/mark-19-15-4, accessed on 02/17/24.
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Dear Ones,
Below you will find an important update to the parish about our treasured stained-glass window (pictured above). I hope you will read it carefully and feel free to ask any questions. I am grateful that the Vestry continued their duty of care and responsibility while I was away on sabbatical, so that the necessary research into the situation proceeded without interruption. I also offer my heartfelt thanks to Pierre Neu and Janet Lane for the extraordinary amount of work they have already put into this just to get us to where we are now. I feel very confident that we are moving in a good direction and that we will have the answers we need to create a clear plan of action in due time. Disruption to the use of the space will be minimal in the coming months. And meanwhile, the light continues to shine through our beautiful window and into our worship and our lives!
Blessings,
Pamela+
Upgrades and Repairs to the Stained-Glass Ceiling WindowClick here to scroll to the latest updates. You might notice signs of maintenance work being done on the stained-glass window in the ceiling of the nave. This window, often referred to as a skylight, was installed in 1967; the last major maintenance done on the window that we know of was in 1979, when an earthquake retrofit was done.
BACKGROUNDOn Easter Day, 2023, a small piece of glass from the window was found near the altar with a corresponding hole in the glass window above. About a year before, a tiny piece of glass had been found toward the back part of the church; we now believe this also fell from the window. The finding of this second piece of glass led us to several months of work, in which we contracted with a structural engineer to assess the structural safety of the window. We also asked the engineer to assess the large wooden cross that hangs over the altar.
Pemberton Engineering deemed the window structurally sound but determined the cross is suspended with only one aircraft cable. The cable is clearly strong enough to hold it but is not in compliance with today’s safety standards. They recommended double reinforcement for redundancy, meaning that one additional cable should be installed to hold the cross to today’s standards.
After all these years, the window needs expert cleaning and, based on the glass piece that fell, some restoration. Finding stained-glass companies that will work on such a large window at a height of 45 feet was challenging. Over the summer we had visits from both Willet Hauser, based in Winona, Minnesota, and Nzilani Glass Conservation, based in Oakland, California. The companies proposed very different approaches to cleaning and restoring the window.
The Buildings and Grounds committee, including Pierre Neu and Janet Lane who have been heading up the project, preferred the approach of Nzilani Glass Conservation, which is both more gradual and possibly less expensive. They will be cleaning and restoring one area of the window first and, based on what they learn from that process and a thorough on-site inspection, will be able to provide us with a proposal for the entire project. We could also choose to do no further work at that point, or to go in another direction.
The Vestry agreed with the recommendation of Buildings and Grounds and the Vestry subsequently voted to hire Nzilani. In order to understand the next steps, outlined below, it helps to have an idea of the basic structure of the window. The window is approximately 14 by 62 feet in size and made up of glass encapsulated by an epoxy material. Above the window are ten skylights, three of which can be opened and provide access to the 3- to 4-foot cavity where the window sits.
PRELIMINARY WORKWe “broke ground” on the first phase of the project on Saturday, December 30, 2023. E.J. Reed Construction installed a safety system inside the cavity where the window sits, so that anyone working above the window can wear a safety harness. The system was designed by Pemberton Engineering and consists of specially fabricated steel and other materials. It is an expensive upgrade, costing just over $30,000. This safety system is also essential for any future cleaning, lightbulb changing, or other work done within the cavity.
On January 11, 2024, a 10-by-10-foot scaffold was placed in the altar area by Unique Scaffold, marking the beginning of phase 2. While the scaffolding is in place, the cross reinforcement will be designed by the structural engineer and implemented by E.J. Reed Construction.
On January 30, Nzilani Glass Restoration planned to remove one panel, replace it with wood temporarily, and take that panel to their studio in Oakland to analyze, clean and restore it. They planned to use this initial restoration to provide a plan for how to restore the full window. However, due to illness, Nzilani Glass was unable to come out until Thursday, February 8th. Unfortunately, they were not able to remove the panel due to the way multiple panels are interconnected with rebar and the difficulty of safely chiseling out the resin holding the glass to the metal frames.
Nzilani sent a report on February 19th, 2024, complete with computer assisted drawings and photos on what they found. They have specific questions that they wanted us to ask a structural engineer before they made further recommendations on options for proceeding. They also placed plastic on the ceiling window in the area above the scaffolding where they were working. They asked that we keep the scaffolding and plastic in place until next steps were decided.
Pemberton Structural Engineering was on site on Wednesday, March 27th of Holy Week to meet with Nzilani Glass Restoration to address questions Nzilani had about next steps.
CURRENT UPDATES ON RESTORATIONApril 12, 2024
With the full support of the Vestry, there is now a task force in place to serve as the primary liaison between those working directly on our stained-glass window project and the parish. The task force is made up of Junior Warden Beth Capell, Vestry Member Elise Keddie, Janet Lane, Pierre Neu, and our rector. All the lay members of the task force have a long history with St. Martin’s and have shown extraordinary dedication to our parish, as well as having crucial technical expertise in various areas.
The task force met for the first time on Friday, April 5, and reviewed where things stand after a meeting with the structural engineer, Pemberton Engineering, and Nzilani Glass Restoration, during Holy Week. Some key takeaways are:
- Nzilani Glass Restoration now has enough information to work on a new proposal for restoring our stained-glass ceiling window. We expect to receive that proposal in about six weeks. We have every confidence that they are working diligently on devising a feasible plan.
- It seems likely that the restoration work will be done onsite, rather than panels being taken to Nzilani’s studio, as we previously thought. We will know more about that when we receive the proposal.
- In the meantime, we are moving forward with reinforcing the large cross that hangs over the altar. We believe this work will be done by the end of the month; after it is complete, the scaffolding around the altar will come down.
We hope to have more information to share with the parish as soon as we receive the proposed plan from Nzilani. Meanwhile, we welcome your questions! Please feel free to reach out to any member of the task force or the Vestry.
COSTSAs you might imagine, the window restoration will also be quite costly. Though we do not currently know the full cost of the restoration, in addition to the $30,000 safety system mentioned above, the upcoming costs are:
- The scaffolding will cost just over $5,000. The scaffolding is necessary for Nzilani to work from both the top and bottom of the glass and ensure its safety and the safety of the workers. The cross will be reinforced while the scaffolding is in place.
- The initial contract for the restoration of the panel, including removal and re-installation, was for $26,000. We have paid approximately $11,000 for the exploratory work they need to do. See above for next steps.
The work so far has been paid for partly by contributions from a few parishioners involved in the early stages, and in large part through the 2023/2024 operations budget (the lines for maintenance and for capital reserves), with the approval of Vestry at every step and close oversight by Buildings and Grounds and our Junior Warden.
CONCLUSIONPast generations of this church installed the beautiful window that is so central to our church’s look and atmosphere. The work we are doing to clean and restore the window is not only for ourselves but for future generations of St. Martin’s. We will keep you posted on all the different phases of this project. We also ask for your prayers and encouragement. If you have questions, please talk to any of the taskforce members: Beth Capell, Elise Keddie, Janet Lane, Pierre Neu, and the Rev. Pamela Dolan.
A sermon from the Rev. Pamela on the repairs and embracing the unknownUpdated April 12, 2024
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BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR THE 7PM ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Wednesday’s 7pm service. The 7pm service will be offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service.
Please note that this worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Masking will be optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
Ash Wednesday Bulletin 2024DownloadHow to access online services: via Zoom, computer or iPad:
+ https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
+ Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
* via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
* Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
* Youtube Channel:* Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
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Homily for Proper 18, Year A Exodus 12:1-14 Psalm 149 Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20 Do you remember before cell phones and email when people actually wrote letters? In cursive? It was a deliberate, thoughtful process that imposed a pace that allowed consideration of each sentence. Oh well! My mother was a prolific letter writer. Every Sunday afternoon, after we’d been to church and the remains of dinner had been cleared, she’d sit down at the dining room table or in her favorite rocking chair with a writing board on her lap and begin writing. She had what people who got...
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September 3, 2023
“When We Gather at the Table”
The Rev. Deborah Hawkins
To paraphrase St. Augustine – make me good but not yet. He was having fun and he wasn’t sure he would still have fun if he walked the walk God was showing him. He wasn’t yet ready to open himself completely to the God who knew his name. He did get there, though. He got to yet.
‘Yet’ comes when we stop trying to keep from getting too close to God. Moses got there. He had to take off his sandals. There couldn’t be anything between him and holy ground. Peter got there. He had to decide to give up earthly things, as Jesus called them. He couldn’t hang on to the way things were as a protection from what was to come.
Both Peter and Moses were invited to give up the comforts they knew for trials and dangers and sorrows they could clearly see in the hope that what was on the other side was worth it. And they took up the invitation.
We are invited into that same place of decision every time we gather as Christians and especially every time we come to the table. Each time we gather here we are each invited, in a metaphoric way, to take off our sandals, take up our cross, and enter into a sacred mystery. I am going to briefly talk us through some of what we are doing when we gather at the Lord’s table.
The first half of our Sunday service of Holy Eucharist is called the Liturgy of the Word. The second half is the Liturgy of the Table or the Liturgy of Holy Communion.
That begins with the offertory sentence, often from scripture – walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2)
(Bottom of p. 5 or middle of p. 5). OR let us with gladness present the offerings and oblations of our life and labor to the Lord
Then our gifts are brought to the table: bread, wine, water, collection plates. All tangible signs of our life and labor. When you pass the plate you might want to say a prayer, “Lord, I offer myself to you,” before passing it on. This is when the choir sings something extra special as an offering. Technically we should be standing as the offerings are brought to the altar as a sign that our whole lives are being offered to God. While all this is going on the Deacon sets the table. It is not something being done for us back in the kitchen – we are all of us part of this, this whole big thing.
Let’s set the table. Credence table. Stack. Corporal, pall, paten, purificator, chalice.
Wine, water – reminder of the dual nature of Christ. Fully human and fully divine.
Bread
As the gifts are brought to the altar we all stand. We are going to the altar too.
Now we are ready to begin the prayer we call The Great Thanksgiving and we stand as we are able.
In the Episcopal church a priest can not celebrate Holy Communion alone. There has to be at least 2 Christians gathered. The only way to make Eucharist, is together. And there is no special part of the prayer where wine is turned into blood. We need the whole prayer. And it is not just remembering what happened long ago. Something happens now, but we try not to define it too closely. It is a mystery, but it happens.
We begin with an invitation called the Sursum Corda which means lift up your hearts. (At 8am p.6) then the proper preface is said. The preface is specific to the occasion. Christmas, Easter, thanksgiving, funeral, Sunday during ordinary time. We are currently using the preface ‘of God the Holy Spirit’ and it reminds us of our baptisms.
Then we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to sing or say the Sanctus. That is the song Isaiah said he heard in the throne room of God. They sang Holy, Holy, Holy. And so do we. And as the angels covered their faces with their wings as they flew around God’s throne (wonder how they did that? Seraphs have 6 wings) so do we often make a deep reverent bow with our faces to the ground as we sing.
Toward the end of the Sanctus, when we say, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” (that’s a quote from psalm 118 but when Christians say it here we are thinking of Jesus) when we say that some Episcopalians cross ourselves. It is an Episcopal thing. No one is exactly sure why we do that although it is thought to have started as a superstition: send Jesus not the devil. So some Episcopalians don’t do that any more. But some of us think, ‘but it is an Episcopal thing, and besides I am glad God sent Jesus.’
After the Sanctus we remember how God has loved us since the beginning of creation, how we have turned away and how God came to save us in the person of Christ Jesus. We remember the last meal Jesus shared with his friends and the words he spoke when he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them, and when he took the cup of wine, said the blessing, and shared it with them. When we say these words the priest is to touch the bread, and touch the cup. Those are the only actions the prayer book requires. All the rest, bowing, sign of the cross, holding hands in a particular way, some places ring bells, all of those are local custom and piety. This doesn’t mean they aren’t important, they are, and they all have meanings attached to them, but they are not writ in stone. They vary. When you visit other Episcopal churches you notice the variations.
There are different Eucharistic prayers and each has a slightly different focus. Using A today: crucifixion. B: incarnation. Last week the prayer focused on God’s creation of the cosmos – sun, moon, and stars.
Most Eucharistic Prayers include a memorial acclamation. The words speak of the past, the present, and the future.
We offer our gifts to God and we ask God the Holy Spirit to come down and make them holy. In the version of the prayer we are using today first the bread and wine, to make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, and then ourselves, our souls and bodies. We ask the Holy Spirit to sanctify us, too.
The we say the great AMEN. Amen means “Yes I believe that. Those words are my words, too.”
The way I was taught to say the prayer, after asking the Holy Spirit to be on the gifts of bread and wine and ourselves the paten and chalice are lifted up and are not put down again until the people say AMEN. And then we give a deep solemn bow before the mystery of the consecrated Sacrament.
We say the Lord’s Prayer. Here we say it both in Spanish and in English as a sign we are part of God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
The bread is broken, also called the fraction. When we break the bread we remember Jesus at the last supper, Christ’s body broken on the cross and the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognizing the risen christ when he broke the bread. We keep silent. The silence echoes the great silence the gospels say came over the whole earth in the moments after Jesus died.
The Fraction anthem: varies with the season. Summation of what has happened and another way we claim our part in it. Today connection between God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the last supper, and what Christian’s consider the final Passover – the passion of Christ.
The bread and wine are divided up for sharing and the words of invitation are said. ‘The gifts of God for the people of God.’
Receive communion. Common cup. We all share from one cup.
After put away the dishes. Bread and wine are reverently consumed or placed in the Ambry to be taken to those who can’t be here. See the candle – it is always burning except between when it is extinguished on Good Friday and re-lit at the Easter vigil.
Post communion prayer of thanksgiving for what we have received.
Blessing
Dismissal
Postlude
Or not. You can just go through the motions. Sometimes that is the best you can do. If that is you today, don’t worry. One of the reasons we gather to worship and share in the body and blood of our redeemer in a bunch is so we can take turns holding each other up when that is needed.
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August 27, 2023 Proper 16, Year A The Rev. Deborah Hawkins Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20 “Building blocks” In the gospel this week Jesus tells Peter he is a rock, a foundation on which he can build a church. Next week, Jesus will call Peter a different kind of rock, a stumbling stone. That’s life, isn’t it? A constant yo-yo between ‘got that right’ and ‘oh,no, messed up again,’ between ‘thank you, God’ and ‘God, have mercy.’ When Jesus calls Peter a rock on which he can build I can’t help but think about playing with blocks, probably because I do...
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August 13, 2023 Sermon: “Share the Good News” In the reading from Genesis this morning, Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him. Now Joseph was a twit and a tattle-tale at that point in his life, but most of his brothers wanted to kill him. The oldest brother, Reuben, tried to figure out a way to prevent Joseph’s murder but he failed. How helpless Reuben must have felt. We can think of things he should have said, should have done as Joseph was sold to slavers but advice is cheap and hindsight 20-20. In the moment Reuben must felt helpless. How...
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Aug. 6, 2023 Feast of the Transfiguration The Rev. Deborah Hawkins The Episcopal Church of St. Martin “Transfiguration. Now what?” Why do we come to church on Sunday morning? At the 10am service we will be having an instructed Eucharist during the first half of the service, the liturgy of the word. In the catechism of the Episcopal church (BCP, on page 857) the question is asked, “What is corporate worship?” The answer? “In corporate worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God’s Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments.” At 10am I...
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Sermon by the Rev. Deborah Hawkins July 23, 2023, proper 11 Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23; Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 The disciples call the parable we are given this morning the ‘parable of the weeds of the field.’ Sometimes it is also known as the parable of the wheat and tares, or the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Since it is a parable, it is meant to be looked at this way and then that way and over and over because each time we do it may show us something different. Jesus explains the parable to us in...
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Today’s reading from Matthew offers us what one commentator calls a “polyvalent parable.”[1] What a mouthful! “Polyvalent” sounds like a something I was supposed to have learned but didn’t in my one and only chemistry class. (Have I mentioned that science is not one of my superpowers?) With apologies to any chemists in our midst, I will just say that as far as I can tell, polyvalent is simply a fancy way of saying that this parable has “different functions, forms, or facets.”[2] For my part, I prefer “perplexing” as a description of what has alternately been called...
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July 9, 2023, Proper 9, Year A Genesis 24:34-38,42-29,58-67; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 We have all probably heard that old story about a rescue: A man trapped in his house during a flood believes God will save him so when a neighbor offers to give him a ride to safety he waves him away saying God will save me. There is a boat and then a helicopter. Each time the same offer, the same dismissal. God will save me. So, the man dies in the flood and finds himself in heaven, standing before God asking, ‘why didn’t you save...
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July 2, 2023 Proper 8, Year A Matthew 10:40-42 The Rev. Deborah Hawkins The Church of St. Martin, Davis, CA 8am service of Holy Eucharist This 4th of July weekend is a long one. I think a lot of people are out of town maybe even camping. Have you ever gone camping? Do you like it? It can be a lot of work to get ready to go camping. There is shopping, packing, filling the car with sleeping bags and tents and special stoves and lanterns and extra stuff in case you run out and toys and lots of clothes and...
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June 25, proper 7 “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.” (Teihard de Chardin) The Rev. Deborah Hawkins The reading from Genesis this morning can be a difficult one hear let alone sit with. It is not the only one in the Bible that people find disturbing. Next week’s is even worse. That’s the story that is called the ‘Binding of Isaac.’ We won’t actually read it in Church next week. On the first Sunday of each month we shorten the number of readings at the 10 o’clock service from 3 to 2 and make a special effort to...
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Message from the Rector: June 2023 June 9, 2023 Solvitur ambulando: It is solved by walking. –Attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo My sabbatical begins on Monday, June 19. Much of my three months “away” will be spent close to home, mostly reading and maybe getting some projects done around the house. There might be a few trips to visit family and friends. In August, all that will change. My family will be on pilgrimage, along a route called St. Cuthbert’s Way. We’ll be walking from the town of Melrose in Scotland to the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, some 70...
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Vestry News and Review for April 2023
“Budget and Bishops and Hendriatis!”
By Diane Bamforth
April was a busy month for vestry as we continued to address the budget issues within the context of what our priorities are as a Church reaching out in love.
At our April meeting we spent most of the time processing what we had heard at the parish-wide gathering held the Sunday before. We had felt it important to let the parish know what challenges we are facing and to get their input on what they feel our priorities should be.
Our spiritual practice took the form of a Commitment to “Give Generously and Receive Gratefully.” Listening carefully, opening our minds, and letting go of judgments and bias will help us all to find that Common Ground.
It became clear at our vestry meeting that our individual members had indeed listened very carefully to what came up at that meeting and were grateful to hear your views.
We don’t wish to make any hasty decisions and are carefully considering our options, ably guided by our treasurer Jessie Ann Owens. Having said that, time is of the essence. We do not want to enter a third year operating with a deficit budget.
But this is about far more than money.
We are looking forward to our follow up meeting with the Parish on May 21 during which we can explore further what our priorities are and what it is that makes us a community of faith, hope, and love. What keeps us here? What are the challenges? What will we look like in another few years? How do we want to be perceived in the wider community? How are we acting out our baptismal covenant?
Please be assured that your vestry is listening, praying and discerning where we go from here.
It was a pleasure to have Rev. Deborah Hawkins, one of our Associate priests, at the April vestry meeting. Her presence quickly became clear when it was introduced that she will be the priest covering Pamela’s sabbatical this summer.
We are indeed fortunate that Deborah is so familiar with our parish, having been sponsored by us for the priesthood several years ago. In fact, it was deja vu for me sitting at the same table during vestry meetings as I had back in the early 2000’s.
After the marvelous Confirmation service on April 30, the vestry had a working lunch with our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Megan Traquair. Due to the pandemic, it was the first time we had been able to spend any time with her on our own campus. It quickly became clear that she is a compassionate leader who listens wisely, and genuinely cares for the welfare of her clergy, vestry and parishioners. She is fully aware of the challenges facing all congregations in this post-pandemic world.
Bishop Megan was impressed by the work St. Martin’s is doing in our parish and community. She referred to our congregation as being like a “Dynamo.” She fully appreciates the energy that exudes from St. Martin’s.
Bishop Megan did put us on the spot when she asked us what our mission statement was. We all seemed to know it in part, not getting it entirely right. Is it rooted in love? No, growing in Love? No, reaching out…. You get the drift.
She suggested that it is something that needs to be second nature for us.
Rooted in Faith
Growing in Hope
Reaching out in Love
We are striving to live this out but now we need to imprint that statement on our hearts. Likewise, we should heed the words from Pamela’s sermon from the day of our first parish meeting “Gather, Transform, Send.”
So, I will leave you with this:
The three-word rule to convey a single concept is called a hendiatris.
Diane Bamforth
The post Vestry News and Review: April 2023 appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan
“Knowing the Unknown God: A Sermon for Rogation Sunday”
Scripture: Acts 17:22-31
May 14, 2023
In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul is preaching to the people of Athens, walking a fine line between finding common ground while also correcting what he sees as a deeply flawed religious viewpoint. Polytheism, after all, was antithetical to Paul’s beliefs both as a Jew and as a follower of Jesus. But even this headstrong apostle knew that barging into this sophisticated, ancient city and telling people that everything they believe is wrong was likely not the best way to win friends and influence people.
Having taken the time to try to get to know their city and its culture, Paul keenly zeroes in on a single inscription he saw on one of their altars: “To an unknown god,” it read. This is where he finds a toehold, a place where his argument can get some purchase. If his audience can be reminded that they are already aware of the existence of a God who is transcendent, who cannot be confined to a particular place or function like most of the Greek pantheon, then they might be ready to take the leap to accepting a God who is beyond all other gods, who is in fact the only true God.
The idea that God is a mysterious other, unknown and unknowable, has a lot of appeal. And in one sense, the God we worship is like that. The “God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth” is, by definition, far beyond the limits of human understanding. Every image we have of God, every label we place on God, every metaphor we use to explain God, is only ever provisional and incomplete. That unknowability is part of what makes God, God.
In another sense, though, we believe that this same God who “gives to all mortals life and breath” is knowable and in fact wishes to be known. That is why we have the Bible, the living Word of God, where we can see the whole history of salvation and how various people beloved by God have tried to live into the path he set before them. As Christians we believe that is also why God became incarnate in the person of Jesus, a person who lived in a particular time and place, who inhabited a particular body that other people could hear and see and touch.
As members of the Episcopal Church and the greater Anglican Communion, we are inheritors of a faith tradition that beautifully holds this complexity together—that affirms both the ultimately unknowable fullness of God’s being and the infinitely rich ways that God has been made known in the world. In other words, our tradition believes God to be both transcendent and immanent, both out there, beyond our comprehension, and in here, nearer than our own heartbeat.
Now some of us are more drawn to one aspect of God or the other, and that’s perfectly fine. And yet there is an argument to be made that what our world needs right now is to be reminded of God’s immanence, God’s nearness to us, and the ways we can find God in the created world. We certainly know that the world is in need of healing, as are those of us who inhabit it. We are, most of us, profoundly disconnected from creation, from God, and one another. People today are more anxious and lonelier than in previous generations. Deaths of despair are on the rise in the United States, among people who, by global standards, have a high rate of education and affluence. Something is deeply amiss, and just telling people that God loves them doesn’t seem to be enough to solve the root causes of the problem.
Recently, our community has been shaken to its core by a series of violent events that culminated with the revelation that the person accused of these terrible crimes lived on our street. Both the people who died were part of our community, each in his own way, and so was Kimberlee, the stabbing victim who survived, and so was the accused murderer. This is about as close to home as it gets. There are spiritual wounds here that need to be healed. We want to feel safe again. We want to feel whole again. And with God’s help, we will. Reconciliation, healing, and wholeness are qualities that God desires for us, aspects of what we call abundant and eternal life. They won’t just magically happen, but time and intention can help put us back together again—-different than we were before, but still together, still a community of neighbors and friends, caring for one another in good times and in bad.
There is yet another way we can know God that I haven’t mentioned yet, and that is through God’s creation. By creation I mean everything God has made, from human beings to plants and animals and anything else you might find on God’s green earth. Scripture affirms over and over again that all of creation is like a mirror in which we can see the image of God, or a masterpiece that bears the unmistakable imprint of its maker. Some have even called the Book of Nature the first book that God wrote, meaning it is the primary place where all people can learn about its author. As Psalm 19 puts it, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.” And today’s Eucharistic Prayer adds that all of God’s creation is “a sign of hope for our journey.” This is a profound theological claim.
I believe that spiritual practices, actually doing things that bring us into closer contact with the divine as we understand it, are much more likely to comfort our weary souls and ease our divisions than merely more talking at one another–about God or anything else. An embodied faith, and practices that connect us with an immanent God who knows us and loves us, are both a treasured resource from our past and quite possibly the key to a healthy future. These practices include walking the labyrinth, praying the rosary, and going on pilgrimage. They take us out of our heads and back into our bodies, where we reconnect with the incarnational and immanent aspects of our faith.
One of the spiritual practices that the church is reclaiming, much to my delight, is the recognition of rogation days. These are the days just before Ascension Day when Christians are encouraged to ask God’s blessings on crops and fields, so that the planting done in the spring will lead to plentiful harvests in the fall. Rogation processions were especially popular in medieval England, when the whole town would turn out for the traditional “beating of the bounds.”
The point of walking around the boundaries of a parish, singing loudly and blessing things with copious holy water, while whacking away at hedges with a stick, may not be immediately obvious to us anymore. I understand it to accomplish a few important things. One is the reminder that we are embodied people, living in a particular time and place. In English canon law, a parish is not just the people who show up at a church on Sunday—”a parish is the whole area under the spiritual care of a priest.” So, by delineating the boundaries of the parish, a rogation procession makes clear that the church is here for everyone in the community, not just those who attend services. What happens here to any one of us matters to all of us, because we are all connected.
On a deeper level, rogation processions remind us that we belong here, on this good earth. The land where we live, work, and worship matters profoundly to God and it should matter to us as well. We are not beating the bounds as a means of claiming this land as our possession—-rather we proclaiming that the earth is the Lord’s, that it comes to us as a gift from God and is given into our hands for a time so we can tend it and care for it. For many people this is genuinely good news, a story they have never heard from the church before, and it can be a way for them to move from having a vague inkling of an unknown god to living relationship God who knows us and wants to be known by us. This Rogation Sunday, I hope that we can reclaim our sense of the holy in all creation, and especially in this little corner of the world where we come together week after week to pray and sing and gather around God’s table. We are standing on holy ground, surrounded by beloved children of God, and it is our right and our privilege to join with all creation in singing God’s praises and finding hope for the journey ahead. Amen.
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Here you can find the first quarter treasurer’s report for 2023. If you have any questions, please email our treasurer, Jessie Ann Owens, at treasurer@churcofstmartin.org. Thank you.
Treasurers-Q1-2023-ReportDownloadThe post Quarter 1 2023 Treasurer’s Report, May 8, 2023 appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for this week.
Announcements for Sunday, April 30, 2023DownloadBULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE
THERE IS ONLY ONE SERVICE TODAY AT 10AM.
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service.
Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Masking will be optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
10AM Bulletin for Sunday, April 30, 2023DownloadONLINE SUPPLEMENT WITH HYMNS FOR 10AM SERVICE
Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Click below for the online supplement with hymns:
Online Supplement & Hymns for Sunday, April 30, 2023DownloadHow to access online services:
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
The post Bulletins and Announcements for April 30, 2023 appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
Earth Month 2023Earth Month takes place in April every year, culminating in Earth Day on April 22nd. It’s a time to raise awareness about the issues facing our planet at this time. Here is a list of some events that are available for you to participate in. Some are offered nationally, some are more local.
Film Screening Apr. 19th @6pmJoin a film screening of The Ants & the Grasshopper either online or in person at Church of Incarnation, Santa Rosa. This film follows a Malawi farmer “in her efforts to change minds in her patriarchal village and beyond.” Click here for more information.
Lament with EarthApr. 20th @4:30pmExplore your ecological grief in community, delving into themes of transformation with the BTS Center, a Portland, Maine-based organization committed to offering theologically grounded programs of continuing education and spiritual formation. More info here.
Sowing Seeds: An Ecumenical Earth Day ServiceApr. 21st @9amThis online service will lead participants into a time of contemplation and prayer while considering what actions we might take on behalf of God’s creation. More info here.
Earth Day at Forbes RanchApr. 22nd, 12-2pmPlease join us at the Ranch in Esparto for prayers and a contemplative, music-based Taize service. Feel free to bring a picnic lunch. More info here.
Grace Garden Annual Plant and Pottery SaleApr. 22nd, 9am-12pmCelebrate Earth Day morning with a plant and pottery sale at Grace Garden. Live music and Garden tours will add to the festivities. Location: 1620 Anderson Road, Davis.
Grounding Our Bodies, Grounding Our SoulsApr. 29th, 9am-2pmJoin Rev. Pamela at a workshop based on her book Contemplative Gardening. Combine hands-on work in the garden and contemplative practices, with the goal of enjoying a day of embodied spirituality. No prior experience required. Location: Table Farm @ 2rd St & Anita Ave, Sacramento. More info here.
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The Ven. Margaret Grayden
Easter Vigil; April 8, 2023
Matthew 28: 1-10
Have you ever noticed that when something really important is about to happen in the Bible, an angel dressed in white appears, saying, “Do not be afraid”? I don’t know about you, but when I imagine myself in the place of the women at the tomb that first Easter, my instinctive response is to be afraid…to be very afraid! Not afraid in the sense of being terrified—I don’t believe God intends us to cower in terror in response to the Good News that Jesus has been raised and that death no longer has dominion over Him. But rather, afraid in the sense of “holy awe”—the intuitive recognition that something much larger than ourselves is at work here, something holy and mysterious, something we do not and cannot truly understand.
Knowing the story as we do, it is easy to forget just how amazing that message is. The narrative in Matthew is short and to the point. It announces the fact of the Resurrection and ends with the command to go and spread the word. It offers neither explanation nor interpretation. And perhaps that’s how it should be—after all, how can we possibly explain something as unprecedented, as earth-shattering, as awesome as the Resurrection of the One who lived and died as one of us, fully human and yet fully God?
As Episcopalians in the Anglican tradition, what we believe about Jesus is reflected not in a written document such as a confession, but rather in the words that we say with others in our worship. During one of our Eucharistic Prayers, we affirm the mystery of faith by saying: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”[1] Religion is not the same as science. If someone could “prove” that Jesus physically rose from the dead, there would be no need for faith. It would be a matter of historical fact, like the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
It is enough for me that Jesus rose. How do I know this? The love and compassion that God through Jesus Christ has manifested in my life are what convince me that in some way Jesus overcame death and rose again—otherwise, how could I know (and be known by) Him? This is a different kind of “knowing” than the certainty of scientific knowing. It is the knowing of my heart, the knowing of my lived experience of faith. In the words of singer-songwriter Iris DeMent, sometimes you have to “just let the mystery be.”[2] Some things are so awesome and mysterious that they are beyond human understanding—and that’s okay.
For my part, the journey to belief in the Resurrection has been a long one. When I was baptized thirty-three years ago, at the Easter Vigil at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, I had a lot of questions about the Resurrection. I didn’t know what to believe. What I did know was that I was drawn to Christ, that I longed to become part of His church and serve Him. Much later, I came to understand that what matters is not the details of the Resurrection—how exactly Jesus was raised from the dead. What matters is the fact of the Resurrection, and our response to that fact.
Christians are “an Easter people.”[3] We are called to treat Easter as a verb, not as a noun. That is, Easter isn’t simply a religious holiday that we celebrate as a sort of liturgical reward for surviving the rigors of Lent. Rather, Easter is a way of living, of what theologian Megan McKenna calls “practicing resurrection.” Although we can’t literally bring the dead back to life, make no mistake–there are other ways to practice resurrection, that is, to bring new life to people and to situations in which all appears to be lost. As McKenna explains, “Every time I bring hope into a situation, every time I bring joy that shatters despair, every time I forgive others and give them back dignity and the possibility of a future with me and others in the community, every time I listen to others and affirm them and their life, every time I speak the truth in public, every time I confront injustice…I bring people back from the dead.”[4]
This is what it means to practice resurrection. It means being a candle of hope, a light in the darkness of this broken and hurting world. When we cultivate new connections—for example, through our Seeds of Justice and land-based ministry initiatives—we create new life. When we open our hearts to help our neighbors—for example, by creating a Project (Re)Start disaster response bin or by donating to our Easter offering in support of UC Davis students experiencing homelessness and an Afghan refugee family resettling in Sacramento—we create hope.
On this most wonderful and holy night, as we prepare to welcome Ben, Joe, Jordan, and Yanbing into the Body of Christ through the sacrament of Holy Baptism, I can’t help but think of my own baptism and faith journey. It took many years before I could accept and even welcome the gift of not knowing and not understanding certain things. After all, we live in a post-Enlightenment world in which rationality and reason are valued and mystery is denigrated. It is hard to suspend disbelief and accept the gift of faith. But with God’s grace, we can do that. My prayer for Ben, Joe, Jordan, and Yanbing—and indeed, for us all—is that no matter the twists and turns of our spiritual journeys, as we continue to growth in faith, may we always have that felt sense of God’s love and compassion for us, to anchor us even—and especially when—we don’t understand. May that love move us all to practice resurrection each and every day.
AMEN
[1] Eucharistic Prayer A, The Book of Common Prayer 1979, p. 363.
[2] https://genius.com/Iris-dement-let-the-mystery-be-lyrics
[3]https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/angelus/1986/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19861130.html
[4] https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/naming-the-days/view/10963/easter-resurrection-as-a-spiritual-practice
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SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Extended Announcements for Easter DayDownloadBULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM AND 10AM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am and 10am services. The 10am service will be offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available in person.
Masking is optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
Easter Day BulletinDownloadONLINE SUPPLEMENT WITH HYMNS FOR 10AM SERVICE
Please note that the 10am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Click below for the online supplement with hymns:
Online Supplement and Hymns for Easter DayDownloadHow to access online services:
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
The post Bulletins and Announcements for April 9, 2023 appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR EASTER VIGIL 8PM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Saturday’s 8pm service. This service will be offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will be available in person.
Masking will be optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
8pm Easter Vigil BulletinDownloadONLINE SUPPLEMENT WITH HYMNS FOR 8PM SERVICE
Please note that the worship service is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Click below for the online supplement with hymns:
Online Supplement with Hymns for Easter VigilDownloadHow to access online services:
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
The post Bulletins for April 8, 2023 appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
BULLETIN FOR 3PM GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Friday’s 3pm service. This service will be offered in person only. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available in person.
Masking is optional.
3pm Good Friday BulletinDownload*
We are also offering an in person, self-guided prayer walk from 12-3pm. For more information about that, please click here.
The post Bulletin for April 7, 2023 appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
Vestry News and Review: February 2023The Vestry on Retreat at St. Dorothy’s RestFebruary was an eventful month for the Vestry. It started with our Annual Meeting on the 5th, where the parish elected three new members (Anthony Amato, Susan Stone and Tom Young) and one continuing member (Beth Capell, who had finished off a one-year term last year).
The following weekend was our planning retreat, held among the redwoods at St. Dorothy’s Rest, over by the coast. We talked about plotting a course over the next few years that will help us reconnect with each other, revitalize our ministries and put us on a solid financial footing as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. Our current budget includes a deficit, which we’re hoping to minimize, but since deficit spending isn’t sustainable in the long run, we need to work on how to eliminate that deficit. In the coming months, we’ll be asking for your input on several choices that will help define the path forward. This will be done through town hall meetings and surveys of parish members, all starting in the next couple of months. We’ll have more to say about this in the weeks to come.
We held our regular monthly meeting on the 27th and we talked about another question: “Is twelve members the best size for our Vestry?”. A twelve-member Vestry dates back to the beginnings of the Parish, but in recent years, much of the coordination among our programs is under the supervision of the Ministry Council, which was created just before Pamela arrived here. That coordination had previously been handled by a large array of volunteers, overseen by Vestry members, who no longer have that responsibility.
The upshot of this is that we may not need a full twelve-member Vestry, and so we’ve written an amended set of bylaws that allow more flexibility in the size of the Vestry, which if adopted would allow as few as nine members on the Vestry but as many as twelve (plus the Rector in both cases). The process for amending the bylaws is that we need to present the proposed changes to the Office of the Bishop, a month in advance of a planned Vestry vote. We haven’t yet done this, but we’re apt to do that within the next month or so. Now, I want to be clear that this won’t automatically reduce the number of members on the Vestry, but it will allow the Vestry to adjust the number of members (most likely by outgoing members whose terms have ended by a smaller number of incoming members) if circumstances arise where it’s beneficial to do so.
Having “outed” this plan to the congregation, I’d also like to say that this bylaw change is probably one of the least important things we have been doing, relative to what needs to be done to rebuild and grow the strong sense of community and mission we have at St. Martin’s. But it’s better to have this added flexibility while we’re planning for the years to come. There will be more to come in the months ahead on rebuilding and growing the sense of community and mission, from pastoral care to social justice to coffee hour to care for God’s creation—and the budget to do all that.
Neil Willits
Co-Senior Warden
The post An Eventful February! appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
Ranch Volunteers NeededExciting things are happening at Forbes Ranch, which is St. Martin’s “second home” in Esparto. You are invited to come to the almond farm and have a unique opportunity to build an open arbor around a gathering circle. It is intended for Native dances, church services, wedding ceremonies, meditation, and other opportunities for restoration and renewal as guests look out to the beautiful coastal hills to the west. It will have both a sacred and historic significance.
Our open arbor plan originates from the one designed and built by the Sogorea Te Land Trust in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Care for God’s Creation committee has been working closely with Diana Almendariz, Patwin Wintun Culture Bearer and Elder, in the last two years through the Seeds of Justice ECS grant program. Diana has given us specifications for creating a dance circle—the kind where Native people traditionally have gathered to celebrate their unity and connection to the universe.
St. Martin’s is supporting the creation of this Gathering Circle as part of our efforts toward racial reconciliation and respect for their original stewardship of this land. This work is sometimes called “going beyond land acknowledgments.”
In addition to Diana, we are working closely with Mark Brothers, a valued parishioner and volunteer general contractor who will train the volunteers and direct the completion of this project. It will be extremely interesting to follow the thinking of traditional Native ways in building such a structure. The 40 12-foot long cedar tree poles that will form the main frame were brought to us from Humboldt County. There were multiple acts of reciprocity among Diana, Mark, and Bo Kallish-Hill, who harvested the trees in sacred solidarity with the earth that produced them.
The almond trees are blossoming. Please come help! Encourage others to join. Form car pools. Let the office know if you can give or need a ride: 530-756-0444 or info@churchofstmartin.org
Ann Liu, Care for God’s Creation, Co-chair
Schedule: (Need 12 or more volunteers on March 18 and 25)
Saturday, March 4 9:00-12:00 Peeling of tree pole bark. Bring gloves and old butter knives.
Saturday, March 11 9:00-12:00 Peeling of tree bark. Bring a lunch & stay for Taizé service at 1:00pm
Tuesday, March 14 1:00-4:00 Measure and mark placement of holes for tree poles in inner/outer circles
Saturday, March 18 9:00-4:00 Constructing the arbor, with Diana Almendariz
Saturday, March 25 9:00-4:00 Constructing the arbor
Need gloves, shovels, 12’ ladders, hammers, hard rakes, and power tools for screwing.
Ranch address: 19100 County Road 86A in Esparto 95627
Look for the tall white water tower at the entry and the U.S. flag on the white mailbox. (Short driveway close to the Winters Canal)
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A Sermon for Feb. 12, 2023, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany
The Rev. Deborah Hawkins
Wiggle Room“So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”
So last week Jesus told us he came not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. To fully live into them. To embody them. This week the psalmist says, “You laid down your commandments, that we should fully keep them.”
Law, commandments — those words can get us into trouble in English. It helps to remember their meaning is not only rules to follow but even more teaching, instruction, mitzvah – which includes a sense of ‘good deeds’. God desires for us abundant life and gives us the law as part of a way to live abundant lives with one another.
There is an old ‘Zits’ cartoon — that’s the one with 2 parents and their teenage son. In this old cartoon the mother asks her son to take out the garbage, you know, to take out the kitchen trash. The son grumps over and takes the bag. In the next scene the mother has opened up the back door and there on the step, right outside the door, is the bag of trash. When she looks at her son he says, “What?”
It is safe to say the son in the cartoon was not living fully into the rules of the household nor is he considering he is a part of household that is reliant on one another. Instead he is focused on finding wiggle room in the rules that (hand to forehead) weigh heavily upon him. Have you ever done that? Or had it done to you? ‘But all you said was…”
When it comes to the law and the prophets, especially when things get specific, I’ll confess I’m often on the lookout for a little wiggle room.
In today’s gospel portion Jesus says, you have heard you shall not murder but I say do not even be angry with your brother or sister.
Amy-Jill Levine says the rabbis call this building a fence around a law. Make it harder to get close to a law so it is harder to break it. If you don’t get angry at your brother you are less likely to murder him, or he you, for example.
Could be, but it feels like more commands that have gotten even more restrictive and are binding me even tighter.
Notice Jesus does not say never get angry (Ah, maybe there is some wiggle room). He says if you are angry at a brother or a sister beware, be very careful. For all you think it is fun to be all self righteous and angry you may not like where that takes you (Oh, dear).
The other person is created in the image and likeness of God and worthy of respect no matter how you might be feeling about something they said or did. When you are angry it is easy to forget that.
When it comes to insults, to name calling, words do wound, words can kill. There may be far less wiggle room than we like to think.
I don’t think Jesus is saying anger has no place in our lives. He got angry on occasion. Some things — hate, bullying, defrauding, discrimination, abuse — somethings should not be tolerated and anger can be the right response when we find ourselves face to face with them. But we must also always be mindful that the person we are dealing with is a beloved child of God, just as we all are, and target our anger appropriately, however hard that can be sometimes.
What he is telling us is less a matter of what we can get away with or get out of and more a matter of how important it is to pay attention. It is all tied together: our relationships with each other and our relationship with God and God’s relationship with us.
First, Jesus says, first we are to strive to be at peace with one another. Actually, to be picky Jesus said if you remember someone has something against you go take care of it. So I guess there is a little wiggle room in forgetting, but if you remember — and if we are paying attention we should notice or remember now and then, anyway — and if you remember you can’t pretend to forget, that doesn’t count.
There is not much wiggle room there at all. Some issues are quick and easy to resolve leaving everyone is happy, but others, they can get really messy. You can’t control how the other person is going to respond, either, which just adds to the messiness.
In those cases the work of reconciliation with someone or some group can stretch out over a lifetime. Each day, all you can do is the best you can at any given time and maybe that is okay as long as the work is ongoing? Otherwise what are we to do? We would forever be stuck at ‘first’ and never get to ‘then.’
Our custom of the passing of the peace is often tied to this saying of Jesus. Before we approach the table, we pass the peace with one another.
Before we come to the altar to bring with gladness the offerings of our lives and labors we are turn to the people near us to offer them the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ.
My peace is kind of thorny and fractured even on the best days.
So God says here let me give you a little wiggle room. You can offer my peace while you keep working on yours. That way we can bring all of our messiness and thorniness and brokenness fully into the presence of God and into the presence of each other, really or virtually, for rest and healing and transformation and encouragement to keep working and living abundantly.
Thanks be to God
For more sermons, please see our Sermon Blog here.
The post “Wiggle Room,”: Sermon for 2/23/23 by Rev. Hawkins appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
A Message from Pamela+ Announcing a New Treasurer and a RequestDear Ones,
I’m writing with information about an important leadership transition in our parish and with a request. You may already know that our long-time treasurer, Julie Knudsen, is stepping down when her term on the Vestry ends next month. She gave us ample notice, and yet finding someone to fill her shoes has proven exceptionally difficult. Fortunately, another very capable member of our Budget and Finance Committee (and former Junior Warden), Jessie Ann Owens, has agreed to serve as Interim Treasurer for the coming year.
First and foremost, we should all extend our heartfelt thanks to Julie for her extraordinary and generous service. And next goes our thanks to Jessie Ann, who has always shown herself to have a steady, insightful, and strategic approach to her work on behalf of the parish.
Now for the request: we are looking for more members for our Budget and Finance Committee and our Investment Committee. You don’t need to be a financial wizard, but it’s best if spreadsheets don’t send you running! During this time of transition, we really need more people putting their oars in and helping to keep us moving forward.
One important resource at our disposal is that we have contracted with Chazin & Company for management of the accounting and reporting functions that have taken much of Julie’s time. This does not negate the need for a Treasurer, as well as the committees named above, but it does mean we have significant assistance in the necessary tasks involved in running a church of this size.
As Jessie Ann says, “By instinct and training I am more at home with Word documents than with spreadsheets, though as a former administrator I have had considerable experience with budgets. I think that the combination of Chazin and our two wonderful administrative staff, Gabe and Janet, will make it possible for a humanist like me to take on the role of treasurer; indeed, the changes in our systems are an opportunity to rethink the functions of the treasurer. But I can’t do it alone.”
It will only take a few more volunteers to fill in these two important committees—perhaps people who have served as treasurers for other organizations or who have experience with investments or who understand the importance of a budget as a mirror of priorities. Jessie Ann’s promise: “These jobs will not be overly time-consuming and they will be interesting and rewarding. What better way to be a good steward for a church we all hold dear?”
Please reach out to Jessie Ann or to me if you are interested and willing to learn more. Other current members of the Budget and Finance Committee are Julie Knudsen, Neil Willits, and Chris Reynolds.
Blessings,
Pamela+
For more blog posts and announcements, see our community blog here.
The post Announcing New Interim Treasurer! appeared first on Episcopal Church of St. Martin.
“Spirituality in Nature”
Have you ever described yourself as “spiritual but not religious”? Do you think the best way to experience a sense of the sacred is by getting outside and communing with nature?
You are not alone. A recent large survey of Americans found that “almost half of Americans (45%) found being outdoors or in nature to be the most spiritually fulfilling activities, followed by prayer (42%) and giving to charity (28%).” To drill down a little more, when asked “Which of the following activities do you personally find the most spiritually fulfilling?” the answer “being outdoors” was number one for Catholics, mainline Protestants (like Episcopalians), those who affiliate with another, non-Christian religion, and those who consider themselves not religious at all—leading the authors of the survey to conclude that “Outdoor activity is the common ground for spiritual fulfillment.”
This survey was conducted by the Ipsos research group on behalf of the Episcopal Church, which like many religious institutions is struggling to find new ways of reaching people in a world that mistrusts organized religion.
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Davis (640 Hawthorn Lane, behind the “Trader Joe’s” shopping center) was already offering activities and worship services outdoors before this survey came out last year. In part this was a response to the pandemic lockdown and in part it was because it just fit with the culture of the parish and the community.
“We have a beautiful church campus, with a redwood-lined walking path and an outdoor labyrinth that is open 24/7,” said the Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan, rector of the church. “People from all around the neighborhood walk their dogs here or use the labyrinth on their own time and for their own reasons. We love that! You don’t have to believe anything or join anything to enjoy this space. We see it as a gift that we want to share with others.”
In that same spirit, and in order to explore the intersection of spirituality, environmentalism, and the health benefits of being outdoors, St. Martin’s is offering a monthly Spirituality in Nature Gathering, usually on the second Saturday of the month. The location and theme will change from month to month, and details will be available on their website: www.churchofstmartin.org.
This Saturday, January 14, members of the church will gather for a 60-minute walk around the Wildhorse trail. Participants will meet at Duchamp Park (2620 Duchamp St, Davis, CA 95618) at 10 am, have a brief orientation, and then get walking at their own pace. Attendees who wish to do so will head to a nearby coffee shop after for a conversation about the spiritual lessons found in challenging winter weather. The SiNG (Spirituality in Nature Gathering) event will be “rain or shine.” Anyone who is concerned about accessibility or would like more information, is asked to contact St. Martin’s at (530)756-0444 or email info@churchofstmartin.org.
Rev. Dolan said this is an open invitation and nobody should worry that there are strings attached if they show up. “I want to be clear that all of our outdoor activities these are intended to be joyful experiments in answering God’s call to care for one another and all creation, not reactive marketing ploys. You don’t have to be a Christian, a tree hugger, or anything else in particular to participate. Just give it a try and see what happens.”
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Announcements for Sunday, January 15, 2023DownloadBULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service.
8AM Bulletin for Sunday, January 15, 2023DownloadThis is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will be optional.
BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be HYBRID, meaning offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service.
Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Masking will be optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
10AM Bulletin for Sunday, January 15, 2023DownloadONLINE SUPPLEMENT WITH HYMNS FOR 10AM SERVICE
Please note that the 10:00am Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Click below for the online supplement with hymns:
Online Supplement & Hymns for Sunday, January 15, 2023DownloadHow to access online services:
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
CHRISTMAS DAY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for the Christmas Day service. This will be a contemporary Eucharist with Christmas carols.
Announcements for Christmas Day, Sunday, Dec. 25DownloadBULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service.
10am Bulletin for Christmas Day, Sunday, Dec. 25DownloadThis is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will be optional.
CHRISTMAS EVE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the Christmas Eve services.
Announcements for Christmas EveDownloadBULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 3PM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for the 3pm service. This will be a brief interactive service for families and young children, based on our Montessori-style Godly Play series. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service.
3pm Bulletin for Christmas Eve, Saturday, Dec. 24DownloadThis is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will be optional.
BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 7PM and 10PM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for the 7pm and 10pm service (the bulletin is the same for both services). These services will have a festive worship service with choir, communion, and Christmas carols and will be HYBRID, meaning offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service.
Masking will be optional.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
7pm and 10pm Bulletin for Christmas Eve, Saturday, Dec. 24DownloadOnline worship information for 7pm and 10pmPlease note that the 7pm and 10pm services are recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
November 27Advent Wreath MakingChildren in Godly Play will make Advent wreaths.For more information, click here. December 11Blue Christmas and Candle Lighting4PM, In person and onlineA contemplative service with readings and music.For more information click here. December 18Lessons and Carols at 4PMLas Posadas at 5PMIn person onlyA song-filled Eucharist followed by a reenactment of the Holy Family’s search for safe refuge.For more information click here. Christmas EveChildren’s Service3pm, in person onlyA brief interactive service for families and young children Festive Choral Eucharist with Christmas Carols7pm and 10pm, in person and online Christmas Day10am, in person onlyContemporary Eucharist with Christmas Carols FORMATION...
Thirteenth Sunday after PentecostJeremiah 18: 1-11Psalm139:1-5,12-17Luke 14: 25-33 “When Christ calls a man (or woman), he bids him (or her) come and die.” Those are the staggering words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in the Confessing Church in pre-World War II Germany. Hitler and the Nazi regime are slowly strangling religious expression … Continue reading “The Cost of Discipleship,” a sermon by the Rev. Ernie Lewis from 9/4/22 →
August 28, 2022 The Ven. Margaret Grayden At the height of summer here in Northern California, in the midst of what scientists say is the worst megadrought in 1,200 years, the Prophet Jeremiah’s contrast between the living water of a river or spring and the stagnant water left in a cracked cistern has special resonance. … Continue reading Sermon: “Living Water and Mutual Love”: a sermon by the Ven. Margaret Grayden on 8/28/ 2022 →
August 21, 2022Luke 13: 10-17The Rev. Deborah Hawkins Sabbath. Who needs it? Years ago one Sunday this congregation had a visitor from St. Gregory of Nyssa, in San Francisco. She taught us a liturgical dance to do as we left the service that morning. More than one person was overheard to say, as we tripped … Continue reading Sermon: “Sabbath. Who needs it?”: a sermon by the Rev. Deborah Hawkins on 8/21/ 2022 →
August 4, 2022 Dear Ones, I am delighted to introduce you to Betsy McElroy, who will be serving as a seminarian intern this year at St. Martin’s. Betsy comes to us from the Diocese of Iowa, where she is still canonically resident (that means her Bishop is our old friend, the Rt. Rev. Betsey Monnot!). … Continue reading Welcome to our new seminarian! →
SJO is excited to launch this new monthly installment in our bulletin, where we plan to bring you information about the church’s efforts around social justice and outreach and share opportunities to get involved. We would like to kick-off this new segment by spending some time “unpacking” that Bible passage that you have probably heard … Continue reading SJO News and Notes: First Installment →
In June 2021 St. Martin’s received a generous $5,000 Episcopal Community Services grant based on an application entitled “Land-Based Ministry: Growing a More Equitable, Participatory, and Inclusive Community.” In June 2022 we received a second $5000 grant to allow us to continue what we started in 2021. Land-based ministry considers the land on which we live, work, and worship to … Continue reading SAVE THE DATE: Seeds of Justice Continues! →
July 31, 2022Luke 12:13-21The Rev. Deborah HawkinsTitle: Bigger barns Today we hear a parable about a rich farmer. He is a land owner who has had a good crop. We don’t know why. Probably he is a good farmer who works hard and learns from his mistakes. This year, just as it does sometimes, everything … Continue reading Sermon: “Bigger Barns”: a sermon by the Rev. Deborah Hawkins on the Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, 7/31/ 2022 →
July 24, 2022Proper 12, year C, track 1Deborah HawkinsTitle: “How much more” Teach us how to pray, someone asked. Do we hold our hands like this or like this? Should we kneel or stand or sit? What are the best ways to address God? We don’t want to mess up on this we know it is … Continue reading Sermon: “How Much More” by the Rev. Deborah Hawkins on the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, 7/24/ 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for July 24, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for July 17, 2022 →
Homily for Proper 10 (Year C)Deuteronomy 30:9-14Psalm 25:1-9Colossians 1:1-14Luke 10:25-37 Today’s Gospel finds Jesus being quizzed by a lawyer. The conversation isn’t going as the lawyer hoped at first. He knows his scriptures all right but when the issue of the identity and definition of “neighbor” arises, he believes he has the young rabbi cornered. … Continue reading “God in the Ditch,” a sermon by the Rev. Ernie Lewis from 7/12/22 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for July 10, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for July 3, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for June 26, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for June 19, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This service WILL BE OUTDOORS and IN PERSON ONLY. Masking will be … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for June 12, 2022 →
A Letter to the Parish from the Stephen Ministry Leadership Team For nearly twenty years there has been Stephen Ministry at St. Martins providing high quality, confidential, Christian caregiving to those who are hurting for whatever reason. Stephen Ministers undergo extensive training and receive ongoing supervision and continuing education. Many parishioners have been involved in … Continue reading A Letter to the Parish from the Stephen Ministry Leadership Team →
Vestry News and Review By Chris Reynolds We who have made a commitment to being a part of St. Martin’s, have done so for all kinds of reasons, most of them – I am pretty sure – spiritual. For me, music has always been a driving force. The opportunity to sing favorite hymns and to … Continue reading Vestry News and Review 06/08/2022 →
Sermon for The Seventh Sunday of Easter, 2022 Acts 16: 16-34Revelation 22:12-13,16-17, 20-21John 17:20-26Psalm 97 In his early years, writer and poet Archibald MacLeish wrote a poem … Continue reading “Blow on the Coal,” a sermon by the Rev. Ernie Lewis from 5/29/22 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for May 29, 2022 →
Sermon for The Sixth Sunday of Easter, 2022 Grace and peace from God our Creator, hope in our Redeemer Jesus the Christ, and the promised gifts of … Continue reading “Peace be with you,” a sermon by the Rev. Casey Kloehn Dunsworth from 5/22/22 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for May 22, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for May 15, 2022 →
Sermon for The Fourth Sunday of Easter, 2022 Grace and peace from God our Creator, hope in our Redeemer Jesus the Christ, and the promised gifts of … Continue reading “The Personal is Political,” a sermon by the Rev. Casey Kloehn Dunsworth →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for May 8, 2022 →
The Rev. Dr. Pamela DolanSermon for Easter 3, May 1, 2022: Loving the WorldGospel text: John 21:1-19 I myself have never fed sheep, or tended to them, but (as many of you know already) I am very fond of baby goats. So fond, in fact, that for Mother’s Day one year my family gave me … Continue reading “Loving the World,” a Creation sermon by the Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan →
As part of our move into a practice of year-round stewardship, the Stewardship Committee, the rector, and several lay ministry leaders have collaborated to develop the 2022 Ministry Interest Survey. We see this as an invitation to all St. Martin’s parishioners to consider what other gifts – alongside the financial gifts that are pledged so … Continue reading 2022 Ministry Interest Survey →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for May 1, 2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. Masking will … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for April 24, 2022 →
Vestry News and Review 4/22/2022 By Neil Willits, Co-Senior Warden It’s been a while since you’ve gotten an official report on what the Vestry has been up to, but you needn’t be concerned; it can take a while for a new group of Vestry members to chart their course for the year. Since the annual … Continue reading Vestry Update 4/22/2022 →
SUNDAY MORNING EASTER DAY ANNOUNCEMENTS Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services. BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service. This is an in-person only service located inside the church. … Continue reading Bulletins and announcements for April 17, 2022 Easter Day →
BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR THE GREAT VIGIL
Click below to access the bulletin for this Saturday’s 8pm Vigil. This service will be HYBRID, meaning offered online and in person. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the in person service.
Reservations are not required to attend in person service, but attendance will be capped at 75 on a first-come, first-served basis. COVID protocols will be in place.
If you would like to join online, please see the bottom of this post for more information.
Great Vigil Bulletin April 16, 2022Download Online Worship Information Please note that the 8pm Great Vigil worship service is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
To join online:
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the day following the service)
Maundy Thursday
April 14, 2022
‘Love one another’
The Rev. Deborah Hawkins
https://churchofstmartin.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022_04_14_MaundyThursdaysermon.mp3
Many years ago, when my children were small, I can’t remember quite what happened, it wasn’t anything big, but I found myself trapped on the bathroom floor with the little one in my lap. She was screaming and there was a lot of blood all over. My hands were full so I called the older one, who was about 4, and said, “Will, could you come here a minute. Mommy needs some help.”
So he showed up in the door way. I asked, “would you please go to the linen closet and get me a rag?” “Okay,” he said, and off he went. I could hear him in the hallway talking to himself. “I need a rag. Where would I find a rag? Oh, here’s one.” Back in he came with one of my best towels.
I said, “thank you,” and meant it. He grinned and off he went back to whatever he was doing while I bandaged up and washed up and otherwise scrubbed up. That done and calm restored, I left the bathroom and turned to look at the linen closet to see what shape it was in.
Now, it is important for you to know that when I called my son he had been eating a fudgesicle. So, everywhere I looked, from the floor to as high as a 4 year old could reach, there were chocolate handprints – on the linens, on the walls, on the door. I had a little more washing up and scrubbing up yet to do.
But, you know, if you think about it, when I needed an extra pair of hands he was able to do what I needed him to do and help me in the way I needed to be helped. The rest could be dealt with in its own time.
Tonight, on this holy night, the night our Lord and Savior is betrayed and handed over to suffering and death, Jesus has his hands full and He is calling on us for some help.
He tells us, “I need you. I need you, to love one another as I have loved you.”
I think hearing him we often look with our adult eyes on what our 4 year old hands are able to accomplish and respond, “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly. I would just make a mess.” Then we stop and freeze up and refuse to try. Or we turn and we see someone else following through and we see the mess they are making so begin to judge and condemn them and use that as our excuse.
Whenever we find ourselves in one of those places it is important to remember that what he is asking of us is, as the poet Roy Pett has phrased it, affection not perfection. He certainly isn’t saying don’t make a mess. That is not what he is talking about at all.
As an aside I would add that it is important to pay attention to the results of our actions so we can learn something and our love can grow but that is because love is what he is talking about. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Tidy flawlessness, I don’t know what to do with that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what is being asked of us tonight.
Okay, how? Well, fortunately he has given us a couple of examples of how things might look when we manage to follow through on his instructions as we go about our daily lives.
One example was recorded by the gospel writer, John. Foot washing. On the night he was handed over to suffering and death Jesus said, “Sit down, I’m washing your feet.”
Back then they said, ‘Oh no, not that.’ Many of us still do. First of all it is messy. Well, isn’t it? – There is water and bare feet and somebody ends up with a lot of laundry to do. Messy. Some of us would add its kind of icky and embarrassing which is messy in its own way.
But what Jesus is doing when he washed the disciples feet then, and tells us to wash each other’s feet now, is teach us about the meaning of the Incarnation and how he needs it, the Incarnation, to be real in our lives.
For the incarnation to be real we must be willing to seek the face of Christ in those who serve us in whatever way: perhaps the person who gave you your Maundy Thursday pedicure, or a teacher, or a hotel maid, or a flight attendant, or a member of the altar guild, or — you get the idea.
Whoever it is, Christ is asking us to push aside our own insecurity or anger or frustration or overwhelm or distraction,… push it aside just far enough to be able to peek around it to notice another and see Christ in that person.
That’s half of what Jesus says – you have to let me wash your feet – actually or metaphorically.
And then the other half – wash each other’s feet. Be willing to let Christ dwell in us – in you, in me.
Which means like move in and see us as we really are and even the parts we wish we weren’t – see those internal piles of dirty laundry and unwashed floors. “Don’t worry about the mess,” Jesus says. “Just invite me in. I need your active affection, not static perfection.”
To the extent we can do that, open our hearts and welcome him in just as we are, then wherever we go in the course of our daily lives the face of Christ just might, at least now and then, peak out and be visible for others.
That is the first example. ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ Wash each other’s feet.
And the second, is like unto it. We hear Paul’s recounting of it tonight. Eat together, receive communion, Holy Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving. Share the bread and the wine which for us are the body and blood of Christ. Take it in and let it transform us, and do so all the while knowing that as we share the betrayer is right here among us, indeed is right here within each of us. As are the denier, the doubter, and the runner away.
We are not asked to fix ourselves or anyone else before we show up. What is asked is that we do show up and bring all those broken, bleeding, messed up parts of ourselves to the table, to the altar of God, where, as Bishop Breidenthal of Pub Theology fame has said, in God’s good time they are transformed and given back to us.
Fed and strengthened we return to the world so that we can be among those through whom the world can see and experience the love God has for all the world; for the creation God made and called good; to help heal this world we so often experience as broken and messy, the world that Christ loves so much and is willing to die for.
That is what is asked of us on this holy night. Affection, not perfection. Show up just as you are and be a fellow worker with God, the Holy Trinity. Love as they love us. Do the best we can and trust that when we bring our hearts to the work we have the ability to do what is needed of us.
And the rest? Leave the rest to God.
Don’t forget:
Christ died for us
Even on nights like tonight and days like tomorrow, Christ IS risen
And Christ will come again.
Thanks be to God.
We welcome all people from all walks of life! Please read our Statement of Commitment and Action to learn more. What to expect when I attend a service at St. Martin’s? Navigating the Service Our Sunday gatherings, called a mass, are held at 8am and 10am. Our 10am service is offered online and in person. … Continue reading What to Expect When Visiting St. Martin’s →
This Lenten season we invite you to walk with us on a spiritual journey toward Easter
Office Hours
Join Pamela+ on the Labyrinth for office hours or a chat, 4PM – 5PM starting March 7, 2022
Lenten Formation classes
Living Well Through Lent
Wed AM, Mar 2-Apr 13
Love is the Way Book Study
Wed PM, Mar 9-Apr 13
To read more about our Lenten Formation classes, click here.
March 2, 2022
Ash Wednesday
7am spoken antecommunion service, in person only
7pm Holy Eucharist, hybrid service
Details on how to join our online service can be found at the bottom of this page.
Lenten Prayer Walk
Self-guided walk through stations on our grounds
March 2nd, 12pm
March 6th, 11:30am
Offered in English and Spanish
Details here
April 10, 2022
Palm Sunday
8am Eucharist, in person
10am Eucharist, hybrid
Visit with donkeys between services and dye eggs after the 10am service.
Details on how to join our online services can be found at the bottom of this page.
April 14, 2022
Maundy Thursday
7pm Holy Eucharist, hybrid service, stripping of the altar and optional foot washing.
Details on how to join our online service can be found at the bottom of this page.
April 15, 2022
Good Friday
12pm outdoor Stations of the Cross self guided prayer walk, 12-3pm indoor contemplative prayer, 3pm indoor stations of the cross
Details here
April 16, 2022
Easter Vigil
8pm Holy Eucharist, hybrid service with dramatic readings of the scripture
Details on how to join our online service can be found at the bottom of this page.
April 17, 2022
Easter Sunday
8am in person and 10am hybrid Eucharist services, with music.
Details on how to join our online service can be found at the bottom of this page.
To join our online services:
Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Announcements Feb 6, 2022 Download BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be ONLINE ONLY. To read more about this change, see here. You may join online on Zoom or Facebook, and the service will be posted to our YouTube page within a few days.
To join online, please see below the bulletin for more information below.
Bulletin Feb 6, 2022Download Sunday morning worship information for 10am Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
February 2, 2022
Message From the Rector
Dear Ones,
Thank you so much for another wonderful Annual Meeting! In spite of our “virtual” format we were able to vote on two fabulous slates, one for Vestry and one for Convention delegates. Additionally, we had a very informative budget presentation and a fun, productive conversation about Invite, Welcome, Connect. Special thanks to all who helped run the meeting and gave presentations (Bob, Julie, Stan, Jessie, Maria, and Casey), all who facilitated discussions (Margaret, Casey, Janet, Helen, Joannie, and Lynn), all who provided technical support (Gabe and Janet), and to all of YOU who participated!
I’ll make one more plea for you to read through the Annual Meeting reports carefully, if you have not already done so. They reflect the many ways that our members are sharing in the ministry of Christ’s church and deepening our connections to God, to creation, and to one another. We are truly rooted in faith, growing in hope, and reaching out in love. The Annual Report packet and my sermon from Sunday are available on our website.
Speaking of our website, you’ll want to take a look at some of the improvements Gabe has made to it. Like the parish itself, the website is always going to be a work in progress. We have learned that we’ll soon have to give it a major upgrade (due to technical reasons that I don’t understand well enough to explain!), but meanwhile this little facelift is lovely, in my opinion. I hope you think so, too!
Your Worship and Formation teams are already hard at work preparing for Lent, which is only four weeks away. Mark your calendars now for Ash Wednesday services on March 2. We’ll have services at 7am and 7pm, as well as an interactive Prayer Walk at noon. More details soon.
Finally, please reach out if you’re interested in getting involved in launching Invite, Welcome, Connect here at St. Martin’s. We have several people signed up for the Feb. 9 event and are happy to pay for your registration. It’s at a tricky time for many of us, but if you register for it you’ll receive a recording of the event, so don’t worry about not being able to make it in the middle of the day.
As always, my heart overflows with gratitude for this parish and our life together.
Blessings,
Pamela+
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Announcements 1-30-2022Download BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be ONLINE ONLY. To read more about this change, see here. You may join online on Zoom or Facebook, and the service will be posted to our YouTube page within a few days.
To join online, please see below the bulletin for more information below.
Bulletin 01-30-2022Download Sunday morning worship information for 10am Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
Sermon by the Rev. Ernie Lewis23 January, 2022
Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10
I Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
Psalm 19
https://churchofstmartin.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022_01_23_Epiphany3sermon.mp3
Now we’ve come to the third Sunday after the Epiphany of Jesus. How’s it going for you?
Heard all the stories before? “Been there, done that?”
I have a feeling Epiphany is liable to get lost, shuffled off to the side of the road after the anticipation of Advent and the excitement and nonstop frenzy of Christmas; kind of a “letdown.”
In reality, Epiphany is important because contained within it is a kind of “roadmap of discovery”: directions to the path to learning more about this Jesus and how we might encounter him anew, just as the first people who met him did.
What I’m suggesting is very like what folks who do good science do. A few of them become famous; most remain anonymous. But they all have one thing is common. Something drives them all! And that “something” is what I want to talk about as a way of approaching the stories of Epiphany.
Let’s start with some of those people who changed the world and the way we perceive it. They were all driven by that “something”.
There’s Archimedes, sitting in his bathtub doing a lot more that taking a bath! He’s observing and he’s thinking!
There’s Galileo. Instead of listening intently to the sermon, he’s gazing up at the huge chandelier that hangs from the ceiling of the great cathedral at Pisa. He’s observing and he’s thinking.
There’re those botanists and zoologists who realize that the plants and animals that inhabit the East Coast of South America are curiously like the plants and animals that live along the West Coast of Africa They’re observing and thinking!
There’s Alexander Fleming, at St Mary’s Hospital in London, noticing a petri dish covered with a layer of growing bacteria. It’s been sitting on the sill of an open window. He notices some curious round circles where the bacteria have been killed off. He’s observing and he’s thinking!
From these folks have emerged things we take for granted: principals of physics, plate tectonics……and penicillin!
All these folks saw something which might have easily been overlooked………but they thought, “Hmmm! What’s happening here?”
And they took that next step to look deeper; to find the answer!
The “something” is that “Hmmm!
Each of those people entered a kind of dialogue with what they observed.
They were driven by the need to understand, to get “inside it”!
I want to suggest we follow their lead with the stories of Epiphany.
Try putting yourself in each of them. Feel the atmosphere, the sounds, the setting. Breathe in the air and open yourself to the likelihood that something very important is happening right in front of your eyes! Then allow yourself to exclaim, “Hmmm!”
Let’s join some Zoroastrian astrologers who spy a new star and exclaim, “Hmmm!” They take off to see what it’s all about. Their quest ends in a small house in a small village in Roman-occupied Judea where they find a toddler. There’s “something” about him. They don’t understand what exactly, but they know this is the one to receive the gifts they have brought.
Let’s attend a wedding reception where an impending embarrassing social disaster is narrowly averted by this guy, one of the guests by the name of Jesus, who looks at some jars filled with water but now are full of the finest cabernet around. Nobody can understand it….but we and the servants see it all! “Whoa!”, you say, “who is this guy and how did he do that?” Then you and the servants hurry home to tell everybody you know what you just experienced!
This evening you join the congregation for Shabbat services in a small synagogue in Nazareth. It’s the town where Jesus grew up. As an honor he’s chosen to read the scripture of the day and to elaborate upon it. That’s a very tricky thing to pull off in the congregation where everybody has known you all your life! But he stands up, reads the scripture appointed for the day from the prophet Isaiah, then says, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
There’s a congregational “Hmmm!”
Now the word is out!
Everybody who hears and sees or even hears about him is saying, “Hummm!” They rush to have a look at him and see what this is all about!
How about you?
Do the stories of Epiphany elicit a “Hummm!” from you?
Who is Jesus for you?
There’s a huge difference between knowing that someone exists and knowing them personally!
In future weeks we’ll follow Jesus as he becomes more well known by the wonderworks he performs and the words that he speaks. Plan to go with him in person. Watch as he preaches. See him talking to all kinds of people, See him healing a bunch of sick folks and telling wonderful stories!
Get to know him and don’t be afraid if you hear yourself saying “Hmmm!” In fact, welcome that reaction! It’s the right one!
This is the trajectory, the journey, of epiphany!
When people come face to face with Jesus, they have the same reaction! And that reaction leads to other reactions and those to still others as his followers dig deeper and deeper into what it means to be in relationship with him. Things begin to move! The result is what our presiding Bishop calls “The Jesus Movement”. It changes everything, the way we pray, the way we care for each other, the way we care for our earth and all our fellow creatures who share life with us on this whirling blue ball “our island home”.
It all flows from that simple, “Hummm!”
This Jesus, this One like none other, still beckons us to know him better and better.
The great physician/organist/missionary Albert Schweitzer summed it up so beautifully: “He comes to us as one unknown, without a name as of old by the lakeside he came to those (men) who knew him not. He speaks to us the same words, “follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks he has to fulfill in our time. He commands, and those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the tasks, the conflicts the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is.”[1]
Hmmm!
Amen.
[1] Schweitzer, Albert, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
Annual Meeting is January 30th!
Our Annual Meeting is fast approaching! The meeting will be on January 30th after the 10:00am service. Both the worship service and the Annual Meeting will be online. You can join the Sunday worship service at the usual Zoom link (see this link to find the join information for the Sunday worship service). However, the Annual Meeting will be on a DIFFERENT link and will begin at 11:00am. At the meeting, we will review the Annual Report, vote on a Vestry slate, and vote on Convention delegates. In order to attend the Annual Meeting, please follow the link below to register. Once you register, you will receive an email with the link to join the meeting at 11:00am. We look forward to seeing you there!
To register in advance for this the Annual Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpdO-vqzMjG9RVWhpBzOMLQyT1-z38PRS6
Vestry Slate Announced
With grateful hearts, your nominating committee would like to announce the 2022 Vestry Slate, as approved by the Vestry on Sunday, January 16.
The nominees for the four open three-year term seats are:
Diane Bamforth
Colette Chabbott
Ben Guthrie
Neil Willits
The nominees for the two open one-year term seats are:
Maria Acuna-Feldman
Beth Capell
Please extend a sincere “thank you” to those who are willing to serve faithfully on your behalf and for the good of the church. The parish will have the opportunity to vote on this slate at the Annual Meeting on January 30. Biographies for members of the slate will be published this week.
If you want to self-nominate or “nominate from the floor,” you need to do so in advance by sending an e-mail to Senior Warden Bob Polkinghorn by Jan. 25 at 5pm. His email address is in the directory, or you can contact the church office to get it.
Convention Delegates Announced
Our nominees for Convention are the following:
Maria Acuna Feldman
Helen Campbell
Carole Hom
Elise Keddie
Janet Lane
Lynn Zender
Below you can find the Annual Report. You can read it in the box below, click the link below the box to open it in a new tab, or click the download button to download the file.
Annual-Meeting-ReportDownload
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Announcements for Jan 23, 2022Download BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be ONLINE ONLY. To read more about this change, see here. You may join online on Zoom or Facebook, and the service will be posted to our YouTube page within a few days.
To join online, please see below the bulletin for more information below.
Holy Eucharist Bulletin Jan 23, 2022Download Sunday morning worship information for 10am Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Announcements for Jan 16, 2022Download BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be ONLINE ONLY. To read more about this change, see here. You may join online on Zoom or Facebook, and the service will be posted to our YouTube page within a few days.
To join online, please see below the bulletin for more information below.
Bulletin for Jan 16, 2022Download Sunday morning worship information for 10am Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
FINAL-Extended-ANNOUNCEMENTS_JAN_09-1Download BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be IN PERSON ONLY. To read more about this change, see here. You may join online on Zoom or Facebook, and the service will be posted to our YouTube page within a few days.
To join online, please see below the bulletin for more information below.
January-9-2021-Holy-Eucharist-at-10-amDownload Sunday morning worship information for 10am Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)
COVID Update from the Rector January 6, 2022 The Feast of the Epiphany Dear Ones, I’m sure it is stating the obvious to say that we’ve all been keeping an eye on this latest Omicron-fueled wave of COVID cases and wondering if, or when, it would require us to make more changes to our worship practices. In consultation with the rest of the staff, I’ve decided that that time has come. We are moving our services online beginning this Sunday, January 9. We will celebrate Holy Eucharist at 10 am; you can participate via Zoom or Facebook Live. I’m working with the choir and other worship leaders to sort out the details, which could well change from one Sunday to the next. We will do our very best to keep you informed via email as the situation evolves. Worship bulletins and details about how to connect will be available tomorrow on our website and via email, as has been our pattern for much of the last two years. Our altar guild chair has graciously agreed to be in the narthex from 2:30 to 3:30 pm on Saturday for those who wish to pick up pre-consecrated hosts for Home Communion. We will not be taking reservations (at leasts for this week) but will make them available on a first-come, first-served basis. I know it is disappointing to have to return to online worship, and I do hope that it will only be for a matter of weeks this time. When the weather warms up a bit, we will also be considering outdoor worship as another option. As much as we need the spiritual nourishment of worship–and I believe with all my heart that time spent together in a community of faith, singing, praying, and sharing stories, is a foundation of human flourishing–we must also prioritize physical health and safety. Online worship is not a perfect substitute for in-person worship, but it is a great gift nonetheless. It is perfectly possible to grieve what we are losing in this moment while also being grateful for what we still have, and hopeful for what we will have again in the future. During this season of Epiphany, we look for the moments when God breaks into the ordinary routine of our daily lives. Let’s focus on that in the coming weeks–that God is with us, manifest among us, in all times and all places. Peace be with you, dear people of St. Martin’s, the deep peace that surpasses all understanding and transcends all our circumstances. Epiphany blessings, Pamela+
SUNDAY MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Below you can find the extended announcements for all the services.
Extended Announcements_JAN_02Download BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 8AM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 8am service. Printed paper copies of this bulletin will also be available at the service.
This is an in-person service located inside the church. Reservations are not required, but attendance will be capped at 75 on a first-come, first-served basis. COVID protocols will be in place.
Holy Eucharist 8 am January 2ndDownload BULLETIN INFORMATION FOR 10AM SERVICE
Click below to access the bulletin for this Sunday’s 10am service. The 10am service will be hybrid. You may join online or in-person.
If you join in-person, reservations are not required, but attendance will be capped at 75 on a first-come, first-served basis. COVID protocols will be in place. Printed bulletins will be available in-person.
If you would like to join online, please see below for more information below.
Holy-Eucharist-10-am-January-2-2022Download Sunday morning worship information for 10am Please note that Sunday morning worship is recorded and posted online, though the recordings are mostly of the worship leaders.
Bulletins and sermon texts will be available before the service begins. Please check on the website and Facebook page for those resources.
- via Zoom, computer or iPad:
- https://zoom.us/j/94932107255?pwd=eVpWTjl0cDFzb1h2cks1czQvdytldz09
- Meeting ID: 949 3210 7255
Passcode: 291639
- via Zoom on a phone: call 1 669 900 9128 and add the Meeting ID and Passcode (above) when prompted
- Facebook Live: Click the link and scroll down until you see our live broadcast.
- Youtube Channel: Click the link. (The service is typically posted on Youtube on the Monday following the service)