Church of St. John the Evangelist, Stockport, NY

Words on Emerging Church

2006-03-23T19:29:00.000-05:00

This link leads to interesting observations on the emerging church (emerging conversation as Mclaren prefers to call it) in America and across the pond...

Are the English really more comfortable than Americans with post-modernism? I'm not sure because I haven't been there recently but Americans aren't fans of many philosophies.

Lent Program

2006-03-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, March 22, The Rev. Joshua Brower, Justice for Children International, 6 p.m. prayer and meal, program at 7 p.m. Josh has just returned from a trip to Cambodia where he saw first-hand aid to protect children from trafficking. Here's a link to a Lifetime movie with Myra Sorvino on this subject. Here's another link to an informational website.

A Reality Check

2006-03-03T10:58:00.000-05:00

The community is invited to St. John's

A Reality Check

Wednesday, March 8th, 7 p.m. (Adults)
Wednesday, March 15th 7 p.m. (Adults and middle school / high school youth)

Beth Cozzolino
Columbia County District Attorney

Speaks on the use of the Internet:
What you should know.

The first talk on March 8th is geared especially for adults. The talk on March 15th is for families especially with kids in middle school and high school.

There is no charge.

Towards understanding an anti-religious stance

2006-01-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting post.

While I haven't actually had any conversations locally with people who strongly advocate a non-religious stance, I have heard about it in the news. Around here if someone is anti-religious we just don't talk about it.

But I do think that religious people need to know what others think about religion -- that, for instance, it has a checkered history. This isn't so hard to learn. When I watched HBO's Carnivale the officially religious person was the clear villian and he seemed little more than a cardboard character.

I watched Dawson's Creek and the religious aunt was painful to behold... it took quite a while for her to seem anything more than a fussy, prim... rather puritanical lady. Eventually one began to see that she was a human being struggling with the challenges of living with and loving a troubled niece.

I've come to my acceptance of Christ and Christianity through life lived and suffered, with the questions that come. I've found extraordinary responses to these questions. They are responses worth living with, questioning them with all my heart and mind... and never made to believe that questioning God or man is bad. Quite the contrary I am challenged to get beyond my own status quo.

Funeral Service for Barb Rousseau

2005-12-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

Barb Rousseau died early this morning, Thursday, Dec. 22. Valenti & Richards Funeral Directors... wake, Friday, Dec. 23rd, Valenti & Richards (Town Hall Road). Burial Mass for the Dead, Saturday, Dec. 24th, 1 p.m. at St. John's.

Condolences to Mike. Memorials to St. John's.

Christmas Services

2005-12-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

Worship with us Christmas

Christmas Eve
7 p.m. The Holy Eucharist and the Giving Tree, the Varriale Sisters singing
(Bring a gift if your child is not a part of the Sunday School, give it to an usher to place under the tree.)
10:30 p.m. Festival of Carols
11:00 p.m Mass of the Nativity, Eric Hofmanis, guitarist
Christmas Day
10 a.m. Holy Eucharist

On leaving the charismatic church

2005-09-28T20:26:00.000-04:00

Here's an article I found interesting and well written... and it might well raise some questions we can get to later.

Extraordinary article: Dancing with Terrorists

2005-09-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a piece worth thinking about.

More on the aftermath of Katerina

2005-09-01T09:55:00.000-04:00

Here's New Orleans on the August 30th.

Episcopal Relief and Development may be reached at this site where donations may be made directly.

And here is a prayer from Fr. Jake's site.

A prayer offered by Renee Miller;

O God, we remember when the disciples of Jesus were terrified after a long night on a turbulent sea. When they cried to you for help, you stilled the sea and brought them to safety. We ask now that you comfort and still the hearts of those suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. We pray for those who have been displaced and who now must return to homes destroyed or damaged by the storm. We pray for those whose lives were lost and for those who now must grieve the loss of a loved one. We pray for those who are attempting to offer help and relief to victims. While we wonder why such devastation can occur, where lives and property can seem held so capriciously in the hand of what is uncontrollable, we know, O God, that you count every hair on our head and that our names are written on the palm of your hand. Let your loving grace wash over those who must now face damaged lives, homes, and possessions. Hold them close to yourself until they are sure of the security of your loving embrace. Calm their hearts and still their souls, O Lord. We ask this for the sake of your love. AMEN.

News on Katerina... the hurricane

2005-08-30T13:46:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to events near Biloxi...

Here's an interesting story of Discovery

2005-08-25T09:18:00.000-04:00

This is a startling story (to me) how a group of young people became something very much the opposite of Lord of the Flies... not that they were caught on an island, but they might as well have been. Sure, it's Scotland... Aberdeen more specifically.

On Conversation

2005-08-23T09:56:00.000-04:00

Here's a short post on the future of conversation.

George Davis Birthday

2005-08-23T09:29:00.000-04:00

George is celebrating his 80th birthday Saturday. Here's the plan: A Note to the Parish,

On Saturday, August 27, the Columbia County Country Dancers will celebrate George Davis’ 80th birthday. There will be a picnic at our home in the afternoon and continuing with a dance in the evening, at the parish hall.
You are invited to attend all or part of the celebration - it will be great fun.

Included in the festivites will be a very special event, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, an ancient (1125) ceremony of “deer running,” once a mid-winter ritual of the hunt and cycling of the year. It is still danced annually at the village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire. Eight men, holding antlers above their heads, and accompanied by the traditional folk Fool, the Man-Woman, Hobby Horse and Boy Hunter, symbolically process through the village and outlying farms, “bringing in the luck.”

With our lovely English church as a backdrop, the dancers will recreate this mysterious ritual of quiet figures and gentle clashes of horns, to the strains of a haunting tune. I hope that you can drop by around 8pm to catch this performance. Bring your cameras!

Fondly, Margherita Davis

For more information, call me at 828-6181

Little Giddings and Nicholas Ferrar

2005-07-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

Here's something wonderful that lives at the root of the Episcopal Church and which we, who live in Columbia County, one of the beautiful counties of rural New York, might have a special feeling for.

Egyptian Bloggers Anyone?

2005-07-25T10:05:00.000-04:00

Here's more of what I hope are encouraging signs in grassroots action against terrorism.

A Report on Human Trafficking

2005-07-21T09:32:00.000-04:00

This has been appearing more and more in the news. Check this out if you want to know more about it.

Important perspective on London Blast

2005-07-08T15:43:00.000-04:00

Here's a Muslim reaction to the blast in London last week.

Moms, dads and children

2005-06-27T12:28:00.000-04:00

One thing that I've been discovering over the year past since meeting my birthmom in December is that being adopted has made a big difference to me. It shaped my life in ways that I was only half-aware of. For instance, it seems a little silly to say, but I had heard that my mom was a nurse. So, for years as I would visit a hospital, I would look for a Japanese nurse... someone who might be my mom. Now obviously this was purely irrational since I live in NY and the likelihood of encountering her at Columbia Memorial Hospital was really nil. But it was on that level that so much of the effect of adoption lay.

Today, reading Maggi Dawn's blog, she posted a reference to this article. I've posted a copy of this to adoption.com here. This woman's story is unusual in that she finally did keep her child. Tragically, she completed suicide last week.

Many dear members of the adoption.com forum are birthmoms who gave up their children under duress... with the thought that doing so would enable them to move on with their lives and provide the best opportunities for their children. The reality proved much more complicated than that.

I've always considered myself Liberal

2005-06-27T12:12:00.000-04:00

I've always considered myself liberal, but here's a post from AKMA, Prof. Adams, at Seabury-Western Seminary that says why not to be labeled as a liberal.

Disturb us, Lord...

2005-06-21T10:28:00.000-04:00

Disturb us, Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;
when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess
we have lost our thirst for the Waters of Life;
having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity;
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly -
to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery;
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask you push back the horizons of our hopes,
and to push us in the future with strength, courage, hope and love.

Thank you Maggi Dawn

Diocese of Albany, Convention 2005

2005-06-10T13:07:00.000-04:00

Victoria Engel, Sue Kelly-Engel, Clyde & Ellen Schrader, Janie-Sue Clements, Beth & I are leaving for Convention this afternoon. Four of us are staying at the Algonquin Motel in Wells, Vickie, Sue and Janie-Sue are staying at Camp of the Woods.

The Emerging Church

2005-04-20T09:57:00.000-04:00

The name Emerging Church is associated with several people, Brian Mclaren, Peter Ward, Dan Kimball, Andrew Jones and of course many others... including one local link. It appears to be a movement ... a term, by the way, that many emergers do not use about emergent church... that is trying to proclaim the gospel in a fresh, non-dogmatic way. This is getting them in heaps of trouble with some Evangelical groups who say that Emergent doesn't really stand for anything at all. From what I read... including Maggi Dawn's site... emerging Church represents a sort of good intention and a reaction to certain forms of evangelism.

I am interested in learning more about it... and meeting some of its representatives. I plan to do so Monday, April 25th at Professor Java's Coffee Sanctuary. (Sounds a little sixties.)

It's been a time of blessings

2005-03-31T16:46:00.000-05:00

Sorry to have been away for a while here. What with Holy Week... the seder meal, Maundy Thursday, the watch, Good Friday... then Easter... followed hard by Terry Proper's death on Monday morning, the funeral Tuesday, the birth of Emily to Adam and Marsha on Tuesday... and my recent writings on two Adoption.com forums... forum one and two ... the final session on S.T. Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit... I have not had anything to add to this blog.

I should, however, tell you if I can at least a little more about Gilead, the novel by Marilynne Robinson. I'm a pushover I think for stories about preacher's kids. I loved Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It... which deals with two boys who grow up in Montana under the guiding hand of their father a Presbyterian minister. This is also about the children of pastors. Human life is deep and rich; and what a father or mother can do with their children is lovingly noted and at times amusingly told. I leave that for you to find out for yourself. Sorry.

Oh, and it looks like March is going out like a lamb.

Holy Week

2005-03-24T16:07:00.000-05:00

Maundy Thursday service, 6:30 p.m. followed by watch
Good Friday, 6:30 p.m.
Easter.... 9:30 a.m. followed by egg hunt.

Marilynne Robinson, author of Gilead

2005-03-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

Gilead is an excellent novel about a congregational pastor in Iowa, near Kansas in the first half of the twentieth century. Robinson has insight into preachers life and mind. Read more about Robinson in this interview.

Rest in Peace Irene

2005-03-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

Readings today: Isaiah 61:1-3
2 Corinthians 4
John 14:1-6

Isaiah's words struck me, as my own... the brokenhearted, those in captivity and prison... the message wasn't just to the grieving family, but me and to everyone with a broken heart, everyone in captivity or prison. And who in some way isn't?

When was my heart broken? Was it when my brother died in August 1966? Or was it later...? I simply know that at some point it was indeed broken. I cannot trace its causes for certain, yet today, when I read Isaiah, I knew without question it was referring to myself. And I know pretty certainly that it refers to us. (Are there exceptions? Perhaps there are those without broken hearts.) The words of binding, of healing, of setting free, are also ours. That is a gospel that is ours.

So all of us gathered to remember Irene came with common features, with a common humanity: a humanity that knows brokenheartedness, that knows its captivities, its prisons... its faint spirit. And we came together from places diverse... from varieties of worship, prayer and preaching... and it is the same good news that we hear. It is hope held immediately with the knowledge of being a human being with a broken heart.

Babylon 5 Saves

2005-03-14T08:17:00.000-05:00

1) Tami Bogausch reminded me Sunday morning when she spoke to the congregation that we learn valuable things from sometimes surprising places. Check out this site ... those of you that are Sci-Fi buffs... and if you're not, maybe you'd like just a glimpse... or if you know that you couldn't stand it... tell us who you've learned from...

2) Wake for Irene today at McDonald Funeral Home, 2 -4 and this evening 7 - 9. I plan to be at the early wake.

3) Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit... Letter VI today... and the last meeting until further notice. Christ Church Hudson, 7 p.m.

4) Funeral Mass for Irene, Tomorrow (Tuesday), 11 a.m. at St. John's. Reception to follow afterwards.

5) Lenten Program, 6 p.m., The Rev. Barbara Morgan: Faith and Life in a Time of Violence and Misunderstanding.

Tag Sale and Chicken BBQ

2005-03-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

Saturday... We'll be busy... Tag Sale, 9 - 3 and BBQ from noon til four. (BBQ take-outs or eat-in)

Irene Rubino

2005-03-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

Irene Rubino died yesterday, Thursday, in her sleep. Irene was 89 and said that she sat in the same pew since she was twelve. She hasn't come to church much in the past year because it had gotten harder and harder to get ready in time. She was always the one to be washing dishes in the kitchen. Farewell Irene.

Wake at McDonald Funeral Home, Monday, March 14, 2 - 4 and 7 - 9 p.m.
Funeral Service, St. John's, Tuesday, March 15, 11 a.m.

Tuesday Lent Program ... Postponed

2005-03-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

We have yet another snow storm on Tuesday, for current weather click here. Program Postponed till next week. Next Tuesday, March 15: The Rev. Barbara Morgan, Faith and Your Life in a Time of Violence and Misunderstanding. Please join us then at 6 p.m. for soup, program and prayer.

Parish Events March 7 thru 12

2005-03-03T11:13:00.000-05:00

Where is St. John's? Click here.

Monday: reading Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, Christ Church Hudson, 7 p.m. Letter V.

Tuesday: The Rev. Barbara Morgan, rector, St. John in the Wilderness, Copake Falls. Faith and Life in a time of violence and misunderstanding, 6 p.m.

Saturday: Tag sale: 9 - 3 p.m., Saturday, accepting donations now, no appliances or furniture; accepting clothing in good condition and other small items. Drop off at parish hall. Call Joan Strattman (828-3465) or Ellen Schrader (828-2595 day).

Chicken BBQ: 12 - 4 p.m., tickets $8.50. Help needed. "You’ve tried the rest, now try the best."

Coming up:

Mar. 15th The Rev. Susan Baker-Borgeson, rector, Christ Church, Coxsackie
Mar. 23rd, Seder Meal: hosted by St. John’s for the deanery.

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit V

2005-03-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit was written in the 1820's by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This book group has been meeting since January and we have now read the first four letters of the book. To my delight it seems a timely read; timely because we live in a time when attitudes, thoughts and feelings towards and about the Bible, are passionate... at least in these woods. And, from my vantage, troublesome. Why troublesome? One issue readers. There's a host of people who never seem to say a word about the Bible, who won't come to a Bible study... suddenly seem passionately concerned about Biblical truth and who know absolutely what the Bible says.

How is this possible? There is a fantasy... a sort of superstition about the Bible... that when I passionately believe something and I find it in my Bible, then IT MUST BE TRUE. The crucial thing is that what is concluded begins not with any reading of the scripture, but with one's feeling and thinking... and the scripture comes second as a means of verification. But this sequence is not noticed or if it is, it is not deemed important. In fact, it is important. No, a true reader has read. Considered. Re-read. Talked. In community. And more likely than not has found much that is useless -- but at least they READ.

This Tuesday Night

2005-02-28T16:49:00.000-05:00

PROGRAM POSTPONED... DUE TO WEATHER

Lenten Programs: Tuesday evenings, soup served at 6 p.m. followed by speaker

Tuesday, Mar. 1st, The Rev. Barbara Morgan, rector, St. John in the Wilderness, Copake Falls. Faith and Life in a time of violence and misunderstanding

Where is St. John's? Click here.

Coming up:
Mar. 8th, The Rev. Clint Dugger, priest-in-charge, Church of Our Savior, New Lebanon.
Mar. 15th The Rev. Susan Baker-Borgeson, rector, Christ Church, Coxsackie
Mar. 23rd, Seder Meal: hosted by St. John’s for the deanery.

(Mar 12th) Tag sale: 9 - 3 p.m., Saturday, accepting donations now, no appliances or furniture; accepting clothing in good condition and other small items. Drop off at parish hall. Call Joan Strattman (828-3465) or Ellen Schrader (828-2595 day).
(Mar 12th) Chicken BBQ: 12 - 4 p.m., tickets $8.50. Help needed. "You’ve tried the rest, now try the best."

Powerless in Ourselves?

2005-02-27T19:30:00.000-05:00

"Almighty God, you know that we are powerless in ourselves to help ourselves..." But do we?

Basically, no. Or if we do, we don't find it easy to follow through. Or, at least, I don't. The key here, and the problem in the language of the collect, lies in the word "help". We do help ourselves all the time. I help myself to a drink. Getting gas, I use self-service. But the true sense of this is disclosed by the tulip bulb. Yes. That tuber that is planted four to six inches in the deep brown earth.

There, hidden in the dark, warmed and wetted it sprouts and with levity rises to the surface, breaks into the light. Happy and young, itself, becoming itself as it is meant to become. It hasn't helped itself do that, but placed as it was in that wonderful, nutritious community of wet, warmth and light it grows. It's help was that, was always that, and it never was confused as are we.

And my help? I am my own tuber (my individual, mature independence).... free from the light, warmth and wet.... storable in the dark, cool and dry... that is my independence. I am become free. In that I become potential, but not yet actually who I am to become. That requires help from the greater community: the fire, the earth, the water and the light of the world.

But then, we too are to become the light of the world, and a well of water, springing up to eternal life. So we are not help to ourselves, but the world.

Things Coming Up

2005-02-22T09:20:00.000-05:00

Lenten Programs: Tuesday evenings, soup served at 6 p.m. followed by speaker

Tonight: Feb. 22nd, The Rev. John Perry, rector, Christ Church, Hudson. Fr. Perry will be talking on "Faith and Your Life." Where are we? Click here.

Mar. 1st, The Rev. Barbara Morgan, rector, St. John in the Wilderness, Copake Falls.
Mar. 8th, The Rev. Clint Dugger, priest-in-charge, Church of Our Savior, New Lebanon.
Mar. 15th The Rev. Susan Baker-Borgeson, rector, Christ Church, Coxsackie
Mar. 23rd, Seder Meal: hosted by St. John’s for the deanery.

(Mar 12th) Tag sale: 9 - 3 p.m., Saturday, accepting donations now, no appliances or furniture; accepting clothing in good condition and other small items. Drop off at parish hall. Call Joan Strattman (828-3465) or Ellen Schrader (828-2595 day).
(Mar 12th) Chicken BBQ: 12 - 4 p.m., tickets $8.50. Help needed. "You’ve tried the rest, now try the best."

Abraham's revolution

2005-02-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

Abraham turned religion on its head when he accepted with conviction a future vision rather than a re-enactment from the past. A seventy-five year old married man, without issue, promised to become the father of many nations, asked to leave his home in Haran, hears in the voice of the Lord a sound that rings true. Now the focus of divine action lay with a man and his family. There was no evidence for its reality, no weighty social support, no large number of children. And with his conviction lay the transformation of the religious impulse of the ages. Religion, true obedience, didn't lie in the imitation of the creating acts of the gods. We hardly notice his revolution today.

As a child of Abraham I too am oriented toward the future, towards promises that have an already and not yet character. They are already realized, but not yet fully realized. I know them and their fruits, and I know myself embedded in the wilderness... a sort of wild world, sometimes frightening world. The wind howls, the sun shines, it hurts and irritates me like someone trying to wake me from a sleep of ages.

Snow at Sunset

2005-02-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

Snow at Sunset, originally uploaded by StJohns.

A very colorful sunset with snow falling with a blue sky.

On Fasting in Lent

2005-02-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

Here's something nicely put, "So the Lent discipline of giving up small things for a while - meat or sweets or some such thing – is not for the purpose of self-improvement, or self-abasement; not to save ourselves or to earn our own forgiveness. Christian doctrine teaches us that we cannot save ourselves, and that we cannot earn our own salvation. The purpose of such small disciplines is that we learn to live in such a way that we become attuned – spiritually and mentally – to matters of greater importance. Learning discipline in small things makes it possible for us to learn to be wise, and to be sufficiently intuitive to the still small voice of God, that when there is a risk worth taking, and a sacrifice worth making, we are poised and ready to take it. Lazy minds and comfortable spirits don’t make for world-changing personalities."

Every year I stuggle with what to give up... and, frankly, I find myself giving something up the day before Palm Sunday. Yet the idea that we are preparing ourselves ... to listen, to attend, to think and respond, become something we haven't yet been seems good, seems right on.

Lent Programs

2005-02-16T11:12:00.000-05:00

You are cordially invited to come next Tuesday, Feb. 22, 6 p.m, for soup dinner and to meet The Rev. Barbara Morgan, rector, St. John in the Wilderness, Copake Falls. The Rev. Morgan came to St. John's in 1998 from Michigan. She was educated at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. We welcome her.

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit IV

2005-02-14T17:53:00.000-05:00

No meeting this evening at Christ Church Hudson. See you next Monday, Feb 21, 7 p.m. (We're reading Letter III.)

It's not navel gazing!

2005-02-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

Self-examination, not medical, but "spiritual," is really more like looking at the world around you and thinking to yourself, "I am partly responsible for all that. I'm not totally sure how, yet, or to what exact degree, but that is not completely alien to me." Relationships show this to me first, before other, more difficult objects that fall in my eventual view. Maybe that's because I tend to notice them, notice their incompleteness, their immediacy and ever changing nature. They stand out, moving, changing.

I said thus and such. He said, so and so. I considered saying, x, y, z; but decided to say nothing. Then "crack". And sometimes I'm not even sure I saw something happen between us. Sometimes I am sure.

So here is one area in which there are details galore for self-examination. How am I to learn? Open my eyes, notice, consider what I see.

It's a pancake supper!

2005-02-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

It's not a mouse, originally uploaded by StJohns.

Kyra's spoon is about to take a dive.

Ash Wednesday & Shrove Tuesday

2005-02-07T10:35:00.000-05:00

Ash Wednesday liturgy -- the administration of ashes and Holy Eucharist, 6:30 p.m.

Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Supper, $3 suggested donation, 6 p.m. (Bring your Palm branches to be burned)

Preparing ashes for Ash Wednesday: Meeting with the Sunday School children at 5 p.m., Tuesday

The Palm Branch (The story from Palm Sunday, John 12 & select verses)
Stories about fire in the Bible:
A story where fire did not consume: Exodus 3 ff.
Elijah and fire: The Kings Men, 2 Kings 1 ff, The Priest's of Baal, 1 Kings 18:20-40
Daniel and the furnace, Daniel 3 ff.
Analogies with fire: see Proverbs 26:18, 19 & 20.

The ash: "you are dust and to dust you shall return."

Things Coming Up

2005-02-03T09:17:00.000-05:00

(Feb 8th) Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Supper, volunteers needed! 6 p.m. dinner will be served, $3 suggested donation, children under 10, free.
(Feb 9th) Ash Wednesday Service, 6:30 p.m., administration of ashes and Holy Eucharist.
(Feb 15th) Tuesday, area Healing Service, St. Stephen’s, Delmar, 7 p.m with Nigel Mumford leading the service.
(Mar 12th) Tag sale: 9 - 3 p.m., Saturday, accepting donations now, no appliances or furniture; accepting clothing in good condition and other small items. Drop off at parish hall. Call Joan Strattman (828-3465) or Ellen Schrader (828-2595 day).
(Mar 12th) Chicken BBQ: 12 - 4 p.m., tickets $8.50. Help needed. "You’ve tried the rest, now try the best."

Lenten Programs: Tuesday evenings, soup served at 6 p.m. followed by speaker
Feb. 22nd, The Rev. Barbara Morgan, rector, St. John in the Wilderness
Mar. 1st, The Rev. John Perry, rector, Christ Church, Hudson
Mar. 8th, The Rev. Clint Dugger, priest-in-charge, Church of Our Savior, New Lebanon
Mar. 15th The Rev. Susan Baker-Borgeson, rector, Christ Church, Coxsackie
Mar. 23rd, Seder Meal: hosted by St. John’s for the deanery.

Are you too hurried?

2005-01-31T16:52:00.000-05:00

Check out this link. I think it's great. (Hat tip to Maggi Dawn.)

Sunday Readings

2005-01-26T21:07:00.000-05:00

The readings for Sunday, January 30 can be found here.

Youth supporting the Domestic Violence Shelter

2005-01-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Looking for donations of the following items for the Columbia-Greene Domestic Violence Shelter: toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo (adult and child), soap, washcloths, deodorant, combs, appointment books, hats, gloves and scarves (women and children), arts and crafts, washable crayons, activity books, crossword puzzle books, greeting cards, stationary, prepaid calling cards, appropriate vhs videos or dvds.

Donations will be collected for the next two weeks: please bring to the parish hall or to church on Sunday January 30 or February 6.

Thank you, The Youth Group

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit III

2005-01-26T07:55:00.000-05:00

For a downloadable copy of The Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit click here. It is available in many formats free of charge thanks to the Project Guttenberg.

Next meeting of this winter book group, Monday, January 31, 7 p.m. at Christ Church Hudson.

Night and Day

2005-01-24T15:38:00.000-05:00

For anyone interested in reading more on the theme of Night and Day try Novalis' Hymns to the Night.

"Before all the wondrous shows of the widespread space around him, what living, sentient thing loves not the all-joyous light -- with its colors, its rays and undulations, its gentle omnipresence in the form of the wakening Day?"

And later,

"Must the morning always return? Will the despotism of the earthly never cease? Unholy activity consumes the angel-visit of the Night. Will the time never come when Love's hidden sacrifice shall burn eternally? To the Light a season was set; but everlasting and boundless is the dominion of the Night. -- Endless is the duration of sleep. Holy Sleep -- gladden not too seldom in this earthly day-labor, the devoted servant of the Night. Fools alone mistake thee, knowing nought of sleep but the shadow which, in the twilight of the real Night, thou pitifully castest over us. They feel thee not in the golden flood of the grapes -- in the magic oil of the almond tree -- and the brown juice of the poppy. They know not that it is thou who hauntest the bosom of the tender maiden, and makest a heaven of her lap -- never suspect it is thou, opening the doors to Heaven, that steppest to meet them out of ancient stories, bearing the key to the dwellings of the blessed, silent messenger of secrets infinite."

It is probably a difficult read, but wonderful.

Rest in Peace Marguerite Martin

2005-01-24T15:26:00.000-05:00

Born July 20, 1911; died January 18, 2005

Burial was today at Cedar Park Cemetery, Hudson. Daughter, Phyllis and son, Bob were present with other family members. Grandson, Randy Martin, offered a reminiscence.

Readings at the service

Lamentations 3:22-26,31-33

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

For the Lord will not reject forever. Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

1 John 3:1-2

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

John 14:1-6

Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

The Lamentations I seldom use because of its reference to "God may punish cruelly..." in the RSV (not, I notice, the NRSV which is the version used in these quotations.)

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit

2005-01-23T21:36:00.000-05:00

The winter book group will be reading Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. Written in the form of six letters to a young man Coleridege faces a still current question for readers of the Bible. How are we to consider the Word of God? Is every word God's? Or was inspiration given to a human being (or rather a number of people, over many ages), who then responded to it as a writer, making the Bible a collection of inspired books in a way similar to inspired books of later generations? Coleridge believes that the former position is wrong and in fact not even consistently held by those who claim it.

Reading the Bible, for Coleridge, is serious and wonderful. And his little book can help readers today find a way to the Bible that is also serious, wonderful and humane.

Our first meeting is tomorrow night, Monday, January 24th at Christ Church Hudson. You don't need to have the book. Order it for next week. Click on the link above or order it as a group (to save on postage) tomorrow night.

Call if you have any questions, 828-3925, my office or 828-6016 at home.

NIght and Day

2005-01-23T17:51:00.000-05:00

The readings for this Sunday get at in various ways the theme of night and day. The Psalm is explicit:

If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, *
and the light around me turn to night,"
11: Darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day; *
darkness and light to you are both alike.

Paul's letter is more indirect. The quarrelsomeness of the people, the daily squabbling ways of those young Christians, points, maybe, to their benightedness. The Gospel's Galilee of the Gentiles, a people who have walked in darkness, is also the sort of reference I mean. The day dawns for them. These themes of night and day blend seamlessly with dark and light.
We too live in the alternations of night and day. Our days are full of tasks and plans, intentions and waking consciousness. There is light and direction, perception of things and their identification. Then night comes with our day's habitual plannings: change of wardrobe, rituals of cleansing, resting before lights out. Darkness. With darkness comes a quiet and then, we hope, sleep. In that sleep is a disappearance of the world and self in a sort of darkness we do not know except in retrospect. There are perhaps many darknesses.
Leading up to that vanishing were wonderful things when I was a child. When I was little there were the creatures under my bed that had to be checked before sleep. They were the protectors, friends and guides of the night wanderings. Comforting assurances. My father told me about them years later. I have completely forgotten their reality now and it is only by the remembrance of his stories that I know it at all. They were like the navigator's starry friends.
Falling asleep was a time of quiet, a sort of personal time that was only mine. It couldn't be spoken of. It was silent, imaginative, wondering; it was dark, but not frightening. The night had its own tasks. It did its work in its making of me. As does the day.
Now, as an adult, the day is more my maker. It follows me to bed sometimes, especially when worried or anxious. The day shapes me and provides the context of my meetings. The inner silence where the imagination works remains, but is often pressed itself into silence by the pressure of the things around me. Day is harsh and tiring; in a way it's light presses into me like darkness. And all the things I see are disconnected, unrelated and I am pushed into a corner. Everywhere I turn it is the same sight.
If you have ever walked through the woods in the deep darkness you might have felt a strange pressure on your head, as though the darkness had weight and its fantasies, its headless horsemen, rode nearby, rode along your trail. Darkness presses and so does day. Both in that respect are alike. But the friends of day, its guiding stars, the under the bed friends, what are they?
They are words. Imageless, without anything more than sound, except meaning. Spoken by a stranger, maybe, or a friend. A word, a sentence. Darkness full of sound. In that darkness are lightless stars for the navigating voyager of the day. Not every word, but some word, spoken or read, sometime, somewhere. Inspired words are the night in the day.

2005-01-23T11:34:00.001-05:00

What Church Looked Like Today at 9:30 a.m.

2005-01-23T11:34:00.000-05:00

Sunday, January 23, 2005: Blizzard Clears!

Sunday Morning Blizzard

2005-01-23T08:33:00.000-05:00

Breaking through the snow plowed off the road was the most exciting thing about getting into the parking lot today! It's powdery and light. On the other hand I almost got caught by a drift of snow once in.

Service? Yes<:) 9:30 a.m. or so.

Forecast: Bad Weather this Sunday

2005-01-22T12:40:00.000-05:00

In the past fourteen years, one blizzard closed us on Sunday. This one might be another, but I plan to be here. If you can safely get out and get in to the parking lot... and me too... we will see each other. Here's a link to the local weather.

From the Song of Creation:

Glorify the Lord, O chill and cold, *
drops of dew and flakes of snow.

Frost and cold, ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Elected to Vestry

2005-01-19T23:50:00.000-05:00

Sue Engel, Junior Warden, second term
Clyde Schrader, vestry, first term
Tami Bogausch, vestry, first term
Janie-Sue Clements, vestry, first term

The vestry term lengths will be determined by drawing straws at our next vestry meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 1st. One term each, 1, 2 and 3 yr.

2005-01-17T19:32:00.000-05:00

Joan & Tim

2005-01-17T19:31:00.000-05:00

Hello!

2005-01-17T19:28:00.000-05:00

With Poinsettias

Nominated to serve on vestry

2005-01-13T13:53:00.000-05:00

Nominated are:

Sue Engel, junior warden, second term

Alice Hoffman, vestry, second term (3 yr)
Clyde Schrader, first term
Tami Bogausch, first term
Janie-Sue Clements, first term

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit

2005-01-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

The winter book group will be reading Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. Written in the form of six letters to a young man Coleridege faces a still current question for readers of the Bible. How are we to consider the Word of God? Is every word God's? Or was inspiration given to a human being, who then responded to it as a writer, making the Bible a collection of inspired books in a way similar to inspired books of later generations? Coleridge believes that the former position is wrong and in fact not even consistently held by those who claim it.

Reading the Bible, for Coleridge, is serious and wonderful. And his little book can help readers today find a way to the Bible that is also serious, wonderful and humane.

Meeting for the first time at Christ Church Hudson, 7 p.m., Monday, January 24th.

2005-01-10T19:21:00.000-05:00

The Church

"Objective"

2005-01-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

This is what I mean by "objective."

The Sunday School started a new project this last week.

"If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night," darkness is not dark to you, O Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike." Psalm 139:10,11

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

"I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall." Psalm 16:7,8

1) Each person tell a story about darkness and night.
2) Each person write a description of the night as they see it outside their home.
3) Bedtime prayers: talk about prayers they may use at night. Offer suggestions.

The thought here is to move beyond the lectionary based curriculum that we had been using. Find something that resonated with my own sense of wonder. The night has always been a good place for me to start. Even now, no longer a child, the night comes with wonder; with rest, and the approach of sleep, comes a natural pause. It is a moment for reflection on good days and on those tired, wired nights, a simple and direct disappearance. I vanish every night.

Anyway, the night is part of the wonder that I want our children to take note of. Let them hear adults talk about it, with them.

Welcome aboard

2005-01-10T11:53:00.000-05:00

This post marks the beginning of a weblog for our parish. What is a weblog for a parish? It is a journal of our life together, recorded by the rector. Objective? As much as possible. Focus? Things done, doing... things in the works. Subjective? Ideas, intentions are objects for this weblog. Pictures, sometimes. The beginning.

This Sunday, January 16, 2005 the annual meeting

An Order for the Morning

The Liturgy of the Word
The Lessons
The Gospel
The Sermon: a report on the life of the congregation
The Prayers of the People
Calling the meeting to order
Introduce the secretary of the meeting: Alice Hoffman
1) Receive nominations for Junior warden, Vestry members
Nominations may be made from the floor, though the nominee must be present to accept.
2) The ballot is taken
3) Presentation of Resolutions / Vote
Resolve next meeting, third Sunday in January 2005
Presentation of last year’s minutes, accepted by the vestry at its regular meeting on February 10, 2004.
5) The treasurer’s report
6) Presentation of other reports
Senior Warden, Bill Schabot
Reports in Booklet
7) The report of the counters
8) Presentation of Other Business
9) Motion to adjourn meeting
10) Commissioning the wardens and vestry.

Nominated: Sue Engel, Junior Warden, Alice Hoffman, Clyde Schrader, Janie-Sue Clements and Tami Bogausch.

Worship here with us, Sunday mornings, 9:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist.

Church of St. John the Evangelist, Stockport, NY

Words on Emerging Church

Lent Program

A Reality Check

Towards understanding an anti-religious stance

Funeral Service for Barb Rousseau

Christmas Services

On leaving the charismatic church

Extraordinary article: Dancing with Terrorists

More on the aftermath of Katerina

News on Katerina... the hurricane

Here's an interesting story of Discovery

On Conversation

George Davis Birthday

Little Giddings and Nicholas Ferrar

Egyptian Bloggers Anyone?

A Report on Human Trafficking

Important perspective on London Blast

Moms, dads and children

I've always considered myself Liberal

Disturb us, Lord...

Diocese of Albany, Convention 2005

The Emerging Church

It's been a time of blessings

Holy Week

Marilynne Robinson, author of Gilead

Rest in Peace Irene

Babylon 5 Saves

Tag Sale and Chicken BBQ

Irene Rubino

Tuesday Lent Program ... Postponed

Parish Events March 7 thru 12

Where is St. John's? Click here.Monday: reading Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, Christ Church Hudson, 7 p.m. Letter V.

Tuesday: The Rev. Barbara Morgan, rector, St. John in the Wilderness, Copake Falls. Faith and Life in a time of violence and misunderstanding, 6 p.m.

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit V

This Tuesday Night

Powerless in Ourselves?

Things Coming Up

Abraham's revolution

Snow at Sunset

On Fasting in Lent

Lent Programs

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit IV

It's not navel gazing!

It's a pancake supper!

Ash Wednesday & Shrove Tuesday

Things Coming Up

Are you too hurried?

Sunday Readings

Youth supporting the Domestic Violence Shelter

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit III

Night and Day

Rest in Peace Marguerite Martin

Lamentations 3:22-26,31-33

1 John 3:1-2

John 14:1-6

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit

NIght and Day

Sunday Morning Blizzard

Forecast: Bad Weather this Sunday

Elected to Vestry

Nominated to serve on vestry

Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit

"Objective"

Welcome aboard

Where is St. John's? Click here.

Monday: reading Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, Christ Church Hudson, 7 p.m. Letter V.