Pastoral Letter from Bishop Haynes: Jesus Christ Our Living Hope

We don't know, of course, what the summer of 2022 will bring. The landscape of our world is changing and taking unpredictable turns that leave us trying to catch our breath. However, currently, bishops in the Anglican Communion are planning to gather at Lambeth Palace in England next summer for a conference that happens only every ten years. It was scheduled to happen in the summer of 2020 but was postponed due to Covid.

To prepare for our time together, Archbishop Justin Welby has organized a series of Bible studies and conversations around the book of 1 Peter. The theme of the conversations is "God's Church for God's World." Yesterday, I was blessed to gather virtually with about 12 other bishops to discuss I Peter 1:3-9. We were from all over the world (in fact, I was one of only two American bishops on the call) and from many different time zones. Our greetings to each other ranged from "Good Morning!' to "Good Evening!" We didn't know each other but we quickly found brother- and sisterhood in the words of Scripture which we were studying together.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you...(1 Peter 1:3-4)

The question that we were charged to center our conversations around was: "How does the church proclaim Good News in the world when there is so much bad news in the world?" We discussed our different contexts and the bad news that assailed all of us – some were in countries where there is unrest and unstable government, one was from Canada where recently burial grounds were unearthed containing the remains of indigenous residential school children who never returned home, many were confronting the remnants and scourge of slavery, one was facing a suicide pandemic among youth in his diocese, some were facing natural disasters. All of us struggled with the deaths resulting from the pandemic. What, in fact, IS the good news in the face of such bad news?

By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope! Our focus is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the LIVING hope. He is the one that confronts our death-dealing world and conquers it. We must maintain our focus on this living hope. As one indigenous bishop described it – we create a Sacred Circle and put Christ in the middle where everyone can see Him and focus on Him. This is our inheritance. It is undefiled, imperishable, unshakable, unfading. And it is kept for us because we are God's children. This is good news in the face of bad news. We are not defeated – perplexed perhaps, slowed down, stymied a little, but certainly not defeated. The Church is God's Church for the world and we have a mandate from Christ Himself to keep Him first and foremost in the eyes of the world. Jesus Christ is the living hope and death is not the victor. Praying for all of you as you help your church to become God's church for God's world.

Blessings and peace in Christ,

+Susan

St. Andrew's Outreach Center makes a difference in the lives of children

One of our Outreach Center tenants is Families in Transition (FIT). FIT offers children from the neighboring community a safe and encouraging place for virtual learning. “In the last year there have been five shootings and one stabbing in the community these children call home,” said Maura Hampton, program director. “There is no way I can possibly communicate what our program meant to these children, and their parents, in the midst of this increased violence.”

St. Andrew’s Outreach Center helps to make it possible for FIT to provide this programming – art and STEM projects, Bible study, snacks, and a home base for field trips, including Monty’s for ice cream!

 

“We aren’t in a bad place here,” said one student. “When we’re at our houses, there’s a lot of noise. I actually get help here. They make sure I’m okay and believe in me a lot. They also make me finish my work – but in a good way,” said another. 

 

Learn more about FIT at www.fitnn.org.

Harmony of the Lessons

How many times has a sordid story such as this been repeated in history? King David, with his total power over people, moved them around like chess pieces. He sent his general, Uriah, into battle with the hope he would not live. Then he could seemingly innocently marry Uriah’s widow. So easy, so manipulative, so destructive.

The prophet Nathan calls David out in no uncertain terms and pronounces God’s harsh judgment. That is the Old Testament reading this Sunday. The psalm that follows it is David’s response to that judgment. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness…” This is the familiar psalm that is read by everyone on Ash Wednesday.

 

Sometimes there is a harmony connecting our Bible readings. Look for that; it creates a richer church experience.

 

Brad Norris, Minister of Music

A person should...

Have you heard a friend say, “I’m so busy, I can’t keep up and get everything done”?   Often we hear a retiree say, “I don’t know how I had time to work!”

Many of us did “slow down” during the pandemic and have yet to find the energy to “get started again!”  Others kept going “full speed ahead” and thus maybe didn’t have or didn’t take the opportunity to read the book put aside for months, to clean out the clutter of their lives, or to just relax.

Imagine being a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, natural philosopher, diplomat, and civil servant all in one life time.  Such was the life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  In one of his famous quotes, he wrote:

A person should hear a little music, read a little poetry and see a fine picture every day in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.

My prayer for you is a little music, a little poetry, and a little beauty to enrich your soul.                                    

Bill Wilds

Fourth of July, cont'd

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to establish its liberty from tyranny, it becomes necessary for that people to declare the causes which impel them to take such initiative. For us, that meant the formation and adoption of the Declaration of Independence, (from which those words were taken), the Constitution and the Bill of (certain unalienable) Rights which were endowed on us by our Creator with, among other things, life, the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, and the pursuit of happiness. As American citizens, it is not only a privilege, but a civic responsibility - the duty of being a responsible citizen - to become informed and participate in our liberties; government of, by, and for the people.

Also in the course of human events, it became necessary for our Creator to endow us with an even deeper unalienable birthright. As citizens of God's kingdom, our liberty over the tyranny of our own self-imposed alienation from our Creator God was bought at the high cost of Jesus’ blood. It is equally not only a privilege, but the duty of being a responsible citizen of God's kingdom on this earth to offer the precious gift of those liberties - healing, peace, sacramental grace, proclaiming by word and example the good news of God in Christ - not only for our own sake, but for the sake of our posterity.

Marc +