Category Archives: From the Rector

Weekly articles from our Rector published in the News & Notes newsletter.

Giving Thanks for Leaders in Our Midst

Posted on by

Dear Friends,

Tonight, our vestry will be joining those who gather each month for Evensong at 6:30 in the church. Vestry members will be there to pray and prepare for a retreat the following day. We will be meeting as a vestry for most of the day on Saturday to plan for our parish’s future. Our hope is to emerge from the day with themes for a mission statement and a vision for our parish as we look ahead to the next few years.

Vestry members have been reading the results of the parish survey, along with other materials that provide a glimpse of what has been important to us over these last five years. We are excited about all the ways we have been blessed, and yearning to discern more clearly who God is calling us to be.

We will be meeting at Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester from 9 am to 3 pm (it is often good to meet in a different place to get some perspective on the parish we know so well). Our facilitator will be the Rev. Nancy Gossling, a priest in our diocese who has considerable experience leading such retreats.

How can you help? Many of you already have by answering the questions on the parish survey. You can also pray – on Friday evening, even if you cannot join us for Evensong, and on Saturday. Among your prayers, please give thanks for these leaders, who give of their time, talent, and treasure in so many ways to serve God.

Faithfully,

Tom

Members of the 2016 Vestry:

Maureen Lavely, Senior Warden
Bridget Nyhan, Junior Warden
Charlotte Maynard, Treasurer
Jake Sterling, Clerk
Fay Donohue
Matt Haldeman
Whitney Hayden
Doug Heim
Steve Spinetto
Jane Struss
Tom Mousin, Rector

 

Good Advice for the Fall

Posted on by

Dear Friends,

Earlier this week, I sent out to our vestry the agenda for our meeting. It included the topics we needed to cover, as well as the regular calendar of upcoming events. Our Junior Warden, Bridget Nyhan, responded in an email and suggested that we needed to add one more agenda item: “Breathe!”

She noticed that there is much going on, starting tomorrow with the Sidewalk Sale. Don’t forget to take a breath in the midst of it all, she was suggesting. And so I will. And if I needed a reminder, it was provided for me on Thursday evening. I was upstairs in the Parish Hall, getting ready to welcome the Choir back. Last spring, Jane Struss graciously offered to lead the Choir in some breath and movement exercises before each rehearsal, and she was there again this Thursday night. And so I joined in, becoming much more aware of the air I was breathing in and then sending out. I became more aware of the power of breath.  It was a gift, even as Bridget’s reminder was.

It is no small thing the the Hebrew word, ruach, is used in the Hebrew Scriptures for both “breath” and “spirit.” And it is not small thing that Paul in his letter to the Romans can describe the Holy Spirit as interceding for us with “sighs too deep for words.”

I do want to remember to breathe as the fall schedules of work, home and church, are upon me. And I want to remember that with each breath, I can trust more deeply in the Holy Spirit to be present, to guide, to support, and even to cause me to stand still, to stand straight, and to simply, breathe.

Faithfully,

Tom

 

Corners of Holiness

Posted on by

IMG_4336Dear Friends,

Several of you mentioned how much you appreciated the memorial created on Sunday at church for the police officers and young black men who died in acts of violence in our country last week. Sadly, we have had to create too many of those memorials. The Sunday before, flags of Iraq, Turkey, and Bangladesh commemorated lives lost in terrorist attacks in major cities in each of those countries. And just a few weeks before that 49 candles and photographs helped us to pray for the victims of the shootings in Orlando.

While I regret having to create such shrines, I am also struck by how that side corner of the church has become a place of true devotion. Most weeks, three icons – of Jesus, John the Evangelist, and of Mary the Mother of God – provide the central  focus of this side altar. You may pass them unnoticed. Or it may be that  you have been drawn to this corner before or after church for a brief prayer of thanksgiving or petition, before the icons or before the faces of those who have died.

Yes, the main altar in the chancel is a central focus for our worship. It is where we gather each week to meet Christ in the Eucharist. But there are other places of holiness and devotion as well. Just a few years ago, the side area by the door to the garden  was a storage place – a shelf for candlelighters and other things that might be needed in worship. Now the words that once were inscribed over our “high altar” – Holy, Holy, Holy, have become the base of another altar that has transformed a cluttered area into a place of devotion.

It makes me think about corners of my own life that God is seeking to transform. And I wonder if there are parts of your life -neglected areas, or a corner or aspect of your being that has grown cluttered. What is God seeking to make more holy in your life?

As you walk by that side altar in church on Sunday, consider that question. And give thanks that God is continually making all things new, even in the places in our lives where we may least expect it.

Faithfully,

Tom

 

Summertime, and the Livin’ Is…..

Posted on by

IMG_0449Dear Friends,

With summer upon us, schedules often change. George Gershwin suggests that come this season, the living’ is easy. It may not always be easy. At times, commitments to family vacations or projects can make us feel as as busy and over scheduled as ever. At the same time, it is not unusual to find ourselves moving to some different rhythms in July and August. Here at church, it is a quieter time, with no formal formation programs for our children or adults.

But maybe, just maybe, the summer months can open a door to doing something new. If you happen to have a Monday morning free, perhaps you have the time to join Maureen Lavely at the MANNA community. Or wander over to the Cutler Memorial Garden on a Monday evening. If you have never put your fingers into the dirt or tended to a growing plant, you just might discover that you love it. Our B-SAFe ministers, who have created marvelous lunches for the last two summers at St. Luke’s/San Lucas in Chelsea,  would love to have some new persons join them during the last week in July.

And what about Sunday mornings? Maybe the summer is a time to “flip” for a Sunday – if you are a faithful 8 o’clocker, try attending the service at 10. Likewise, if all you know is our worship life at 10 am, discover what it means to worship in the Garden on a sunny Sunday morning at 8 am.

Summertime, and the living’ is……. perhaps easy, perhaps challenging, and just maybe a little different.

Faithfully,

Tom

 

The Bread of Life

Posted on by

IMG_0648

Dear Friends,

Every Sunday, we come to the altar and share a meal. It is the meal that Jesus ate with his disciples on the last night of his life. It is a meal in which we believe that Christ continually gives himself to us in the consecrated bread and wine. We believe that transformation takes place in this meal. We may wonder how ordinary bread and wine becomes Christ’s living presence. But the more miraculous transformation we are invited to consider each week is the transformation that takes place in us. Ordinary human beings, you and me, are fed by Christ so that more and more, we may become the presence of Christ in the world.

I invite you to think of that transformation as you consider two invitations to partake in other meals this summer – with the MANNA community at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and with the B-SAFE summer program at St. Luke’s/San Lucas Episcopal Church in Chelsea. You’ll find the invitations elsewhere on this website. Our nourishment at the altar on Sundays means little if it does not result in our lives becoming the joyful sacrifice that was and is Jesus Christ’s life: an offering of ourselves to the world, for the nourishment of all God’s people.

At the heart of our worship each week is the mystery of ordinary bread and wine becoming the life giving presence of Christ. And that very mystery is then made manifest in ordinary human lives living in extraordinary generous and loving ways. As St. Augustine told those who came to the altar centuries ago: “There is your mystery on the table. Be what you receive.”

Faithfully,

Tom