Category Archives: From the Rector

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

How Can I Craft You a Cradle?

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Dear Friends,

In these days of diminishing light, it is hard not to grow discouraged about the state of the world. Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Yesterday and today’s newspapers bring accounts of the excessive and immoral torture of terrorist suspects by our own government, prompted by the fear and anxiety in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It is tempting to succumb to the belief that we can do no better, and that ultimately the power of evil will prevail in the world.

As we move through Advent, we are invited to become expectant, hopeful, and even joyful. Not always an easy task when we look around at the world.

Some of you know that I write a poem each year for the Advent calendar that I design. In 2001, the poem was composed shortly after the attacks of 9/11.  As I contemplated Advent that year, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be a parent about to bring new life into a world torn apart by terror and violence. I thought of that poem again this week, and offer it below as a meditation for living with the hope of what this season will bring.

Faithfully,

Tom

         Joseph’s Song

How can I craft you a cradle,
O child of my dreams, so soon to be born?images-7
How can I make something worthy,
with hands that are old and wood that is worn?

How can I welcome you, loved one,
when terror and strife still torment the earth?
How, when I cannot protect you,
can I yet rejoice in hope of your birth?

Show me, O child of the Spirit,
how love born anew will overcome death.
Help me to welcome you gladly,
with all of my soul, my life, and my breath.

The Vocation to Which We Are Called

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Dear Friends,

Gunshots are fired in the midst of us, lives are shattered, and we grieve. The community of Charlestown is mourning the death of Ryan Morrissey, a seventeen year old resident who was shot last Wednesday on Main Street along with another teen, who is now recovering. We know that violence permeates so much of the world, but when that violence occurs on the very streets where we live, it can cause us to react with disbelief. This is not the first violent death of a young person in Charlestown; there have been several over the last few years. We pray it will be the last. As a parish, we can pray, and we can join with other groups and individuals who are responding, seeking ways to make the community in which many of live safe for all persons in every part of Charlestown.

A variety of organizations in town, including the Charlestown Mothers Association, St. Mary’s Church, The Charlestown Neighborhood Council, The Townie Association and the Chamber of Commerce are encouraging persons to attend the next Public Safety Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 18 at 6:30 pm at the Charlestown Police Station. St. John’s will be joining these organizations in sending a letter to elected officials stating the community’s readiness to work with the city government to create a safer community.

As Christians, we have a particular vocation to address the violence of our world. We acknowledge as Lord one whose life was ended by violence, and yet one whose way of being in the world was to respond courageously and nonviolently to all those persons and pressures that sought to diminish or destroy human life. It is no easy vocation to which we are called when we follow Christ in this way. But it is our vocation, and our gift to share with the world.

Faithfully,

Tom

Gateways

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Dear Friends,

St. John's baptismal FontThis Sunday, November 2, we celebrate one of the great feast days of the church, All Saints.’ All Saints’ Day is actually November 1, and November 2 is All Souls’ Day on the church calendar. The first day emerged as a time to remember saints and those within the faith community who had died in the previous year. All Souls’ Day developed as a day to remember all of those departed whom we knew and loved. Our celebration on the 2nd will combine both these traditions, as we will see before us the names of so may of our friends and family who have died, and heard read the names of those who have died in the past year.

All Saints’ is also one of the four days recommended by the Prayer Book for baptisms, and we will joyfully welcome new persons into the Body of Christ this Sunday as well.

Often, baptisms occur in the beginning stages of life, and as we recall the saints we remember the endings of life.  Some might describe baptisms and funerals as bookends to a life. But rather than bookends, might we look at them as gateways?

Baptism, once thought of as a necessary sacrament for salvation, is instead a beginning, the welcoming of a person into the Body of Christ, with the promises made to nourish and support that person, and to teach the way of Christ. It is a gateway. And at funerals, even as we grieve our loss, we celebrate the Good News of the resurrection: that even in death there is a beginning, a gateway to union with God that we who remain anticipate with both wonder and hope. There too, a gateway.

God embraces the whole of our lives; our beginnings and our endings. That is reason enough to come gladly to church to offer our praise and thanksgiving for all the portals through which we will pass, in this life and in the life to come.

Faithfully,

Tom

 

Are We Ready?

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Dear Friends,

“Will you show Father Tom how you get ready for Godly Play?” That was the question Rachel Johnston, our Godly Play teacher, asked our children when I joined them for part of their Godly Play class. Each and every child quickly got a carpet square, and together they arranged them in a circle.  Within moments, they were seated, ready, and all eyes were focused on me.  I was delighted to be with them. And I was reminded of how the Godly Play curriculum helps our children to understand that they can take an active role in preparing themselves each week for exploring the wonder of the stories of our faith.

It is  7:55 or 9:55 on a Sunday morning, and you have just settled yourself into the pew for Sunday worship. Are you ready? At the center of our life each week is the great gift of our common worship. I know it can be hard to get to church on time, let alone five or ten minutes ahead of time. But the way we enter into worship can have a substantial effect on the way we then worship. I hope you will consider the time before the start of the service to be a time of worship as well – preparing yourself for the gracious and mysterious encounter between God and God’s people.

What are some of the ways we can get ready? At both the 8 and 10 am services, I am asking everyone involved in preparing for or leading the worship service, to “be ready” fifteen minutes before the service. We would like the altar area to be free from distractions in the time leading up to the opening of the service.  My hope is that those 15 minutes can be a time of quiet prayer and meditation for all those who enter.

We have moved the start time of our children’s programming to 9:45. That change not only benefits our children, but gives parents a little more time to get their “carpet squares” ready – that is to say, to come into church and settle themselves before the prelude begins.

You will also note at the 10 am service that we are inviting persons to adopt an attitude of quiet once the prelude has begun. This is not about making church feel stuffy or serious, and it is not about regarding the  prelude as a performance piece. Rather, it is to create a space and a place where we can begin to let go of whatever distracts us or keeps us from fully offering ourselves to God and to each other in the act of worship.

I know you won’t be bringing your carpet square to church on Sunday. But I do hope you you will bring your full self, and whatever it is that you need to do so that you can be ready; ready to worship God in the beauty of holiness, with gladness and singleness of heart.

Faithfully,

Tom

 

Concerns of the Community

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Dear Friends,

How does one define a community? There are many ways. One could define it by the people who inhabit it, or by geographical lines that circumscribe it. Everyone knows that Charlestown has always had a strong sense of community, and it is a community  that has often been significantly affected  by decisions made beyond its borders.  To cite just one example: the construction of the Mystic River Bridge (now the Tobin Bridge) resulted in the loss of a number of residences and dramatically changed that part of Charlestown bordering the Navy Yard. Those old enough to remember that time will also recall that the Rev. Wolcott Cutler, sometime rector of St. John’s, was instrumental in preventing the planned access ramps to the new highway from destroying the historic Training Field.

Many in Charlestown are now reacting to the decision to approve the Everett site for a casino in eastern Massachusetts. Opposition in Charlestown to this decision is not simply an example of “NIMBY” – not in my backyard. You do not need to live in Charlestown to be concerned about implications of this project. We all belong to a larger community, and all of us will be affected by the growth of casino gambling in the Commonwealth, regardless of where a building is located.

Over the last few years, Episcopalians in Massachusetts have consistently opposed the expansion of casino gambling, in particular because of its effects on the poor and those susceptible to addiction. Both the  Diocese of Massachusetts and the Diocese of Western Massachusetts passed resolutions at previous diocesan conventions opposing the expansion of gambling in the state. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, representing the entire church, is also on record as as opposing any expansion in gambling.

I cite these decisions not to suggest that they dictate what any of us should believe about this social issue; persons within the larger church and in our parish no doubt have a variety of views. Rather, I mention them to remind us that we are  part of a larger community. That community is the one being formed by Jesus Christ, in which we are always asked to consider how any choice and any decision we make will affect not only us, but especially the least and most vulnerable among  us and around us.

Faithfully,

Tom