An Unforgiving Culture

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

We are living in an unforgiving era of knee-jerk judgment. Conclusions are reached instantly and opinions transmitted without delay in response to a picture, a video, a brief news report, or a rumor. Social media seems to amplify our conflict, tempt us to simplistic judgements, and provides a constant platform for moral posturing and partisanship. What we need is relational healing and mutual problem solving, yet both are not well suited to our new normal of relating.

The printing press was a crucial ingredient in the Protestant Reformation. This technological revolution allowed for unprecedented literacy, independence from traditional authorities like clergy, and the broadcast of theological debates and partisanship across all of Europe. We embrace the freedom of thought encouraged by this technological advance, even while we cringe at some of the side effects. Reformation debate led to religious warfare, toxic skepticism, and a paralyzing inability to acknowledge and stabilize sources of authority.  

Two people reading and typing on smartphones. Image:Pixabay

Technology is once again outracing and distorting our moral commitments. We need to slow down, take a breath, sort through the sources, and insist on credible media. Much like the slow food movement that invited people to decelerate and enjoy a meal and conversation with friends and family, I think we need a slow conversation movement where we take the time needed for the nuance required by the subjects that challenge us.

Stuck on a long car ride the other day, I had such a conversation with a friend about abortion. This is a very difficult and charged topic but we explored it fully with curiosity, patience, and generosity. We agreed that the subject required a nuanced and careful approach. We agreed that real solutions were inhibited by the nature of the debate. I am grateful for this oddball conversation because I needed to ask some questions to clarify my thoughts, and I cannot do that if I am scared of the response.  

Partisanship distorts moral discourse, reducing any concern into a blunt instrument designed to win. It is no wonder that we cannot claw our way back to compromise and mutual problem-solving when we start at the conclusion.  

Spiritually, our culture is deeply concerning to me. If we cannot receive each other and forgive each other or even sacrifice for each other, then community will dissolve and we will be even more alone. Millennials talk about the social media practice of “cancelling” each other. This means blocking or unfriending someone who falls short of your sense of moral decency. Jesus taught us to forgive 7 x 70 times. For the disciple of Jesus there is a tension here. How do we love the neighbor with whom we disagree profoundly? How do we allow someone to regain our trust after they have made us feel unsafe? A forgiving culture risks turning toward each other with the hope that relationship can be restored.

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector

Update on Capital Project

Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

As 2018 drew to a close, the properties committee recommended to the vestry and wardens that we end our relationship with Voith & Mactavish Architects (VMA). We had hired VMA in 2017 to lead the parish through a feasibility study to address limitations to our building that are a hindrance to our ministry and mission. After more than 12 months of working with VMA we were not satisfied with the solutions presented aesthetically or practically, the inattention to project cost, or the quality of the working relationship. After much discernment, discussion, and prayer the vestry decided to end the relationship. We parted ways thanking VMA for this period of exploration.

The properties committee is currently exploring new ways to solve the continuing deficits with our building. Before hiring an architect, we had identified the following needs: 

1. A new kitchen adequate to support our SUPPER and hospitality programs which would be more directly connected to the parish hall, 
2. Accessibility for all four levels of the Parish House, 
3. An adequate number of restrooms to match the large number of people who move through our building for worship, weddings, funerals, and special events,
4. New heating and cooling for the Parish House so staff can work in comfort all year round and programming can be offered all summer,
5. New vesting and music library accommodations for the choirs. 

With the boiler project now completed we can take that need off the list! 

The properties committee will return to the vestry with a new proposal for addressing our vision for an improved Parish House in the coming months. We will keep the parish posted on progress and will offer occasions for review and input by the parish of any new concepts and schemes that are developed. As it stands now, we will be coming to the parish with much more modest proposals that blend more seamlessly with our existing building. 

I want to reiterate my profound thanks to our excellent properties committee and David Harrower, the chairperson.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Associate Rector’s Note: Where in the world is the Rev. Anne on Second Sundays?

The Rev. Anne Thatcher

Dear St. Martin’s,

You may or may not know that, prior to answering a call to St. Martin’s, I served a Spanish- and English-speaking congregation in Santa Ana, California. The growth of worship services in Spanish in the Episcopal Church continues across the nation and our diocese is no exception. Unfortunately, the number of clergy who are fluent enough to preach and celebrate the Eucharist in Spanish is limited. Due to this clergy shortage, churches with a Eucharist in Spanish within our diocese are often challenged with finding leadership for Sunday worship. 

Free Church of St. John in Kensington is one such congregation. In November of 2018, their vicar, the Rev. David Franceschi-Faccio, returned to Puerto Rico. For the interim, the Diocese of Pennsylvania Office of Transition Ministry has asked me to serve on the second Sunday of each month as the celebrant and preacher for their 11:15 a.m. Sunday Eucharist in Spanish. Free Church is a congregation comprised of both English- and Spanish-speaking members, with deep roots in the local Mexican and Puerto Rican community. This is a service full of joyous music with guitar accompaniment.

I will still be here until mid-morning on second Sundays to connect with you all, and then I will drive down to Free Church. I encourage you to consider visiting and worshipping with us on a second Sunday in the coming months. Their address is 3076 Emerald St., Philadelphia, 19134. Experiencing the Eucharist in another language is a way to begin to understand how worship both transcends and distinctly represents different cultures. You would be welcome to carpool with me to the church and back. I am also available to talk with you in more detail about this church and their engagement in the local community of Kensington.

In the coming months, I will share updates about the Free Church community.


Blessings for 2019,

The Rev. Anne Thatcher
Associate Rector

Action on MLK Day

I have spent my whole life working in soup kitchens and food pantries, building houses for Habitat for Humanity, running tutoring programs, and volunteering at homeless shelters. There is no question that Jesus asks us to care for the most vulnerable among us and so I respond. Even as I do the work, however, I always pray for the day when charity will end. Charity will end when - as an American people - we finally choose to take responsibility for the poor, the sick, and mentally ill in ways that accord full respect to the basic needs and human dignity of all people.
On Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day - January 21 - I want to encourage you to resist the pleas to do charitable service and take up the banner of action instead. King was not an advocate for more feeding programs. He worked tirelessly for changes to our laws that would create a more just order where feeding programs would not be so necessary. He worked to created the conditions where all people could exercise self-determination and self-sufficiency, for themselves, their families, and their neighborhoods.

This is why St. Martin’s is inviting our members to participate in actions on King Day that look forward to a future of economic justice. You will see the invitation below. I encourage you to begin with worship at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. Worshipping together with people from across the Northwest is an action that speaks of solidarity and equality. Recently I worshipped on Christmas morning with my wife’s congregation which is from all over the world - Africa, Asia, Latin America, India, Europe, and North America. I was inspired to see the real complexion of Christ’s diverse body and reminded of the poverty of worshipping only in a homogenous group.

Next you will have a chance to join me at the McDonald’s near Chelten and Germantown Avenue to advocate for a living wage in the state of Pennsylvania. Structurally, our economy will never reach full employment, and left to itself it will not produce enough living-wage jobs. We must intervene as citizens for a more equal distribution of wages.
Finally, you are invited to a People’s Assembly with POWER to discuss and vote on an agenda for social justice for our region. We will gather as citizens and people of faith to advance a vision of a more just order in education, environment, economic dignity, and racial justice. Our Beloved Community work calls us to cross racial divides, shed our white privilege, and engage with our neighbors on an equal footing. POWER assemblies provide the rare place of that engagement. I encourage you to attend.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

MONDAY, JANUARY 21- MLK DAY OF ACTION

Partnering with POWER Philadelphia

We encourage you to choose one or all of these events to attend.

9 a.m. - Sermon by the Rev. Greg Holston
Germantown Unitarian Society, 6511 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia
This is a non-denominational worship service focusing on Rev. Dr. King’s life and accomplishments led by the Rev. Kent Matthies with preaching by the Rev. Greg Holston, Executive Director of POWER. The service will be held at Unitarian Society of Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Drive. The parking lot GPS address is 359 W Johnson Street Coffee and bagels will be served beginning at 8:00. They expect a crowd, so get there early to get a seat.

11:30 a.m. - Raise the Wage rally
Outside of McDonald’s located at 29 E. Chelten Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19144
Last year a rally was held in front of CVS on MLK Day. This was one of the actions that led CVS to increase wages to $11 an hour in April 2018. St. Martin’s Deacon, Carol Duncan is particularly interested in this action. Fast food workers are often vulnerable to poor working conditions. Their hard work is often unrecognized and little rewarded. The rally is organized by Economic Dignity team of POWER with Sen. Art Haywood and Rev. Kent Matthies. It’s really POWER’s Northwest community’s MLK Day expression. You will hear that PA has the lowest possible minimum wage, and that ALL surrounding states have a higher wage. This is an action to respect the dignity of the workers and show them their neighbors support their efforts to improve their lives.Learn more, get updates, and share.

1:00 p.m. - MLK Day Teach-In & Rally
Bible Way Baptist Church, 1323 N. 52nd St., Philadelphia, PA
This is the main POWER event of the day, the People’s Platform event. Attenders will contribute to an electoral platform that will build a better Philadelphia and hold our elected officials accountable. Get directions. Learn more, get updates, and share.

Announcing the Helen White Memorial Lecture

“Why Read the Bible?” is the title for the inaugural Helen White Memorial Lecture which will be held on Saturday, April 13 at 4 p.m. at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia. The annual lecture will cover a wide range of topics in biblical studies over the next ten years while honoring Helen White for her long and vital ministry of spreading biblical literacy in southeast Pennsylvania.

The inaugural lecture of the series will be delivered by the Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto who serves as the Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Professor Barreto is a New Testament scholar whose work focuses on the Acts of the Apostles. He is known at PTS as a popular, engaging, and inspiring professor who encourages deep investigation and wide-ranging application of the biblical text. He is looking forward to addressing a favorite subject, “Why Read the Bible?”, when he delivers his address at the Helen White Memorial Lecture.

Helen White, who died January 11, 2018, was an effective and passionate creator of biblical studies opportunities for - in her words - “the people in the pew.” Starting in the 1970s at St. Thomas, Whitemarsh, and then as a staff member for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, Helen planted group after group organized to study the Gospels and then all the texts of the Old and New Testament. Four groups she started are still studying at her home parish, the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Because Helen felt so strongly that biblical literacy was so easily within reach and so crucial for all followers of Jesus, and because she dedicated her life to this ministry, the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields has established this annual lecture in her honor to advance and celebrate her mission and ministry. The event is free and a free-will donation will be collected to support the ongoing lecture series.

Professor Barreto, an ordained Baptist minister, lists among his publications Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16 (Mohr Siebeck, 2010), Exploring the Bible (Fortress, 2016) and In Tongues of Mortals and Angels (Lexington, 2018). He is the editor of Reading Theologically (Fortress, 2014), and is a is also a regular contributor to ONScripture.org, the Huffington Post, WorkingPreacher.org, and EntertheBible.org. For more, go to ericbarreto.com and follow him on Twitter @ericbarreto.

The Inaugural Helen White Memorial Lecture,Why Read the Bible, will be held on Saturday, April 13 at 4:00 p.m., with a reception to follow. The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is located at 8000 St. Martin’s Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. RSVP for the lecture at StMartinEC.org/events. A free-will donation will be collected to support the ongoing series. For more information, call St. Martin’s at 215.247.7466.

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector