Restore SNAP

"Feed the hungry" is one of the clearest calls to people of faith in scripture. It is also the basis of one of St. Martin's three major community engagement priorities. SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) plays a vital role in feeding America's children.

Below is an article we have shared on social media that outlines new proposals that could seriously affect how families qualify for food assistance, and how children specifically are affected in regards to free and reduced school breakfast and lunch costs. 

We are lucky here in the Philadelphia Public School District that ALL students currently receive free breakfast & lunch- however, this proposal could also affect how schools qualify based on the needs of their population.

The USDA has reopened the public comment period for this proposal until NOVEMBER 1st, 2019 (that's next Friday). We have a short time to make our concerns known. Please read through this article & consider your position. If you feel moved to do so, please leave a comment with the USDA.

Read the PBS news article on this subject:

PBS article

Visit the USDA comment page to leave your comment electronically.

USDA Comment page

Below is a form letter that you can use or adjust as you see fit, to send along to the USDA either on the comment page above, or by mail, before the end of their comment period on November 1, 2019. We have copies of this letter at St. Martin's in the Parish House lobby that you can sign and send on Sunday morning as well.

Mr. Stephen L. Censky

Deputy Secretary USDA

Office of Policy Support

Food and Nutrition Service USDA

3101 Park Center Dr.

Alexandria, VA 22302

Dear Mr. Censky,

As a person of faith, I am writing to oppose the proposed rule change to SNAP that will take benefits away from hundreds of thousands of citizens and cause suffering to children in under-resourced schools. The proposed rule (ID: FNS-2018-0037-16542) will gut broad-based categorical eligibility, take away free school lunches from hundreds of thousands of children, and create a benefit cliff for families already struggling with poverty-level incomes.  

I am asking for the USDA to retain the current categorical eligibility standards for broad-based eligibility in the SNAP program. SNAP is the most effective program we have for combating hunger and supplementing income for marginal households while supporting neighborhood groceries and American agriculture.  

Food security is a basic human right and our faith traditions teach that care for the hungry is a primary obligation for any just society. Please reject this rule change for the good of our most vulnerable citizens and take a stand for the moral decency of our republic.

Sincerely,

(Name) 

(Address)

Guatemala Reflection: Part 2 - We are a Family

By Barbara Thomson

This is part two of Barbara’s reflection on the youth pilgrimage to Guatemala this July, on which she was one of the three adult leaders. If you missed it, you can read part one, "Witness", here.

My family grew as I attended this year’s visit to Guatemala. Being a St. Martin’s member has already grown my family to include the other adults and St. Martin’s youth. This year it grew to include the Guatemalan families that our group of 11 (plus 3 - our driver, guide, and interpreter) met as we plowed through the Highlands from churches to homes and missions in our packed red van.  

Our wonderful translator, Melvin. Photo by the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

It takes a leap of faith to be an adult leader on these youth trips – especially one who gets on board at the last minute! I have chaperoned twice to South Dakota, but I was asked just a few weeks before this trip to join and didn’t fully realize all of what I’d be getting in to! We know before we leave where we’re going and what we’ll be doing, and we trust that we will get along while we’re there. As soon as we go through security, the magic of being in a family – my new family –  kicked in. We were not the traditional household of parents and children, but rather a group of people with certain roles who watch out for, take care of, and love each other during our time together and thereafter. 

Photo of the youth at the chocolate factory. From Clare's camera.

Our group started every day with breakfast, piled into the van, took on a new experience, sat down for lunch, took on another experience, sat down for dinner, and ended with compline. We quickly knew who positioned for the window seat, who carried the soccer balls, and who loved fancy coffee and pink drinks. At the end of the day, we all asked God to “Keep watch with those who work or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep…”

Compline by flashlight. Photo by the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel.

Ground transportation in San Lucas. Photo by the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel.

Kate balancing a tub. Photo by Gavin.

While our youth group became a family as we walked through security at the airport, we met our extended St. Martin’s family as we walked into their churches and homes, and then played soccer. (We found that our St. Martin’s kids were better prepared for their cold showers after a hot and sweaty soccer workout.) With each new family we met, each new story we heard, these people became family to us. We were welcomed into homes and churches where they fed us, taught us, and shared time and company. 

Guatemalan church family. Photo by Gavin.

Youth with a Guatemalan family. Photo by Clare.

Hospitality. Photo by Clare.

Playing fútbol. Photo by Clare.

At the end of the day, we would talk about and try to understand what we saw, felt, and learned that day. Every day someone talked about how he or she was touched by the children’s love for learning, communicating despite language gaps, how welcome they felt at the homes and churches we visited, the care from our guide, driver, and interpreter, and the gap in wealth. We also spent time thanking our St. Martin’s kids for showing so much appreciation and respect to the families they met. We were proud of them and appreciate their individual contributions.

Home visit near Chichicastenango in Sepela. Photo by the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel.

Dinner with the Bishop of Guatemala. Photo by the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel.

Within our own group, we took care of each other. There were moments of concern as some were overwhelmed with emotion and some had digestive issues. When asked to help get the sick ones packed up so we could get the group to Antigua, they helped out without flinching and the sick ones were given preferential treatment for the 2 hour ride. When we arrived back in Miami, the first ones at baggage claim collected all the bags and had them waiting for the rest of us as we made our way through Customs. 

Kate holding a baby. Photo by Clare.

The St. Martin’s folks and the Guatemalan folks became a group of people with certain roles who watched out for, took care of, and loved each other during our time together. I’ve also found that the love doesn’t end. We may not see each other regularly but our care for one another lives on so that when we see someone, like Leslie who we recognize from a story from years past, we make sure she gets her new glasses. We are connected. We are a family.

We're on a boat! Photo by Gavin.

The family returns home. Photo by the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel.

Guatemala Reflection: Part 1 - Witness

By Barbara Thomson

This is part one of Barbara’s reflection on the youth pilgrimage to Guatemala this July, on which she was one of the three adult leaders.

Rooftops, Mountain, Sky in Guatemala. Photo by Gavin.

Honestly, I was not totally prepared for what we experienced in Guatemala. 

As we traveled to different places, such as Xela to Pachoj or ChiChi or San Lucas Toliman, we shared what we were going to see, who we were going to meet, and what we were going to do. Just as you prepare yourself and/or your children for new experiences, the adults tried to prepare the youths for the people and environment they were going to encounter. It was often head-spinning to hear:

They will be living in a place that looks like a shack to us. The whole family lives in one room. There is no indoor running water. There is no bathroom. There are no windows. They use wood to cook in their stoves and heat their homes.

Kids typically leave school around 6th grade so they can work and earn money for the family. One family recently got a solar panel and has electricity that allows them to work later into the night to embroider their piece-work garments. There’s no school bus. The families can’t afford school supplies such as notebooks and uniforms without our help. The families depend on us at St. Martin’s to send their kids to school.

For those over 18, you will meet women in the prison and see many children. Their children live there with them until they are 4 years old. The women cook for themselves in the prison kitchen. Their families and Father Roberto bring them food. They wash their clothes by hand.  

The Mission started out with Father Greg who saw malnourished children over 50 years ago and it has grown to a thriving school, coffee coop, women’s center, and hospital. 

Father Stan Rother was an American martyr who was killed at his church during the 30-year Civil War.

I especially related to the education and medical issues. As a mother and wife, these are my primary concerns for my family. I could feel how hard and what a hardship it was for children to go to school. Many of the families can’t help their children with their schoolwork because the families don’t speak, read or write in Spanish. They speak K’iche’, their native Mayan language that is mostly spoken. The parents may not be able to read or write because they didn’t go to school. Education is not an expectation for everybody. It is only for those who can afford it. 

This is true for healthcare, too. There is no government assisted healthcare. Emergency rooms exist for those who can pay for them. And when someone has no money, it means no ibuprofen, no antibiotics, no allergy or asthma medicine, no well visits, no eyeglasses, no high blood pressure medicine, no chemotherapy, no x-rays, no anesthesia for delivering babies, and no dialysis. Simple afflictions that we take care of with doctor visits or trips to our medicine cabinets in our bathrooms, could potentially be life threatening.  If you need special surgery, you wait until a group of surgeons comes to the mission hospital and hope you get operated on during the week they’re in town that year. Birth control is not discussed although many girls have babies in their teens and it is not uncommon for someone to have 10 children. 

We arrived at their churches, missions, and homes and we were welcomed with open hearts, food to eat, and gifts. They all made us a special meal. The women taught us to make tortillas. We heard about the difference St. Martin’s has made in their lives. We heard from the young adults who were children a few years ago talking about getting jobs in schools and teaching the next generation or becoming bookkeepers and earning more money for their families. One scholarship student is now at the University and wants to be the President of Guatemala. We met the young boys who are being raised by their grandparents because their parents abandoned them to work in Guatemala City but were not heard from again. We heard from a family living with HIV and luckily receiving medicine because of St. Martin’s support. 

Making Tortillas. Photo by Clare.

We met the women who run the chocolate coop. We were told that we were visiting a chocolate factory. Upon arrival we learned that the chocolate factory consisted of a room with a wood burning stove and a small table. The women make the chocolate at home and sell it door to door or in the market. They divide up the money at their meetings and each person receives her share of the money in a Ziploc bag with her name on it. In these better homes, they have stoves with flues, which helps to minimize the smoke from the wood they burn. Otherwise, they cook over open fires.

As we traveled over mountains, around hairpin turns, over Lake Atitlan and between cities, and walked through the cornfields to their homes, we learned about our long-standing relationships with the people we couldn’t necessarily identify before our trip. We met Leslie and her family. Leslie was the recipient of an eye exam and eyeglasses in 2014 because some St. Martin’s youths discovered her condition kept her from going to school. She was wearing her glasses when we met her we recognized it is time for a check-up. Unfortunately, Leslie still does not attend school because she was so far behind when she got her glasses, but we are providing for new glasses and some books to help her learn to read. Leslie speaks some Spanish but is most comfortable speaking K’iche’. We are also sending various inexpensive over the counter reading glasses to the women who work late into the night on their piecework.

Over and over we heard the families explain the huge impact St. Martin’s has made on their lives. The children love to go to school and the parents appreciate it. The older ones are now working in professions thanks to their scholarships. And after we all talked, the American and Guatemalan kids would play soccer together. They’d divide into teams, run after the ball, make some goals, laugh and cheer, cry foul sometimes, and keep going until they got the nod from the adults that it is time to go to our next thing.  

My family grew as I attended this year’s visit to Guatemala. Being a St. Martin’s member has already grown my family to include the other adults and St. Martin’s youth. This year it grew to include the Guatemalan families that our group met as we plowed through the Highlands from churches to homes and missions in our packed red van. 

Watch next week for part two of Barbara’s reflection on Guatemala, "We are a Family".

Get on the Bus!

For eight years we have worked on full, fair funding for the public schools of Pennsylvania. We won a big victory two years ago when we convinced Harrisburg to use the full, fair funding formula on all new money allocated for public schools in the Commonwealth. 6% of state funding is now distributed justly. Our next goal is 100%, a change that will bring $1,800 per student to Philadelphia public schools, not to mention Reading, Allentown, Harrisburg, etc. 

On June 12 a bus will depart from St. Martin’s to the State Capitol, full of citizens concerned about public school excellence. Our goal is that 25 members of St. Martin’s will be on the bus reflecting our deep, long-term commitment. Please talk to Deacon Carol Duncan or me for more information and sign up on POWER's website.

St. Martin’s has a lot at stake in this funding struggle. More families will stay in Philadelphia when their children hit school age when the schools reach their potential. More families who stay in Philadelphia will have more free time and resources for other things without the demands of the private schools. Our members will invest more in the neighborhood as property values increase in proportion to the desirability of our schools. 

The church is committed to this struggle not only because we believe in equity, equal opportunity, and the inherent dignity of every human being, but also because we have a real self-interested stake in the outcome. I hope you will join me and at least 24 other church members on the bus to Harrisburg. There, we will join thousands of other citizens exercising our duty and right to shape our Commonwealth into a just society. 

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector

Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Episcopal

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

Associate Rector's Note: Sustained Advocacy Training

On Saturday October 13^th, we are sponsoring a Sustained Advocacy Training day here at St. Martin’s. Spearheaded by the Climate Action Team in partnership with Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light, this is an opportunity to learn how to become active in advocating for social justice issues. While this session is dedicated to climate change, the tips and teachings can be utilized for any issue that you feel strongly about but aren’t sure how to become involved in making a difference.

When we care about something deeply but feel unable to act, we can become despondent or depressed. Many people find that even small actions help them engage with the world in a more positive manner because they are acting rather than sitting by silently (or not so silently).

The last few weeks, our lectionary reading cycle has taken us on a journey through the book of James. As I reread the book, this verse stood out to me, “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works,” (2:22). James is referencing the story of Abraham obeying God’s command to take his son Isaac up the mountain and sacrifice him.

What is the relationship between faith and works that James is referencing? The apostle Paul also addressed faith and works, but he did so in the context of obeying Jewish law. James is focusing on everyday interactions rather than the legal requirements of religious tradition.

If we go back to the verse above, I begin to wonder, does this mean that faith can only be complete when works happen? The integration of our faith with our actions is an essential step in our journey of faith. In the education world we would call this praxis. No matter how much time we spend talking, writing, thinking, about our faith, praxis is the key to truly learning. There is a Chinese proverb that I used to reference when I was working the in the experiential education field: “I hear, and I forget/I see, and I remember/I do, and I understand.” Maybe James would modify it to be, “I hear and I forget, I see, and I remember, I do and my faith is complete.”

The question I ask is: what does it take for us to act on our faith? What is the catalyst? For each and every one of us, it will be different. Perhaps it is day-to-day interactions that are the focal point, or perhaps there is a Chinook wind that sweeps in one day, pushing us forward into a new way of being. Regardless of what the catalyst may be James is teaching us that we must be intentional about living out our faith through our actions.

God calls us to create God’s kingdom here on this earth, in the here and the now. In what way do you see yourself advocating for this kingdom? Perhaps it is climate change or refugee resettlement or food access or education. 

This advocacy training is a wonderful opportunity to learn the tools to put your faith in action. I’ll be there on October 13^th. Join me!

Blessings,
The Rev. Anne Thatcher

Wellspring at St. Martin’s has undergone a transformation

Wellspring at St. Martin’s is entering its sixth year with a new approach to its ministry of facilitating soul discovery and spiritual growth in the parish and the community. Under the direction of Coordinator Joanne Conway, a team of St. Martin’s parishioners has been engaged in informational interviews, team formation, and prayerful listening throughout the summer.

The group has clarified the ministry’s mission, focusing on assisting the congregation and broader community in nurturing their spirits and deepening their relationships with God and one another through practices rooted in, or resonant with, the Christian tradition.

Headwaters of the Jordan River

“The exact picture of Wellspring remains an unfolding mystery, one that will take time and a great deal of listening, remaining curious, and being patient,” Conway said last spring as the new team was just forming. “We will be beginning with building our leadership team and exploring. We then will move out into the church community with questions and listening ears and hearts to find how we can best serve.”

What have they discovered in the last several months? One-one-one interviews have revealed a desire for opportunities for ongoing reflection and a hunger for small-group gatherings. Team members have embraced a call to reach into their own spiritual passions and skills to offer programs that speak to local needs.

Wellspring’s fall programming reflects this with a variety of opportunities designed and facilitated by team members. Among them will be a weekly reflection on the Sunday sermons, beginning Sunday, October 28. The discussion will be facilitated by Wellspring team members and will use a process designed to help participants listen to each other and deepen their experience of what they have heard.

Women Connecting

The ministry will also facilitate a prayerful walk in the Wissahickon (Oct. 6), an exploration of contemplative prayer with St. Martin’s Rector Jarrett Kerbel (Oct. 17-31), and a discussion of Frederick Buechner’s book The Hungering Dark (Nov. 8 and Dec. 12). For more details visit StMartinEC.org/wellspring.

Future programming will seek ways to include a wider section of the parish and community, with offerings that speak to children, youth, and families. For updates on events, as well as spiritual reflections and resources, like and follow the Wellspring Facebook page.

Wellspring will continue to offer Women Connecting, a regular gathering of women marked by prayer, silence, and deep listening, inspired by the church seasons. The next gathering is Sept. 15 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Wellspring will also continue to host area spiritual directors.

The Wellspring Team

In addition to Wellspring Coordinator Joanne Conway, the Wellspring team includes John Hougen, Elizabeth Morrison, Jenny Cardoso, Scott Robinson, Susan Cole and Barbara Dundon. Barbara Ballenger, Associate for Spiritual Formation and Care, will continue to be Wellspring’s staff liaison.

For more information on Wellspring at St. Martin’s contact Joanne Conway at joanneconway86@gmail.com.

From Our Interim Rector: Labor Day

It’s Labor Day weekend. Monday, we’ve got a holiday in honor of our workers. (Yes, St. Martin’s office will be closed on Monday.)

When I lived in Australia, we celebrated Labor Day in March and the old-timers still called it “Eight Hour Day”. They were celebrating that in 1856, their workers had been among the first in the world to win an eight-hour work day. They were lucky the day had such a peaceable origin.

In this country, Labor Day came into being in 1894 after a particularly nasty confrontation between labor and business: the Pullman Company was losing money, so it laid off workers and cut remaining workers’ wages without lowering what it charged them for housing and necessities in the company town. The workers went on strike and refused to work on trains carrying Pullman cars. The strike spread across the country, and involved 250,000 workers. Chaos ensued. President Grover Cleveland sent 16,000 troops to quell the strike. Both sides used violence. By the time it was over, there were thirty dead and $80 million dollars in damages. Six days after the strike ended, the President declared Labor Day a federal holiday. Labor Day was President Cleveland’s attempt to bring peace between labor and business.

We continue today to try to support the interests of both our business community and our labor force. But the more we work at it, the more we discover just how complicated it is. Protecting or increasing the profits of a company enough to make the business a desirable investment may mean cutting jobs. Supporting workers’ rights to fair wages and benefits may cause the company to go out of business or move overseas. It’s complicated!

It’s also messy. I remember a garbage strike in Philadelphia with weeks’ worth of stinking trash piled up in a park near us. At the same time, I recognize how valuable union support has been to members of my family when they were being treated unfairly in the workplace. I have struggled with vestries and non-profit boards to come up with raises the employees both need and deserve, when we are also struggling to keep the buildings functional and the mission vibrant. I know how awful it feels to have to let a valued employee go because there just isn’t enough money to go around. It’s complicated! 

That’s why I like the Episcopal Church’s prayer for Labor Day. It asks God to guide all of us in our confusion:

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives with one another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessings,
Rev. Phyllis Taylor

From Our Interim Rector: Elijah and Walking with Angels

We come across the prophet Elijah in our first lesson this Sunday. He is in a sorry state. He has dismissed his servant and friend and gone out alone, a day’s journey into the wilderness. He is sitting under a tree as solitary as he is. He says he has had enough. He asks to die and lies down to wait for his prayer to be answered.

What is the matter with him? How did he get in such a state? We don’t know. 

Perhaps he is simply exhausted from the stress of being a prophet. We know from the previous chapter that he spent the entire day competing with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel for the souls of his people. He and the Baal’s prophets traded insults and taunts all day like children on a playground: “My God is stronger than your God!” “Your God is a joke!” “My God is going to whoop your God but good!” At the end of the day, the true God sent fire on the sacrifice Elijah had prepared for him, while the sacrifices the prophets of Baal had prepared for their false gods still sat there, a soggy, bloody mess. God won the contest for Elijah, but it took a lot out of the prophet.

Perhaps Elijah is out there in the wilderness because he’s afraid to go anywhere else. Queen Jezebel has put a price on his head. She has not taken kindly to what Elijah did to the prophets of her god Baal. The wilderness is the only place he feels safe.

Perhaps he is in the wilderness because he is depressed. He has, after all, the classic symptoms: he has withdrawn from everyone, even those closest to him; he has no energy for anything except lying around; he has given up eating; he can’t see any way out of his misery but death.

Perhaps he is angry at God. In the following passage he complains that God has let him down. He has tried to do what was right, he has done everything God asked him to do, and his reward is that there is a price on his head. Where’s the justice in that?

Whatever the reasons Elijah is in the state he is in, our hearts go out to him.

Then comes the good news. An angel from God shows up. He touches Elijah, then puts some food and water in front of Elijah and says nothing but, “Get up and eat.” Elijah does, but then he lies back down again. The angel shows up again with food, again he touches Elijah, but this time, besides serving the food he says to him, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” The angel is offering Elijah not just food for his body, but also whatever help Elijah may need to get himself out of the state he is in.

This time Elijah gets up, eats and drinks, and then uses “the strength of that food” to journey back to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai) to encounter his God and figure out with God what he needs to do to get his life back on track. In the rest of the First Book of Kings Elijah goes from strength to strength, until the chariots of fire come to carry him away. It’s an inspiring story.

When I attended my first SUPPER at St. Martin’s, I realized how well the members of this congregation “get” this story. They had invited the whole community to SUPPER, no questions asked, no money requested, no commitment demanded. The community arrived with family, with friends, alone; parishioners, neighbors, perfect strangers. Who knows why they came, what burdens they were bearing. Angels from St. Martin’s met them at the door, clasped them by the hand and welcomed them by name. Other angels filled their plates with truly delicious food prepared by yet more angels, and seated them at tables with interesting folk. Information prepared by other angels was readily available on the opportunities available to them at St. Martin’s. When SUPPER was over, they were sent on their way, hopefully strengthened for their journeys.

I went home walking on air. I had been with the angels. I was so proud.

Blessings,

Rev. Phyllis Taylor

From Our Interim Rector: Emancipation Day

Today we are celebrating Emancipation Day with our Caribbean brothers and sisters. All the Caribbean islands have a festival to celebrate the end of slavery in their land, although the dates vary. The islands once under British control observe the anniversary around August 1, as it was on that date in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 took effect. Islands under the control of other European powers abolished their slave trade according to their own schedule: the French Islands in 1826, which they celebrate at the end of May, the Danish ones in 1848, which they celebrate on July 3.

On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a former Danish colony, I came across a most amazing church a few years ago. It wasn’t its architecture or its liturgy that blew me away, it was these words on the front of the bulletin:

The Cathedral Church of All Saints
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
“The Virgin Islands Greatest Monument to Freedom.”
Built in 1848 by the people of St. Thomas in thanksgiving to God for freedom from slavery. Because of a severe drought in 1848, molasses was used to mix the mortar used between the stones.

Our family made jokes with one another about this being the “sweetest” Church we were ever likely to worship in. (Get it? Molasses in the walls?)

But then it struck me: molasses was one of the main reasons the people who built this Church were slaves to begin with. They were captured in West Africa and brought to the Virgin Islands to work the sugar plantations for the Danes, the French and the English. Their freedom had been taken from them for the sake of this sticky black liquid and the rum it could produce. They must have hated molasses.

I’d visited sugar plantations in the islands and been appalled at how horrible life was for the slaves who worked there. It was back-breaking work planting, cultivating and cutting the cane. It was crippling work, turning the mill stones by hand to crush the cane, when the wind refused to turn the windmill. It was hell-hot, dangerous work, tending the fires that boiled the crushed cane down to molasses. And the slaves were forced to produce this molasses with the lash on their backs and not much food in their stomachs. Their lives were a misery, all for the sake of molasses.

When the slaves had been set free in 1848, they couldn’t wait to erect a Church to give thanks to God for their freedom. There wasn’t enough water to mix the mortar, but that wasn’t going to deter them. They were going to go ahead with the project even if it meant using molasses. It was going to be something to tell their children: they had put the hated molasses in their monument to freedom, their thanksgiving to God.

Using the molasses that had been the symbol of their slavery to make a symbol of their freedom made sense to them, because they were Christians. They had grown up venerating the cross on which their Savior died a miserable death. They worshipped a God who had taken this instrument of torture and used it to bring his people freedom.

I guess that only makes sense to those of us who are Christians.

Blessings,Rev. Phyllis Taylor

Offertory - A Sermon Response

The following poem was sent to us by a parishioner in response to The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel's sermon from Sunday morning (November 16). You may read Jarrett's sermon St. Martin Under Arrest here, and then read the poem below.

OFFERTORY

A homeless person suddenly appeared

before me, chanting in a cloud of steam.

His fervent mumble echoed like a weird

confession; one last effort to redeem

a tattered soul.  He rose up, offered me

his cup, a Styrofoam collection plate,

and pleaded, in a worn-out litany,

for change.  But I was spent and running late;

I turned my head and shunned his outstretched hand.

He nodded slowly, smiled, and backed away—

Would he have used my gift for contraband

or was I witness to a Passion Play?

Such Sacraments can never be complete

When charity and vanity compete

John Tuton

Values: Roots and Branches

Our 125^th Anniversary Questions have been these:

1.     What did our founders set in place 125 years ago that we still value today?

2.     What will we establish that will cause gratitude 125 years from now?

During Lent, we offered a Parish Values Clarification process to explore these questions. The staff and the Vestry also set aside time to reflect on the values of the parish using the same model that examines accidental values, aspirational values, and core values. The work was previously recorded on this blog. An ad hoc committee worked during May and June to analyze the data and prepare our findings. 

The results of this exercise will guide the Vestry, lay-leadership, and staff as we seek to build on the strengths of our church community and grow into the community we aspire to be.

The Core Values of the parish are those values that set St. Martin's apart from other worshipping communities. They are long-standing attributes and ones that we are willing to pay a price to preserve and perpetuate. Without these values, St. Martin's would not be recognizable as the church we know and love.

The core values we identified are below. They form a Trinitarian pattern thanks to an insight by Pam Prell during the vestry discussion that produced the final result:

1.     Learning leads to God.

2.     We encounter Christ in caring for others and in receiving care.

3.     We strive for beauty in worship, physical spaces, and life together. Creativity is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

St. Martin's is a community of life-long learners who find education enhances our insights about God and does not detract from faith, as is commonly believed. Our parish avidly cares for each other, lending the support of listening ears through Stephen Ministry, hand-holding, warm embraces, meals during crisis, Wednesday SUPPER, and so much more. Finally, St. Martin's is deeply grounded in the Episcopal belief that life in God’s presence is beautiful. Whether God’s presence is celebrated in liturgy, music, nature, architecture, food, art, or community engagement – the result is inspired, transcendent beauty restored to God’s creation. Contrary to common belief, the Anglo-Catholic or the “high church” movement celebrated beauty in music and liturgy as part and parcel of a belief in the goodness of God’s creation and the potential goodness of a just social order. Oxford Movement clergy were as adamant about social justice as they were about liturgy. Both equally reflect the glory of God.

The aspirational values we identified were extremely clear across the groups that participated in the process. The Vestry will take up these aspirational values and surround them with goals and objectives so that we can track our progress toward their realization. The aspirational values:

1.     Community Engagement and Social Justice

2.     Unconditional Welcome and Inclusion

3.     A community that calls forth the gifts of all its people

4.     Becoming a Racism-Free and Diverse Community that reflects the City where we worship

During Annual Meeting (Sunday, June 15 after 10:00 a.m. service), we will have table discussions that invite the parish community to discuss our Core Values and our Aspirational Values by asking the questions: Where will these values lead us? Who will we become as we grow into these values? As a community we will use our imagination and grow our vision of our future together in Christ.

- The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel