Of Dumpsters and Stewardship

Image: photo of the cluttered inside of a closet space. Boxes and baskets
and bags are piled on top of each other. Text in image: "We can look at the
inevitable entropy and clutter in church closets and basements
as signs of inertia and neglect, or we can see them as a sign that the church
has been so busy in ministry, so busy putting first things first,
that cleaning up after ourselves falls out of mind."- The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Of Dumpsters and Stewardship, 10.17. 2019

Among my earliest church memories is helping my mother clean out the Sunday School closet at my home church in New Brunswick, NJ. Mom was the new volunteer leader of Sunday School and the first task was to clean up, put the rooms in order, and even paint a wall-sized mural of Noah’s ark in the room for the youngest grade. The giraffes carried umbrellas!

That closet was full of detritus from the previous 50 years. There were crayon fragments and chalk nubs from the 1930s. There were pamphlets extolling thrift and the donation of metal for the war effort in the 1940s. Rolled up and molded felt banners, popsicle sticks galore, and an endless supply of lapel pins for every church activity imaginable. 

To me this was utterly fascinating; the archeology of an active church ministry spanning the 20th century. We can look at the inevitable entropy and clutter in church closets and basements as signs of inertia and neglect, or we can see them as a sign that the church has been so busy in ministry, so busy putting first things first, that cleaning up after ourselves falls out of mind. 

St. Martin’s is incredibly active and abundant in meaningful and impactful ministry to such a degree that we forget some forms of stewardship needed to make that work thrive. Every plant needs to have the soil tended to grow to its potential. Every worker needs a lunch break to refuel and relax if afternoon work is to be productive. Every Christian needs Sabbath on Sunday to turn to God and revive our souls so we may live in grace in all we do. 

We are stewards of our own wellbeing; physical, spiritual, relational, and emotional. While the call of Jesus Christ can pull us out of balance at any moment for service to the Kingdom of God, Jesus is also the one who heals and restores our balance and well being for a ministry that requires endurance, persistence, sweat, tears, and sacrifice.

St. Martin’s is here for the long dure; we are here for the long run work of God’s steadfast love. To be here for the long term means we steward our abundant gifts for witness, ministry, and results with multiple generations in mind. We clean out closets and basements to make room and free up space for future ministry. We give generously to underwrite our transformational ministry for years to come.

Please join us for Dumpster Days (see below). I guarantee the church will feel like it is levitating this Sunday after we pitch so much ballast overboard. Be sure to join in on St. Martin’s Day as well and bring your pledge card!

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector

Dumpster Days October 18 and 19
The properties committee invites members of all ages to help us clean out the basements, crawl spaces, closets, and attics of St. Martin’s! Over our 130 years we have accumulated lots of junk. In preparation for planned repairs and improvements to the property, we need to get a clean, well organized facility! Please come to the church from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, October 18 or during the same hours on Saturday, the 19th! For more information talk to the rector, Carol Horne Penn, our properties chair (ckjj616@gmail.com), or Debra (debradroberts@comcast.net) or Ike (ikeroberts@comcast.net) Roberts.

Ordination to the Transitional Diaconate: What are we celebrating, exactly?

This week the Rector's Note has been turned over to Barb Ballenger, our Associate for Spiritual Formation and Care.

On June 8, Laura Palmer and I will be ordained to the transitional diaconate, a ministry that lies between our work as lay people and our future as Episcopal priests. For those in the priesthood process in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, this ordination occurs about six months before priestly ordination.


Many have asked about the difference between a transitional deacon and a permanent deacon, such as the Rev. Carol Duncan. It’s a good question, and the answer reflects several hundred years of conflicted church practice.

In his article “Lifting up the Servants of God: The Deacon, Servant Ministry, and the Future of the Church”, Thomas Ferguson explains that the sacred order of deacons is the church’s oldest ordained ministry. Acts 6:3-4 recounts how the Apostles delegated the first deacons to oversee table fellowship in order to make sure Greek widows and orphans were treated justly in the early Christian community. That focus on service to the poor and assistance to the bishop marked the diaconate for about three hundred years.

With Christianity’s new-found legitimacy after the conversion of Constantine, the church took on the deeply hierarchical structures of Roman society. A series of sub-orders developed that Clerics-in-training passed through on their way to ordination, from doorkeeper to exorcist to lector to subdeacon. The diaconate, which was originally its own order with its own particular ministry, was folded into this succession. For several hundred years it lost its early singularity. Even so, there were important exceptions in monastic communities, Ferguson writes, noting that St. Francis of Assisi, was a deacon throughout his life as a friar.


In the 20th century, Christian churches recognized the need for ordained ministers that served vulnerable people, and the distinctive ministry of the diaconate as a holy order was reclaimed in the Lutheran, Catholic, and Anglican churches. The permanent diaconate was restored throughout the churches of the Anglican Communion in 1968.

Meanwhile, as the various suborders that made up the path to priestly ordination fell away over time, the transitional diaconate remained part of the path to priesthood. As a result, the church now ordains two kinds of deacons in the same ordination liturgy. It’s in that liturgy, specifically in the “examination”, that we can best discover what the deacon is ordained to do.

“My sister,” the bishop will say, “every Christian is called to follow Jesus Christ …. God now calls you to a special ministry of servanthood directly under your bishop. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely.”

Then the bishop will commend us to do the following:

• Study the Scriptures and model our lives upon them;
• make Christ known to the world, by word and example;
• bring the “needs, concerns, and hopes of the world” to the attention of the church;
• assist the bishop and the priest in public worship;
• and all other duties as assigned.

But most importantly, the bishop will say: “At all times, your life and teaching are to show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself.”

For me, this last statement captures well how this period in which we practice diaconal ministry will shape the ministry of our priesthood. While priests and deacons practice their ministry “to represent Christ and the Church” in different ways, this fundamental call to serve the most vulnerable is an essential charism of ordination. We do not lay it down with priestly ordination, just as bishops do not lay down their priesthood when they are ordained.

At the same time, the ministerial roles among the three orders of deacon, priest, and bishop do differ significantly. Ferguson offers a helpful way to think about these orders of ministry by considering where they are located in the church. The bishop serves from the center of the local church, or diocese, leading this regional community in its practice of the faith as the people of God in worship and the Body of Christ in practice. The priest serves from the center of the parish faith community, leading it in living out its common identity as part of the wider people of God. The deacon serves from the edge of the community, leading the Body of Christ into its work in the world.

For the next six months or so we transitional deacons will be practicing leadership from the church’s edge, inviting its members to step intentionally into the world as representatives of Christ. It is a perspective that should ever orient us and ground us in the direction that Christ always walks in the world.

In Christ,
Barb Ballenger
Associate for Spiritual Formation and Care

Laura Palmer and Barb Ballenger will be ordained to the diaconate on Saturday, June 8, at 10:00 a.m. at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, 19 S. 38th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. The ordination is open to all. Complimentary parking is available at Laz Parking, 39th and Market Street, entrance on 39th Street. Click here for directions and public transit options.


For further reading:
“Lifting Up the Servants of God: The Deacon, Servant Ministry, and the Future of the Church” by Dr. Thomas Ferguson. Found on the website of the School for Deacons, an educational institution of the Diocese of California, sfd.org.

In The Book of Common Prayer see “The Ordination of a Deacon” (p. 537-547) and the catechism (p. 855-856) for our liturgy and teaching around the ministry of the deacon.

Deferred Maintenance, Deferred Ministry

Back in the 1970s a movement formed in the church called, “The Church without Walls.” The animating idea was to separate the mission of the church from the burden of property and its upkeep. On its face this seemed like a powerful concept. Take away maintenance costs and more resources will be available to do the work of Jesus Christ in the world!

Where are these “churches without walls” today? Very few are left and they are neither thriving nor powerful in ministry and mission. It turns out that there is a connection between place and purpose, between body and soul.


Christianity is incarnational; “The word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14) Christianity affirms the goodness of physical existence; “God saw everything that God had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:30) Our physical being is not optional or disposable but a fundamental component of the self that God redeems and restores.

Music may exist in the mind of the composer but to be shared it at least needs lips, ears, a tongue, and lungs. To pass that music down the generations takes hands to write and perhaps pianos or an organ to support and reproduce the music. 


The key notion is “to share.” To share our faith in God and pass it down across the generations it turns out that we need sacred spaces, sacred places and bodies devoting time, energy, presence, and labor to the work. 


Our properties committee is working hard to reverse a tradition of deferred maintenance and inadequate investment in our buildings. At a recent meeting we estimated that to just complete basic repairs of our building envelope would cost between $400,000 and $500,000. You will be hearing more about this exploration but the key point here is this; it is unhealthy for our mission and ministry when we neglect the wellbeing of the physical plant that supports the mission and ministry.

I sometimes hear folks say, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have one without the other - a church without walls”. History teaches us that this dualistic thinking ends up diminishing everything we stand for in the long run. I am excited to do both and inspired to catch up on the needs of our buildings so we can give future generations the gift of ministry and mission without the drag of deferred maintenance!

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Getting Clear

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Over the past several Sundays we have collected your responses to our survey about how to clarify our call to engage within the three causes named below. We collected a total of 44 responses. At our next two forums we'll continue to explore these suggestions.

1. hunger
2. education
3. climate change

Under hunger there were several mentions of participating and increasing food access and distribution, childhood hunger - both during and outside of the school year, continuing SUPPER, and gardening. Where will these and other responses guide our hunger focus?

Under education people spoke of advocating for equitable and fair funding, literacy, and acknowledging racial disparities. How should we narrow our education focus?

Under climate change people named a variety of actions from the individual to the corporate, and from advocacy to education. Several just wanted to know where to begin with awareness and education. With so many options, what can we do well and faithfully together in our climate change focus?

For new focuses people named immigration and refugee services, voting rights, racial justice, the opioid crisis, and prison reform, among others. Which of these calls on our hearts is great enough to address as a community?

This Sunday, at parish forum, we begin to refine your suggestions. We'll continue the discussion at the March 31st parish forum, specifically looking at the role of advocacy and social justice in our work. We have active, fun, and creative programs designed for both days. 

These two forums will help us create a path into our future. This is your chance to be a part of that discussion, to feel and name the call of God on this parish. Please join us.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Links:
Progress Report: 5 Years of Community Engagement

Clarify Our Community Engagement Causes!

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Five years ago, the congregation engaged a process called “Nominate Your Causes” to discover what our community engagement priorities should be at St. Martin’s. Through a process of polling the congregation and conversations at Parish Forum, we landed squarely on three top priorities which would direct our community engagement efforts:

1. hunger
2. education
3. climate change

Read more about our progress on each of these causes in our Progress Report: 5 Years of Community Engagement. 

For the next four Sundays, the Community Engagement Committee is asking you to help us Clarify our Causes. The committee is committed to grounding our work in priorities set by the parish community.
 
What specific areas under these broad umbrella priorities would you like us to address with programming, organizing, action, and funding? For example under climate change, you could specify “gas mileage standards,” or “eliminate fracking” or “alternative energy sources.”


On Sunday, March 3 and Sunday, March 10 we will distribute a quick survey in the worship bulletin for you to use to make your suggestions. This survey is also available online. We will collect your suggestions and bring them back to the parish for further discussion and refinement at the March 24 Parish Forum. The March 31st Parish Forum will continue our parish discussion about the role of advocacy and social justice in our work. We have active, fun, and creative programs designed for both days.


Please join us and be a part of visioning the future of community engagement at St. Martin’s.


Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector



Links:
Progress Report: 5 Years of Community Engagement
Clarify our Causes survey

Staff Picks for Giving Back this Christmas

It's nearly Christmas and you haven't finished your gift-giving purchases? That's okay, neither have we. With less than a week to go, we thought we'd offer you some ideas for those hard-to-buy for people, or for how you can spend your money in a way that cuts against our consumer culture.

Here are some staff picks for ways to give AND give back this Christmas time.

Jarrett

This year St. Martin's Christmas plate offering will be going to Imara International, a safe house that also provides education for teen mothers and their babies in Kenya. This organization was founded by an Episcopalian and our own Barbara Dundon visited this past year to record some of their stories. Jarrett looks forward to visiting himself in 2015. 

Jarrett also encourages support of St. James School right here in Philadelphia. St. James School is a faith-based Philadelphia middle school in the Episcopal tradition, committed to educating traditionally underresourced students in a nurturing environment. The school is a community that provides a challenging academic program and encourages the development of the moral, spiritual, intellectual, physical and creative gifts in its students. Our own Erik Meyer continues to assist with music there at Eucharist on Wednesday afternoons.

Callie

Alternative Gift-Giving Ideas:

Episcopal Relief & Development (800.334.7626 x5129): purchase Bishops Blend Fair Trade Coffee and Tea; donate a gift of global aid in someone’s name.

Heifer International (800.422.0474): donate an animal in someone’s name; this animal will go to a family in need to help them be self-sufficient.

Kiva (415.358.7512): make microloans to small business owners worldwide; you select which entrepreneur to support and get your money back to keep or reinvest.

Thistle Farms (615.298.1140): natural bath and body products made by women in Nashville’s Magdalene community, a 2-year residential community for women with a history of prostitution and drug addiction (founded by an Episcopal priest!)

SERRV (800.422.5915): organization working to eradicate poverty through direct connections with low-income artisans and farmers; sells crafts and foods

Global Girlfriend (888.355.4321): fairly-traded apparel and accessories hand-made by women and communities in need around the world

Global Exchange (415.255.7296): offers a wide range of socially conscious gifts from around the world

Ways to Serve & Provide Warmth this Christmas:

The Greater Philadelphia Cares Winter Coat Drive - bring new or “gently used” winter coats to: Philadelphia Federal Credit Union at 6707 Germantown Avenue or Trolley Car Diner at 7619 Germantown Avenue (for other drop-off locations, call 215.564.4544 or visit )

Holiday Food Drives - taking place around the city (contact Philabundance for more information).

Barbara

I bought socks this year from Mitscoots which will donate a pair of socks to the homeless for every pair you buy.

Also I ordered some paper products from the Peoples Paper Coop in Germantown which provides legal assistance for ex-offenders to get their criminal records expunged, then turns their paperwork into beautiful hand-made paper.

Perennial favorites: Heifer International, Serrv International, 10,000 Villages.

Another practice is to make some time to shop locally, rather than ordering everything on-line or from big box stores. Go to 10,000 Villages on Germantown, and patronize other local shops on the avenue. Looking for books? Order them through a local book store such as Big Blue Marble, rather than Amazon. Buy art and food from local artisans near work or home. Gift people with tickets to local theater productions and patronize local musicians.

Natalee

For my five year old, Liam, this year we'll be donating to World Wildlife Fund Adopt a Tiger. It comes with a plush tiger, a photo of a tiger, and an adoption certificate. The plush and photo help make it real for a little kid. If you're buying for an adult you may want to skip the gift-with-donation and make every dollar go towards conservation. Other animals are available to support.

My husband Nate wanted to help support small business owners around the world through micro funding or providing something necessary to help start a business. Heifer International Honeybees or a Kiva gift card for microfinancing are just the right thing.

We'll also be making a donation to help build a pediatric unit at the Mpassa Medical Unit in the Congo. This is an effort being supported by the Southeast District of the Eastern PA Conference of the United Methodist Church - my denomination. I'll be making a donation here in honor of my new baby boy, Ezra.

Another favorite is Appalachia Service Project, a home repair ministry in central Appalachia which Nate and I led youth on for years and holds a special place in our hearts.

Connie

This year the Haggards will give to Beyond Borders and Partners in Health, both vital organizations in Haiti, and to DEC in honor of Chris' 19 years at that wonderful workshop where everyone, no matter what disability, is family.

Betsy

This Christmas the Wolfords are contributing to our local SPCA and we're purchasing a bike through Compassion International to enable a child in a third world country to ride to school, etc. And as all of you've heard me drone on & on about MS bike rides, the National MS Society is an organization I'm regularly rooting for.

Merry Christmas and Happy (Alternative) Giving this season!