Sincere Faith

Image description: On a bright teal blue background, which appears to be painted and
weathered concrete, there are a series of wooden blocks with letters and numbers
carved out of each one. The sizes, shapes, and colors of the wood and the fonts of
the characters vary. In the center, five blocks are positioned together to spell the word, 'faith.'

For the last few weeks, our Epistle reading came from the Second Letter to Timothy. The goal of the author is to encourage and strengthen the faltering faith of a local house church leader named Timothy. His faith is wilting under the assault of shame, public embarrassment that his mentor - the Apostle Paul - is a jailbird, and his Lord - Jesus Christ - suffered the shameful death of a criminal and rebel. Timothy finds himself in an unpopular and scorned minority accused of harboring absurd and even seditious ideas.

We need to read this letter as if it is addressed to us. Many of us are ashamed of our faith. We are loathe to mention our allegiance to Jesus Christ in polite company. We are afraid that friends and strangers will judge us dimwitted, or worse, as fellow travelers of the negative expressions of popular Christianity which flood the media with bile and hatefulness. To stand out and stand up for an alternative expression of faith that is thoughtful, gentle, inclusive, and inviting would be a terrific gift to country riven by extremes.

As Episcopalians we have prided ourselves on a thoughtful, gentle, and questioning faith. I hope we see this identity as a gift and learn to emphasize the word “faith” as much as we emphasize the word “questioning.” Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, is certainly challenging us in that direction and I find his challenge both refreshing and disorienting. The challenge to own my faith in Jesus Christ is disorienting for me because I was raised in liberal Christianity, ashamed of my faith and trained to see myself as the sole authority who judges tradition and scripture against my own conclusions and ideas about reality. I find it refreshing because, in reality, I am much healthier and happier when I scede authority over my life to my faithful guide and steadfast savior, Jesus Christ.

C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” While we will always be a church of curiosity, searching, and welcome for folks wherever they are on their journey of faith, we also, by necessity must be a place where the Gospel is shared with confidence in all of its illuminating and life-saving power. The most powerful way to do that is to share our story and to be sincere in our expressions of faith.

One danger of living in a distracted, fractured, and accelerated culture is that lonely people of faith will become rigid and defensive in our minority position. Scared and anxious that we are losing ground, and at risk of losing a faith and an institution we adore, we retrench and resist by staking out rigid positions, lines in the sand. Our faith inspires a more nuanced reaction. We are challenged to become more clear and focused on our mission and the good news we have to share. At the same time, that good news is gentle, welcoming, and full of loving kindness. If not, we have a real loss to mourn.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Building Community

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

I want to tell you about a terrific new committee here at St. Martin’s called the Community Building Committee. On election day this group provided hospitality to voters when they came to vote in our parish hall. Coffee, tea, and donuts created an atmosphere of good cheer in our foyer as an unprecedented number of voters came in to do their civic duty. Anne Thatcher and I mingled with the voters, greeting them warmly and thanking them for voting. I even met someone who wants to get her three-month-old daughter baptized!

While this committee is doing a great job, we all agree that building community is a ministry we share in common as the Body of Christ. The efforts we make to greet each other, build relationships, and welcome newcomers build the muscles and sinews that make us nimble and strong as a community that represents Christ in the world.

“Deep relationships, bold ministry” is the theme we are working on this year at St. Martin’s. That theme challenges us to see our presence and our activity at church as crucial to the character and virtue of our community of faith. When we take the time to relate and to invest in relationship, we learn to be there for each other in times of joy and sorrow. When we take the time to relate and to invest in relationships we find our life enriched, and even our direction in life altered. Want to find someone to join a ministry you love here at St. Martin’s? Be busy getting to know new people!

It’s easy to want the church to be here. It’s another matter entirely to choose to be the church when you are here and when you are away.

Here are some ways to be the church on Sunday mornings:

1. Wear your nametag!
2. Greet someone new. As you enter the church, during the passing of the peace, and after church simply introduce yourself to someone you don’t know. Simply say, “My name is ________, and I am not sure if we have met?”
3. Remember that families of all ages are welcome at all services. That joyful noise of children is a sign of life and vitality in our ministry!
4. When circled up with old friends, make room for newcomers by inviting them into your circle.
5. Move across the driveway to community hour in the parish hall after worship. Community hour is a time to meet, greet, and connect. This is a time of important ministry and the more the merrier.
6. If you have an event, activity, class, or ministry to promote, set up a table during community hour. Make it festive. Bring food, balloons, a banner. We would love for community hour to be a bustling hive of activity and opportunity.
7. Encourage your friends to come to community hour, and walk newcomers across the driveway so they know where to go.

St. Martin’s is a dynamic and multifaceted community of faith. To support such an active ministry, we invest in our bonds as a community. Those bonds will help us take risks together in the name of Jesus.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Come Together

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

I hope all of you will join me at our Parish Party on October 20! On that evening,  people of all ages in the congregation will COME TOGETHER for food, fun, music, and fellowship. I don’t know about you, but a good party with people I love restores my heart and soul.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, “The sabbath is a temple in time.” In other words, when we observe the day of rest called sabbath, we enter into a sacred space of time set apart. There, our humanity can be restored to our original goodness.  

I heard this quote at a synagogue in Jerusalem this summer just before joining their joyful and beautiful sabbath worship. With all the competing demands in life it is certainly a good thing to set aside time to let the world-as-it-is fall away. Then we can let the world with God at the center reorder our sense of peace and well-being, and our priorities as well.

Let our Come Together Party be a sabbath of fun, relaxation, and community for you and your family.

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, rector

RSVP here!

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

Another Ramp

Nellie Greene has a front row seat at the dedication.

On Sunday, March 22 we dedicated the new ramp and Hopkins Terrace outside the Willow Grove Avenue entrance to the church. That morning, the following story was read about one of our long-time members, Nellie Greene. We are grateful to this community for its support of our Next Level Accessibility campaign and proud to have completed this next stage in St. Martin's Welcome to All.  

At the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Denver, Colorado, on July 10, 2000, a deacon of the church, the Rev. Nellie Greene, read the Gospel lesson at the opening daily service of worship. She did this using her electronic voice.

Not surprising, this irregular idea was Nellie’s. Living out her ministry of inclusion, Nellie had become a very strong advocate for those who have gifts, but limited abilities. She understood fully the loss of abilities. Over the years, she has shared her story with others in this way,

“I am a severely disabled, ordained deacon of the church. My disability is brain damage which my body received in a severe car accident on my way to college in 1970. ...My body has been left crippled with rigidity, and I am legally blind, unable to write or speak. I am totally dependent on a wheelchair for mobility. But I communicate with a talking lap-top; a desk top PC and in social settings, I use a “letter board”, made especially for me, with alphabet letters, familiar phrases and responses, to which I can point. I also talk with my face, my smile and my eyes.” 

Early in 1999, Nellie made known to the national church leaders her desire to read the Gospel at General Convention, using her electronic voice. This was received with understandable concern. Doubts were expressed, and issues began to be addressed. Nellie cooperated fully, but did not give ground as an advocate for the disabled. Yes, it was asking to do something not done before. Yes, it would be hearing a reading of the Gospels in a new key.

As the convention neared, two issues remained. First, how would the deacon in a wheelchair reach the altar? The general convention altar is highly elevated for all to see and relate to the liturgy of worship.  Secondly, how would the use of an electronic voice be managed through a complicated sound system?  

For the first issue, possibly two very strong fellow deacons could lift Nellie in her chair and carry her up the many steps of the highly raised dais, where she could take her place as deacon near the altar. As for the electronic voice device, sound engineers could link it into the system.

There was a measure of real anxiety for everyone about these plans as Nellie and her family prepared to leave Philadelphia for Denver.

At the convention center she was met by the chair of the worship committee who began to explain how the electronic voice would function. Nellie’s strength came forth again. “No”, she said. “The device will be on my lap. The batteries are new, and my rector, Bob Tate, is prepared to come forward with a hand mike to pick up the reading. Nothing else need be done. It will work.” 

Next, the question about how, in her wheelchair, she could become part of the group at the altar. It was then shown to her that a very fine ramp of accessibility to the altar had been built especially for this event...the first ever at general convention. That was impressive.

The next morning for the first daily Eucharist of Convention, the altar party gathered with the presiding bishop to begin the procession. As the music soared, and the voices sang, the procession moved gracefully around to the left of the dais, and then together everyone up the ramp of accessibility. Bob Tate carefully maneuvered the chair in which sat the deacon.

When it was time for the Gospel to be read, Nellie was moved forward in her chair. She flipped the switch to her electronic voice, and the Gospel of Matthew filled the hall with clear words.

Much later in the day, as she was moved through the vast exhibit hall of resources for ministry, Nellie was stopped countless times by those wanting to express their thoughts to her. One was unforgetable:  The leader of the Deacons in the Diocese of Denver came and bent low to speak directly to Nellie in the chair. He took off his handsome deacon cap made especially for this convention and placed it on her head. “Nellie,” he said loud enough for all to hear, “thank you for lifting our sights and stretching us. If you can do what you do, there is nothing that the rest of us cannot do!”

Nellie continues to live out her personal mission statement:

“My mission is to encourage, enlighten, and inspire with humor and compassion, all whom I meet, especially children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. I urge them to be responsible to each other, the earth, and all sentient beings so they will know their value as children of God.”

Please join us again at Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 4 at 8:00 p.m. as we once again gather on Hopkins Terrace and then process up the ramp into the church for worship, as was done at General Convention in the story, at our ramp dedication, Palm Sunday, and will continue to be our new tradition of accessible access in honor of Nellie, Chris, and all those who have and will yet bless us with their presence and teaching.

OHC and Me

Holy Cross Monastery in spring

As we approach our annual Lenten Retreat to Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York, I would like to share my feelings about this special place with the congregation. Holy Cross, for me, is what the Celts call a “thin place,” that is a place where God is especially accessible.

Here is my story…

In 1988, as a depressed and strung-out college junior I had a dream one night about Holy Cross Monastery based on a vague memory from a childhood visit. Though I was studying religion at the time I had abandoned the church and scoffed at faith. The day after this vivid dream, I called my mother and described the dream to her. She identified it immediately as Holy Cross. I asked her to book me a room for spring break that year leaving her completely baffled. 

I flew home to New Jersey between terms, took New Jersey Transit to New York and Metro North to Poughkeepsie, where a monk met me at the train station. Armed with a stack of books to defend myself against religion I set up camp in a room on the third floor. For some reason, however, I attended every worship service.  

Whether it was Matins, Vespers, Prime, or Compline, I always sat in the back row of the chapel, body turned resolutely away from the brothers, chagrined by all the religiousness and feeling self-righteous and "too smart for all this."  

To the surprise of the monks and myself, on my last day, I went up for the Eucharistic around the altar. Like St. Martin's, the community gathers around the table for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. At the passing of the peace I was overcome by God's loving presence and the divine desire to receive me. I sobbed through the Eucharistic Prayer as every word rang clear as a bell in my heart and mind. The mental image of a sharp, clean, silver needle passing a slender thread through the words and through my heart carried me through the emotionally wrenching moment. With God’s gentle, nurturing love overwhelming my resistance, my healing had begun.

After the dismissal, I bolted down to the Hudson and cried for an hour or so before a brother found me and got me to my train on time.

Holy Cross will forever be for me the place where God began to knit me back together again. I return there as often as I can because the grace I receive there helps me to grow deeper into the mystery of God. It is a place where God can polish my soul so it can glow with God’s light.

I hope you will consider attending our retreat in March. Perhaps you can give this retreat as a gift to your spouse. Take the kids for the weekend and give your beloved the chance for some renewal. Ask your teenage son or daughter – or college-aged child – if they would like to attend. They are most welcome. Find more information on the Wellspring page of StMartinEC.org.

- The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

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

Naming Our Values: Discussion Part 1

Image from http://www.360dpi.net/what-are-your-core-beliefs/

For the next few weeks, we will use this blog as an extension of our Values Clarification work being done in Parish Forum at 10 a.m. and over lunch after our 11:15 a.m. service. You are welcome to come to the blog and see where the work is taking us each week. This will also serve as a way for people who were unable to attend one session to "catch up" and feel welcome at subsequent sessions. This week's discussion was on Aspirational Values. Next week we will move on to Accidental Values, and then finish out on the 23rd with Core Values.

ASPIRATIONAL VALUES

From the Two Sunday Forum Sessions on March 9 and the Vestry Retreat of March 8

Below you will find summaries of the “Aspirational Values” discussion from the weekend of March 8 and 9.  Below is a condensation of the responses from the general gatherings of members based on vote totals.  This is followed by the summary results of the Vestry discussion and then raw results from the Forum gatherings arranged according to the tables where people sat.  We are posting these results to stimulate discussion and reflection between our gatherings so we enter each forum prepared for a deep and enriching discussion. 

“Aspirational Values” are values we hope to more fully embody in our community in the future.

Aspirational Values – Sunday Forum Summary with Vote totals

•       Community Engagement/Social Justice  50

•       Unconditional Welcome and inclusion  46

•       Including  & encouraging the gifts & calling of all members 26

•       Diversity/Anti-Racism  19

•       Growth in Faith/Spirituality 11

•       Vision for our Youth Program 11

Aspirational Values – Vestry Version

• Anti-Racist* Community where all types of privilege (race, class, gender) are dismantled so all are welcomed and equally heard and served.  Are we ready for EVERYBODY?
• A Community that calls forth the gifts of its people.  A community of Lay-Leaders where leadership is cultivated and supported.  Where leadership development is a well-defined institutional function.
• A community that serves as a portal for seekers of Jesus, where we develop our ability to do ‘spiritual outreach’ and tell about the benefits we derive from our relationship with God. 

*Anti-Racist is a term in our Diocese that refers to structural racism more than personal racist attitudes. Structural racism are all those factors that value people of color differently, restrict equal opportunity, and contribute to social and economic stratification based on race.

Aspirational Values – Raw Data from tables

·       Social Justice [7] – people suffering at the hands of others

o   Preferential options for the poor i.e. north Philadelphia

o   People in the penal system unjustly placed there

§  Those born into poverty

o   Advocacy for Social Justice

·       Unconditional Welcome [5]

o   Acceptance vs tolerance

§  Women

§  Diverse ethnic groups

·       Growth in our faith [11] – spirituality

o   Building on those set in place for us

o   Strengthen the church and community in our faith in God

O   O   O

·       Tithing [2] – in pledging and diocesan contributions also to wider-world causes, involving labor, talent, time

·       Radical Hospitality [9] – (or is it a Core Value)

·       Beauty in Worship [5] – place, music, liturgy

o   (Or accidental? Over-emphasized? Too costly and distracting?)

·       Being aware of engaging people to use their special [+4]– builds a sense of community

·       Pro-Diversity – richness of talents celebrated, encouraged

·       Growing sense of responsibility [6] – for engaging in our wider community – as in POWER or other groups.

O   O   O

·       Drawn back after first visit– open, engaged [1]

·       Sense of purpose in community [2]

·       Active Welcome [1]

·       Attracted to announced activities

·       Radical Welcome [1]

·       Genuine, not imposed [1]

·       Friendly [1]

·       Feel known as a person here

·       There is space for everybody in activities [1]

O  O  O

·       Open, inclusive, not our table but God’s table [2]

o   We give back, care about the vulnerable [2]

·       Vitality attractive to youth

·       Intellectual rigor and vigor, though provoking [3]

·       Life of Christ at center more than death of cross [1]

·       Energizing, making faith real [2]

·       Relational [1]

O  O  O

·       Making change happen [2]

·       Being open—to people, to ideas [2]

·       Valuing youth [1]

·       Outreach [4]—Could we be more involved with the community?

·       To be inclusive, e.g. eccentric [1]

·       Welcoming [4]

·       Deep spiritual longing, development, formation [2]

·       Integrate old and new – ideas, members [1]

·       Integrate newcomers [2]

·       More caregiving – in the sense of more spread out among more people [9]

O  O  O

Anti-racist/all inclusive congregation

·       Respect for individual

·       LANGUAGE! [1]

·       Where is Jesus in all this?

O  O  O

·       Nurture a spirit of engagement + volunteerism [9]

o   Diverse menu of opportunities

·       Awareness of our individual gifts and ministries [3]

·       Create a more inviting atmosphere/exterior/campus [3]

·       Increase diversity [4]

o   Race [1]

o   Age

o   Ethnicity

o   Sexuality

O  O  O

·       Value all members of congregation [4]

·       Welcoming within church and greater community [5]

·       Advocacy [like POWER] + Action [11]

·       To be rather than seem to be [4]

·       Diversity of gender, race, faith [5]

·       Listening to our call [6]

o   Finding new challenges and taking them on [1] (ex. Barbara Dundon – Africa)

·       Financial Generosity [4]

·       Tapping People resources

·       Community Engagement [9]

o   Does church already have a mission statement?

·       St. Martin’s NOW a Welcoming Place? [11]

o   “You are not part of apostolic core!”

·       Greeting your neighbor-reaching out

·       Communion practice explained – Communication

·       Everyone is welcomed to the table [2]

·       All responsibility of inclusion cannot be on the Rector. [1]

o   “Should be broader.”

·       Wellspring– participating organizational component [2]

o   “Deepens Word of God”

·       Evangelism? [1]

o   (Awkward)

o   If they’re core values

o   “It’s that we are never going to ask you what you believe.”

·       Core Value [7]—Hospitality and “Power of Attraction”

·       We do well for very young children – but that changes when children grow beyond early years [2]

·       Clarity and Communication [3]

·       Use of dots is now a core value

·       Welcome new visitors but continue this welcome beyond the first few visits—engagement into the future; more inclusion [6]

·       Make community engagement beyond the financial, in areas of poverty and inequality [9]

·       Vision for our youth program [11]

o   More active – service

o   Intentional hiring of minister for this mission