News from the Congregation July 24, 2020
Disciples of a Steadfast God; Relating to Others Who Have a Different Life Story; Genesis Bible Study, Sunday Worship, Eucharist Class, YESS Bible Study, Reading Group, Digital Church Survey
From Fr. Steven
The ancient Greek biographer Plutarch tells a famous story of the Roman general and politician Mark Antony. Having lost the Battle of Actium to Octavian (the future Roman emperor Augustus), Antony finds himself under siege in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. He and his wife, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, face imminent defeat. Their future is grim.
Suddenly, in the middle of the night, Mark Antony hears music, loud shouts, and a band of revelers making merry noise outside his window. Plutarch writes the meaning of this strange omen was that Bacchus, the pagan god who had protected Antony, was now deserting him.
The modern Greek poet, Constantine Cavafy, wrote a haunting poem based on this story, which I think speaks to the moment in which we now find ourselves. We can no longer ignore the harsh reality that our pre-pandemic life is not coming back. This includes the Cathedral, as we knew it, in March 2020.
Cavafy's poem, "The god abandons Antony," (translated below by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard) gives voice to how we might face this harsh new reality with honesty and integrity.
When suddenly, at midnight, you hear
an invisible procession going by
with exquisite music, voices,
don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive—don’t mourn them uselessly.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say
it was a dream, your ears deceived you:
don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
as is right for you who proved worthy of this kind of city,
go firmly to the window
and listen with deep emotion, but not
with the whining, the pleas of a coward;
listen—your final delectation—to the voices,
to the exquisite music of that strange procession,
and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing.
Even more than stoic resignation, however, we can take comfort that we are the disciples of a God who will never abandon us. Working just a few years before Plutarch, the apostle Paul wrote these stirring words of hope to the early Christian community in Rome:
I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Rev. Canon Steven Lee
Canon Pastor and Vicar
THIS SUNDAY, JULY 26
(To access each program on Zoom, click the link in the title.)
10:00 AM - In the Beginning: A Study of Genesis
Crises test our faith and help us see what is essential in our church life, such as reading the Bible in community. Join the Vicar for a study of the first book of the Bible. Discover Genesis, not as a collection of ancient mythological stories, but as the Word of God addressing our fundamental and deepest needs.
11:00 AM - Congregation Watch Party for Cathedral Worship Service
Watch the Cathedral worship service on Zoom with other members of the Congregation. As a way to maintain a prayerful atmosphere, we will be turning off Zoom chat for the duration of the service.
You can also watch the Cathedral Worship Service
On Facebook: http://facebook.com/StJohnDivineNYC
On the Cathedral website: http://www.stjohndivine.org
12:00 PM - Digital Coffee Half-Hour
Join us at this week’s Digital Coffee Hour to meet members of the Congregation community.
12:30 PM - Adult Formation Class
Sub-Dean Malloy resumes his class on the Eucharist. You can access supporting materials for the course by clicking here.
WEEKLY CATHEDRAL CONGREGATION PROGRAMS
Tuesdays | 6:00 PM - YESS Bible Study
This Wednesday | 7:00 PM - Congregation Reading Group
Wednesdays | 8:30 PM - Congregation Compline
Reminder: you can find a directory of weekly programs with links to each program’s Zoom by clicking here.
WAYS TO CONNECT
Throughout the week, the programming the congregation offers can be accessed through either Zoom or by dialing in through the phone. More and more people have taken advantage of this phone option and have found it to be successful. Please click the link for details.
DIGITAL CHURCH SURVEY
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey over the last two weeks! Your answers will help ensure that the ministry being offered is sustainable and inclusive. There is still time to fill out the survey, which is just four short pages and should take about five to ten minutes. Click here to be heard.
From the Wardens
Bit by bit New York re-opens and the Cathedral community begins the long return to the new normal. The Cathedral is open for small funerals and private prayer. Staff have returned part time to the close to work. Congregation members return to their work-a-day life, if they are fortunate enough to have such a life to return to. A new deacon, Paul Daniels is hired and preaches his first block-buster sermon. Were you at Coffee Hour last Sunday to meet Paul? The level of excitement and joy at this new voice among us was hard to miss. Warden Tim Dwyer interviewed him and dozens of members greeted him and asked questions. It was a treat to witness and participate in so much joy and hope!
For us older folk, we remain in semi-solitary in our comfortable jails. ZOOM and the phone, Face book and a couple of cats may limit the sense of isolation, but it can’t be denied. Being alone until medical professionals say it’s safe to come out and play can be frustrating. But it also gives one a chance to think and consider one’s life and one’s relationships and question the part one plays in this world and community. Do I love? Do I love enough? The ability to empathize, to have compassion, is a central component of the religious life. Waking up at 2:00 a.m. last night I began to consider my own ability to have compassionate understanding of my brothers and sisters in the faith and in the world in general. There are certainly limits. I am a female. I have no idea what it would be like to be male. I never had children. What is it like to give birth and to be responsible for another human being? I was born into a lower middle class family in the mid-West. That means I had everything I needed in the way of food and shelter. I was rich compared to so many in this world. But how do I relate to others who live a different story?
What do we all have in common? I’ve been thinking about the game that goes around on Face book where you are asked “did you ever?” I began to make my own list of what I can say yes to:
Did you ever sneeze?
Have you ever made a pie from scratch?
Dyed your hair?
Have you ever put bait on a fishhook?
Have you ever shot a gun?
Do you know what it is like to live without running water, to use an outhouse, to depend on the land for food?
Have you ridden a horse? Gone into a chicken coop to gather eggs?
Did you ever feel you were the smartest person in the room?
Did you ever feel you were the dumbest person in the room?
Was it ever hard to get someone to wait on you in a store because of your outward appearance? (Poor, old, black, fat?)
Have you ever been the only Black person, White person or believing person in a group?
Have you ever been to the other side of the world? Managed in an environment where no one spoke your language?
Here are some that I have to answer “no” to:
Have you ever given birth: learned to drive a car; watched a live football game; run a marathon; played a sport; attended a rock concert; smoked marijuana or taken drugs; owned a house; earned a PhD; known your grandmothers?
A simple question that I think may bring out a lot of differences in life experience is: what did your family talk about at the dinner table and how did that form you?
To get beyond our apparent life experiences and find empathy and compassion with those whose experiences have been very different, God gave us an imagination. Follow that imagination, read novels and memoirs by people from very different backgrounds, and a modest level of understanding might be reached. Better yet, discover that friendships are possible across lines of experience. The church can be very good for that—especially a church where we have “all of the above” as members. Talk to and befriend those of different backgrounds and life experiences and listen. Through the gift of imagination and listening we just may be able to understand one another better and have more compassion for one another. Maybe, just maybe, we may begin to understand that we are all children of God.
Blessings from your wardens!
Marsha and Tim