News from the Congregation June 12, 2020
Journeying to the Promised Land; Black Lives Matter Vigil and March, Jennifer Allen’s Ordination, Sunday Programming (Job Bible Study, Worship Service, Coffee Half-Hour), YESS Bible Study, Reading Group - John Donne, Saturday Pride Service, Poor People’s Campaign Digital March
From Canon Lee
I know a wonderful Congregational minister who, upon graduation from seminary, spent 7 years in a Buddhist monastery. I once asked him what he did there. He replied, “I spent my time in the monastery trying to discover why I was in the monastery.”
Perhaps this resonates with you. You find yourself at the Cathedral, trying to figure out why you are at the Cathedral.
***
This week, I reread one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It begins in the 11th chapter of Numbers, when the Israelites finally leave Mt. Sinai for the Promised Land. The story of their escape from Egypt pauses—through the final 20 chapters in Exodus, all of Leviticus, the first 10 chapters of Numbers—but now, they restart their journey.
Immediately, the complaints begin.
"Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."
Their leader, Moses, loses heart.
Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?... Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?… If you will treat me like this, kill me at once."
By chapter 14, even God loses patience. God condemns the Israelites to wander in the wilderness, until the adults freed from Egyptian slavery have died. Only their children will enter the Promised Land.
But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.
In this story from Numbers, we find the answer to the question, "Why are we here at the Cathedral?"
We are here to journey to the Promised Land.
***
This week, I started reading other books too: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson; How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi; The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone.
Reading a book, like holding a Black Lives Matter vigil, is a small step on this journey to the Promised Land. There will be more to say, and do, in the coming months, as our Cathedral Congregation reckons with racial reconciliation and reparations. This is a journey that may provoke complaints, despair, even anger.
But the Promised Land beckons. And it is a good land, a land that flows with milk and honey.
Or, as Martin Luther King, Jr put it, in his final Sunday sermon, preached at the Washington National Cathedral, just a few days before his assassination:
Let me close by saying that we have difficult days ahead in the struggle for justice and peace, but I will not yield to a politic of despair. I’m going to maintain hope as we come to Washington in this campaign. The cards are stacked against us. This time we will really confront a Goliath. God grant that we will be that David of truth set out against the Goliath of injustice, the Goliath of neglect, the Goliath of refusing to deal with the problems, and go on with the determination to make America the truly great America that it is called to be.
The Rev. Canon Steven Lee
Canon Pastor and Vicar
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Thousands gathered at the Cathedral last Friday for two powerful forms of common prayer: a litany of repentance and protest march through Morningside Heights and Harlem. Led by Canon Lee, the crowd prayed for the Black lives that have been lost to the scourge of police brutality and white supremacy, and then marched to demand progress.
The protests in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police have already born good fruit in our city and in our congregation. If you would like to be involved in further actions please email vestry@saintsaviour.org.
THIS SATURDAY, JUNE 13
(To access each program on Zoom, click the link in the title.)
3:30 PM EST - Jennifer Allen’s ordination to the diaconate
Gather in celebration with us as we watch our very own Wisdom Year Resident, Jennifer Allen, ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas.
We will have a watch party on the congregation Zoom, but you can also watch the service live-streamed via the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas’ Facebook page.
THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 14
(To access each program on Zoom, click the link in the title.)
10:00 AM - Integrity in Crisis: A Bible Study on Job
Join the Vicar for a series of classes on the Book of Job and learn how this timeless text can address our suffering in this difficult time.
10:00 AM - Digital Sunday School Materials Emailed
11:00 AM - Congregation Watch Party for Cathedral Worship Service
Watch the Cathedral worship service on Zoom with other members of the Congregation.
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 Coffee "Half-Hour" to celebrate and send off our Wisdom Year Resident, Jennifer Allen, who will be beginning her work as a deacon in the Diocese of Kansas.
WEEKLY CATHEDRAL CONGREGATION PROGRAMS
Tuesdays | 6:00 PM - YESS Bible Study
This Wednesday | 7:00 PM - Congregation Reading Group
“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and, therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Join the Congregation Reading Group at 7:00 PM this Wednesday (instead of 6:30)! This week, they will be reading three short pieces by John Donne (1572-1631):
Meditation XVII, from which the above line is taken;
Holy Sonnet XIV (“Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God”);
“To His Mistress Going to Bed,” surely one of the most erotic poems ever written.
Special Guests include Richard Burton, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Orson Welles. Materials will be posted in the #readinggroup channel on Slack or contact lafresem@gmail.com.
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.
NEWS FROM THE CATHEDRAL
It has been determined that the Cathedral will open on a very limited basis for personal prayer, reflection, and meditation beginning in early to mid-July based on when New York State moves into its Phase 2 of reopening.
In-person worship services will not be held in the Cathedral until at least September. In the meantime, Morning and Evening Prayer will continue to be offered via Zoom and the 11AM Sunday service will continue to be live-streamed.
The Cathedral’s biggest priority is maintaining the safety of staff, volunteers, congregants, and visitors as plans for phased reopening continue to develop. Feedback to the Congregation task-force is welcome, and can be submitted to vestry@saintsaviour.org.
PRIDE AT SAINT SAVIOUR
Please join us on Saturday, June 20 at 4PM for a special service in honor of Pride. You can watch together with other members of the congregation via Zoom, or also through the Cathedral website. The Congregation’s LGBTQ+ group will host a fellowship “half-hour” on Zoom following the service.
If you haven’t submitted your video greeting for the Congregation's Pride video, the deadline has been extended to Monday, June 15. Email kevindelaigle@gmail.com for details and instructions.
SERVE
Join members of the Congregation in participating in the Poor People's Campaign Digital March on Washington on June 20. The Campaign is led by the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, who gave an electrifying sermon at the Cathedral last May, calling for a "Moral Pentecost." The Digital March on Washington will highlight the deep structural inequities in our society, which is making the effects of the global pandemic fall disproportionately on working class communities of color.
Register for the March here.
From Marsha and Tim
Since the earliest days of our faith, people have disagreed about the right way to apply Jesus’ teachings and live as “good Christians.” Those disagreements often had bleak consequences: a significant portion of the war and misery of the past 2,000 years can be attributed to our flawed attempts to interpret God’s will here on earth. Abraham Lincoln was one of the few to recognize how easy it was to get it wrong: in the early days of the Civil War, when given the assurance that God was on the Union’s side, he famously replied “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side….”
Even when there is consensus regarding the goal, it can be difficult to reach agreement regarding the right path to achieve it. Last Fall (feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?) most of the two dozen people running for President were advocating changes to America’s healthcare system so that more people could have access to medical care. Despite that common goal, there were significant differences among the plans they offered, and considerable vitriol spewed as each candidate explained why his or her plan was so evidently the right one while the others were awful and would lead to catastrophe.
Today we find our Cathedral community lovingly united in acknowledging the need for racial and social justice. Amidst the anguish, fear, and isolation of these times, this unity of purpose is an exhilarating feeling, isn’t it?
But part of the hard work ahead of us will be to recognize that we will inevitably disagree, sometimes pointedly, about how to pursue that laudable goal. In the coming months we will hear sermons or learn about initiatives that will prove too radical for some but not radical enough for others. Our society is a complex and diverse one, and there are no easy solutions for the poverty, racism, ignorance, bigotry, and phobias that plague us. Recent history is full of examples of well-intentioned social programs that failed or were counter-productive, innocent gaffes that unintentionally offended, or conflicting interests that required difficult choices to be made.
That reality shouldn’t deter us from moving forward. But let us resolve to do so recognizing that none of us has a monopoly on wisdom, and that we must all listen to each other respectfully, avoid generalizations and labeling, and be open to other perspectives – especially those that make us uncomfortable.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our Congregation could be an example of how a community can confront the most painful of problems while still maintaining our humanity and finding Christ in each other?
Blessings from your wardens!
Marsha and Tim