News from the Congregation November 20, 2020
‘Superabundant Generosity ’; ‘A Brief History of Thanksgiving’; | CCC - Thanksgiving Sunday Food Drive, Holiday Toy Drive; Deacon Paul Daniels -Adult Formation, Advent Program on Howard Thurman; Sunday Programs (9:45 am Visit with the Vicar, 10 am Genesis Bible Study, 11 am Worship Service, 11:45 Vicar and Friends, 12 pm Coffee Half-Hour, 12:30 pm Paul Daniels Antiracism); Weekday Programs (Wednesday Compline Service, Thursday YESS Bible Study, Thursday EfM Class, Friday Midday Prayer and Meditation).
Canon Lee
This past week, your Vestry and I began the process of forming the Congregation budget for 2021. In this time of economic uncertainty, I encouraged the Vestry to consider how much the Congregation could give away from its financial surplus.
The needs of our Cathedral, our neighborhood, and our city continue to increase. There is higher demand for the Cathedral soup kitchen, yet Cathedral revenues are significantly lower because of the inability to host large concerts, galas, and other income-generating events. In our neighborhood, local businesses are shutting down. At 14%, New York City’s unemployment rate remains higher than the rest of the state.
Now is not the time to bury all of the Congregation’s treasure in the safety of a savings account or an investment trust. Rather, as the Apostle Paul might put it, now is the time to be superabundantly generous.
Below, you can read about the Congregation’s efforts to provide superabundant generosity for the Thanksgiving season. There is still time for you to participate too.
Along these lines, I’d like you to consider another way you might give superabundantly of your time and attention.
Earlier this year, we witnessed a dramatic movement that renewed demands to end police brutality and to increase racial justice. In late May, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, issued a statement with the headline, “When the Cameras are Gone, We Will Still Be Here.”
Well, the cameras are now gone. Polls show that support for Black Lives Matter has fallen since the summer. Members of the public have twice ripped down the Cathedral’s BLM signs. (The third version of the sign still remains up.) The excitement of our unexpected, and Spirit-filled, vigil outside the Cathedral has faded.
But, in keeping with the Presiding Bishop’s promise, the Congregation is still here. We are continuing this work. Our witness to Jesus Christ does not depend on public popularity, social acceptability, or the adrenaline rush of a large crowd.
Our witness to Jesus Christ is grounded in revealed Scripture, the historic tradition, and our reason and experience. All of these things tell us that racism, especially in the persistent form of anti-blackness we find in American history, is anti-Christian.
This Sunday, the Rev. Deacon Paul Daniels will lead us in a parish-wide “wrap-up" discussion of Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist. In the coming weeks, he will lead a class on the theologian Howard Thurman, whose work inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.
Additionally, I have been in active conversation with the co-chairs of the Reparations and Racial Reconciliation committee, Fred Wherry and Joan Adams, about next steps for this work. We are grateful that Deacon Daniels has offered to help and is making himself available as a resource. As opportunities to participate in future events are announced, I hope you will join us. This is another way you can give superabundantly.
Marsha and Tim
Junior Warden Tim Dwyer reflects on Thanksgiving:
I guess it is pretty obvious that Thanksgiving is going to be, like so much else this year, very different from its predecessors. Part of my family’s tradition is to reach out to people who might otherwise be alone on the day and have them join us. This often led to a diverse group of people from different countries, ethnicities, religions, political persuasions, and/or generations gathered around the table. In a way, it felt like my ideal vision of America. This year in particular it seems like that type of gathering would have held special meaning, but is obviously impossible in the current environment. Instead, many of us will dine alone and perhaps wonder what there is to be thankful for.
The details of the first American Thanksgiving, that of Pilgrims and Squanto and the Patuxet tribe, is lost in a haze of myth and unreliable accounts. But we know that the pilgrims had had a very difficult year up to that point (only 52 of the Mayflower's 102 passengers were still living) and were facing the prospect of a long, cold, hungry winter when they broke bread in thanks with their neighbors.
In 1789, Congress suggested to the newly inaugurated President Washington that he issue a Thanksgiving proclamation at the close of the very first session of Congress (I imagine the President was very thankful that all of those Congressmen were finally leaving town). The new government was broke and weak and divided by partisanship, an angry England hovered ominously just over the Canadian border, and hundreds of thousands of humans were enslaved within our borders. But still Washington’s proclamation would become the template. On October 3 he proclaimed:
“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be…and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions….”
The holiday was observed only intermittently over the next seven decades. Exactly 74 years to the day after Washington’s proclamation, on October 3 1863 Lincoln issued his own Thanksgiving proclamation. This time the occasion for gratitude was the nation’s ability to endure and even thrive after almost three years of bloody civil war. Everyone knew that the end of the war was still not in sight, and that casualties would continue to mount, but the troops and civilians alike observed the day as best they could. Coincidentally, that particular Thanksgiving also fell on Thursday, November 26.
After that year the tradition became more a part of the national calendar, but wasn’t made a federal holiday until December 1941, just a few weeks after Pearl Harbor. At the time, the nation was still digging out of the Great Depression and had just been plunged into global war. So the very first Thanksgiving as a federal holiday would be the following year on Thursday November 26, 1942.
I think it is worth noting that these pivotal Thanksgiving observances occurred not during easy, abundant, joyous times, but during some of the darkest periods in our nation’s history. It’s inspirational to me that those great challenges – poverty, war, political instability, etc. – didn’t cause our forbearers to despair or wonder aloud why God was so unfair. Instead, their circumstances caused them to refocus on and appreciate their blessings large and small.
As I prepare to step down from the Vestry and my role as Junior Warden at our upcoming annual meeting, I realize just how thankful I am for the opportunity to get to know so many of you and to have been able to help shape the life of our congregation. I am thankful for the tireless energy and enduring friendship of our Senior Warden Marsha and our Vicar Steven. And I am thankful for the Spirit that has breathed life into our community to help it not just to survive but to thrive and be of service to those in need in these dark days.
As you observe Thanksgiving during this terrible, stressful, and sad year on – you guessed it – Thursday November 26, I pray that you too can focus on, appreciate, and find comfort in the blessings in your life.
CONNECT
Saturday, December 5, 2020 | 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM - The Northern Manhattan Inter Parish Council Advent Quiet Day: Reflecting on Howard Thurman
This online event, being led by the Rev. Deacon Paul Anthony Daniels of the Cathedral, will focus on the words and ideas of Howard Washington Thurman, an African-American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century.
To register & receive the link please email: rector@stmarysharlem.org.
GIVE
This Holiday Season, the Congregation and Cathedral are providing several ways to give back to our community.
THANKSGIVING WITH THE CONGREGATION
If you would like to help support the Congregations Thanksgiving food distribution programs, you can do so by clicking here. Donated funds will provide the Thanksgiving meal to the Robert D. Jones (RDJ) Refugee Shelter at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on 126th Street, gift cards to a local grocery store to residents of a local housing development, and a financial contribution to Cathedral Community Cares.
THANKSGIVING WITH CATHEDRAL COMMUNITY CARES
The Thanksgiving Sunday meal will be NOVEMBER 22nd of this year. CCC is asking for those donating cooked turkeys, chickens, pies, cookies, etc. to have goods HERE ON THE GROUNDS not later than 9am. There will be a table set up with a volunteer to accept the donation and to give a donation receipt. Another volunteer will take the donations downstairs to the team for it to be prepped, packed and handed out at 10am.
HUNGARIAN PASTRY SHOP
On Wednesday November 25, all proceeds raised by our neighbors at the Hungarian Pastry shop will be donated to Cathedral Community Cares.
TOY DRIVE
Congregation member Sonia Omulepu is working with Cathedral Community Cares (CCC) on a toy drive. To contribute, drop off at CCC in the Towne building (on the south side of the Cathedral) Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 10 AM and 4 PM only until December 3rd! CCC will accept toys and $20 and $25 gift cards (for older children). Gifts should be unwrapped!
THIS SUNDAY, November 22, 2020
9:45 AM - Visiting with the Vicar
Join the Vicar fifteen minutes before Bible study to say hello and check in with other members of the congregation.
10:00 AM - In the Beginning: A Study of Genesis
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. This Sunday, we continue our study of Genesis 5, under the heading: "Genealogies."
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
11:45 PM - Vicar and Friends
Join the Vicar and occasional guests right after the service for a brief time to say hello and check in with other members of the congregation.
12:00 PM - Digital Coffee Half-Hour
Join us at this week’s Digital Coffee Hour to meet members of the congregation.
12:30 PM - Adult Formation Class - Deacon Paul Daniels
Paul Daniels will lead the Congregation in a ‘wrap-up’ discussion of Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Antiracist. You don’t need to have read the book to come.
WEEKLY CATHEDRAL CONGREGATION PROGRAMS
Wednesdays | 7:30 PM - Midweek Reflection and Discussion
“Advent: Season of Second Chances.” Starts Dec 2. 2020
Wednesdays | 8:30 PM - Congregation Compline
Fridays | 12:15 PM - Midday Prayer and Meditation
The Angelus and 10 minutes of silent meditation. Stay afterwards to connect with the Vicar and others in the parish.
Thursdays | 6:30 PM - Education for Ministry
Education for Ministry is designed for lay people who want to delve more deeply but are not necessarily interested in ordination; EfM classes provide a more formal study of scriptures and the history of the faith. Current Topic: “Living into the Journey with God”
Thursdays | 6:00 PM - YESS Bible Study
The Young Episcopalians of Saint Saviour continue their Bible study of the Gospel of Matthew.
Reminder: you can find a directory of weekly programs with links to each program’s Zoom by clicking here.