News from the Congregation September 3, 2021
‘Summer Committee Work Shout-Outs’; ‘Leaving the Pandemic Ark - Looking Back, Looking Forward’ | September 12 - Return to In-Person Sunday Worship at the Cathedral; Vicar’s Bible Study Resumes, Congregation Fall 2021 Retreat Info, Volunteer at CCC’s Sunday Soup Kitchen, | Sunday Programs (11 am Worship Service, 11:45 pm Coffee Half-Hour ) |Weekday Programs (M-S Morning and Evening Prayer).
Canon Lee
I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer. It was so good to get away to northern Vermont for my family's annual vacation. It is also wonderful to be back. New York City is a special place. While I was able to take a vacation, I want to thank everyone in the Congregation who continued working this summer:
Audit committee -- especially to Gerhard van der Poel, the committee's patient leader, Marsha Ra, Bob Deming, and Cecilia Amadi. We met every week for 7 weeks and completed the 2020 audit, which has now been submitted to the Diocese.
Stewardship and Communications committee -- thanks to Christopher Clowdus, the coordinator of the group, as well as to Sharné Jackson, Scott Klein, Oliver Mahrdt, and Neil Reilly for their hard work. The stewardship and communications plan they have created for the upcoming program year is well-designed, thoughtful, and highly organized.
Room 118 committee -- thanks to Laura Freseman, Bob Deming, and Gina Scudellari for cleaning out and reorganizing the files in the Congregation's designated room in Cathedral House, Room 118. Their work continues into the fall they strive to make the room a proper administrative hub for the Congregation.
Episcopal Futures team -- especially to Akisa Omulepu for her leadership as the point person, and to Neil Reilly, Cynthia Paulino, the Rev. Paul Daniels, and Darold Cuba for their participation. The Letter of Intent has been submitted to the Diocese, and the team will be working on the application, which is due at the end of September. If the Congregation is chosen to participate in this diocesan initiative, we will formally begin in February 2022.
Marsha and Bob
Marsha Ra, Senior Warden on "Leaving the Ark--Looking back and looking forward"
In Genesis 8 we read of Noah leaving the ark with his wife and three sons and daughters-in-law. They have been shut in and isolated for over a year. Followed by the menagerie of creatures they have saved, this tiny remnant human family carefully set foot again on the rich soil that has been hidden for months under the stormy flood. The Bible says nothing of how they actually felt when they left behind the sheltering ark to enter this strange new world. Their first action was to build an altar and sacrifice to God in gratitude for their deliverance. It is a picture of thanksgiving. Yet there must have been shock and confusion at the enormous empty world they now faced. Unmentioned in the text but certainly implied is that they had to rebuild everything from scratch. I wonder if they dismantled the ark and used the wood for new, land-based shelter. Or did they create houses from mud? We are told they planted vineyards—an act of replenishing the earth literally washed clean and empty of signs of human activity. Does any of this Noah story feel familiar?
After a year and a half of sheltering, isolating and connecting virtually, the Congregation of Saint Saviour now faces the time to leave the ark and venture into a new world of life together at the Cathedral. We dream of returning to the place we were, but that place has surely changed—though hopefully not as drastically as Noah’s world. As we leave the world of virtual Sunday worship, we should stop to recognize and celebrate what we as a community were able to accomplish as we participated from our separate little arks. Here is a description of some of what happened over the past year and a half.
The Vestry continued to meet and to increase our commitment to the broader community. We went into our reserves and gave thousands of dollars to CCC, to the Food Bank and similar organizations to help people who were food insecure during the pandemic. We agreed to support ACT in its effort to offer scholarships for neighborhood children so that their parents could go back to work. We also voted to support the Music Department in its outreach to community children through the Schola Cantorum. As we faced the difficulty of getting checks written and double signed, we moved to a system of invoice payments by money transfers with built in controls. An audit committee worked for several months to go over how we collect, how we pay, and what records we keep. Special thanks are due to Gerhard Van der Poel who chairs the committee.
Special thanks are surely due to Laura Freseman who redeveloped the congregation website, then kept it up to date. Laura has set up a method for those who would like to volunteer on Sunday at CCC to do so through REALM. (The fact that congregation members are helping in the soup kitchen after a years’ long hiatus is something we should all celebrate.) Laura also hosted special ZOOM-based access to the Cathedral’s Liturgy of the Word on Sunday so that intercessions could be shared and we could move seamlessly into a virtual coffee hour.
The virtual church provided much spiritual support to help us through the pandemic and what our Vicar referred to as “The Congregation in Exile.” The Vicar provided ZOOM Bible study twice a week. It was--and I’m sure will continue to be-- intense, well thought out, and an excellent opportunity to delve deeply into the Scriptures. The coffee hour after the Sunday service was a chance to chat a bit with other members. Sometimes the discussions became quite serious and went on for over an hour. When we lost our dear friend Clyde Hicks, there was a wonderful opportunity to remember him together. There were amazing classes including several that our Sub Dean Canon Patrick Malloy offered. Father Paul Daniels led two excellent book discussions over several weeks. Participants were thoughtful and candid. In all of these spiritually enriching and challenging opportunities we got to know one another in deeper ways while we learned more about our tradition. And who can forget the virtual Christmas Caroling that we were able to participate in last December with Susan Sobolewski at the piano, all arranged by our elder group, OPUS (Older People up to Something!) led by Sonia Omulepu and Muriel Kneeshaw?
ZOOM Morning and Evening prayer moved on-line within a few weeks of lock-down. Compline was available for over a year as well. The daily office continues to attract 15-20 people each day and will hopefully continue well into the future. Thanks go to Peter Ennis of the Liturgy Department for his work hosting the services every day, preparing the slides and seeing us through.
The community is alive and well. That we implemented REALM on-line giving before the lock-down made it possible for most of the congregation to continue supporting the church. The simplicity of the system and its efficiency has made collecting and depositing gifts simple, clean and very private! This is how we hope everyone will eventually be moved to support the Congregation going forward.
Like Noah’s family, we are leaving behind the ark that has become familiar and life-saving for many of us and we are returning to a world that has changed. Now we enter a new world full of possibilities for the future but a future that is not yet clear. It is right that, like Noah, we first approach the altar together in thanksgiving and shared hope. Then we must together figure out what it is we are called to do. How do we integrate members who for various reasons must remain on the ark and cannot come in person? Remember as you return to in-person church, that we do not know how everything will work. We must be patient and loving to each other as we get over the little shocks that will inevitably come our way in this new world that looks tantalizingly like the old world-- but really isn’t. May God, who does not change, comfort us with rainbows as we move ahead together.
NEWS FROM THE CATHEDRAL
REGATHERING FOR IN-PERSON SUNDAY WORSHIP
On Sunday, September 12, the Cathedral will regather for in-person Sunday worship. All are invited to gather on the steps of the Cathedral starting at 10:00 AM. The service will begin at 10:30 AM. *** The Cathedral requires those entering its buildings to show proof of vaccination and to wear a mask.***
(Please note that starting on September 12, the Cathedral will open at 10:00 AM on Sunday mornings.)
After the service, all are invited to a goodbye party for departing Associate Music Director and Organist Ray Nagem in the Rose Garden next to Diocesan House.
Sunday, September 12
10:00 AM - Gather on Cathedral Steps
10:30 AM - Service begins
11:30 AM - Goodbye party for Ray Nagem in Rose Garden
VICAR'S BIBLE STUDY RETURNS
Paul's Letter to the Romans
Wednesday evenings starting on September 15
7:30 PM
Congregation Zoom
The Book of Genesis
Sunday mornings starting on September 19
8:30 AM
Congregation Zoom
CONGREGATION FALL RETREAT LETTING GO – AND TAKING HOLD
October 29 - 31, 2021
Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, New York
Led by the Rev. Canon Dr. Titus Presler
We long for God, and we intuit that God longs for us. Yet we experience obstacles to the intimacy that we yearn to have with God – doubts, anxieties, resentments, regrets. We struggle both to come to God just as we are and to get beyond our baggage. At the same time we sense God calling us to engage deeply and passionately as disciples in God’s work in the world. So what is the relation between letting go and taking hold in our life with God? How do we balance the two? Titus Presler will address these movements of the spiritual life with touchstones from scripture and theology.
Titus Presler is vicar of St. Matthew’s Church in Enosburg Falls, Vermont. Through mission experience in India, Zimbabwe and Pakistan he has experienced the spiritualities of Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and African Traditional Religion. President of the Global Episcopal Mission Network, he was rector of St. Peter’s Church in Cambridge, Mass., academic dean at General Seminary and president of the Seminary of the Southwest. He served as chaplain of the Community of the Holy Transfiguration and led retreats for the Society of St. Margaret in Boston and Utica. Honorary canon theologian in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, he holds a B.A. from Harvard, M.Div. from General, and Th.D. from Boston University. Among many publications, he is the author of Alert for Signs: Seeing Praying through Advent (Forward Movement) and Going Global with God: Reconciling Mission in a World of Difference (Church Publishing). He is married to the Rev. Canon Jane Butterfield.
To sign up, please contact Marsha Ra.
GIVE/SERVE
Questions about Realm
Christopher Clowdus and Neil Reilly invite your questions about Realm, the Congregation's giving database, at this email address: stewardship@saintsaviour.org.
CCC - Volunteer Opportunity at Sunday Soup Kitchen
Join us at CCC's Sunday Soup Kitchen (8:30 am - 11:00 am) to help prepare and distribute food and to staff Saint Saviour's Table. Please CLICK HERE to sign up! Shifts are open through the first week in October. Thank you so much for volunteering!
THIS SUNDAY, September 5, 2021
11:00 AM - 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 AM - Digital Coffee Half-Hour (approximately)
Join us at this week’s Digital Coffee Hour to meet members of the congregation or hear guest speakers, This week the Congregation is welcome to stay on the same zoom link for coffee-hour, or head to a different link to attend the Vestry meeting.
WEEKLY CATHEDRAL CONGREGATION PROGRAMS
Monday-Saturday | 8:30 AM Morning Prayer | 5:30 PM Evening Prayer
Wednesday 7:30 pm Bible Study | Paul’s Letter to the Romans, (begins Sept. 15) Congregation Zoom Link
Sunday 8:30 am Bible Study | Genesis (begins September 19)
Congregation Zoom Link