Newsletter Sunday, July 12, 2020

Dear Friends of Emmanuel,

In the Collect for Sunday, July 12, we pray that we may know and understand what things we ought to do and ask for the grace and power to accomplish them.  It is a lofty request of God.

Jesus after all did not live in the midst of this pandemic!  Jesus did not have the racism, ageism, and sexism, etc. to deal with what we are facing today.  Or did he?  If we believe that God has provided guidance for all these modern things by giving Jesus to live and die as one of us, then where do we find help for today’s problems?

Actually, we can if we put our minds to it.  If we pay attention.  If we open our minds and hearts, the answer is there.  Remember the Samaritans, the tax collectors, the lepers? Those were the communities that were discriminated against.  Remember the lepers that no one wanted to go near?  Remember the woman who was about to be stoned?  And the woman who came to wash his feet with their hair? Remember Zacchaeus and Lazarus the rich man and many other characters in our scriptures.

Let us not be like the seed that has fallen on the rocks and turn away. Let us embrace the blessings and the challenges that are before us in 2020 as God would have us do.

The Lessons for us this week focus on seed and “sower.”  Timeless images for those of us who garden or even remember from our grade school science class know about the need for water, sunshine, and good soil in order to receive a good harvest.

The analogy is simple. Everyone and everything needs to be nourished with the soil, water, and sunshine of life. When we nourish our souls and hearts, we receive the joy and peace needed to accomplish what God has for us to do.

Isaiah 55: 12-13 says, “the mountains and the hills” will burst out in song…and it will be an everlasting sign. God calls us to be safe, be comfortable, care for ourselves, and pray that God will give us the knowledge our task.  And “we shall go out with Joy and be led forth with peace.”  Surely peace and joy are a priceless precious gift from God.

Be well, be safe,

The Rev. Joyce Caggiano

View the taped service anytime via our website:

https://emmanuelwr.org/sermons/

New this week on our website: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has posted a new “Habits of Grace”

Reflection.

https://emmanuelwr.org/news-events/

Hydrangeas at Emmanuel

(photo by Terri Halliday)

 We may not be there—but the flowers bloom at our beautiful church. Taken on July 7, 2020.

Click below to access the sermon by The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign. Given at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. on Sunday, June 14, 2020.

A National Call For Moral Revival

As we learn how to adjust our lives given the reality of the coronavirus and the request to do our part to slow its spread by practicing social distancing, I invite you to join me each week to take a moment to cultivate a ‘habit of grace.’ 

https://episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/habits-grace-may-29-2020-invitation-you-presiding-bishop-curry

Pentecost.  What Does It Mean?

“The name in Greek means “the fiftieth day” because it falls on the 50th day after Passover.  At this feast the first fruits of the corn harvest were presented (Deut. 16.9) and in most later times, the giving of the Law of Moses was commemorated.”

from “The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church”

The reading from Acts 2: 1-21 describes the event that the church has named Pentecost. This story of how the fearful apostles, huddled in a room discussing their dismay and bewilderment. It represents the beginning of the spread of the Good News – that Christ was born, died, and is risen from the dead.

The Ascension has put Jesus back in heaven with God and left the Apostles on earth still wondering what to do. They are given the arduous task of spreading the gospel.  It was scary and challenging and brought with it all kinds of risks.  Courage was required.  Thus, the Holy Spirit was provided to the followers so that they would know their work and do it with passion and joy.

The speaking and/or understanding of many languages is the animation of what it means to go out into the world proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The emphasis is on “the world” – meaning everyone – no matter who or where – beyond culture and language and race and gender, etc.

Some churches call this the birthday of the church – the point at which the church begins its ministry.  I think regarding Pentecost as the birthday of the church is trite and minimizes what was truly a momentous reality. No longer is the gospel being shared with just the Jews in Jerusalem but to ALL, in every language and nation.

This is the essence of the feast.  I like to think of it as the day we learn to burst out of our individuality, our social prejudices, our comfortable homes and clubs, etc. We can go OUT into the world with courage and blessings understanding that God is with us and the Holy Spirit will guide us and bless us for our work and provide us with courage.

What I see and what I experience of Pentecost is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, as an essential part of our Christian responsibility to share God’s love with ALL people.

Special Note: We invite parishioners to participate in our Sermon Dialogue discussion and taping on Saturday, May 30 at 3:00 pm via Zoom. We hope you can take the time and are given the courage to speak about Pentecost. It can be fun, and I hope affirming.  You can use this blog as a discussion starter or as a stimulus for your thinking.

If you are interested in participating, please email us at info@emmanuelwr.org  and we can send you the details.

April 25, 2020

My Holy Week journey was out of sync.  In order to prepare our videotaped Easter Day celebration at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, my Easter sermon had to be written and delivered fully 10 days ahead.  I centered my mind and heart in the astonishing revelation of the Empty Tomb.  Then, with that taping accomplished, I re-entered the narrative of our communal journey, just heading into Palm Sunday.  Easter gladness was suddenly a memory, as the sorrows of the Passion once more took center stage.  It was a strangely disjointed experience – from Lenten solemnity to Easter exaltation to Passiontide sorrow to Good Friday desolation and back to Easter gladness.  There was nothing linear about this journey.

Our calendar this year is out of sync.  With the pandemic crisis surrounding us, we are in a continuing state of anxiety and sadness.  Though the liturgical calendar says we have made the transition from Lent into Easter season, the reality around us suggests otherwise.  Living in the northern hemisphere, we are accustomed to an alignment between the message of resurrection and the bursting forth of spring.  But this year neither the world’s vernal renewal from grey to green, nor the church’s liturgical transition from purple to white, is aligned with the continued global struggle with isolation and fear.  There is nothing linear about this journey.

Our lives are perpetually out of sync.  In fact, this year’s powerful experience of disjunction between season and sensibility is always present to some degree.  Things never really progress neatly from challenge to resolution, from pain to pleasure, from sorrow to celebration.   A man’s sister dies on the day his daughter gives birth.  A priest moves from a celebratory confirmation in the morning to a graveside funeral in the afternoon.  A son celebrates college commencement in one state while his grandfather undergoes bypass surgery in another.  A marriage is joyfully but quietly solemnized in the midst of pandemic isolation.  Neat, predictable cycles are not the way of things.  There is nothing linear about this journey.

The apostle Thomas was out of sync.  Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them, huddled behind locked doors.  Jesus had renewed their spirits with his spirit and brought them peace.  Thomas wanted to see for himself.  And so it happened, a week later.  “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’  Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” [John 20:26-29]  Of course, even this happy ending is still not the end.  Still the disciples will recognize the Risen Christ at some moments, and fail to recognize him at other moments. Still the disciples will endure Jesus’ second departure.  Still they will have trials and martyrdom to face. There was nothing linear about their journey.

But having once known the Resurrection, the victorious power of love would now be the object of the apostles’ faith, and the bedrock of their life.  Life was still, often enough, full of hardship and sorrow.  But now they knew:  it was not yet the end.  In fact, in so many ways, it was just the beginning – the start of a journey which would never be linear, but which would always be traversed in the knowledge of Christ’s risen presence and with the promise of renewed life and joy.

In Christianity it is called “inaugurated eschatology.”  That is Jesus’ message that resurrection is available to us not just in an afterlife, but even now.  The grief-stricken find comfort and begin again.  The addicted find sobriety.  The rejected find love.  The frightened find courage.  The dispirited find hope. This resurrection we see with our own eyes.  And another resurrection is yet to come.  This we see only with the eyes of faith – “through a glass, darkly” – entrusting the victims of this dreadful pandemic, and our own loved ones, and ourselves, and this whole sad, broken world of ours – entrusting all of these to the eternal love of God.  The resurrection already; the resurrection yet to come.  Christ is risen!

Easter is not Easter because the calendar says it is.  Easter is not Easter because our springtime world displays it.  Easter is not Easter because our lives consistently manifest it.  Easter is not holiday good cheer; it is not the stuff of championship parades.  Easter is Easter precisely because in the midst of lives which are not linear and experiences which are out of sync, we – like the apostles – journey in the knowledge of Christ’s risen presence and with the promise of renewed life and joy.  Our Easter season may feel like an extended Lent this year – but that is precisely when we need it most.

Hear again last Sunday’s word from Saint Paul:  “God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. … In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials. … Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.”  [I Peter 1:3,6,8]

Blessings of these Great Fifty Days to you.

Faithfully and fondly,
+Alan
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates

March 27, 2020

Dear People of the Diocese of Massachusetts,

The story is told of a man caught in the turmoil of an earthquake.  With the world falling down around him, he fell to his knees to pray.  Fearful, stricken with dread, he could not form the words.  A devout and lifelong person of faith, he had heard and spoken countless prayers, in public worship and in private.  But in this moment of blind panic, neither the familiar words of the liturgy nor the extemporized plea of his heart took shape.

So he recited as prayer the only thing that came:  he prayed the alphabet.  “A, b, c, d, e, f, g …,” he offered fervently, “… h, i, j, k, …”  On it went, this heartfelt petition, “… p, q, r, s, t, …,”  to its ardent Amen.

The prayer was genuine.  The prayer was offered.  And the prayer, surely, was received.  God knew precisely the prayer of this man’s heart.

As Saint Paul has promised, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” [Romans 8:26-27]

In these troublous times we find ourselves struggling for the right words to say to God and to one another.  We search for the right forms, individual and communal.  In our longing for normalcy, we may strive to replicate the most familiar ritual elements and routines.  Other times we may seek fresh inspiration for our prayers and expressions of community.  And sometimes we will need simply to know that for now we are fasting in the wilderness.  Sacramentally and socially, we are fasting – yet we are doing that together with one another around the globe, which is its own gift and grace.

Dear friends in Christ, in these days of wilderness journey:  Keep it simple.  Focus on what matters most.  Pace yourself for the long haul.  Be patient, with yourself and with one another.  Be genuine.  Be generous.  Be grateful.  Love one another.  Spare a word to the lonely.  Contribute to the neediest among us.

Lean on God and pray.  And know that your prayer is good enough, however it comes.  A, b, c, d, …

Faithfully and fondly,

+Alan

The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates

March 25, 2020

Dear Clergy and Lay Leaders of Our Diocese,

The season of Lent is always a time for returning our focus to those things which matter most. In these strange days we find ourselves doing just that–concentrating our every thought and prayer on health and security, petition and thanksgiving, life and love, God and neighbor.

Please see below our latest updates. These guidelines reflect Governor Baker’s March 23 advisory, with its definitions of “Essential Services,” as well as consultation with civic health and policy officers, New England bishops, advisors from church-wide emergency management departments and others.

We continue to be deeply grateful for every way that you are serving your congregations and your communities, every way that you are finding to be the Church in this unprecedented circumstance. May God bless us abundantly with wisdom, compassion, courage and grace.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates
The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris

Worship

You should now plan for no in-person public worship services until May 31.  We will hope fervently that we might have a Spirit-filled celebration of Pentecost on that day.  As with our March 21 communication, this restriction governs in-person worship open to the public.  Online and live-streamed services from church buildings remain permissible, as long as fewer than 10 people are present, physical distancing is maintained and strict hygiene measures are observed.  Our current listing of churches providing online worship is available here.

If Holy Eucharist is celebrated for live-streamed services, the celebrant alone should receive the sacrament (understood as receiving on behalf of all the people) or the celebrant should abstain (understood as sharing in the fast of all the people).  Others present for the videotaping or broadcast should not receive.  In place of the Invitation (“The gifts of God…”), the following Prayer of Spiritual Communion, as used at Washington National Cathedral, is recommended:

My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. I love you above all things, and long for you in my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though you have already come, I embrace you and unite myself entirely to you; never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.

Jesús mío, creo que eres verdaderamente presente en el Sagrado Sacramento del Altar. Te amo encima de todas las cosas, y te anhelo en mi alma. Como ahora no te puedo recibir sacramentalmente, entra al menos espiritualmente en mi corazón. Como si ya hubieras venido, te abrazo y me uno completamente a ti; nunca permitas que me separe de ti. Amén.
(St. Alphonsus de Liguori, 1696-1787)

A suggested form for an Agape Meal is available here.  Remote consecration of elements in viewers’ homes is not sanctioned.  Instead, the Prayer of Spiritual Communion (above) or the creative observance of an Agape Meal is commended.

Private funerals and memorial services may proceed as long as fewer than 10 people are present, physical distancing is maintained and strict hygiene measures are observed.  An outdoor graveside option is strongly recommended.

Expanded liturgical resources have been gathered by members of our Liturgy and Music Commission for use in homes and online worship.  A letter from the commission leaders introduces a host of links to resources for praying the Daily Office, praying with children, formation podcasts, grace at meals, suggestions for “Triduum Under Quarantine” and more.  Find this compendium here.  Additional liturgy and formation resources have been compiled by the Episcopal Church Foundation here.

Plans continue for diocesan online service offerings for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day.  These pre-recorded videotaped services from the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the Society of St. Margaret and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul will be available for use by congregations which do not have resources to offer streaming worship, or as a complement for those who do.  Further details will be forthcoming soon.

Mental health and domestic violence resources

During this time, ordinary channels for mental health support may be disrupted and support groups, like 12-step meetings, may not operate at the usual places and times.  Those under quarantine, sheltering at home or feeling isolated or fearful may need additional support.  The risk of domestic violence may increase.  Stay in touch with people in your congregation through phone calls, video chats and notes.  Find resources for additional support listed on our diocesan COVID-19 Updates page.

Financial and operational matters

COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund:  We have established a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund to respond to emerging, urgent needs in our congregations and affiliated organizations, and in support of collaborations with ecumenical, multifaith and community partners.  The fund will address critical community needs and congregational sustainability during the time of the pandemic.  A grant application with more guidelines will be available soon.  The fund is now open to receive online gifts at www.diomass.org/give-now.  We are deeply grateful for your sacrificial generosity.  “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

COVID-19 testing and care:  The Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law on March 18, offering expanded family and medical leave to many employees.  It appears, based on our research so far, that employees of religious organizations are included.  Further information and guidance should be forthcoming.

The Episcopal Church Medical Trust will waive all co-pays, deductibles and coinsurance for its members for healthcare services relating to the evaluation and testing for COVID-19.  In addition, the Medical Trust will waive all co-pays, deductibles and in-network coinsurance for its active members for healthcare services relating to the treatment of COVID-19.  Any cleric, lay employee or other member with questions about benefits and coverage under healthcare plans offered through the Medical Trust should visit their provider’s website or call the toll-free number on the back of the health insurance card.

For retirees enrolled in a Medicare Supplement plan with United Healthcare, Medicare has announced that there will be no out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 lab tests.  For more information regarding Medicare benefits and additional information, please visit www.medicare.gov/medicare-coronavirus.

Clergy pension contribution waivers:  Congregations may be eligible for a waiver of clergy pension plan assessments for a period of up to two months.  Church Pension Fund policy allows temporary relief to congregations whose ability to function is severely impaired following a major disaster or state of emergency.  This waiver is intended only for congregations which lack the resources, including endowments, to pay pension plan assessments and continue to function.  We are consulting with CPF to determine criteria for these waivers and will be in touch with specific information about applications.  Please do not request waivers at this time; an announcement and application form is forthcoming.

Additional operational and financial guidance for congregations:  A document addressing practical concerns surrounding maintenance, operations, administration and finance is available here.  Our team of congregational consultants stands ready to support clergy and lay leaders during this difficult time.  Please speak to your regional canon to schedule a consultation.

The Massachusetts Council of Churches has a very useful COVID-19 Response page which contains links to upcoming events, webinars, resources, online giving platforms and online worship and meeting tools.  The MCC page also includes a link to a survey requested by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), to assist with the statewide response to COVID-19, as well as links to organizations providing critical support to the most vulnerable.

Additionally, an Episcopal Relief & Development webinar on “Institutional Support Systems During COVID-19” on Friday, March 27 at 3 p.m. may be of interest.