From Our Rector
 
When lunchtime arrived yesterday, I headed for Diamond Diners. As soon as I stepped out of my office, the scent of yummy food drew me downstairs. Turning the corner into the parish hall, I was amazed by the size of the group. This was the best attended luncheon I have yet seen. Several people had brought a friend or neighbor. All were enjoying a delicious meal of fish, ravioli and salad, with snickerdoodles for dessert. We also had a full crew of volunteers, including a new St. Aidan’s participant who happened to be off of work this week. At the tables, conversation ranged from concern for people who are ill right now to current politics. Very much on people’s minds was the gun violence of the last several days, and its connection to white nationalism. People were aware that the President was at that moment visiting Dayton and El Paso. 
 
I don’t know anyone who isn’tcontinuing to feel the psychic reverberations of that violence as it plays out in the news and social media. Writing from El Paso, Richard Parker described a pervasive sense of anxiety: “…fear swept over my hometown. Lightning flashed on the horizon, illuminating empty streets and parking lots. Bars and restaurants shuttered their doors. Wherever I went, as I departed I heard this: ‘Take care out there.’ That was a phrase I’d never heard in this city in more than 50 years.” (You can read the whole piece here, and his earlier piece which I quoted on Sunday, here)
 
As these reverberations and reflections continue, and as we at St. Aidan’s seek an insightful, critical-theological angle on the intersection of gun violence and white supremacy, we have decided to read a powerful book by the Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas over three-weeks in September (9/4, 9/11, & 9/18). Dr. Douglas is the Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral who was one of the three authors of the statement I shared in last week’s Flame. She is also the Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Her book is called Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God.We’ll discuss two chapters each week, starting at 7pm, just after the 6pm Eucharist and a simple supper. The book is available here for approximately $18. If you’d like to participate and the cost is a barrier, please don’t hesitate to let me know—I am happy to make sure you receive a copy. 
 
Such reading and discussion is part of a spirit of intentionality and focused grounding that we want to claim as a community as the fall season approaches. Can we ourselves control all the chaos and horror erupting in our country? No. Are we still connected to it? Yes, we are, as I have been sharing here and on Sundays. We are connected through systems and histories in which we are entangled in various ways— “the evil done on our behalf,” as the language of our Confession puts it Sunday by Sunday. We are also connected through our compassion, our sense of shared pain and anger, and our resolve to be part of the change for which those systems and the histories, for which people and communities,cry out. 
 
But even before that, what enables us to claim that resolve is our embrace of community itself. Living community. Community that reflects back our basic humanity.
 
“How are you, [x]?” I always ask a particular Food Pantry volunteer when I see him Friday afternoons. “I’m alive, Cameron, I’m alive,” he always responds. There is something about community that can affirm our basic aliveness. We have to keep claiming those spaces. This claiming has to be part of our resilience in these difficult days. We cannot ultimately be agents of transformation without this fundamental affirmation, the basic trust in communities to reflect our aliveness.
 
After we got home from church Sunday, sustained and fed by the St. Aidan’s community, we realized we still needed to get out and do something more, something different, something summery. What about an amusement park, Kateri asked? I admit, after this week it was hard not to think about such a space as potentially dangerous. Should we still go? Yes, we resolved.Yes, we should. So we drove to Vallejo. We ate junk food and waited in line. At one point we shared an oversized inner tube with the random family behind us in line. We all laughed and got soaked together as our tube lurched over fake waves, twisting through constructed waterfalls. It was weird and hilarious. Maybe frivolous. But it felt so important to be out and about, refusing to be intimidated into staying home, embracing that implicit trust with which we make our way in the world every day. I think the larger group at Diamond Diners on Wednesday also came together for just such fundamental affirmation.
 
We are alive. We are alive. 
 
Not just we as individual units of family and friends, familiar groupings of community, but also we the larger, more anonymous community. The we that we are part of but don’t always feel comfortable or safe within. The we that is connected to atrocity. That we is wounded, in deep pain right now. It is – we are -- in shock. That larger we is indeed in danger. And yet still: we are alive. Our heart beats. The Apostle Paul declared it to the Corinthians, as well: see-- we are alive. All our future action, our solidarity, our collective transformation, stands on this living truth.

Peace,
 
Cameron

 

In Your Prayers, Please Remember:
 

In the Episcopal Church: for Michael our Presiding Bishop; Marc our Bishop; the clergy of the Diocese; our Rector Cameron; our assisting priests Don and Gary; our Deacons Margaret and Mark; our seminarian Susan; our Music Minister Barry; our Administrator Diana

In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer:
Ogbomoso (Nigeria) The Rt Revd Matthew Osunade
Botswana (Central Africa) The Rt Revd Metlhayotlhe Rawlings Beleme Brandon (Canada) The Rt Revd William Cliff

In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer:  
Transfiguration, San Mateo  Transfiguration

In our Parish Cycle of Prayer: for our Sacred Space SF Ministry
 
For those who have asked for our prayers: Phil P., Carmen, Ellyana, Jen, Jim F., Bryan, Ashley, Darlene, Nancy F., Debbie V., Dave P., Ed C, Deborah T, George, Mary, Jennifer, Tina, and Jim T; Janice, Debbie, Susan, and Colly T., Isaiah, Linda C., Bill C.

For those who strive to maintain mental and emotional wellness, and for their families and friends; 
 
For our congregation as we embrace our call to be a sanctuary people, may we commit ourselves to prayer, education, and practices of sanctuary to support immigrants to this country and all people who are estranged, excluded, or threatened in 21st century America.

For the ongoing work against all forms of oppression, and in affirmation of the  human dignity of all people;
 
For all who are struggling in this time of increased hatred and division; for comfort and community and for a sharpened sense of watchfulness to safeguard our common life;
 
For those who have recently died: Don Tettelbach, Ginny Troyan, Dorothy Leong, Grace Jang, Cathy Paul and all who have died in wars, natural disasters or other violence around the world and for their families. 

 

 

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40

Website and Staff email Addresses
Our website address is staidansf.org
The email address to reach Cameron is rector@staidansf.org
The email to reach Diana, the administrator is office@staidansf.org
The  email to reach Barry is music@staidansf.org
The email to reach Dave, the treasurer is treasurer@staidansf.org