We Are His People
We begin our worship, this month of September, by gathering together during the secular holiday of Labor Day Weekend. For social (but not astronomical) purposes, it is considered the end of summer. It’s back to work and school, and a time of new beginnings. It will be, we hope and pray, a time of new beginnings at Messiah Anglican Church.
The vestry has worked hard on building a self-directed, sustainable model for our parish to use for the next few months, and probably for the remainder of our interim period (that is, till we obtain the services of a settled rector).
We have firmed up a service schedule, and arranged for Sundays with Morning Prayer and with Holy Communion. We have chosen and ordered an exciting new Sunday Church School curriculum: the Anglican edition of David C. Cook’s “Bible in Life” series. It is designed to be taught by members of the congregation, and we are developing a rota of volunteer teachers.
As you know, we been developing sustainable liturgical music, using resources we have: our printed pew hymnals, lay-led acapella singing, and, we hope, lay-led musical accompaniment from time to time. In time, we can learn familiar settings for some of the service music and canticles, but we are starting easy, with just familiar hymns.
Our plan is to bring in guest ministers so we can have communion and a sermon on the second and fourth Sundays. On Holy Communion Sundays, children’s education, using our new curriculum, will follow after the service. On the odd Sundays, lay leaders will read Morning Prayer. Instead of a sermon, Morning Prayer will be followed by an adult, lay-led lectionary Bible study.
Where will these supply ministers come from? Keep praying, but we have a few lined up. Your priest in charge will celebrate once in September, October, and November. Our Archdeacon, the Rev. Henry Baldwin, will take the last Sunday in September, and the Rt. Rev. William Sloane (under license from our bishop) will come on October 31. Thanksgiving weekend is still open, but will be scheduled. On occasion, a deacon may be our visitor. There would be a sermon and Sunday School, as scheduled, but the office of morning prayer would be offered in worship.
All of these changes are moves towards taking up the work of being the church ourselves, with Christ as our head. A church needs a minister, but does not depend on one. Christian communities depend on Christ. He is essential: the chief bishop and pastor of our souls. Our continued witness in the community of Germantown, Philadelphia will either be our witness, or it will not continue. It can not be “hired” from a list of available clergy.
As your priest in charge, I would like to personally express my hope and joy as I have watched the hard work get done to mobilize our tiny (yes, it’s tiny, maybe not forever, but right now) parish. A deacon I worked with for many years used to quip:
“When Christ is all you have, you find that Christ is all you need.”
Is he enough? He is. And we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
—Fr. Eric
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