Don't forget!
Daylight Savings Time will begin at 2:00 a.m., Sunday, March 12, 2023.
Dear Beloved of All Saints,
I heard a friend trying to explain the Trinity to children once. He said, “Sometimes we think God is like pie. If you have pie in one room and you take 1/3 of it to another room, and another 1/3 to another room, you have less pie in the first room. Then he said...but what if God isn’t like pie, what if God is more like music in every room?” I looked at all the kids sitting cross-legged before my friend and saw their little minds light up!
What if God isn’t limited by the things we are limited by? What if God is eternal, not just in time or space, but in capacity? Whatever our limitations, God’s capacity is greater. Whatever our failures, whatever our strengths, God blows us out of the water.
Over the past few years, there are many for whom loving connections and resources were less abundant: friends paid less attention because of their own challenges, therapists and doctors were unavailable, even scarce finances. Some of us have fallen into the trap of seeing ourselves as most fundamentally people who lack things. As when Jesus showed up in the midst of the isolation and poverty of the Samaritan woman at the well, I wonder if we could pray, during our own moments of lack, “Oh God, who came to the woman at the well, be with me now in my place of scarcity and lack.”
Jesus did not change her circumstances, but she learned that there was living water available to her, which was flowing deep and wide. This living water flooded her tendency to perpetuate her own shame. She forgot about her limitations and the judgements others levied on her, .judgements that divided Jews and Samaritans, women and men, clean and unclean, into an “us and them.” In the excitement of sharing the hope of living water, the Messiah came to save her, all of her, not just the pretty parts, with more abundance than she imagined.
A well-known Buddhist monk, Pema Chödron, wrote: "Nothing ever goes away before it has taught us what we need to know.” Jesus’ generosity with the woman at the well is also meant for us. Jesus’ generosity will not go away until we embrace what we need to know…that we all are God's beloved.
Blessings,
Marya+
Love Stories for Lent: Bread, Wine, Word
March 29, 6-7:30 pm
Join us to tell your stories, which will focus on the loftiest of emotions. For dinner, we'll provide some tasty soup. Please bring drinks, simple food (cheese, bread, dips, etc.), and possibly a story to share. Or bring nothing, and just come! If you do plan to tell a story (as a Lenten offering), prepare a 3-5 minute story about LOVE: love for your spouse, love for your children, love for God, newfound love, love for your pet, love for what you feel God is calling you to explore in this one wild and precious life OR love for your favorite crime show or book. The point of gathering is to offer ourselves during Lent in connection with one another, so your story is real, your own, and can focus on events and feelings, rather than proving a point or teaching a lesson.
No pressure if you don’t want to tell a story, but if you do, stay within 3-5 minutes, and consider taking a risk. If you are new to storytelling, The Moth offers these great guidelines.
This Lent, which marks the 100th anniversary of the first sermon by a woman at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, five female-identifying preachers have been invited to open up the story of the Samaritan woman's encounter with Jesus in John 4. Join at the cathedral or by livestream at 5:15 p.m. on the Tuesdays in Lent for a service of lamp-lighting with Taize chant, featuring the sermon. Refreshments and conversation with the preacher follow. All are welcome.
Schedule of preachers:
Feb. 28 - The Rev. Rita Powell, Episcopal Chaplain at Harvard University
March 7 - The Rev. Laura Everett, Executive Director, Massachusetts Council of Churches
March 14 - Monica Isabel Rey, Ph.D. Candidate in Religion, Boston University
March 21 - The Rev. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign and Director of the Kairos Center at Union Seminary
March 28 - Ylisse Bess, Director of the Trauma-Informed Congregations Program, BU School of Theology
"Healing Judgment": A Lenten Online Retreat, Saturday, March 18, 9:30 a.m.-noon
"Healing Judgement" Online Retreat graphic
Lent invites us to look deeply into our lives and into the society in which we participate. How is God stretching us to live at our best? How is God calling us to wake up from our dull habits of thought and behavior and to see clearly where love urges us to change? Many people dread (and avoid) the traditional Lenten practices of self-examination and repentance because we fear that these practices will drag us into harsh self-criticism and self-attack.
Led by the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, this free, online retreat will encourage participants to question kneejerk self-judgment and instead to open ourselves to the healing judgment of a loving God who sees our preciousness and seeks our wholeness.
Through silence, guided meditation, personal reflection and small group sharing this retreat aims to create a space in which to grow in self-awareness, self-acceptance and compassion for ourselves, each other and our wounded, magnificent world.
Participants are asked to have at hand a candle, Bible, paper/pen for journaling, art supplies (if available) and comfortable clothes for an optional walk outside.
This retreat is sponsored by both Episcopal dioceses in Massachusetts and by Southern New England Conference, United Church of Christ.
In the something-for-everyone spirit, there's also "Lent Madness" which annually offers members of the voting public a light-hearted way to learn more about the saints during Lent. Vote online daily for favorites from among a selection 32 saints who are paired off in a tournament-style bracket. The last saint standing at the end of Lent wins the game's golden halo. Find it all at www.lentmadness.org.
Interested in reading together? Join us for a book study this winter! We will meet on Zoom 6 evenings, starting on February 8, 15, and then March 1, 8, 15 and 22, from 7-8 pm ON ZOOM! The book we will read is entitled "Searching for Sundays: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church," by Rachel Held Evans. Rachel was an American Christian columnist, blogger and author, who expressed her belief that churches attempting to attract millennials were wrong in their approach, because they focused primarily on offering "a better show.” She joined the Episcopal church in Cleveland, TN, after years of evangelical influence. She was passionate about fighting to change the way Christianity was taught and perceived in the US, before she died from an allergic reaction to medication. She was married to her college sweetheart, Dan Evans, and was the loving mother of two children.
Please contact the office at allstoffice@gmail.com if you would like to join.
The Danvers People to People Food Pantry
Please consider adding a few items to your shopping cart and dropping them off at church on Thursdays between 8:30 and 1:30 pm, or on Sunday mornings, or at the pantry itself.
The food pantry is asking specifically for jarred spaghetti sauce, brand name cereals and graham crackers.
Thank you for your generosity!
Diocesan News
Bishop's Appeal
“Behold I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5)
Dear Friends in Christ,
What is being made new in our midst? Where are we being called to minister in new ways as a result of our shared mission as a diocesan community committed to being disciples of Jesus, seekers of justice and protectors of creation? How are we coming alive in bold witness to God’s love for this broken and beautiful world?
Click HERE to view a video message about the 2023 Bishop's Appeal
