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The Fledgling--Week of May 5, 2023
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Mary Arlin and I went on a long-overdue field trip to go through the contents of the church safe deposit box the other day. Neither of us had ever examined all its contents (and there were many.) Some of it was expected: legal documents establishing the endowments of the church, mortgages for property we bought, two survey reports of our parcel of land, a stack of deeds for the Inlet Mission, etc.
What was more unexpected was a stack of receipts reflecting financial transactions in the 1920s and 1930s. So and so gave this much money in October, 1929. So and so gave this much in September, 1925. Several stock subscriptions to purchase stock in the local power company with a warning not to lose the stock certificates. And stuck in the front of the envelope, a 100,000 Deutschmark note. (also from the 1920s.)
It was the random Deutschmark note that struck me the most. Who put that there? What did they think it would do? Also, who knew they printed bills in such magnitude? After a further excursion to the rare coin dealer, it was determined that the note is probably worth somewhere between $1-$2. But this raised further questions, and I kept imagining the person who stuck it in the envelope, back a hundred years ago. I imagine they might have considered this a substantial donation, or at least thought that its worth would be much more permanent. It would have been near impossible to imagine, in the 1920s, what Germany's future would be---how fast something can be worth so much, and then worth nearly nothing at all. Someone saved this so carefully, all for naught.
There's a line in the gospels where Jesus tells the disciples to store up treasures for themselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. This is because as he points out later in the verse, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And yet, it is also a reminder that worth in this world is calculated on such a whimsical basis, we cannot depend upon it. Best to not depend on these things for our security, because they are so fleeting and changeable. Better by far to use the wealth of the world for the reign of God while we have it, because the reign of God, though not in a safe deposit box, doesn't fluctuate in value.
If you have an announcement for the Fledgling, send it to the office by Thursday morning for inclusion on Friday. Bulletin announcements should be into the office by Wednesday morning.
- If you know of someone who would like to receive the Fledgling, please send their email to the office.
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Prayer for the week
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings
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Have you had coffee/tea/hot cider with Mtr Megan? Send me an email and we'll set up Skype/Facetime and chat! It's fun (I promise) and we can still meet while we're staying safe right now.
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Schedule this week:
Saturday, May 6: 10:30am Lillian Baptist and Jack Wright Wedding
Sunday, May 7: 8am: Rite 1 Eucharist
9:15am: Adult Education
10:30am: Rite 2 Eucharist
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Christian Education
Adult Education has now moved to a new (God wiling, less upsetting) book! We are now reading On Repentence and Repair by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. Join us in person or via Zoom with Chapter 1 on May 5th!
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Historical Moment
In celebration of our 200th year, which began in April, we are perusing the various records of the parish to offer up different tidbits of our past.
The other day, while spelunking in our safe deposit box, we discovered a printed slip of paper, confirming the receipt of funds from the church to fully satisfy the costs incurred by a "Mrs. Nettie Bates while living at the Harriet Tubman House in Auburn, NY." In other documentation, we discovered that Mrs. Bates seems to have left her house to the church as well, upon her death in the late 1920s, but from the vestry minutes, no further mention of her is made. So I did some research.
According to the Tompkins County HistoryForge, John L. Bates arrived in Ithaca after serving in the Civil War, and fighting alongside a local unit of Black soldiers for the Union. He purchased a building at the corner of what is now Plain St. and Cleveland Ave, thus becoming one of the first Black property owners in town, and effectively a pioneer in the Southside neighborhood as it would come to be called. At the time, St. John's was already very active in the area, with Anna Quackenbush and Mary Hibbert (our sponsored visiting nurse and founder of the Comfort Fund, respectively!) having taken in children suffering with polio to their home in the neighborhood, and started the Restoration House. John and Nettie lived together, running their boarding house until John died, sometime in the 1900s, and Nettie continued to live in the house, working as a laundress. They don't appear to have had children, which possibly would explain the church stepping in and covering Nettie's expenses in Auburn at the end of her life. Pretty cool that St. John's has a documentary link to Harriet Tubman's Home for the Aged!
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