Invitation to Observe and Reflect on the Tenth Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks

Remembering those lost and lifting up those who survive, St. Mark's offers opportunities to observe the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that profoundly affected parishioners, our communities, and the country.

On Saturday, September 10, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in Carroll Hall, we invite the community to view and discuss the film Man on Wire [see trailer here]. This Academy-Award winning documentary tells the story of Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire dance between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Petit's 45-minute "artistic crime of the century," as he calls it, took six years to plan, stopped traffic around the World Trade Center, and made headlines around the world. The film allows us to re-experience the towers through the intimate, poetic, and joyful feelings generated by Petit's audacious act.

Discussion will be moderated by Elizabeth Rundquist, psychotherapist and artist.

On Sunday, September 11 we invite the community to a labyrinth walk beginning at 5:00 p.m. and an interfaith healing service for all faiths beginning at 6:30 p.m. in Carroll Hall.

Absolutely everyone is invited to attend these events.

Throughout this time, all are invited to use this blog to share thoughts, memories, hopes, and prayers related to the events of September 11, 2001. Please feel free to post your contributions to the "Comments" section of this posting.

Anyone who may feel overwhelmed by the significance and intensity of this anniversary may find these resources helpful.

J2A Participates in North Porch Tea and Toy Fest

On November 23rd the St. Marks J2A youth group traveled to the Episcopal House in Newark for the North Porch annual Tea and Toy Fest. In addition to giving toys, we gathered and organized donated toys for underprivileged children served by North Porch in Newark, Paterson, Clifton and Dover.

North Porch is an organization that provides emergency services for mother with children under the age of three.

We met Bishop Mark Beckwith, Canon Greg Jacobs, North Porch board members, and many of the people that staff the centers. They appreciated us being there because they never before had youth participate at the Tea and Toy Fest.

We learned the importance of being generous, not only when it is convenient, but all the time.

"In God We Trust." Really?

This is a homily that was offered at Morning Prayer and at the evening service with the youth group on October 19.

In our gospel reading today, representatives of two groups united only by their desire to diminish his influence confront Jesus with a question on the subject of God and money. Disciples of the Pharisees, a Jewish sect that had the backing of the common people, and the Herodians, who supported the Roman regime, approach Jesus in front of a crowd with the intention of hanging him on the horns of a false dilemma. They pose a question to which he can give one of only two answers. They ask whether it is lawful to pay the Roman tax or not. Yes or no? (Has anyone ever set you up like that, with a question to which you can't respond without appearing to align yourself with a view you don't share?)

To answer that yes, it is lawful to pay the Roman tax would give Jesus the appearance of saying before questioners eager to establish a Jewish state that Caesar, not God, is sovereign. To say no, it's not lawful to pay the tax would make Jesus vulnerable to accusations of inciting rebellion.

Jesus grabs both horns of this supposed dilemma and shows that a third option exists: One can return to the emperor the coin manufactured by his mint, which bears his image and an inscription honoring him as divine, while at the same time rendering to God the things that are God's.

We might at first thing that Jesus was offering too easy an answer--what's Caesar's is Caesar's, what's God's is God's, and that's that. But how does the situation look if we hand Jesus one of our coins, bearing the image of a political leader and inscribed with our national motto: "In God We Trust"? Can Jesus escape the trap as amazingly now?

The Journey Begins

This was a homily given at our 6:30 p.m. service, which is led by and focused on our youth, but open to all. It was delivered on the day we wished Godspeed to our Rector of ten years, the Rev. Randall Day, and his partner, Bill Hurbaugh, as they accept a call to St. Mark's-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church in Los Olivos, California, and we begin the process of selecting a new Rector to lead our congregation.

One of my favorite things about the marathon camping trips my family took when I was a kid was to arrive somewhere late at night, fall in to bed, and then wake up to discover where we had ended up.

Of course I had no responsibilities other than maybe helping with breakfast or getting rid of the garbage. Pretty much everything else was decided for me. Someone else planned the trip and decided where we’d stop along the way (and my dad NEVER wanted to stop). My mom’s job was food and drinks in the car, and for some reason as the day went on, she would start combining the contents of drink coolers as they got empty. So you might get orange juice mixed with Coke or some other revolting mixture.

Most of the passing scenery was lost on my sisters and I as we played and fought in the back of my grandfather’s Suburban. I would call it an SUV, except they had not been invented yet. Picture an Escalade... minus ALL the bling. It didn’t even have air conditioning, so driving across the Great Salt Desert in Utah one July was NOT fun.

Even still, we had it pretty good compared to the Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt in today’s reading from Exodus. Even today, the Sinai makes the Great Salt Desert look like Disney World. There are no air-conditioned rest areas with fast food and clean water. And these weren’t riding in cars, they were walking, carrying everything they owned, and it wasn’t just all day or even a week, but for forty years! They had no idea where they were going, sometimes they didn’t have anything to eat or drink, and, to top it off, Moses -- the guy they had been following on this crazy journey, who regularly interfaced with God on their behalf -- was taken from them before they made it to the Promised Land, which we now call Israel.

Sound familiar?

Of course the details are a little different, but we -- like the Israelites -- are a community on a journey. For ten years -- long enough that many of you don’t remember anything else -- Randall has led us through happy events, like Christmas, new babies and other celebrations, and tough times, like the deaths of people we loved, some of them way before their time. And now, we all face the task of choosing a new priest us to lead us forward.

This morning, we felt all kinds of emotions as we wished Randall and Bill our best and they left to begin a new life in California. And now, we begin a new chapter in our own life together. Some people are sad, some are excited, some are scared, and some are even angry. All of these feelings are normal, and whatever combination you may be experiencing yourself, it is okay.

The most important thing is that we are all here for each other. There will be opportunities to talk about what’s going on, ask questions, and make choices. Take advantage of those chances... you are just as important a member of the community as anybody else, and your opinion matters. It’s your church, too.

There will also be new opportunities to help out. Things that got done because Randall or Bill were here to do them may need to be done by someone else. That could be as minor as picking up scraps from the sidewalk. Sometimes it might mean just coming to church when you don’t feel like it. Yes, it’s true, even adults have days like that. But that may just be the day when someone needs an understanding ear... and the ear they need may just be yours.

The Israelites grumbled and complained to Moses that they were tired and hungry. I bet they whined, “Are we there yet?” like kids on a long car trip, and asked “Is God with us, or not?”. For us, the answer to the first question is no, we’ve only just begun. But yes, God is with us every step of the way.

Can we count on you?

Hot Time - Summer on the Sidewalks: Service to Day Laborers

As St. Mark's volunteers take to the sidewalks now, in the HOT days of summer, we move from handing out gloves & hats to water & oranges. Boy are they gratefully received!

More later...

Scotty

The Growing Food Crisis

Deacon Diane Riley writes: "The perfect sotrm of rising fuel costs, rising food costs and the economic challenges facing so many people have produced a shortage of food and donations and an increase in those that need food. The situation has become alarming. Consider increasing your support for or beginning a new food ministry to support a food pantry near you. There is no geater work that we can do than meet this growing need of our neighbors right next door. "
St. Mark's actively supports the Center for Food Action (CFA) and its Englewood distribution center. Your gifts of non-perishable food each Sunday, and especially the first Sunday of every month, are critically important. Remember when you are shopping to add something to your basket to bring to St. Mark's for CFA. Since our doors are open all day every day, you can drop off food here any time.

For Whom The Bells Toll

We toll our bell at 7 pm on days of executions, joining with houses of worship across the country to publicly witness against the death penalty the discriminates against the poor, undereducated, under-represented, and minorities. To find out more or to toll the bell contact Michael Accordino (201-281-4768, cell 212-698-7550 work: michael.accordino@simonandschuster.com)

Wellness Series coming soon to St. Mark's

In recognition of his recent graduation from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, our own Cleve Kersh will be presenting a series of summer weeknight workshops on different aspects of health and wellness, right here at St. Mark's. The workshops are free of charge, and open to all in the community. Look for more details soon!

You Gotta Problem?

St. Marks is a community of believers and seekers. The prayer chain is composed of people committed to pray for “necessities”, as the Book of Common Prayer says, of others, for health and healing, for strength, recovery, guidance, wisdom, to offer praise and thanksgiving. Debbie Stegmann and Mary Kearney have led this ministry for several years and are moving on to other things. Sheri Urinyi has graciously agreed to fill their shoes. Anyone wanting prayer for self or others, or to join the prayer chain, please contact Sheri at sheri_urinyi@hotmail.com or 201-357-4726.

North Porch Women & Infants' Centers to Benefit from June 25 Concert

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with featured artist Anwar Robinson (American Idol Top Ten singer) will offer their 13th Annual Community Partners Concert on Wednesday, June 25 at 7:30 pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark. North Porch Women and Infants' Centers, an outreach ministry of the Episcopal Church Women in the Diocese of Newark, will be a beneficiary of this concert. For information about tickets, please contact Jeannette Adams at 201-836-5078.

Math Adventures and Word Play

One of the great programs around St. Mark's is Mathematics Adventures and Word Play - an educational outreach to children and youth in our region. Volunteers organize and tutor those who seek educational assistance on any level. Some who receive tutoring also tutor others - of a different grade level or in a different area. It meets at St. Mark's on Saturday mornings from 10:30-noon.

What Do We Want to See?

From the Rector
Arriving in Jericho, Jesus comes upon a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. Though people try to get him to quiet down, Bartimaeus cries out for Jesus to pay attention to him.

Jesus responds to Bartimaeus and his urgency. What does he want? Jesus asks.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Bartimaeus wants to see – to have his physical sight restored.

Of course physical sight is not all it promises to be. Many blind persons have more developed awareness and insight than many sighted people.

We only see if we look, if we pay attention.

Jesus still offers the gift of sight. What do we want to see? What will we allow ourselves to see, by God’s grace?

Most people, sighted or physically blind in our world spend a great deal of effort (sometimes unconsciously) overlooking very important dimensions of reality. A recent New York Times story told of newly wealthy Sudanese living 600 miles from earth’s greatest humanitarian disaster who are ignoring the devastation of violence and starvation in the Darfur region of their country.

What do we want to see? What will we allow ourselves to see, by God’s grace?

As Jesus gives us sight, we also receive, through grace and the Holy Spirit, the strength and courage to see, to understand, and to respond to what we encounter.

In Christ, we can really look at our lives, our relationships, our faith community, our wider neighborhood and the world.

What Interests God?

"It is a great mistake to think that God is chiefly interested in religion."
William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury

From the Rector
The great 20th century Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, directs our attention away from the established forms of institutional religion by questioning God’s primary focus. How many assume that God frets full-time over the church and its various (sometimes petty) concerns?

But if not religion, what does interest God?

God is beyond our limits, beyond our comprehension. God is beyond our knowing and beyond our direction.

Nothing limits God’s interests. We can only imagine that God is interested in what God loves – all people and all of creation in all times and in all places.

Being in relationship with God calls us to focus as widely as we can on what interests God, to pay attention beyond the restrictions of religious structures. How are we joining with God in attending to the world, to people, and to both dire manifestations of need and the vast array of creative expression?

Our religious practice is meant to direct us beyond the life of our faith community where we are formed and strengthened spiritually. Church has value as it gives us courage, insight, and passion for living life whole-heartedly with God’s unconditional love and boundless hope. Is our primary experience one of opening up, of freeing, of moving beyond constraints and limits?

Is our attention as individuals and as a faith community too small? Can we seek from God an expansion of our focus, of our interests, and of our action?

Blessing Children

From the Rector
We are accustomed to hearing about the very simple and direct action of Jesus taking children into his arms, putting his hands on them and blessing them. We have a stained glass window depicting this scene.

It is heartwarming to consider.

It was a radical act in Jesus day. It ran against the grain and mostly people would not have responded to Jesus with any positive sentiment for what he did.

He was setting the world on its ear, challenging the structures of oppression.

Children were de-valued and on the margins in Jesus’ day.

Just as they are today.

As we gather children in, meet their specific needs and bless them, we are not, by-and-large, going to be rewarded with great enthusiasm. Especially as we serve children who are not “our own” (as in homeless children in the family shelter or children who come to St. Mark’s for tutoring in Math Adventures and Word Play) people will look suspiciously at us. They will question our motives, wonder why we don’t leave well enough alone.

The simple (maybe the only) answer is that we do it because Jesus did it – and we are the Body of Christ.

Sunday Afternoons with Mozart

From the Rector
We are having a Sunday Afternoon with Mozart on Sunday, May 14, the third of three magnificent concerts organized by the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County and offered by the Solstice Ensemble, the splendid chamber ensemble guided by Jim and Laurie Stubbs. The concerts are benefitting a number of projects of the Ethical Cuture Society as well as the day laborer outreach we have begun.

These concerts demonstrate the capability of our building to serve as a small concert or recital hall. They express something of our growing mission and outreach to the arts community in and around Teaneck, "the far west side of Manhattan." I am grateful for the way in which God is giving us opportunities to support and encourage the arts, which are essential to human life.

The concerts are also a sign of another dimension of life at St. Mark's: radical hospitality. What an advantage we have in becoming increasingly clear that hospitality and openness is our first priority.

The Mozart concerts were originally planned to have been at the Ethical Culture Society building but had to be moved due to a scheduling problem. We immediately welcomed the events to St. Mark's. In so doing we are advancing the arts, people in our community, our connection with a range of good work emanating from the local faith community, and we are revealing and experiencing God's openness to all of humanity, as Jesus Christ reveals God's unrestrained love to us.

There are so many ways in which God desires to and does enrich the life of the world as we respond quickly and positively to the openings that are presented to us. As the Mozart concerts strongly reflect, often the result is truly beautiful.

Serving Day Laborers, Expanding our Diversity

From the Rector
For quite a few months we have been serving a group of day laborers who gather in Bergenfield. About 50 men of Latin American origin gather in the site each day.

We have been serving them through providing necessities and companionship in a once-a-week visit on Wednesdays. Many times they have not had basic resources for living and working. We have supplied safety items like dust masks, eye protection, and goggles as well as cold weather items like knit caps, warm gloves, sweatshirts, and jackets. Most days we take some basic portable nutrition like fruit, snack bars, string cheese, or nuts.

In June we will start to offer English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and a simple meal twice a week. Learning English has been the highest priority for the workers (after having more work).

In the months we have been building relationships in this day laborer community we have found the men to be extremely pleasant, intelligent, motivated, insightful, and faithful. Most of them are deeply pious Christians and they have responded enthusiastically to a few special prayer and sacrament times that we have offered on major days like the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday. We have benefitted enormously from the ways in which the day laborers have enriched our lives with their stories, experiences, and personalities.

As we move into a new phase, with English classes and hospitality, we can recognize that St. Mark's is being offered not only this valuable opportunity to serve, to do what Christ mandated we should do: "love one another as I have loved you," but we are being presented with a chance to grow and to expand the range of our diversity. God is very generous to us and the presence of the day laborers in our mission is another strong sign of the way in which God abundantly gives us all we need.

St. Mark's and the Township Council

From the Rector
Since January I have been serving on the Teaneck Town Council, appointed to fill a seat of a Councilmember who made controversial statements about our Fire Department in an ongoing season of conflict in our municipal life. My term ends June 30.

I have found work as a Councilmember to be very similar to work I do at St. Mark's and in the Diocese. The skills are much the same. It has been an intense experience: jumping in and having to be immediately effective in a demanding and fraught time. I commented to a friend that serving at this time is a bit like a graduate-level practicum in handling conflict.

I agreed to serve on the Council for a number of reasons. The first was to serve the community. I see it as similar to serving the homeless, the hungry, the day laborers, the refugees, the young people who come for tutoring, and so many others who seek response and hospitality from our faith community. It isn't exactly this, but it is something like an extended pastoral call on the Township government. In any case, it is definitely ministry.

I also felt it a way to grow in leadership in order to serve St. Mark's and the wider church more effectively. It has been a way of putting my leadership insights and practices into the fire, to test and temper them. This has been a very trying time - the sort of thing that creates new strengths and pulls all of one's gifts and inner resources to the front.

During the time of my service we have settled a complex of law suits for 2.3 million dollars, had an investigative task force that issued a public report to try to improve employee relationships, faced employees and township residents who are struggling with an array of real issues and concerns, worked on the problem of an $80+M school budget defeat that now becomes a Council decision, and worked with the whole array of matters related to facilities, development, and planning. I was glad to be on the Council when we finalized the purchase of and setting up an Advisory Board for an historic burial ground threatened with development, a place where people of Native American, African, and European ancestry were all buried. I've met a tremendous number of fascinating and gifted people who live in our community and who serve this very diverse town.

I am clearer than ever on the central role of leadership in the health of an organization. I have found myself tested. I have had to be strong, clear, to think deeply (and quickly! and a lot!). There's also been a need for perseverance: the time demands have been extreme - especially considering so much else is also demanding (expanding ministry at St. Mark's, Bishop Nominating, Commission on Ministry, new programs with Holy Name Hospital, my doctoral work, to name a few).

I hope I have represented St. Mark's well and that people will understand St. Mark's as a faith community that connects to, ventures into, and serves the real world. I have made controversial decisions that I hope will in no way hurt this faith community, but that were necessary in order to not represent us as weak, vascillating, or of no real practical value (namby pamby Christians). I'm sure there are some things to regret - they will be more plain as time goes along, no doubt.

Overall, this ministry has been highly rewarding and one that I pray will continue to bring forth gifts for the future of St. Mark's and will help shape the overall direction of ordained ministry in my life in the church. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve and for being given the grace to respond to it.

Twenty Years of Ordained Life

From the Rector
I was ordained in the third week of Advent in 1985, on a Thursday evening.

As is often the case looking back, years seem to have flown. At the same time, I know very deeply how transformative these years have been.

On one hand, life continues to be ordinary, human - with my chief distinctive identification being as one of the baptized - a sharer in Christ's priesthood with the whole body of the faithful. Especially as I understand the calling of the Church to be in the world, I do not hold myself aloof from everyday life and culture.

At the same time, I know that in all contexts, I am a priest - that I have a particular calling and reason for being. I don't have a sense of "owning" this form of ministry or in any sense mastering it. It has simply come to me as an expression of the community of faith, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and as a revelation of who I am - including the generations that have gone before me and my particular experiences.

I realized early on (by grace) that I needed to accept the priesthood that had come to me - to allow it life despite any reservations or insecurities (of which I could have many, though they would have only undermined others and me were I to have entertained them anything but fleetingly).

If it were not true, it would be a cliche to say that I am most at home presiding at the Eucharist, particularly leading the sacramental prayer of the community at the altar. It has been a profound gift to have been given this opportunity - a life-changing experience that has been both demanding and fulfilling at once.

My life has been turned more and more outward year by year.

There is a psychological inventory called the MBTI (Myer-Briggs Typology Indicator) that notes, among other things, one's level of introversion (tendency to draw energy from an inner world of thoughts, feelings, and reflections requiring substantial time alone) and one's level of extroversion (tendency to engage the things, people, places and activities going on in the outside world for one's life force, rarely feeling drained by interaction with the outside world and other people).

When I was in seminary more than 20 years ago I was in a balance between introversion and extroversion on the MBTI. Recently, I did the inventory again and am decidedly extoverted. In reflection, I feel I have been drawn into extoversion by the ministry of priesthood - identifying my work and life as being for others. My focus is necessarily beyond myself to what God is doing in the world and to what God desires for others in any given situation (mundane or substantial).

I realize that it is in living out a ministry of priesthood that God has continued to convert me in Christ. Conversion for all people is a life-long process of growing more and more into who Christ is and who Christ desires to be in the world.

At this 20-year mark, I am aware that this conversion is meant to continue in new ways . . . This is not a startling revelation, but I cannot be complacent or settled, a tendency that seems typical of the human condition. God is a constantly changing and renewing Being (Source of all that is) and calls us into this persistently active process of growth and movement. Much as any of us may wish, we simply do not "arrive" at a final point. In God's life, there is always more; the journey continues.

I am grateful for a very full and rich life. I am thankful that I can die tomorrow knowing how substantially I have been able to live, by God's grace.

My friend Nancy Cox says a priest should always be ready to preach, pray, and die. At this anniversary (and it has taken all this time), I think I am ready.

Thanks be to God.

An Advent Retreat

From the Rector
Sunday through Wednesday this week I participated in an Advent retreat at Washington National Cathedral. Called Christ-Dayspring of Wisdom, it was led by our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold, and two of the canons (assistant clergy) of the Cathedral.

The event allowed me to connect two significant strains of my 20 year journey of ordained life. I was ordained by Bishop Griswold in the Diocese of Chicago and initially served there. For nine years I was in Washington working for Canterbury Cathedral (in England) and serving at Washington National Cathedral. The retreat allowed me an opportunity to consolidate experiences and to reflect on where I am and, to a small extent, where I am going.

With the release of the Profile of the Diocese of Newark last Thursday, the retreat was exceptionally well-timed. I can't really claim superior planning as I had committed to the retreat long before I knew when the Profile would be completed. But that's God for you. I had a good and much-needed opportunity to slow my pace and refocus after a very demanding experience co-chairing the small committee writing that document.

I was grateful for being able to re-connect with a small circle of people who mean so much to me from my Washington days - people with whom my spirit strongly resonates. When I left Washington I really said "good-bye" in order to be fully in my new place - but I realize that at least a few relationships have persisted in being important and lively; I'm grateful for that awareness and the opportunity to re-establish conversation. Aren't the best relationships often the ones you can pick up where you left off - even after years?

Bishop Griswold's retreat addresses were rich and powerful. He constantly urges listeners to embrace God's authentic presence in the world unveiled - and points to relationship with God in times of both joy and stuggle (consolation and desolation are the "technical" terms). Who can know where God will lead? We can discover the path only in giving ourselves to God wholly - and then actively engaging the journey in faith, by God's surprising grace.

Soon I was back at St. Mark's sprinkling ice-melt on the sidewalks for our Thursday evening meetings as the sleet and freezing rain began. The mundane never waits - but is never the whole story.

Brokeback Mountain and the Church

From the Rector
I just finished reading the short story Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, first published in the New Yorker. The story has been made into a recently-released film.

The story is beautifully written and masterfully presents the tensions between male affection and dominant culture. It is a story experienced by many in our world and the Church.

Our Christian and spiritual lives need to make sense in connection to real world experiences - the stuff of the best stories we tell. Real human lives are the focus of God's love in Christ and our faith needs not (dares not) shy away.