Hi All!
We arrived safely in Orlando late Sunday night. We met up with Josh, Jessi, and Stephanie who arrived a few hours before us. Monday was a personal day of rest and relaxation. Tuesday I had a business meeting for Monks' Bread at St. Armand's Baking Company in Bradenton which is our franchise bakery here.
Wednesday evening was the kickoff of the convocation where Abp. Bates was enthroned as our Patriarch. It was along service lasting from 7:00-10:00 p.m. Our Music Director, Christine Clerc, and Ronna Bulera (temporarily residing in Louisiana) sang in the choir--awesome choir! Sharon Pittman, Josh Baker, Jessi Baker, and Kathie Baker ministered to a class of over 60 elementary school age kids during the homily. They made convocation t-shrits and hats and the kids were having a blast!
Podcasts of all speakers and photos are available at http://www.cechome.com/ Dr. Simon Chan's plenary sessions are items I highly encourage all to listen to, especially if you are new to the CEC. He is explaining convergence worship which is at the very heart of our identity as a communion.
One point he made today is that the old mainline churches had as an underpinning of their worship a desire to make the Gospel acceptable to the culture. This approach to worship proposed by Frederick Schleiermacher, the father of modernist liberal theology, actually removed Trinitarian worship from the Church, and changed the Gospel. Acceptable Gospel = social message of peace and justice. Unacceptable = preaching the evangelical message of the creation, fall/sin, incarnation, life, suffering, death, ascension, sending of the Spirit, and coming again of Jesus.
There is an obvious connection here. This liberal church approach has been accepted by the evangelical seeker movement, and expanded in the emerging church movement! However, the liberalization of the evangelical church is also being countered by the conservative resurgence of convergence worship!
Off to the evening services!
Fr. Kevin
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Monday Afterglow 7/21/2008
Our Gospel yesterday was the Parable of The Wheat and Tares. The sermon yesterday calls us to contemplate the truth that good and evil are both being planted and growing in the world till the end-time harvest. The planting of seeds of good and seeds of evil has been taking place since Eden. The beautiful garden planted by God quickly had the seed of the Evil One planted within it.
The truth of the parable calls us to think about our own lives. Good and evil are planted within us as well. God is working to make the garden of our heart a fruitful and beautiful reflection of his love and goodness. Yet, even though God's grace and life has been planted within us when we received the Seed of the Woman, Jesus Christ, into our hearts by faith, why do we still allow evil to be planted within us?
Why do we, like Adam, allow the Evil One to enter the garden? Why do we allow temptations and sin to be planted in us? Why do we sow tares into the wheat? Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil. Amen.
MEDITATION
Why is God silent? Why does he withdraw? Why is it that just the opposite of what I wanted is happening? This distance between what Jesus promised and what we experience in our own lives makes you think, every time - it has that effect in each generation, for each single person, and even for me.
Each one of us has to struggle to work out an answer for himself, so that in the end he comes to understand why God has spoken to him precisely like that. Augustine and other great Christians say that God gives us what is best for us - even when we do not recognize this at first.
Often, we think that exactly the opposite of what he does would really be best for us. We have to learn to accept this path, which, on the basis of our experience and our suffering, is difficult for us, and to see it as the way in which God is guiding us. God's way is often a path that enormously reshapes and remolds our life, a path in which we are truly changed and straightened out.
To that extent, we have to say that this "Ask, and you will receive" certainly cannot mean that I can call God in as a handyman who will make my life easy ever time I want something. Or who will take away suffering and questioning. On the contrary, it means that God definitely hears me and what he grants me is, in the way known only to him, what is right for me. --God And The World, Pope Benedict XVI
My prayers are with you this week. Each hour of prayer at the Abbey this week will be a calling upon God help us drive away the Evil One from the garden of our hearts.
Fr. Kevin
The truth of the parable calls us to think about our own lives. Good and evil are planted within us as well. God is working to make the garden of our heart a fruitful and beautiful reflection of his love and goodness. Yet, even though God's grace and life has been planted within us when we received the Seed of the Woman, Jesus Christ, into our hearts by faith, why do we still allow evil to be planted within us?
Why do we, like Adam, allow the Evil One to enter the garden? Why do we allow temptations and sin to be planted in us? Why do we sow tares into the wheat? Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil. Amen.
MEDITATION
Why is God silent? Why does he withdraw? Why is it that just the opposite of what I wanted is happening? This distance between what Jesus promised and what we experience in our own lives makes you think, every time - it has that effect in each generation, for each single person, and even for me.
Each one of us has to struggle to work out an answer for himself, so that in the end he comes to understand why God has spoken to him precisely like that. Augustine and other great Christians say that God gives us what is best for us - even when we do not recognize this at first.
Often, we think that exactly the opposite of what he does would really be best for us. We have to learn to accept this path, which, on the basis of our experience and our suffering, is difficult for us, and to see it as the way in which God is guiding us. God's way is often a path that enormously reshapes and remolds our life, a path in which we are truly changed and straightened out.
To that extent, we have to say that this "Ask, and you will receive" certainly cannot mean that I can call God in as a handyman who will make my life easy ever time I want something. Or who will take away suffering and questioning. On the contrary, it means that God definitely hears me and what he grants me is, in the way known only to him, what is right for me. --God And The World, Pope Benedict XVI
My prayers are with you this week. Each hour of prayer at the Abbey this week will be a calling upon God help us drive away the Evil One from the garden of our hearts.
Fr. Kevin
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Southtowns Small Group?
If anyone who lives in the south towns of Buffalo is interested in forming a Bible study group, fellowship group, or some other kind of gathering for that area, please let me know. Our church strategy is to be a metro church meaning people from all over come. In order to then facilitate support and relationship building, we need to form small groups in every area where we have families.
This group could meet weekly, every other week, or even monthly in the beginning. Let me know if God speaks to your creative heart to pioneer a new group!
Fr. Kevin
This group could meet weekly, every other week, or even monthly in the beginning. Let me know if God speaks to your creative heart to pioneer a new group!
Fr. Kevin
6/23/2008 Monday Afterglow
I don't know about you, but I have been blessed in our recent church services. There has been what I think is a very gentle presence of the Holy Spirit in our Sunday school and worship services as of late. Ever since beginning worship at the new building, as pastor I sense less spiritual warfare and a growing sense that the Holy Spirit is coming in our services to touch each of us, or better yet, pour into our hearts how much God loves us and cares about us.
Sunday's Gospel from Matthew 10:16-33 told us that as we go into the world to live and speak for Jesus Christ, that we will face opposition of various kinds from mild to severe. When those times come, God wants us to know he sees us. His eye is on the sparrow and since we are of much more value to our Heavenly Father, his eyes are on us too. He knows how many hairs are on our head, so he certainly sees the more important things such as when when we need His protection and strength when undergoing trials and troubles for his sake.
God sees and he cares.
This week, please pray that God heals the various healing needs in our church, especially Kathy Bucierka after foot surgery, and for Fr. John Denurger--Abbott at the Abbey of the Genesee--who had knee surgery Tuesday.
Please pray for God to add to our numbers, and for God's leadership on how to best let the neighborhoods surrounding the Church that we are there to love and serve them in Jesus' name.
Peace,
Fr. Kevin
Sunday's Gospel from Matthew 10:16-33 told us that as we go into the world to live and speak for Jesus Christ, that we will face opposition of various kinds from mild to severe. When those times come, God wants us to know he sees us. His eye is on the sparrow and since we are of much more value to our Heavenly Father, his eyes are on us too. He knows how many hairs are on our head, so he certainly sees the more important things such as when when we need His protection and strength when undergoing trials and troubles for his sake.
God sees and he cares.
This week, please pray that God heals the various healing needs in our church, especially Kathy Bucierka after foot surgery, and for Fr. John Denurger--Abbott at the Abbey of the Genesee--who had knee surgery Tuesday.
Please pray for God to add to our numbers, and for God's leadership on how to best let the neighborhoods surrounding the Church that we are there to love and serve them in Jesus' name.
Peace,
Fr. Kevin
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Church and Politics: Election Year Discussions
I read an article today about a church that is challenging the IRS code that prohibits churches from endorsing candidates and getting directly involved in political activity. The quote that caught my eye was from an 1863 sermon by Henry Ward Beecher, he said, "It is sometimes said that ministers must not preach politics. … They would have to toe hop, and skip and jump through two thirds of the Bible if they did not, for the there is not another book on the face of God's earth that is so full of commerce and business and government, and the relations between the governing and the governed, as this same Bible."
In 1954, the IRS arbitrarily passed code that forbids churches , "from directly or indirectly participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office." Churches today are allowed to teach what the Bible says about politics, foreign and domestic policy, and church and state, but cannot endorse or be actively involved in supporting a campaign.
My questions today in this presidential election year are:
1.) Why do you see so many churches, mostly in certain segments of society, hosting political speakers primarily from one party and this is not considered a violation of the tax code?
2.) Does this law only apply to churches? What about Islamic mosques where political endorsements are made regularly? I simply do not know--has anyone looked into this?
3.) In the Bible, the prophets from Moses to John the Baptist regularly not only spoke about politics, but actively participated in calling kings and queens into account to God. The Church has continued this prophetic task of declaring God's heavenly position on earthly matters. What do you think the Church's responsibility is before God as it pertains to its relationship to the State/Caesar?
Let the discourse begin.
In 1954, the IRS arbitrarily passed code that forbids churches , "from directly or indirectly participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office." Churches today are allowed to teach what the Bible says about politics, foreign and domestic policy, and church and state, but cannot endorse or be actively involved in supporting a campaign.
My questions today in this presidential election year are:
1.) Why do you see so many churches, mostly in certain segments of society, hosting political speakers primarily from one party and this is not considered a violation of the tax code?
2.) Does this law only apply to churches? What about Islamic mosques where political endorsements are made regularly? I simply do not know--has anyone looked into this?
3.) In the Bible, the prophets from Moses to John the Baptist regularly not only spoke about politics, but actively participated in calling kings and queens into account to God. The Church has continued this prophetic task of declaring God's heavenly position on earthly matters. What do you think the Church's responsibility is before God as it pertains to its relationship to the State/Caesar?
Let the discourse begin.
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