The Road Ahead

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

27 October 2011

This is the last weekly newsletter I will write at Incarnation, so I want to leave you with a few thoughts about what to watch for on the road ahead:

• The central act of Christian worship is the Holy Eucharist.  Everything else (preaching, music, fellowship) is secondary.  Focus on the real presence of God in your midst.
• Worship = praise = thanksgiving.  Our worship of God adds nothing to Him, but re-binds us in our relationship with Him.
• You will be asked in surveys and in the search process about what is important to you and what should be important for the parish.  In responding, be honest about what you are prepared to invest in (in time, talent and treasure).  Don’t rate an area of ministry as important unless you treat it as important by your actions.
• Do not be passive in your faith.  You are called to add to the life of the Church.  Don’t allow the life of the Church to slip into a “lower gear” in the absence of a pastor.
• In this new season in the life of this parish, pray, and ask yourself what more God is calling you to do.
• If you are a parent, focus especially on keeping your children involved.
• Explore resources and programs available through the diocesan website.
• Explore how this parish can better connect with other area churches, to form a more effective common witness to the Good News of God in Christ Jesus!
• Pray continually.

EYC:  EYC is inviting the members of the Mt. Hermon youth group to join them for the monthly EYC breakfast on Tuesday, 1 November.  Adult help is needed in breakfast preparation, for a group of about 15, total.  This is a trial run, to explore whether EYC can take the lead in organizing community youth prayer breakfasts to occur monthly.  Please help make this a success.  If you can help, call the office.

Fall clean-up:  Fall clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, 29 October, from 8:30 until noon.  There will be indoor and outdoor work crews. 

Stewardship:   The stewardship campaign ends this Sunday.  Please return your card to the parish office.

New to the prayer list:  Catherine Reich, The Rev. Marie Gray, Alex Coggins, Judy Jackson, the repose of the soul of Sgt. Maj. Bob Maddox.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgiving is offered to Joe and Betty Trulove for hosting the going-away party last Sunday, and to all the many parishioners who cooked and otherwise contributed to an event embodying Christian fellowship.

Music this week:  The choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., and on Sundays at 9:45 a.m.

Pro.      379, God is Love, let heaven adore him

Seq.     632, O Christ, the Word Incarnate

Anthem: Give us the Wings of Faith to Rise (Hymnal 253)

Rec.     665, All my hope on God is founded

Com.   314, 343

Please add your voice!  The choir needs another soprano, an alto and a tenor.  All voices are welcome.

A Focus on the Sacred

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

19 October 2011

“[W]orship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 29.2).  For something to be holy means that it has been set aside for God, just as each one of you at baptism is “... sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever” (BCP 308).  For us to worship God as He calls us to do, we must be aware of the holy, aware of the sacred, in a society in which sacredness is dismissed.  A person of faith is not even speaking the same language anymore with one who has adopted the secular agenda, and so revels in self, but even those of us who claim faith in God must remind ourselves constantly to be aware of and to cultivate the holy.

How can we cultivate what is holy?  We can do so by being very intentional about setting aside time, place, and self for God.  This means that I treat the church nave as more than a meeting place; that I not only say that God is present when we gather in His Name, but that I act this way.  The little instruction in the weekly bulletin, “Before worship speak to God.  During worship listen to God.  After worship speak to each other” reminds us that our first action on entering the nave should be to acknowledge Jesus in the tabernacle, to acknowledge the altar, and then to pray.  By this we are recognizing “this place is set aside for God,” and so we can each better participate in the beauty of holiness.  We don’t need to be reminded by bells or with incense (although there is nothing wrong with using either) when we are intentional about placing ourselves in that “set aside” spiritual state in which we welcome the presence of God.

Be intentional about worship.  Do this throughout the week when you set aside time for prayer.  Do this in how you gather in God’s Name.  Never take a step backward from what God has called you to be in this place, as people gathered into and fed by His Body.  The practice of faith will make us each a better person, but we do not worship in order to become better people.  We worship God because that is His due; it is why we were created, and when we recognize this reality, we recognize that we are “set aside” and may participate in the Beauty which is God because He calls to Himself.  Set aside, indeed!

Proposition 26:  The 8 November general election in Mississippi will include Proposition 26, which would amend the Mississippi Constitution to define the word “person” or “persons”, as those terms are used in Article III of the state constitution, to include every human being from the moment of fertilization.

How you chose to vote on Proposition 26 is a matter of your own individual conscience and political will, coupled with your own reading of the language of Proposition 26 and how you determine this language to give effect to your conscience and political will.  In making this decision, how you are informed by your faith is relevant, and to this end an outline addressing the issue How is a person defined in Christian Doctrine? is available at the parish (front hall table).

Adult Education:  The 5 p.m. Sunday course will meet this Sunday, 23 October at 4 p.m.  The earlier start time will allow the class session to finish by 5:30, to allow for the 6 p.m. parish dinner scheduled at the Trulove residence.

EYC:  EYC is inviting the members of the Mt. Hermon youth group to join them for the monthly EYC breakfast on Tuesday, 1 November.  Adult help is needed in breakfast preparation, for a gorup of about 15, total.  This is a trial run, to explore whether EYC can take the lead in organizing community youth prayer breakfasts to occur monthly.  Please help make this a success.  If you can help, call the office.

Fall clean-up:  Fall clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, 29 October, from 8:30 until noon.  There will be indoor and outdoor work crews.  Please sign up on the list in the kitchen, so that we will have a headcount.  This will enable best planning for projects.

Coffee hour sign-ups:  We need people to sign up to host coffee hour.  Snacks can be very simple.  Please sign up on the sheet in the kitchen.

Stewardship:   The stewardship campaign is in full swing.  Whether or not you intend to pledge, please complete a pledge card and return it to your box captain, or to the parish office.

A common issue in stewardship, as people to work toward a tithe, is “Before or after taxes?”  Our best guidance on this issue is found at Mtt. 22.21.  When Jesus says to “Render ... to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” He is separating the issue of taxes from obedience to God.  The answer is, therefore, before taxes.

New to the prayer list:  Joan Ledwith, Norman Armstrong.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgiving is offered Kyle Chandler IV for managing necessary physical plant repairs.

Music this week:  The choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., and on Sundays at 9:45 a.m.

Psalm 1, A Hymn Tune Psalter

Pro.      437, Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!

Seq.     336, Come with us, O blessed Jesus

Anthem: As we Gather at your Table (WLP 763)

Rec.     551, Rise up, ye saints of God!

Com.   680, 335

The choir is losing a soprano (Elizabeth).  Please add your voice!  The choir needs another soprano, an alto and a tenor.  All voices are welcome.

The Search Process and You

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

13 October 2011

Next Tuesday the Vestry of the parish will meet with The Rev. David Johnson, Canon to the Ordinary of the diocese, to discuss the start of a search process to call a new rector.  When the Vestry meet with Canon Johnson, he will outline the options that are available in a search process.  A full search involves a period of self-study and reflection, resulting in the development of a Parish Profile, which is then used in advertising the position through the Office of Transition Ministry of the Church.  An abbreviated process can involve the bishop and canon identifying and nominating candidates to the parish.  A full process takes not less than a year.  An abbreviated process would still not have a new incumbent in place before mid-summer.  It is not clear whether the bishop will allow an abbreviated process or will require a full process.

Where do you fit in?  The Vestry will appoint a chair for a Search Committee, who will then agree membership of the committee with the Vestry.  The committee is likely to have 5 to 7 members total.  Express your thoughts to members of the Vestry about any issue you see in the state of the parish (e.g., parish health and practices, the type of clergy needed, what you would see changed, what must be emphasized to continue), and if you are interested in serving on a Search Committee make this plain.  Pray about what the parish wants and what the parish needs, reflecting on the history of the parish and what you have considered to be the strengths and weaknesses of prior rectors.  God will raise up to you the pastor whom He intends, but when you are active in the discernment and call process the will of the parish will be made that much clearer.  Be active in the process whether or not you are on a committee or the Vestry, so that by your involvement and prayer this parish may continue to thrive.

Proposition 26:  The 8 November general election in Mississippi will include Proposition 26, which would amend the Mississippi Constitution to define the word “person” or “persons”, as those terms are used in Article III of the state constitution, to include every human being from the moment of fertilization.

How you chose to vote on Proposition 26 is a matter of your own individual conscience and political will, coupled with your own reading of the language of Proposition 26 and how you determine this language to give effect to your conscience and political will.  In making this decision, how you are informed by your faith is relevant, and to this end an outline addressing the issue How is a person defined in Christian Doctrine? is available at the parish (front hall table).

Adult Education:  The 5 p.m. Sunday course will not be held this week, but will resume next Sunday, 23 October at 4 p.m.  The earlier start time will allow the class session to finish by 5:30, to allow for the 6 p.m. parish dinner scheduled at the Trulove residence.

EYC:  This past Sunday EYC visited Mt. Hermon Missionary Baptist Church for worship.  EYC members report a very welcoming and positive experience, in which there was evidence of the Holy Spirit at work.  EYC will be inviting the members of the Mt. Hermon youth group to join them for the monthly EYC breakfast on Tuesday, 1 November.

Fall clean-up:  Fall clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, 29 October, from 8:30 until noon.  There will be indoor and outdoor work crews.  Please sign up on the list in the kitchen, so that we will have a headcount.  This will enable best planning for projects.

Coffee hour sign-ups:  We need people to sign up to host coffee hour.  Snacks can be very simple.  Please sign up on the sheet in the kitchen.

Stewardship:   The stewardship campaign is in full swing.  Whether or not you intend to pledge, please complete a pledge card and return it to your box captain, or to the parish office.

Please remember that even thought the parish will be without full-time clergy for much of 2012, this does not mean a reduction in budget.  Recruiting costs, moving costs, supply clergy costs, and insurance costs for new clergy, all add up to an amount resulting in a 2012 budget that is essentially even with that for 2011.

New to the prayer list:  Parker, Gayle Carlisle.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgiving is offered to Christy White for organizing the EYC visit to Mt. Hermon M.B. Church.

Music this week:  The choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., and on Sundays at 9:45 a.m.

Psalm96.1-9, A Hymn Tune Psalter

Pro.      391, Before the Lord’s eternal throne

Grad.   594, God of grace and God of glory

Anthem: As the Grains of Wheat (WOV 705)

Rec.     544, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Why we Pay Attention

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

6 October 2011

Today is the feast of Bl. William Tyndale (d. 1536), the first translator of the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek.  Tyndale translated all of the New Testament, and fifteen books of the Old Testament.  He was executed for the “heresy” of making Scripture available to the people in their own tongue, his dying words being, “O, Lord, open thou the eyes of the king of England.”

Tyndale’s martydom calls to mind the issue of how we view the Bible.  Why do we care about whether the Bible is true or not?  It is because only truth can have final authority to determine belief and behavior, and Scripture cannot have such authority further than it is true. A factually and theologically untrustworthy Bible could still impress us as a presentation of religious experience and expertise, but if we cannot affirm its truthfulness we cannot claim that it is God's testimony and teaching, given to control our convictions and conduct.

Jesus Christ and his apostles held and taught that the Jewish scriptures (our Old Testament) were God's witness to himself in the form of human witness to him.  Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son, viewed these scriptures as his Father's Word.   So, too, it is clear that the apostles saw the scriptures as the God-given verbal embodiment of teaching from the Holy Spirit. This brings us to the real issue:

Either Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Eternal Son of God, or He was a fraud and/or a lunatic.

a)  If Jesus was and is the Eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh, then we must pay the closest attention to what He had to say and to what He did, and to the scriptures that He considered to be the authoritative revelation of the Creator’s unique utterance of His will for us.

b)  If Jesus was a fraud and/or a lunatic then it is irrational to pay attention to anything that He had to say and teach.  Nonbelievers may argue that it is possible to look to Jesus as an important moral teacher; that one can follow the ethical teaching of Jesus without believing Him to be Lord, judging all biblical stories of miracles and other signs (and statements) of divinity as interpolation.  The problem with this argument becomes evident once we look more closely at the ethical teachings that are “retained”.  These precepts (e.g., having mercy upon and providing for the destitute, treating one’s neighbor as one’s self, etc.) are not part of any natural human order.  Atheists may argue that if we can just get the “poison” of religion out of society, then we’ll be OK; that we will be tolerant and peaceful.  All evidence from history is to the contrary.  To the limited extent that we both preach and practice that peace is an imperative, or that not persecuting the stranger is; to the extent we do provide for the unfortunates of the world, these sentiments and practices are cultural inheritances from Judaism and Christianity.  The teachings of Jesus brought about a revolution in human thought, a revolution away from the universal acceptance of life being defined as a zero sum game in which, for example, care of the poor would have been considered irrational.  Faith matters.

Adult Education:  The 5 p.m. Sunday course in scripture resumes this week.  Supper is pot-luck.

Fall clean-up:  Fall clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, 29 October, from 0830 until noon.  There will be indorr and outdoor work crews.  Please sign up on the list in the kitchen, so that we will have a headcount.  This will enable best planning for projects.

Coffee hour sign-ups:  We need people to sign up to host coffee hour.  Snacks can be very simple.  Please sign up on the sheet in the kitchen.

Stewardship:   The stewardship campaign is in full swing.  Whether or not you intend to pledge, please complete a pledge card and return it to your box camptain, or to the parish office.

New to the prayer list:  Joan Whetstone and Dale Bowen.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgivings are offered to Bert Falkner for preparing a delicious breakfast for the EYC on this past Tuesday.

Music this week:  The choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., and on Sundays at 9:45 a.m.

Psalm23, recited

Pro.      7, Christ, whose glory fills the skies

Seq.     174, At the Lamb’s high feast we sing

Anthem: Glory to God (WOV 788)[children’s choir]

Rec.     556, Rejoice, ye pure in heart

                        Com.   487, 646