stbarts10606

After a year in service @ the parish I spoke with Fr.Gawain about joining the conversation on the St.BartsWP blog... so here we are. Juggling a job in "the world" and a job in the church is the saga of many a deacon. The job that supports my life as a saint is at the United Nations. What a tableau of contrasts....and similarities. Today is a combination day. As s similarity, several funds have been established 'in-house' for Haiti and Grenada to assist their peoples in dealing with the ravages of natural disasters..... and natural disasters - as well as wear and tear have taken their toll on the buildings, the plant, of St. Barts. The contrast lies in assumptions. In the relatively solid US financial climate it is all to easy for a church to be shortsighted, borrow against an assumed tomorrow, with its assumed prosperity. Yet small nations with their specific, targeted means of income make far fewer assumptions. It times like these that make me aware of how important it is to live a stewardly life.... not so easy.

All the heads of state have pretty much come and gone, having their own moment at the podium in the General Assembly. With the departure of GW security is still high, but not immobilizing. Setting up meeting time to be available for LEMs, altar guild. And the Rummage Sale.... the stage runneth over, but far more could be donated and collected... although several parishoners have mentioned my being "good" or "enthusiastic", I would rather that my attitude and example were somehow infectious! Oh, that there would be an extreme outbreak of service and charity.....! I bet the church could weather it.


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Working on newsletter.

Also, I've handed over the "property" stuff - almost all of it, to one of the parishioners. He works hard, but there's a lot that needs to be done, between writing the leases, inspecting the houses, fixing them up.

And we also found that the parish hall has a leak as well. The tiles in the stair well are coming down. It was a good roof - lasted 50 years, but we need to do something. Carlos, who we installed as sexton, will bag the plaster that's falling down. Had to make a phone call to get the ladder back.

We don't have the money. Our architect thinks we should just go ahead and do it.

Trinity Lutheran called me to ask if I would take the occasional Saturday night service, now that Bill Hurst is leaving. It's a contemporary eucharist, with music written in the mid 1980's. I'll help them out about once a month, or every two months. It should be fun.

I've also moved to a new browser. Microsoft just wasn't able to stop pop-ups or spyware, so I've gone over to Firefox/mozilla. I suggest you do the same. Its free, and reliable. I'm happy with gmail as my mailsource right now but I'll be moving away from that soon. And if you want a gmail account, just email me for one.






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... We are deeply grieved by the on-going violence and division in the Middle East, continuing war in Iraq, the Sudan and other troubled places, and we are mindful of the devastating effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters. As well, we are sharply aware of tensions and pain in our church and in the Anglican Communion. During these days we have explored more fully our continuing call as your chief pastors to be ministers of reconciliation, even as we seek and discover reconciliation within ourselves, within our church and across the Communion.

We rejoice in the depth of our conversations and, in spite of the differences among us, we discovered that although we are not of one mind in all things we are profoundly of one heart in our commitment to proclaim Christ's reconciling love to this broken world. We are confident that our household of faith is large enough to embrace us all.

We have been encouraged by stories of health, vitality and strength within the Episcopal Church. We have also heard stories of anger, anguish and division within this church. All are responses of faithful people.

Our perspectives have been enlarged by the presence and witness of bishops from other provinces of the Anglican Communion. These bishops have described some difficult consequences felt in their provinces as a result of our decisions. We are deeply saddened by the pain we have heard so movingly described.

The report of the Lambeth Commission will be released in mid-October. We are committed to a gracious reception of the report in a spirit of humility and to a willingness to learn how we might best be faithful and responsible partners in the Anglican Communion. It is our intention to gather as provincial Houses of Bishops during the autumn and then to meet as a House of Bishops early in the new year to study and appropriate the work of the Commission.

We believe our relationships with others make real and apparent God's reconciling love for all of creation. Our mutual responsibility, interdependence and communion are gifts from God. Therefore, we deeply value and are much enriched by our membership in the Anglican Communion. We also value Anglican comprehensiveness and its capacity to make room for difference.

As the future unfolds differences will continue to challenge us. We believe that the gift of difference is the gift of Christ among us. In wrestling with difference we discover a blessing as Jacob discovered a blessing when he wrestled with God.

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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We did accomplish some stuff. The treasurer doesn't want to pay the assessment. Well, he wants to, but we can't. "Wait until we raise some money" he said.

The sr. warden and the treasurer started comparing Gods. I didn't feel like explaining that there was one god, not one that was whimpy and another that was buff. There was one god, and he was a "she." Or of the sort that was very cosmopolitan and liked good scotch.

After that was settled [it actually wasn't really settled] we established a plan for landscaping without a landscaper. We'll take the 30-35 people who are pretty healthy and assign them into teams of 5 to take 2 hour shifts over six weeks beginning October. We discussed getting information out beforehand.

We also established a landlord-tenant team. It will create the lease, interview tenants, and inspect buildings. this way I won't be constantly interrupted.

Interruptions are part of the job, I guess.

NPR did a segment on the Episcopal Churches breaking away from The Episcopal Church. The church maintains that those who founded the church had no intention of not hving it be an Episcopal Church. It will be a nasty, bitter, fight.

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Greetings everyone!

This Sunday services begin at 8:00 and 10:00 am.

This Saturday is our clambake. We've already reserved 30 of our 60 lobsters.

One parishioner remarked that a friend riposted "Fun? At a church?" You have got to be kidding. But yes, its no joke, you can have a good time. There will probably be some magic, and surely a dj. There will be beautiful weather.

The cost is only $50, hosted by the Great American Barbecue company, and the church isn't making a penny.

I recently got a call from a neighbor in the restaurant business.

"Have you ever been to an event hosted by the Great American Barbecue company? It's amazing. The food is fantastic!"

Its true. It's great food. You'll love it.

Perhaps, if your friends are not churchy, or have been hurt by priests, or told when they were 7 that they were to suffer the torments of eternal damnation, you might be sensitive and say, "we're going to this party, a barbecue, a cook-out, that is modest, but with great food. There is a price, but there will be excellent beer, some really good music, and it will be outside. Fifty dollars for a lobster, with music, friends and a keg, is pretty good." Perhaps then, upon finding themselves at church, they can begin to be healed from harmful associations of church and what it represents.

And, in shy, depressed, and selfish culture, we might provide a space for people to learn the difficult task of engaging others in the lost art of conversation.

And in this busy culture, we do what work is supposed to lead us to, which is to be merry, for all else is vanity. Check out Ecclesiastes if you need scriptural justification.

Kids are only $10.

And they'll have a good time. They won't be in front of a TV, but with lots of adults present, and kids need more adults in their lives. And adults need more kids in their lives - and not just our own. It's easy to get tired of your own kids. So hang out with some other kids for a while. And let kids hang out with some other adults. They might then learn respect.

So this Saturday, after going to all the fairs, come one over around 5ish. Bring your friends. Invite them if you don't know them. If you give us a call and say "i'm especially inviting X" and x doesn't know until they show up, we'll give them the mail in price of $50 rather than the unreserved cost.

And if we get more than 55 reservations by Friday night, we'll get 10 more lobsters.

Call 914-949-5577 for reservations. Leave a message.

Or email me at fathergawain@yahoo.com

Keep Art Bonagura in your prayers

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1) Communicate [vision, God's love, etc]
2) Delegate [gutters, raking leaves, putting stamps on letters]

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Funeral today. Get called by McMahon to do ceremonies occasionally when no Catholics are around. Later, had to deal with property issues. Looks like one of the tenants is moving, one with state funding.

Manhattanville is having orientations today.

someone dropped off information on a healing conference at Grace Church, White Plains, led by the Rev. Dr. Peter E. Ostrander, to be held on Sept 17th and 18th. Interested? CAll harry at 914-949-4596. Presented by the Order of St. Luke.

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