“We must not let fear become another closet. “

by the Rev. Calvin Sanborn
Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, York Harbor, Maine

[Ed. Note: The Rev. Calvin Sanborn was invited to share his reaction to the Orlando shooting at a gathering earlier this week at Maine Street, a gay nightclub in Ogunquit. Pretty sure it’s where Jesus would have turned up.]

The Rev. Calvin Sanborn, center, marches with other Maine Episcopalians and hundreds from across the Church at a march against gun violence in Salt Lake City last year during the Episcopal Churches General Convention.

Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to Jimmie, Eddie and Normand for organizing this event. As we struggle with myriad emotions in the wake of the horrific and terrifying act of hatred toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Orlando over the weekend, it is SO good to be together. Thank you!

I learned about the shooting in Orlando as I was just about to begin my first service at St. George’s in York last Sunday. A beloved member of the congregation who has a gay brother in Orlando shared the news with me.

My gut immediately clenched, and my heart began to ache. It was difficult to absorb the words. I had to begin the service, so I did my best to maintain my composure, succeeding up until it was time to lead the congregation in prayer. At that moment I found myself unable to speak.

Through tears I could no longer hold back, after a few moments, I managed to choke the words out.

As a priest and a person of faith, of course, prayer is meaningful and important to me, but I’m not here tonight just because I’m a priest. I’m also here because I’m a gay man. I’m here because I know why an attack on a gay night club is so uniquely painful to the lgbtq community, our community.

I’m blessed be a part of a faith community where I’m not expected to hide or be silent or afraid. In my tradition I’m reminded on a daily basis that I’m imperfect, yes, but beautiful and beloved and holy in the eyes of God as is every single person here.

In the past few days, memories of my own nights in my early 20s spent with my friend Stephanie going out to clubs in the greater Boston area have been flooding my mind. I was there to dance, to celebrate, to feel joy. I was there to be surrounded by people like myself and to know that I was safe in the company of people who understood me in a way that other people did not.

I didn’t grow up in a community where I could count on that. I grew up in a small town in rural Maine. While my friends and family there loved me, I knew that love required me to keep parts of myself hidden. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case, but in my 20s it was, and, in those clubs, I didn’t have to hide.

As we honor the memory of the 49 people who were brutally murdered in their own safe space, I think it’s important to remember that they were not only lgbtq people, but also people of color. Several news reports have noted that many were from families who came to know their child’s sexual identity only because of this tragedy. Many of them may have been at Pulse because they, too, needed a place where they didn’t have to hide.

As we contend with our grief and our hurt and our fear and as we rally our strength and our pride for action, it is vital that we resist any and all attempts to erase or deny reality. This crime was a hate crime. I refuse to let that fact be ignored. These murders were of lgbtq people and their loved ones because they were lgbtq, and that is damn scary!

And that’s when I come back to being a priest in the Episcopal Church. I recognize that my faith and my traditions may not be shared by everyone in this place, and I completely respect and honor that. But I feel that there are parts of my faith, and yours too, that have meaning for us all. I’m blessed be a part of a faith community where I’m not expected to hide or be silent or afraid. In my tradition I’m reminded on a daily basis that I’m imperfect, yes, but beautiful and beloved and holy in the eyes of God as is every single person here.

And I follow the teachings of Jesus, a man who reminded his followers over and over and over again, “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid. I say those words to you now.

We must not be afraid. We must not be silent. We must stand up. We must be proud.

We must NOT let this act of hatred cause us to shrink back into the shadows. We must not let fear become another closet. We must let the power that is in us and within our community well up and revive our commitment to seek justice, to be advocates for every person in this world who is being told that they are worthless, and to demand that safety and security are basic human rights.

We must honor the 49 lives lost in Orlando, and in so many other mass murders that have occurred in our country, by using our voices to support our leaders who value women, children, black people, latino people, gay people and transgender people. And we must help pass legislation to change our gun laws. Assault weapons do not belong on the streets.

And we must keep on dancing, keep on celebrating who we are, and keep on marching. We must never lose our pride!

Maine’s Committee on Indian Relations goes to school

by the Rev. Ted Kanellakis
Committee on Indian Relations

The gathering at the school on Indian Island

On Monday, April 4, 2016, the Diocesan Committee on Indian Relations hosted an event at the Penobscot Nation’s, Indian Island School. Forty-one people attended the three hour program. It was an introduction and exposure to the school facility with presentations on culture, art, history, language and education that are experienced by the Native children at the school.

Invited participants included local educators and students from the University of Maine at Orono; the Head of the Riley School in Rockport, and teachers from the St. George Public School in Tenants Harbor. Members of  St. James’, Old Town; St. John’s, Bangor; St. Peter’s, Rockland; St. John Baptist, Thomaston; and St. Paul’s, Brunswick; were represented as well as other members of Adas Yoshuron Synagogue in Rockland. Members of the Wabanaki REACH (Reconciliation, Engagement, Advocacy, Change, Healing) ally group also attended.

At the Indian Island School we were cordially welcomed and given a tour of the school’s library by the Interim Principal Tracey Nute. The library is the heart of the school where its large, open, and light-filled space embraces not only a wealth of books but signs and symbols from ceiling to floor of Native art and culture: from banners that moved with the air currents, designed and painted by the school children, to a full-sized Penobscot Birch Bark Canoe, made by Penobscot Tribal artisans.

After taking in the beauty and symbolic connections to learning the library provided, we were guided by Principal Nute to a large classroom. She introduced our first presenter, Lee Francis, the Native studies teacher. Lee Francis is a very pleasant and jovial person who must be much loved by the children she teaches. She began by telling us about her own life. She had fond memories of life on Indian Island as a young child. She and her family moved away and as a young woman she moved to the West where she met a man from another tribe. After their marriage, she and her husband moved back to Indian Island because, now having experienced living away, she realized her true affection for what ‘coming home’ offered.

Her descriptions of the freedom and learning from nature and reuniting with her tribal community family were deeply moving. The room was silent, our eyes and attention fixed on Lee Francis as she spoke of her life and her commitment to teaching the ways of the Wabanaki people so that children of this new generation will have the appreciation of their heritage to support them in their lives ahead.

The second presenter, James Eric Francis, serves as the Penobscot Nation’s Tribal Historian and Director of the Nation’s Culture and Historic Preservation Department. He spoke with heartfelt passion and humor about his life on Indian Island as a boy and as a young man where he, supported by his tribal family, developed a love of the land and the Penobscot River which has surrounded and embraced the Penobscot people feeding the them in body and spirit for thousands of generations.

He told of his leaving to serve in the US Air Force and spoke of his longing to return to his Native ancestral land and people. Part of his talk touched on the life and experiences of Henry David Thoreau, the writer, philosopher, and naturalist. Mr. Thoreau’s experiences in his explorations of the Maine wilderness and traveling ancient canoe routes in the mid-nineteenth century were life-changing to his thinking. Much of that change was greatly influenced by the teachings and wisdom he received from his Penobscot guides,  Joe Polis and Joseph Attean.

A slide presentation showed depictions of the sacred mountain Katahdin and the Tribal peoples’ understanding of how it oversees and nourishes the land, supplying the Penobscot River with all that is needed to support their People and the natural surroundings. The spiritual relationship of the Penobscot Nation with Katahdin, the sacred mountain and the river, are inextricably connected. This belief, so wonderfully described, helped those of us listening to deeply appreciate their understanding that we are all connected to the earth and each other.

Some in the Diocese of Maine know James Francis as the co-creator of the film, with Gunnar Hansen and David Westphal of Acadia Films Video, titled Invisible.*  The 2001 documentary, funded in part by at grant from the United Thank Offering, explores some of the tragic history of the Wabanaki, caused by white racist actions intent on destroying their tribal existence. Particularly, this was done by consciously removing children from their families and ancestral communities and obstructing their ability to learn their culture, language and history. Those actions continue to impact negatively on Native Indians and all of us.

Comments received subsequently are overwhelmingly marked by continued interest in future offerings. Educators present expressed interest in connecting with the Penobscot School for the purpose of exploring joint educational experiences with their students. CIR will help facilitate those connections.

Our hope and motivation for this event and those planned for the future, is for the good that will come from helping to bring non-Indian people of Maine, especially those who live close to sovereign Native Tribes, to gain greater awareness of the possibilities for a wealth of blessings that friendly neighborliness with the Wabanaki can afford to all. Grateful thanks to Tracey Nute, Lee Francis, James Francis, Penobscot Elder Butch Philips, and Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis for their hospitality.

* A DVD of Invisible is available from the Committee on Indian Relations. Contact the author at ttk@roadrunner.com to order a copy.

St. Paul’s youth journey to Dominican Republic deeply affecting

After nearly two years of discernment and planning, four St. Paul’s high school youth (all seniors) and three leaders boarded a plane on February 12 to embark on pilgrimage to Dominican Republic. There they volunteered with Outreach 360 in Montecristi near the northwest Haitian border. Youth included Ally Collins, Cedric Hipkins, Markis Larrivee and Joanna Brown. Leaders were Myrna Koonce, Hugh Savage and Macauley Lord. The group returned on February 21, changed and moved. Their experience was, by turns, challenging, absorbing, confusing, rewarding and joyful. Here are some highlights:

• Awakening to dozens of roosters crowing and many motor scooters (“motos”) heading to school or work
• Standing in front of groups of schoolchildren and chanting, “Wa-wa-wa-what’s the weather, what’s– what’s the weather?”
• Watching our planning ideas take shape as children of all ages eagerly volunteered to engage in activities designed to help them speak English
• Playing chasing and ball games with children during recess at tiny Pasluz Escuela
• Playing “Papa Caliente” (hot potato) with the fifth and sixth graders at an even smaller school in Laguna Verde
• Holding our own prayer service each morning on the rooftop of our Outreach 360 building in Barrio Salomon Jorge, Montecristi
• Singing, drumming and dancing merengue with our new friends from Berkley High School in Michigan
• Answering Spanish/Dominican trivia questions before eating rice, beans, meat, plantain and tropical fruits for lunch and dinner
• Hiking up El Morro, the local mountain, to watch the sunrise
• Giving and receiving friendly “holas” everywhere we walked in the town
• Buying fresh juices from the local “juice lady”
• Touring the salt flats where salt is harvested solely by hand
• Visiting the crowded twice-weekly market in Dajabon, where Haitians cross the border to trade with Dominicans

The youth and their parents and leaders worked hard to raise funds for this trip by offering several events, food and services to their fellow parishioners. In thanksgiving, the youth will offer reflections at an upcoming all-parish worship service, and a Dominican dinner for the parish, cooked by the journeyers. We are so grateful to have such an active and inquiring group of teens among us, and we wish them the best as they leave for college next year.

Spring Training 2016 – Becoming members of The Jesus Movement

Bishop Steve Lane invites Maine Episcopalians to a diocesan education day called Spring Training 2016 to be held on Saturday, April 9, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick.

Three sessions will offer a 20 workshops in areas such as spiritual growth, formation, music, public policy advocacy, church leadership, conflict mediation and more. We’ll pause at mid-day to gather, worship, sing, and hear more about change in our wider culture and the role the church may play in our communities. (Full workshop descriptions are here.)

Bishop Lane says:

Our new Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, calls the Episcopal Church in Maine to be a part of The Jesus Movement. We want our members claim the faith that sends them into the world proclaiming the good news of God’s love. To do that we need to focus on three principles:

• Know Jesus and follow him.
• Go into the world where Jesus already is.
• Leave your baggage behind.

My hope is that Spring Training 2016 will help to prepare us to take our place in The Jesus Movement.

Here’s Bishop Curry’s take:

Want to learn more? Visit our diocesan homepage at www.episcopalmaine.org to link to event information, full workshop descriptions, and registration. You may register directly at www.tinyurl.com/springtraining2016.

Download a flyer and a bulletin insert to share with members of your congregation.

Registration is limited to 150 people, so please don’t delay in signing up.

We look forward to seeing you there.

March 12 Workshop: Engaging in Public Life as Christians

The Maine Episcopal Network for Justice invites Maine Episcopalians to faith-based advocacy workshop at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland on Saturday, March 12, from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

“Engaging in Public Life as Christians: A Faith-Based Advocacy Workshop,”  will offer four interactive sessions. Topics include: examining assumptions about the relationship between religion and democracy, a walk through the Maine legislative process, case studies on issues that will appear on the 2016 ballot, and practical steps to engage as individuals and churches. Free refreshments and a boxed lunch!

Please find an outline of the day below.

Because attendance is limited to 40 and lunch is provided, registration  is required. Please register at www.tinyurl.com/March12workshop

Download a copy of the event flyer here, MENJ-March 12 workshop

10 a.m. – Dr. Elizabeth Parsons 

Liz will examine some prevalent assumptions about the relationship between religion and democracy in the United States and propose a way of seeing the world that shows why thoughtful Christian engagement is vital to our public life.

Part 1:   Revisiting the founders’ thinking about religion and governance
Part 2:   Thinking like Anglicans in the public square today

Elizabeth C. Parsons is an educator, activist, former ECUSA missioner to Southern Africa, and a member of St. Luke’s Cathedral. She holds the M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and the Ph.D. in theology and development from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She currently teaches at Boston University School of Theology. 

11:15 a.m. – Joanne D’Arcangelo – Former Chief of Staff to Speaker of the House

By sharing engaging examples and defining terms, Joanne will unpack the legislative process in the Maine State House.

Joanne D’Arcangelo, owner of JD’A Consulting, Inc.is an advocacy, political, and organizational consultant with over twenty-five years’ experience in public policy development, legislative advocacy, voter education, and organizational planning, coaching and support. She served as chief of staff to the Speaker of the Maine House during the 122nd Legislature.

12:15 p.m. – Working Lunch with Case Studies from the 2016 Ballot:
These sessions led by campaign leaders will show how grassroots campaigns work.

• Gun Safety  – Maine Moms Demand Action
• Fair Wage Maine – Amy Halsted of Maine People’s Alliance

1 p.m. – John Hennessy

This interactive session will focus how to frame a message and narrative to demonstrate our values and how to taking action rooted in Christian practices. John will also share the scope, plans, and aspirations of the Maine Episcopal Network for Justice going forward.

John Hennessy is the Director of the MENJ. He has extensive experience advocating for non-profit social service organizations in Augusta and Washington, DC. His clients have included: Maine Community Action Association, Disability Rights Center of Maine, Maine AIDS Alliance, and AARP among others. In his new role, he is eager to help organize people of faith to enable them to contribute all of their unique gifts and resources to the broader movement for justice in our state.

Space is limited, so please register today!

Learning to listen in Brunswick

by Deacon Chick Carroll
St. Paul’s, Brunswick 
The Gathering Place volunteer

Chick Carroll

Have you ever been in a place that didn’t feel right? Perhaps not safe, maybe unfriendly. Or possibly it was okay, but you felt unwelcome? Like it was a little “off” for you. Or how about someplace where you felt you just didn’t know the rules? What was expected of you?

If you’re homeless or deeply poor, almost every place can feel that way. When you’re carrying everything you own in a backpack, you can stick out like a snowball in July. It’s impossible to feel safe– or even comfortable. Even in a town like mine. Where people can be afraid of you because you don’t look quite “right.”

How do I know this? Am I desperately poor or homeless?

No. But lots of my friends are. How do I know what it feels like to to be turned away, or turned down, or to have people in church or the grocery store look away, ask if they can help me- when what they really mean is how can they help me out of there, away from them.

Well, I have learned to listen. I can listen to and learn from my friends, my friends who are deeply poor, friends who are homeless, or were last month, or will be next week. Because they just received notice from the landlord. I can see what they live through when they don’t get the job for the tenth time in a row. Or when they just can’t keep the one job they got, at $7.50 an hour, because they have to get up every morning at 3 am in order to walk the four miles to work – -and they just can’t do it any more.

Do I know personally what it’s like to finally get a place to live even though it’s drafty and loud, and costs a pile to keep it warm? Or what it’s like to have an adult schizophrenic son that has to live with me– or die. But because he’s there I can’t work, because he can’t be left alone? No, I don’t. I don’t know personally. Because I’ve been lucky in life. No, I didn’t earn my luck; it happened to me. Sure, I’ve done my part, but good fortune has been a huge factor in my life. But not for many of my friends.

And I listen to what they talk about, the stories they tell, the insults they endure, the endless lines they stand in. I squirm when someone tells me tell how she was treated when she tried to buy something at the store that’s so friendly to me, but not to her. How people give him a wide berth as he walks along Main Street, as if he were contagious. When the doctor doesn’t give him the attention he needs, or that she gives me, because he doesn’t have insurance anymore, because Maine Care decided to cancel him. I fume when I hear what has happened to her food stamp allowance, even though she is disabled, when what she gets for a month wouldn’t feed me for more than a couple of days.

Where do I hear about all this? Where is a place in town where folks feel comfortable enough to tell these stories? Where no one like me is going to give them a big load of well meaning advice that’s supposed to turn their life around? Where is a place they think of as their own? It’s called The Gathering Place, Brunswick’s daytime drop-in center. It’s been around for going on five years, just off Union Street.

I have volunteered there since the beginning. So have a lot of other folks like me. We’re coming to learn about what life is like if you’re desperately poor, if you can’t work because you got badly hurt on the last job you were able to get- ten years ago. What life is like when your husband went broke and left you all at the same time, and your monthly social security’s a few hundred dollars. What happens when your husband breaks his back just before summer, when he would have been able to earn enough from odd jobs to keep you all from becoming homeless. And so you come to The Gathering Place because you can’t stay alone all day, and there will be friends there- friends whose lives are like yours, or maybe not, but who will listen and understand anyway. And you come because it’s one place in town where you’re really welcome to stay a few hours.

I also have friends on the “right” side of the tracks. Good people. Many of them really get it. And some don’t. Many understand that their town is just the friendliest place for them, but not for the desperately poor. And some don’t get that at all! And for a long time, many years, I didn’t either. Maybe ten or 12 years ago, the light went on for me. I began to see I was among the lucky ones– not the smarter or the better ones. Just the fortunate. Why, why me, God? Who knows?

But I began to understand I could be of help. Could I change the world? No. Could I light a lamp for someone? Yes, sometimes, and sometimes the lamp just wouldn’t stay lit, and sometimes the person I lit it for turned out to be me. And sometimes the person I thought needed my help was the one I needed, instead.

Lewiston’s Center for Wisdom’s Women offers vulnerable women safety and strength

by Klara Tammany
Executive Director, Center for Wisdom’s Women
Lewiston

Klara Tammany talks with Maine Episcopalians at Diocesan Convention at USM in October.

While hosting the Thistle Farm table at diocesan convention in October, I had a chance to talk with both clergy and lay people about the women’s center that is an outreach project of Trinity Church, Lewiston. One of several ministries that Trinity, a small congregation located in a neighborhood with a poverty rate of more than 40 percent, has spawned over the years, the Center for Wisdom’s Women is a week-day drop-in center that provides a safe and sacred space for the support and empowerment of women.

Sue is one of our long-time guests. She came to us as an angry woman who didn’t trust anyone.It is not surprising. She was the middle child of six sisters. When she was four, they were separated and put up for adoption. Hers was not a good home. By the time she was a teen, she was on her own. The sisters didn’t see each other again for 45 years. 

Sue is now part of a core group of volunteers called Sophia’s Circle. Their jobs are to staff the front desk and help with tasks like housekeeping and cooking. When a gal who has visited the Center was sentenced to three years in the Windham prison, we asked the women of Sophia’s Circle if we might support her by writing and visiting. Sue was the first person who raised her hand.

“I think I can understand what she’s goin’ through” she said. “I know what it’s like to be alone. No matter what she did, she needs a friend.”

Sue is one of over 1,000 women who have come through our doors since 2008. Many are initially drawn to the center because we offer much-needed hygiene products, (donations gratefully accepted!) but the welcome they experience brings many women back for support, strength, and friendship.  At the Center they build community and begin to help each other. Less alone and less afraid, everyone grows and changes and relationships are restored. It is an organic way of healing that tends to the inner spirit of women, something often missing in more clinical settings.

Since the Center’s first days, not a week has gone by when we don’t wish we could serve our guests better by providing housing. That wish seems poised to come to fruition in the next few years. We have a plan to start a residential project to serve both older women on fixed incomes and women who are healing from a life of prostitution, addiction, prison, and abuse. Modest apartments will be available to elders who desire to live independently, yet in community and with a purpose. The recovery part will be based on the model of Thistle Farms.

A feasibility study by the Genesis Community Loan Fund has determined our plan is very possible and that rental income would cover the cost of running the house. However, in order to confidently proceed with the Sophia’s House project, we must first fully fund the work of the women’s center.

Over the fall I gave some thought to how we might better reach out to the wider faith community in Maine, especially our Episcopal brothers and sisters across the Diocese. While we have eight partners from the Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Lutheran traditions, our only Episcopal connections are with St. Michael’s across the river and the Episcopal Church Women groups in Rangeley and Hallowell.

On deeper thought over the holidays, larger questions emerged…

How might we better support each other in innovative, mission-oriented work in our diocese? 

Are there ways we could share our ministries and collaborate to further the work we all do to meet needs of those living on the margins?

Yes, there are grants available in the diocese, but they are limited and competitive.  And yes, in emergencies like floods or fires or broken septic systems, we all jump in to help. But there must be more direct ways – as individual Episcopalians and as congregations – we can regularly engage in the outreach we all do with the least among us right here in Maine. 

As small as Trinity Church is, we have found powerful ways to faithfully meet large needs with much creativity and boldness, despite limited financial resources. We are happy to share our successful model with other congregations that dream of doing vital ministry in their local communities. But we could also use some support from Maine Episcopalians to keep doing what we are doing.

Here is a proposal: Let’s talk about how we might promote, support and share the baptismal ministries we have all been called to in our neighborhoods. We could learn from, inspire and encourage each other, pray for specific needs we have, make a list of contacts, share wish lists and resources etc. I bet it would help us be more effective and also lighten the burdens.

Meanwhile… As we expand to offer housing with Sophia’s House, our regular program of meeting the needs of vulnerable women requires all the help we can get.

Sue came to us and grew and changed. She is now tending to the woman now in prison. That woman may be our first resident at Sophia’s House. It goes full circle.

If you are interested in knowing more about our work, I would love to hear from you. I would be happy to visit your congregation and share our story. If you are in or near Lewiston, please come visit and see what we are up to. And if you are able to offer support, please do. Thanks so much.

___

www.wisdomswomen.org

Email Klara at cww@oxfordnetworks.net 

Watch a new video about the Center for Wisdom’s Women and the difference it makes in women’s lives.

Click here to go to the Sophia’s House fundraising site.

Download a brochure with ways to help

MPBN story on Sophia’s House

 

Expand your ministry with a New Initiative Fund grant

Dreaming about a new ministry in your community?

Apply now for a 2016 New Initiative Grant from Diocesan Council.

Each congregation and organization in the Diocese of Maine is eligible to apply for funding to support new ministries or expanding existing ministries in new directions. Applications will be evaluated on the how closely they meet the Diocese’s Seven Criteria for Mission.

The next deadline for applications is 4 p.m. on Friday, January 22. Diocesan Council will make grant recommendations at its February 6 meeting.

The online application may be found at www.surveymonkey.com/r/MaineNIF

Download the application worksheet and complete your application on that before cutting and pasting your application into the online Survey Monkey application above.

Once your application is processed, you will be contacted by a Diocesan Council member from your area. That member will serve as your advocate through the application process.

What kind of ministry might a New Initiative Fund grant get going? Below is a list of grants made by Diocesan Council over the past two years in spring and fall grant cycles.

Dream big!

2015 New Initiative Fund Grants

St. Luke’s, Wilton – $3,000 to install a community labyrinth

Human Trafficking Ministry Group – $2,650 to bring Becca Stevens and women of Thistle Farms to a conference in November 2015

St. Matthew’s, Hallowell – $2,450 to support a Ecumenical mentoring program for women recently released Kennebec County Jail, Walk with Me: A Journey

St. Paul’s, Brunswick – $1,750 to gather and create resources for congregations to effectively talk about alcoholism

2014 New Initiative Fund Grants 

The Congregations of the Southern Kennebec Valley (The Kennebec 6 – St. Mark’s, Augusta; St. Barnabas’, Augusta; Christ Church, Gardiner; St. Matthew’s, Hallowell; St. Andrew’s, Winthrop; and Prince of Peace Lutheran, Augusta) – $10,680 to establish a Sunday afternoon community Christian education program for families called “Mustard Seeds”

Trinity Church, Portland – $4,600 to assist All Saints Community Church, a Sudanese congregation that had met at Trinity for four years, in establishing a Christian education program

St. Nicholas’, Scarborough – $2,200 to establish a community garden on their Route 1 campus

St. Ann’s, Windham – $3,000 to establish an essentials pantry for needy members of their community

St. Peter’s, Bridgton – $2,400 for Women’s Initiative Mentoring Program

Diocesan Christian Ed Collaboration – $6,700 to bring Godly Play training to Maine

Bishopswood needs our help to open its doors in 2016

Estimates are in and the comprehensive Bishopswood septic system will cost $185,000. As Bishop Lane says in his letter to friends of our diocesan camp: Read it here

“Now is the time to make a gift toward this project. I have committed diocesan resources so that contracts can be made and work can begin, but there is no budget for this work. The funding of this project is completely in the hands of all of us who love Bishopswood and want to see another generation of children benefit from its ministry.” 

 

Bishopswood Executive Director Mike Douglass also has a letter that details the need and urgency for year-end gifts so that camp can open next summer. Donations may be made online on the Diocese of Maine home page at www.episcopalmaine.org. or use this direct link to the secure online donation page. Also checks may be sent directly to Bishopswood at 98 Bishopswood Road, Hope, Maine  04847. If you would like to learn more about the project by having Mike call or email you, please be in touch with him at mike@bishopswood.org. Congregations are encouraged to share this notice in their bulletins, newsletters, and announcements. Click here for a ready-to-print bulletin insert.

 

Planning Your Funeral Music Could Be Fun!

by Anthony Antolini, Music Director
St. John Baptist, Thomaston
originally published in the October 2015 edition of The Antiphon, St. John’s monthly newsletter

We’ve had a remarkable number of parishioners pass away in recent months. I cannot remember a time when I’ve played so many funerals in close succession. All this has reminded us of the importance of filling out the Funeral Wishes form. Without this form, the family, Fr. Peter, and I have to guess what hymns and organ voluntaries would be appropriate for the departed. You know much better than we what you’d like, so please fill out the form! To make the chore less daunting I’ve decided to devote this month’s column to some observations that may help you with your decisions.

First, let’s agree that making these decisions is a lot more entertaining than writing a will. And yet it’s a kind of will because we have in writing what you think a proper funeral would be for you. Secondly, bear in mind that you can update the form if you change your mind. So, let’s get started.

Funerals don’t need to be lugubrious. Choosing hymns you don’t like to sing because they’re somber is clearly a mistake. So perhaps the first thing to do is to make a list of your favorite hymns. Some may be able to do this by memory. Others may need to borrow a hymnal and look through the Index of First Lines (page 954 and following) for ideas.

Don’t leave your family and friends out of this process! Picture that they will be the ones who sing and listen to the music you choose. They may have favorites that would mean a great deal to them at the time of your memorial. Another approach might be to share your completed Funeral Wishes form with them before handing it in at the office. They may have other ideas to suggest or opinions you need to know about.

The Hymnal 1982 has hymns categorized by topic. A short section is entitled “Burial” and is not where I’d suggest you start. It begins with Hymn #354 “Into paradise may angels lead you.” This is a lovely plainsong translated from the Latin In paradisum deducant angeli. In my nearly twenty-five years at St. John’s we’ve never sung it. Unless you love Gregorian chant or are a choral musician, it’s unlikely such a hymn would appeal to you. And here we see another important consideration:

Don’t choose hymns for your funeral that nobody has ever heard before! Those who attend your service won’t sing them.

Occasionally, people want the Commendation (Give rest, O Christ, to your servant…”) chanted. This beautiful Kievan chant is Hymn #355. The words are in the Book of Common Prayer and are usually read by the priest. But if chanted, the melody is from the Eastern Orthodox Memorial Service and is usually sung by a choir in four parts. At St. John’s I usually chant it alone. An interesting alternative to this is Hymn #358 – a rhymed version of the Commendation Prayer set to the familiar tune “Russia.” Most people know this tune to the words “God the Omnipotent” (Hymn #569). Somebody ought to try this!

For one funeral this summer (where Peter and I had to choose the music) I decided to sing an unaccompanied song that is in the hymnal but seldom sung: It’s Hymn #692 “I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Come unto me and rest.’” The melody is familiar to classical music lovers from the orchestral piece Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The words of the hymn are by Horatius Bonar and have no connection to the melody by Thomas Tallis, but they fit a funeral beautifully.

Here are some hymns from the Hymnal 1982 that are frequently sung at funerals. Though not in the “Burial” section of the hymnal they are very suitable:

Hymn #208 “Alleluia! The strife is o’er, the battle done” (Easter)

Hymn #287 “For all the saints, who from their labors rest” (All Saints)

Hymn #410 “Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven”

Hymn #508 “Breathe on me, breath of God” (Frequently sung at confirmation.)

Hymn #517 “How lovely is thy dwelling place” (Psalm 84 paraphrased)

Hymn #645 or #646 “The King of love my shepherd is” (Psalm 23 paraphrased)

Hymn #655 “O Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end”

Hymn #657 “Love divine, all loves excelling”

Hymn #680 “O God our help in ages past” (Psalm 90 paraphrased)

Hymn #376 “Joyful, joyful, we adore thee” (Hymn to Joy from Beethoven’s 9^th)

There are also some appropriate hymns to consider in the green hymnal, Wonder, Love & Praise (WLP):

WLP #810 “You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord” (AKA “On eagle’s wings.”)

WLP #811 “You shall cross the barren desert”

And the black, red and green hymnal, Lift Every Voice & Sing (LEVAS) has some stirring hymns from the African-American tradition. Here are some favorites:

LEVAS #60 “How great thou art”

LEVAS #103 “Steal away to Jesus”

LEVAS #106 “Precious Lord, take my hand”

LEVAS #181 “Amazing Grace”

Of course, those who do fill out the Funeral Wishes form sometimes do request hymns that strike the rest of us as dated or even unpopular. A recent funeral featured two hymns that I’ve been told by other members of the congregation never to play! They are “Onward, Christian soldiers” and “Rock of Ages.” A funeral is a special occasion and if the departed wanted them, we sing them!

Other musical parts of the service offer an opportunity to include music that isn’t in the hymnal but may be a personal favorite. These are the prelude and the postlude, played on the organ. Since Fr. Peter began promoting the Funeral Wishes form I’ve deliberately played several pieces that are excellent choices for these parts of the service. Here is a brief list of such music:

J.S. Bach: Jesu, joy of man’s desiring

Jean Sibelius: Theme from Finlandia

Antonin Dvorák: Theme from New World Symphony (“Going home”)

Gabriel Fauré: Pie Jesu from Requiem

Johannes Brahms: O world, I must now leave thee

Georg Frederick Handel: Come unto Him from Messiah

Domenico Zipoli: Festival Postlude

Perhaps you have a favorite composer but can’t think of what he/she wrote that would work well on the organ. That’s not a problem! Just list the composer’s name on the form and I’ll try to find something by that composer that would fit a prelude or a postlude.

Funny things do happen with regard to funeral music, usually unintentionally. One family requested the mardi gras tune “When the saints go marching in” as a postlude. I didn’t feel it was something that would turn out particularly well on the organ so I used the melody in an improvisation that led into Brahms’s “O world, I must now leave thee.” No one complained.

One “Funeral Wishes” form specified a piece of music that required a concerto for orchestra and harp soloist. The funeral was in a matter of days. There was no budget for an orchestra or harpist. I played something else by the composer of the requested concerto.

In planning your funeral music please try to be practical and realize that your music director often has to put this service together in just a few days. If in doubt about something, let’s chat about it. I welcome such discussions and would enjoy talking to you about your wishes. I’ll play pieces that you think you’d like to include. We might come up with a really splendid service!

Finally, if you’d rather not deal with details, please just write on the Funeral Wishes form what you really don’t want and then state, “Let the music director decide.” When Yogi Berra was asked what his burial wishes were, he replied, “I don’t know. Why don’t you surprise me?”

Some sample funeral planning forms:
St. John Baptist, Thomaston
Trinity Church, Castine
Maryland
Texas
Ohio