From the Dean
“You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and to the ends of the earth.” With the season of Pentecost the church moves from the story of Jesus (Advent through Easter season) to the story of the Church, the body of Christ (the Season after Pentecost). “You will do greater things than me for I will send you the Spirit who will lead you into all truth,” states Jesus. Greater things?
We now are the flesh through which God is known, revealed, encountered. With the outpouring of the Spirit we find the ability to “seek and serve Christ,” the ability to “strive for justice and peace among all people,” the ability to “proclaim the good news of Christ by word and example.”
Episcopal theologian William Porcher DuBose speaking of incarnation, God in human flesh, writes that there is no way the fullness, the vastness of God could ever be finally and completely revealed in one human body, even Jesus’ body, and that is why God created the body of Christ. We are that continuing enfleshment, the continuing incarnation of God in the world. Greater things?
We have had several moments in our liturgical calendar recently that speak of God in us. The Annunciation of Mary recalls the pregnant Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. In this visit Elizabeth proclaims the blessedness of Mary who is bearing the life of God. Mary responds with Magnificat. Many, including many of my Roman Catholic family members, hold Mary in very high regard. I think we are right to hold Mary in this regard as long as we hold ourselves in the very same regard. To consider ourselves anything less than Mary is not to understand the message of Pentecost. Greater things.
On this page you will find a listing of survey responses from parishioners listing ways in which they ‘engage the community about us.’ It is a list of the ways in which members offer themselves to the community. It is a list of ways we as the body of Christ are incarnate in the greater community.
What does it mean that we will do greater things? This is our homework in this season: to observe God in our flesh, our individual flesh and our collective flesh; to look for where and how we are and have been the manifestation of the Holy in this world.
A Space Problem
We at All Souls have a space problem. It has nothing to do with our buildings. We have an emotional space problem, a spiritual space problem. We sell slow in a culture addicted to fast. We sell reflective consideration in an culture which still believes in the myth of immediate competence.
As we move ahead with our Capital Campaign we need to remember we are not simply trying to preserve buildings, we are offering something our culture needs desperately: space where the human soul can pause, space where the human soul can imagine, space where the human soul is connected to mystery, space where the human soul can learn to hope and where we can find others with which to practice that hope. This is our task and our calling.
I am deeply grateful for the ways in which this community is participating in the campaign. The spirit of the Kick-off event was rich. Folks have offered themselves in planning and carrying out events, with publications and visits. In an economic time which is different from anything we have experienced in many decades, we are particularly conscious that the ability to contribute financially is less certain for many. Amid this I am grateful that participation in the campaign is defined in many different ways.
For the ways in which you generate life in this community and in our wider community, for the ways in which you and we incarnate the life of God in human flesh, for the ways in which All Souls has for generations been a space of soul feeding, a place of soul stretching, I give thanks.
Blessed Season of Pentecost,
Todd