Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Homily for August 23, the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Compline, August 23

Homily for Sunday, August 16

Compline, August 16, 2020

Compline, Sunday, August 16, 7 pm

 

Compline, Sunday, August 16, 7 pm. Email [email protected] if you will be attending. 

 

If we cancel due to weather, we will post the cancellation by 4pm. 

Compline, August 9, 2020

Compline Pentecost 8

Service for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Service for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Service for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Prayers, Thanksgiving and Music for America

Service for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Music for the Third Sunday of Pentecost

Attached is the music for this Sunday's service.  The following are a few performance notes for each piece:

 

Adagio - Rolf Lovland

Norwegian Rolf Lovland composed this piece for piano and violin for performance by his Nordic-Celtic group, Secret Garden.  Replacing the piano with the organ provides a richer tonal palette that adds more 'color' to the piece, especially in the dialogue between the instruments that occurs during the middle of the composition.  Here the organ's Hautboy (Oboe) stop provides a contrasting foil to the violin's lower register as the two echo the melodic line.  The listener may find this plaintively haunting tune to be a real ohrwurm(earworm), a tune or phrase that one hums or hears internally even after the music ceases to play.  John, my captive violinist, is the soloist for this selection.

 

Download Adagio - Rolf Loveland

 

Seek Ye First - Karen Lafferty, Johann Pachelbel, Setting by Douglas E Wagner

This selection from the eponymous collection by Douglas E. Wagner combines Pachelbel'sCanon in D with Lafferty's hymn tune.  The charm of this piece lies in its gentle simplicity.

 

Download Seek Ye First - Setting by Douglas E. Wagner

 

His Eye Is on the Sparrow - Charles H Gabriel, arr. by Roger Wilson

In today's gospel, before uttering the rather discomfiting words about bringing a sword rather than peace, Jesus offers some comforting words to his disciples when he says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows."  This sentiment is echoed in Gabriel's joyous paraphrase which concludes with "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!"

 

Wilson's arrangement of this gospel favorite appeared in the August 1969 edition of The Volunteer Choir, a monthly publication of the Lorenz Corporation that contained accessible anthems for small choirs.  I vividly remember as a very small child, sitting beside my godmother on the organ bench watching her hands and feet as she accompanied the choir on this very anthem.

 

The S.S. Hamill organ at Emmanuel, like many organs built since the mid-nineteenth century, contains a Tremulant, a non-speaking stop that, when drawn, imparts a trembling or quivering quality to the speaking stops with which it is used.  Because of my own somewhat dreary associations of this effect with funerals and other occasions during which maudlin selections that employ the Tremulant are often performed, I typically avoid its use.  In this instance, however, the stop is used in conjunction with a light registration consisting of flute tones to evoke the warbling of a sparrow's call.  Listen to see if you can hear the effect!

 

Download His Eye Is on the Sparrow - Charles H. Gabriel arr. Roger C. Wilson

 

-Kenyon Scott

Service for the Second Sunday in Pentecost

Emmanuel Service for Trinity Sunday

National Day of Mourning and Lament

Front Porch Ministry for Pentecost

Service for Pentecost

Memorial Day

As the Bread of Life is Broken - the Seventh Sunday in Easter

Music and Reflection for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Service for the Third Sunday of Easter

Easter Sunday at Emmanuel

Bishop Haynes' Easter Message

Good Friday Meditation

The Holy Three Days

Palm Sunday at Emmanuel

Worship from St. Stephen's: Palm Sunday

Worship from St. Stephen's: Palm Sunday from StStephensRVA on Vimeo.

Lent 5 at Emmanuel

Worship from St. Stephen's: The Fifth Sunday of Lent

Worship from St. Stephen's: The Fifth Sunday in Lent from StStephensRVA on Vimeo.

Being the Church during the coronavirus: A Message from Bishop Haynes

"We can still be the Church. The Church is open even if we aren't able to come to their buildings right now."   Join Bishop Susan as she begins sharing suggestions for how we can worship in our homes, especially during Holy Week and Easter. Click here or the screenshot below to watch.

Habits of Grace: An invitation for you, from Presiding Bishop Curry

Habits of Grace: An invitation for you, from Presiding Bishop Curry

[March 23, 2020] As we learn how to adjust our lives given the reality of the coronavirus and the request to do our part to slow its spread by practicing social distancing, I invite you to join me each week to take a moment to cultivate a ‘habit of grace.’ A new video meditation will be posted on Mondays through May.    March 23, 2020:  Pandemic

Hello. This past week I came across two passages, one from the Bible, one a poem. The one in the Bible, I was just reading through parts of Matthew's gospel and was reading through the Sermon on the Mount and got to chapter seven where Jesus says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."   In this time when we are all called to physically distance from each other, physical, not social, but physical isolation for the good of each other. I'm mindful of the words of Jesus when he said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Maybe that's a frame for having to live in a time of physical isolation.

Reflections Based on the Lessons for Lent 4

Worship Service from St. Stephen's, Richmond

Worship from St. Stephen's: The Fourth Sunday in Lent from StStephensRVA on Vimeo.

Bishop Haynes: Reflections on the Lectionary for Lent 4

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Psalm 23

Ephesians 5:8-14

John 9:1-41

 

1 Samuel 16:1-13

In the well-known story from Samuel in which David, the son of Jesse, is chosen by God to be anointed king over Israel, we are reminded that appearances can be deceiving. Samuel perhaps had one idea of what a king ought to look like, but God had different ideas. God says to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see, they look on the outward appearance but the LORD looks on the heart." Where in your own life are you possibly seeing things differently from the way God sees them? What reality do you find difficult to embrace? What does God see when He looks on your heart? Is it possible that he sees a potential that you do not yet see?

A Video Message from the Rev. Becky Crites

Lent at Emmanuel

Quiet Mondays in Lent

5:30-6pm

Come and let the sacredness of space, music, prayers and light envelop you.

  

Bible Study in Lent  (begins this week)

Mondays 6:15-7:15pm, Wednesdays, 10 – 11 am

Embodying Forgiveness

 

Wednesdays in Lent 

Community Lenten meal and meditation on various OT prophets

Chatham Baptist Church

Meal is 5:30 PM, caterer is Gentleman's Ridge, cost is $8 per person.

Meditation begins at 6:15 PM.

Mar 11 - Chatham Baptist hosting.Chuck Warnock, meditation on the words of Malachi.

Mar 18 -Chatham Baptist hosting. Hargrave Chap. Adam Felty, meditation on the words of Habakkuk

Mar 25 - Emmanuel Episcopal hosting. The Rev.Becky Crites,meditation on the words of Hosea

April 1  - Chatham Presbyterian hosting. The Rev. Mikel Pugh, meditation on the words of Micah

 

 

Lent at Emmanuel: Come and See

See the event listing on the Calendar.

Bishop Hollerith's Christmas Message

Download BishopXmasMessage2018

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God... For nothing will be impossible with God. (Luke 1:30ff.

 

"How can this be?" There is a lot to that question. On the one hand, Mary is certainly asking how it is that she will get biologically from point "A" to point "B". What the angel told her was indeed perplexing news. It was news that didn't at all suggest a standard route to having a child. It didn't make sense to Mary. It wouldn't have made sense to any of us either. Mary had every reason to be perplexed.

Bishop Hollerith's Christmas Reflection 2017

Just a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of making a Sunday visitation to St. Paul's Church in Newport News. For those who have never visited the church building, St. Paul's is situated in the remains of what once was a grand downtown neighborhood in the center of the city.

 

All that remains in that neighborhood now are municipal government buildings, a few businesses, structures belonging to the Newport News shipyard, and bits and pieces of low income housing. There is no longer any true neighborhood there like most of our parishes enjoy. In a real sense, St. Paul's is a parish in an urban wasteland.  

 

And yet, the membership of St. Paul's is very clear about their parish's role in the community - why they are there and what they believe God is calling them to do. While a portion of the congregation is made up of dedicated people who live in more desirable parts of town, the largest portion is comprised of people who are homeless, or very near homeless.

 

During my visit I was asked to lead a bible study and hold a general discussion with the community. Most who gathered for the conversation had come both to talk and to receive the free breakfast served after the class. For some the meal would be their only meal of the day - possibly the best of the week.

Easter message from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

Video available here.

It's taken me some years to realize it, but Jesus didn't just happen to be in Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. He wasn't on vacation. He wasn't just hanging out in town. Jesus was in Jerusalem on purpose. He arrived in Jerusalem about the time of the Passover when pilgrims were in the city. When people's hopes and expectations for the dawn of freedom that Moses had promised in the first Passover might suddenly be realized for them in their time.

Jesus arranged his entrance into Jerusalem to send a message. He entered the city, having come in on one side of the city, the scholars tell us, at just about the same time that Pontius Pilate made his entrance on the exact opposite side of the city. Pilate, coming forth on a warhorse. Pilate, with soldiers around him. Pilate, with the insignias of Rome's Empire. Pilate, representing the Caesars who claimed to be son of god. Pilate, who had conquered through Rome the people of Jerusalem. Pilate, representing the Empire that had taken away their freedom. Pilate, who represented the Empire that would maintain the colonial status of the Jewish people by brute force and violence.

Jesus entered the city on the other side, not on a warhorse, but on a donkey, recalling the words of Zechariah:

Behold your King comes to you

Triumphant and victorious is He

Humble and riding on a donkey

Jesus entered the city at the same time as Pilate to show them, and to show us, that God has another way. That violence is not the way. That hatred is not the way. That brute force and brutality are not the way.

Jesus came to show us there is another way. The way of unselfish, sacrificial love. That's why he entered Jerusalem. That's why he went to the cross. It was the power of that love poured out from the throne of God, that even after the horror of the crucifixion would raise him from death to life.

God came among us in the person of Jesus to start a movement. A movement to change the face of the earth. A movement to change us who dwell upon the earth. A movement to change the creation from the nightmare that is often made of it into the dream that God intends for it.

He didn't just happen to be in Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. He went to Jerusalem for a reason. To send a message. That not even the titanic powers of death can stop the love of God.  On that Easter morning, he rose from the dead, and proclaimed love wins.

So you have a blessed Easter. Go forth to be people of the Resurrection. Follow in the way of Jesus. Don't be ashamed to love. Don't be ashamed to follow Jesus.

Have a blessed Easter.  And bless the world.  Amen.

 

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry

Presiding Bishop and Primate

Homily for the Reverend Dr. John Samuel Ruef

Delivered by The Rev. James West Mathieson on November 29, 2016                

John Ruef had a great sense of humor.  And if you question his humor, consider the idea that he named me in his final request to be the “preacher” and give the sermon at his Burial Service.

John, you see, was noted for his brevity in the length of his sermons – 4 to 5 minutes at the most.  One person remarked after church, “we never get our seats warm when John preaches.”

I, on the other hand, am a story teller.  There is no limit to what I have to say.  The seats of the congregation are given a lot of time to warm up.

Now I know John is laughing in Heaven.

John really was the “ideal” – the role model that every Episcopal priest yearns to be.  Brilliant -- educated at the best schools, a teacher, a degree that would be the envy of each of us.  John not only memorized his sermons, he memorized the Prayer Book, the hymnal, the Bible.  Plus, he was the published author of a commentary on “Paul’s First Letter to Corinth.”

John and I would travel together to various functions:  clergy conferences, retreats, funerals.  We would travel along – mostly just rattling along, story after story -- John laughing at the appropriate time, quiet and respectful at other times.  But even if I ran out of stories that simply kill time I would engage John in various questions:  academic or pastoral or church problems. 

That was the best of times – an unfolding of that wonderful mind.  A disciplined mind!  Words coming forth that unraveled the mysterious, the rough prattle, the puzzles that a priest is so often confronted with to realize “the ocean is too big and my boat is so small.”

Bishop Hollerith's Christmas Reflection 2016

Bishop Hollerith's Christmas Reflection 2016

 

"In the birth of Jesus, joy joins with human pain and overcomes it with love. And the very realities that we are unable to bear, God is willing to bear with us."

 

Lately I’ve caught myself thinking about a lady named Sarah, a parishioner of mine back when I was the rector of a small church in the Low Country of South Carolina. That Sarah would come to mind now may be due, in large part, to the fact that I will always and forever associate her with Christmas Eve.

Click here to continue reading Bishop Hollerith's Christmas reflection.

Celebrating a new beginning – the Reign of Christ

The Reverend Dr. Regina Christianson

Last week we remembered Veterans and their families with a special collect and the singing of America the Beautiful. The last week in October we remembered our ancestors in the faith as we sang joyfully I sing a song of the saints of God.

The lighting of candles during the Sunday Service for All Saint’s and All Soul’s Day, while the choir and congregation sang, gave opportunity to express in solemn ritual both our sorrow and our lively faith.

Today, as we remember that all things come to an end, we celebrate it as a commencement – a beginning – the Reign of Christ. As T. S. Eliot wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

November calls us to remember - from All Saints and All Souls through Veteran’s Day to Thanksgiving to the Last Sunday in Pentecost, closing out the liturgical year. As the days shorten, the sun is lower on the horizon, the leaves turn and fall, and the colder wind scours the land, we become aware of our own vulnerability, our own losses.

At our best, we remember that the thin places between this world and the Golden Land – paradise – are always there, we remember that God always holds all souls in life, and we remember it is by blessing those memories that we bring healing into this wounded world.

Sunday, after all, is always a recalling of the Easter Mystery - Sunday worship a re-entry into the feast of victory over fear, evil, and death. By fully entering into the liturgical life we hold again the touchstone of the reason for our lives of faith, hope, and charity.

This particular season, both individually and as a community, we experienced several losses. The death of the Rev. Dr. John Ruef on All Hallow’s Eve was keenly felt by all. Alice Overbey and Richard Chaney, though not members of our parish, were nonetheless mourned, their memories cherished. Several members of our parish have recently lost beloved pets. The shock of sudden or repeated hospitalization has challenged others.

And it would be remiss of me as your spiritual leader not to mention the loss felt by members of our parish and community at the national and local election results, even as others among us rejoiced. We have been called in this time to be particularly tender towards each other, to lead by example in compassionate presence.  

Thank you for the tender care you have given, the steady presence of compassion in our parish.

Bishop Hollerith’s Christmas Message 2015

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Bishop Hollerith's Easter message

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

In just a few days the sounds and sights of Easter will burst forth across the diocese. Churches from Jenkins Bridge on the Eastern Shore, to inner city Norfolk, to Danville in the West will celebrate the day that defines all the other days of our faith. Lilies will fill our sanctuaries with spring fragrance.

 

The people of God will don their "Sunday finest" clothes. Bright colors will replace the darkened shades of Lent. Choirs will sing with particular exuberance. Clergy will once again say, "Alleluia" in the liturgy! Children will scatter across the green grass of our church yards in search of brightly colored eggs.

 

Plates of chicken and brisket, country ham, corn pudding and green-leaf salad will cover picnic tables or parish kitchen counters. The young and the old, the regular attendee, and the rarely seen will gather to celebrate Easter. And it will all be special, it will all be good.

And behind it all will be the hope that keeps us coming back year after year, the belief that this ancient feast we celebrate is more than some mere observance of an unexplainable empty tomb. Behind it all is the hope that "Yes, it is true - He has risen indeed." Continue reading...

2015 Episcopal Relief & Development Lenten Devotional Available Online

Episcopal Relief & Development Lenten devotional available online

 

The 2015 Episcopal Relief & Development Lenten Devotional booklet is now available here. Orders need to be placed by Feb. 4 in order to ensure delivery by Ash Wednesday.

Presiding Bishop's Easter message 2014

 

"Where and how will we look for the Body of Christ, risen and rising?" Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori presents in her Easter Message 2014. "Will we share the life of that body as an Easter people, transformed by resurrection and sent to transform the world in turn?"

 

Click here to read Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's Easter Message 2014.  

 

Emmanuel's Rejoicing - Michaelmas 2013 Is Now Online

The Michaelmas 2013 issue of Emmanuel's Rejoicing, a Pruden Parish Press newsletter containing news and information for parishioners and friends of Emmanuel, is being published this week.

The current issue includes:

• All Saints' Sunday,

• Church Picnic,

• My Spiritual Journey,

• Vestry Notes, and

• Upcoming Concerts at Emmanuel.

 

Download the 2013 Michaelmas pdf.

Earlier newsletter issues may be viewed at The Pruden Parish Press.

To receive future issues by mail, please call or email the Parish Office.

Bishop Hollerith’s 2012 Christmas Message

Transcript of Bishop Hollerith’s 2012 Christmas Message video
Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia
December 18, 2012

Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I sit here seven days before Christmas, I find that my reflections today are very much colored by events in Connecticut this past week and that terrible, terrible tragedy of the death of children and teachers. It reminds all of us of a couple of things.

The first is that evil is real. Evil in the world is a force that is a reality. And it is a force that we are sometimes powerless over. We are vulnerable as human beings and, despite all our technology and all our knowledge and ability, there are times when our vulnerability is obvious before events we cannot control.

There is a darkness to the world. Isaiah talks about that darkness – that there is a darkness before us, that the people sit in darkness. I’m reminded of a quote from W.H. Auden, “Nothing can save us that is possible. We who are about to die demand a miracle.”

We live with an idealized vision of what Christmas is like. But in reality, the world in which Jesus came, was born into, was a world where suffering, violence and death was very, very much a part of the context of the people to whom he came to be with.

I’m reminded of Herod and the slaughtering of the innocents shortly after Jesus’ birth – the slaughtering of the innocent children of Bethlehem. That’s the world into which Jesus came. It is the world in which we live.

There’s an attempt, I think, at times to explain these things using the intellect, using science or using some aspect of wisdom to say why these terrible things happen. But I think we know, deep down inside, there are no easy answers to this.

Our response – the church’s response – especially at Christmas, is simply to talk about the one who comes to save us, to bring light to the darkness. I’m reminded of the book of Job, where Job is consoled by his friends who try to give him various arguments as to why he has received such suffering from God.

But ultimately none of those explanations satisfy Job. The only thing that speaks to Job is God’s presence. The fact that God would come and speak to him directly. And it’s that presence that gives Job meaning and hope - the presence of God.

At Christmas, God says to his creation, I’m willing to experience what you experience, to feel what you feel, to think what you think, to laugh as you laugh, and to suffer as you suffer. I am willing to draw you and the whole world to myself. It’s so simple and so elegant. A birth, a gesture of insignificant proportion and yet one of infinite consequence.

This holiday season, I hope you will keep in your prayers all those in Newtown, Connecticut, who are suffering from deep loss and grief. And that you will pray as well for this country, as we learn to heal from what has happened and as we come to terms with the issues we have in our society that causes these things to happen.

I pray that we as Christians will remember that what we have to offer is not only ourselves together as community, but also this great message of the one that has come to redeem the world. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those that have lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. For a child has been born for us. A son has been given to us. Authority rests upon his shoulders and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:2-6)

God’s blessings to you.