A long time ago an entertainer by the name of Perry Como would introduce the solo part of  his 
TV show by singing “Dream along with me, I’m on the way to the stars…” Well, I want to thank everyone
who participated in the first steps in developing our Vision Statement and Mission Statement over
the last month. We all gave ourselves permission to dream a little about how our congregation might look
in ten years. I asked the questions: What do we want to be involved in? What would be a great new
direction? Notice I didn’t spend any time in our groups talking about how we were going to get there.
It was about giving yourself permission to imagine that absolutely most exciting, most life changing,
most spiritual hope or dream you can have.

             The first step was remembering what brought you to the Church in the first place and then what
kept you there? The second step was detailing what you liked about our congregation now. With those
two discussions completed and your minds were ready to soar a little (and no psychedelic substances were
used) we began to dream together.

             I’m working on extracting key words and phrases for use by a committee charged with
developing a Vision statement. We’ll share that and offer it for discussion and improvement in a month or
so. If you would like to serve on that committee, let me know.

             For now, I’d like to share in paraphrase form, some of the really interesting comments. This
is some of what was said: we like being Episcopalians, we like the ritual, the flowers, music and colors
of the seasons. We like the social connections. We like our neighbors next door and we don’t want to lose
touch with them. We’re committed to outreach to the community. We take our role as care givers and
supporters of one another seriously. We like good preaching. Most of all, it’s about the welcome and the
feeling of belonging and safety that’s most important.

             I could go on, but that’s the direction we’re wanting to head-not to lose any of the foregoing.
Of course, we don’t have to give any of that up, it’s part of our DNA as a worship community. It will
take more work to expand our membership in order to support our ambitions, but that’s possible too.
What it will take for sure it the work of everyone. As we have discovered, no one is expendable, no one
can be ignored, no one can be left out when you have the greatest gift of all, the love of Christ in your hearts.
 
Fr. Paul

I think we can all agree that we live in unsettled times. Sure, those in every age probably considered
that the time in which they were living was unsettled, perhaps even world altering. I wouldn’t disagree that
those who lived during the Great War or World War Two would have said it. In early times whenever there
was revolution or strife this characterization would have been made. However, in modern times there has
been much more to lose than ever before.
 
Anxiety: what a way to begin a summer column when the beach beckons, the gardens are producing fruits
and vegetables and the shrimp and crab are delicious. That’s just the point. All of us are so easily distracted
that we’re willing to take a trip into denial. Well, there are some ways to integrate both situations so that we
can regain our creativity and even joy in our lives while also being realistic and dedicated to serious
engagement with the issues from which we retreat in our daily lives.
 
We are called to be joyful in our faith as well as recognizing that we fall short of God’s hopes for us; the
sweet and the bitter. I find myself vacillating between these two poles too, but I take great comfort that so
many have at least identified the problem. In the book One Man’s Meat, E. B. White writes
(in paraphrase), when I awake in the morning and gaze out the window seeing the beauty of my
surroundings, I am troubled by my urge to reform the world or enjoy it. This makes me nervous.
 
Can we live with any comfort between these two polarities? Actually, we are, more or less, already doing
it. To gain more comfort and composure I suggest these approaches. First, acknowledge that
current circumstances either political or church related can be managed by gaining more information.
Facts (not false news or polemics) can reassure us that we’re OK and doing the right thing. That
gives us confidence. Second, designate a certain time every day to take a walk, swim, or participate in
some activity that doesn’t expose you to these controversies and tempt you to respond. That quiet time will
help you regain some calm and actually open the door to refreshed thinking and release new ideas.
 
The Gospels show Jesus engaging the public and dealing with controversy but also withdrawing to a
“quiet place.” Sometimes it took all night of praying and listening for his father’s voice before returning
to the fray. Below is a formula that has brought peace and comfort, as well as action and commitment to
many. It’s been battle tested.
 
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and
the wisdom to know the difference. --Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian and professor
In Christ,
Fr. Paul

In the middle of June, I had the great pleasure of attending a spiritual writer’s conference in Princeton, NJ. In a crowd of strangers, I navigated the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary which has an enrollment of over 400 students who head out into the world on wider pathways than an Episcopal seminary offers. Some become parish ministers, some musicians and writers, some land in other denominations.
            I had a private room in the continuing education center and was on my own in terms of schedule for four days. I attended seminars on publishing your writing, marketing your writing, and the creative process. Worship in the chapel (which was not very inspirational) was interspersed among these classes. Each day was kicked off with an address by a well-known African American writer, Enuma Okora.
            She talked about the things she had discovered in her life of which Christianity helped her make sense. Her remarks weren’t very inspirational either. I felt I had traveled a lot of her road of discovery a long time ago, after all I am twice her age and must have learned a few things over the years. But as you might suspect, there was an unexpected surprise in store. As the Buddhists say, “when the student is ready, the teacher arrives.”
            I had dinner with a late arrival which after a few minutes I surmised was one of the presenters. He was an odd small man, with an artistic way of dressing and a very introverted personality. These are the things that distinguish interesting writers. I had a pleasant conversation with him but nothing particularly deep or spiritual. However, the next day we spent part of the afternoon together after his presentation.
            He began his class by tapping a small temple bell with his pen and announced that he would share a truth of his every fifteen minutes by doing so. So, it began. He told of his childhood: strange but not too damaging. He spoke of his faith, gentle and nourishing. He confessed he was an Episcopalian. Imagine that at a Presbyterian conference! He concluded with a quote from another writer whom he admired who said the way to write was to put a piece of paper in the typewriter and then bleed. After the lecture we talked about writing. He opened his heart to me almost wordlessly and I felt he understood me and my journey a little and was willing to share that of his own. He seemed to me to be someone whom the world could damage easily. At least he saw that coming and writing was his best defense.
            I was deeply touched and was able to buy one of his books titled Between the Dreaming and the Coming True. It was his story of personal faith emerging like a gentle small flower needing the sun to grow. I commend it to you. I’ll be reading and re-reading it because Robert Benson has a lot to teach me.  In our current time of transition, you might find it a comforting book.
In Christ,
Fr. Paul

Cognitive Dissonance
 
For a few short hours on a recent Saturday the world, or much of it anyway, held its breath while
two people passed from the old life to the new life. They traveled over a threshold as old as life itself
and in doing so proclaimed that a new one was possible. They held hands, they exchanged vows
and officiants proclaimed that what they did was honorable and true. The preacher, for now you know
of whom I write, spoke of the power that brought them together. It has a name, one we repeat often.
It is the only four-letter word worth saying: love. The two then walked together through a huge crowd
of well-wishers who themselves were witnesses not to just two people getting married, but who were
witnesses to a power greater than themselves swirling around, through and within those thousands
in attendance. The term has been studied, vaunted, written about, sung about, told about in stories
which have lasted thousands of years. It is unpredictable, uncontainable, inexhaustible, beautiful
and even sometimes horrifying, but love is what unites us all.
 
So, in one hand we hold this experience and gift and contemplate its loveliness. But in the other is a
very dark issue. It is one that stays silent for much of the time but without warning can rear up
and almost swallow love as it attempts to make it disappear. This is the violence that lurks in the
human heart and erupts as the destroyer of the beautiful and lovely. It erupted again in another school
shooting, another mass killing that will stain this year like no other, leaving grief and loss in its wake.
Broken hearts and anguish almost extinguish what love has built.
 
This is cognitive dissonance. Two events, feelings, experiences, that somehow touch the edges of our
lives but cannot merge. We cannot work out a relationship between them, but we know they are there,
always present in the human family. Our spirits disappear in a vacuum when we hear of these
disasters. Helplessness breaks our hearts, as we observe tears staining the cheeks of those who have
lost loved ones, while at a wedding ceremony, there is joy and celebration for a prince and his bride
who love one another without limit.
 
The preacher, The Most Rev. Michael Curry, made this point at the wedding. Instead of talking
about the agonies of life, he brought witness to the fact that love is greater, that love heals and
forgives and makes whole all our human brokenness. The darkness is replaced and succeeded by
light and will never be destroyed. The community of faith, the world over will put love into
action and the changes will be miraculous. While there still is that cognitive dissonance, the balance
is and will continue to shift towards the good because God wills it to be so.

In Christ,
Fr. Paul

            Here’s a “Jeopardy” question for you under the Bible Feast Days category. Name the third most
important festival in Christianity? You have ten seconds. Time’s up. The answer is Pentecost.
Following Easter and then the Nativity (Christmas), this feast day for the Church celebrates the gift
of the Spirit. It follows Ascension Day ten days earlier on Thursday.

            With Jesus bidding farewell to his faithful disciples, their gift of the Spirit follows. In Acts 2:1-11,
the event is narrated in detail, describing “tongues of fire resting on their heads” and those who were
there were given utterance in every language and understood what was being said.

            The reading continues, but is not included in the Sunday reading, that “all were amazed,”
and some mocked the participants and said, “They are filled with new wine.” Well, exactly! It was a new
kind of wine; the gift of the Spirit.

            This passage is rich with symbolism. The fire is a symbol of the “Spirit” as it is preceded by a
“mighty rush of wind” just like the wind that moved across the waters during creation. This is a
second creation, the creation of a new people, inspired by the events of Jesus and Resurrection.

            The tongues of fire were adopted by the bishops of the early church as their head gear,
pointed flame shaped hats reminding all believers of their inspiration. We usually celebrate the
day as the birthday of the Church-as the Spirit is available to all people. Sometimes we use red balloons
or have a birthday cake as a coffee hour treat.

            Once I picked up fifty helium filled balloons for a Sunday service and proceeded to drive
several miles to the church. I discovered that I couldn’t see out of the car! That was an exciting drive,
but I never did that again! Well, anyway, it’s a joyful day and hopefully filled with a Spirit of Love and blessings.
 
Fr. Paul Gilbert

Father Paul's Ponderings   
 
What are the signs of Lent? How do you know it’s Lent? Well, for one thing the days get longer. That’s the original meaning of the word in Old English- “lengthen.” Other indicators are the crosses placed in front of some churches, even draped with purple sashes. This is a sign of mourning and it alerts us to what is going on inside. It is a sign of passion which means deeply held feeling. But the sky is blue, gardens are growing, tourists are coming, and we are saying good bye to our winter.
 
But wait. If statistics can be trusted, there’s another cold spell left. Last year it ruined the peach crop and deeply affected the farmers who depended on their harvest. Suffering lasted a whole year, not just in Lent. Likewise, there were the tragedies of life which didn’t stop with Easter.  And there were more this year too. The nonsensical and horrifying school shooting in Florida, personal loses and setbacks, hospitalizations and other events of the human condition remind us how delicate life really is, touched all of us. Of course, they’re not determined by Lent either, but it seems like it.
 
I used to begin Lent by praying that this year it would be a gentle time with no real hurt or loss. That prayer was never answered in the way I had hoped. The problems seemed more difficult, the setbacks more painful, the suffering more extended than at other times of the year. At least it seems that way.
 
Job’s complaint to God was very simple, “why me?” It’s the answer that’s complicated. Lent gives us an opportunity to stay quiet and probe for the answer. It’s not that we, above all, have offended God. And it’s not that our particular sins are the only ones that are heinous. We haven’t been singled out to suffer. Instead we have been singled out to live and to question, to journey through our years in faith and trust. God’s promise has been fulfilled, you just have to look for it: not in simplistic questions but in subtle and complicated answers, or you can just look away and admire the purple sashes flowing in the wind that adorn those crosses.
 
Fr. Paul