[Parish] Tenebrae, Children, Bishops

[Malcolm Young]

Dear Friends,

Many Episcopal churches observe Tenebrae on this evening of Holy  
Week.  It’s an ancient tradition.  We hear readings and psalms as  
candles are gradually extinguished.  Many of our brothers and sisters  
in Christ are praying for us tonight.

Tomorrow we’ll be having our Maundy Thursday service at 6:00 p.m.   
Please make a strong effort to be there.  It really is an important  
part of being a member of our community.  We also have Good Friday  
services at noon on Friday and our Easter Vigil at 8:00 p.m. on  
Saturday.

Last night at the Raising Confident Girls program we had 130 parents  
and more than 25 children for an extraordinary parent education  
program.   We had people from Milpitas to Mountain View to Half Moon  
Bay to hear an excellent talk.  Then this morning we had almost a  
dozen more parents for a program called “Consuming Kids” about  
children and advertising.  We’re so blessed to be able to be leaders  
in these new areas.  It is an answer to a prayer that we’ve been  
praying for a long time here.

I’ve been a bit remiss in not sending out the bishop’s latest  
pastoral letter sooner.  It was approved at the House of Bishops  
after very lengthy discussion.  You’ll find it below.

May God bless you on this holy night.  It seems so quiet out there.   
I hope your heart is at peace.

Love,

Malcolm






A Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church meeting in  
Hendersonville, North Carolina, March 13-18, 2009 to the Church and  
our partners in mission throughout the world.

I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is  
to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.  In any and all  
circumstances I have learned the secret of being well fed and of  
going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.  I can do all  
things through him who strengthens me.

--Philippians 4:11b - 13


As the House of Bishops gather at the Kanuga Camp and Conference  
Center for our annual Spring Retreat, we are mindful of the worsening  
financial crisis around us. We recognize there are no easy solutions  
for the problems we now face. In the United States there is a 30%  
reduction of overall wealth, a 26% reduction in home values and a  
budget deficit of unprecedented proportions. Unemployment currently  
hovers at over 8% and is estimated to top 10% by the end of the year.  
There are over 8 million homes in America that are in foreclosure.  
Consumer confidence is at a 50-year low.

Unparalleled corporate greed and irresponsibility, predatory lending  
practices, and rampant consumerism have amplified domestic and global  
economic injustice. The global impact is difficult to calculate,  
except that the poor will become poorer and our commitment to  
continue our work toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals  
by 2015 is at great risk. A specter of fear creeps not only across  
the United States, but also across the world, sometimes causing us as  
a people to ignore the Gospel imperative of self-sacrifice and  
generosity, as we scramble for self-preservation in a culture of  
scarcity.

The crisis is both economic and environmental. The drought that grips  
Texas, parts of the American South, California, Africa and Australia,  
the force of hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the  
Caribbean, Central America and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in  
Kentucky—these and other natural disasters related to climate  
change—result in massive joblessness, driving agricultural  
production costs up, and worsening global hunger. The wars nations  
wage over diminishing natural resources kill and debilitate not only  
those who fight in them, but also civilians, weakening families, and  
destroying the land. We as a people have failed to see this  
connection, compartmentalizing concerns so as to minimize them and  
continue to live without regard to the care of God's creation and the  
stewardship of the earth's resources that usher in a more just and  
peaceful world.

In this season of Lent, God calls us to repentance. We have too often  
been preoccupied as a Church with internal affairs and a narrow focus  
that has absorbed both our energy and interest and that of our  
Communion – to the exclusion of concern for the crisis of suffering  
both at home and abroad. We have often failed to speak a compelling  
word of commitment to economic justice. We have often failed to speak  
truth to power, to name the greed and consumerism that has pervaded  
our culture, and we have too often allowed the culture to define us  
instead of being formed by Gospel values.

While our commitment to the eradication of extreme poverty through  
the eight Millennium Development Goals moves us toward the standard  
of Christ's teaching, we have nevertheless often fallen short of the  
transformation to which Christ calls us in our own lives in order to  
live more fully into the Gospel paradigm of God's abundance for all.

Everyone is affected by the shrinking of the global economy. For  
some, this is a time of great loss—loss of employment, of homes, of  
a way of life. And for the most vulnerable, this "downturn"  
represents an emergency of catastrophic proportions. Like the  
Prodigal who comes to his senses and returns home, we as the people  
of God seek a new life. We recognize in this crisis an invitation  
into a deeper simplicity, a tightening of the belt, an expanded  
Lenten fast, and a broader generosity. God's abundant mercy and  
forgiveness meet and embrace us, waiting to empower us through the  
Holy Spirit to face the coming days.

In a time of anxiety and fear the Holy Spirit invites us to hope.  
Anxiety, when voiced in community can be heard, blessed and  
transformed into energy and hope, but if ignored, swallowed or  
hidden, fear and anxiety can be corrosive and lead to despair. We  
Christians claim that joy and hope emerge for those who have the  
courage to endure suffering. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul  
goes so far as to boast of his suffering, because "suffering produces  
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces  
hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been  
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to  
us." Our current crisis presents us with opportunities to learn from  
our brothers and sisters of faith in other parts of the world who  
have long been bearers of hope in the midst of even greater economic  
calamity.

We can also learn from our spiritual ancestors, who found themselves  
in an economic and existential crisis that endured for forty years –  
on their journey from Egypt to Israel. While they groaned in Egypt,  
they murmured at Sinai – at least at first. And then after their  
groaning, complaining and reverting to old comforts of idol worship,  
they were given Grace to learn and understand what the Lord wanted to  
teach them.

They learned that they needed the wilderness in order to recover  
their nerve and put their full trust in God--and to discover their  
God-given uniqueness, which had been rubbed away during their  
captivity in Egypt. They adopted some basic rules that enabled them  
to live in a community of free people rather than as captives or  
slaves – the God-given Ten Commandments. And perhaps most  
importantly, our spiritual ancestors discovered that the wilderness  
is a unique place of God's abundance and miracle, where water gushed  
out of a rock and manna appeared on the desert floor – food and  
drink miraculously provided by God.

As we go through our own wilderness, these spiritual ancestors also  
point the way to a deep and abiding hope. We can rediscover our  
uniqueness – which emerges from the conviction that our wealth is  
determined by what we give rather than what we own. We can re- 
discover manna – God's extraordinary expression of abundance. Week  
by week, in congregations and communities around the world, our  
common manna is placed before us in the Eucharist. Ordinary gifts of  
bread and wine are placed on the altar, and become for us the Body  
and Blood of Christ, which, when we receive them, draw us ever more  
deeply into the Paschal mystery of Christ's death and resurrection.

As our risen Lord broke through the isolation of the disciples  
huddled in fear for their lives following his suffering and death, so  
too are we, the Body of Christ, called to break through the  
loneliness and anxiety of this time, drawing people from their fears  
and isolation into the comforting embrace of God's gathered community  
of hope. As disciples of the risen Christ we are given gifts for  
showing forth God's gracious generosity and for finding blessing and  
abundance in what is hard and difficult. In this time the Holy Spirit  
is moving among us, sharing with us the vision of what is real and  
valued in God's world. In a time such as this, Christ draws us deeper  
into our faith revealing to us that generosity breaks through  
distrust, paralysis and misinformation. Like our risen Lord, we, as  
his disciples are called to listen to the world's pain and offer  
comfort and peace.

As we continue our Lenten journey together we place our hearts in the  
power of the Trinity. The God who created us is creating still and  
will not abandon us. The Incarnate Word, our Savior Jesus Christ, who  
in suffering, dying and rising for our sake, stands in solidarity  
with us, has promised to be with us to the end of the age.  God the  
Holy Spirit, the very breath of God for us and in us, is our  
comforter, companion, inspiration and guide. In this is our hope, our  
joy and our peace.