[Parish] Friday October 23

[Malcolm Young]

23 October 2009


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It seems like the most beautiful week of the year in Northern  
California.  After the rains grass has begun sprouting along the  
roadside.  Even the weeds look great.  God is blessing us in so many  
ways these days.

Tomorrow night at church we will hear the entire Gospel of Mark.   
This is very important for your spiritual formation.  We usually read  
and hear the gospel in such short fragments.  It will sound different  
to you when you hear the whole thing all at once.  Join us at 6:30  
p.m. on Saturday night (Oct. 24).

Sunday we will be great too.  Our retired bishop, Bill Swing will be  
here to talk about his work with the United Religions Initiative.   
I’m still trying to decide about whether to preach a sermon that  
morning.  We’re trying to keep the service very short so that we’ll  
have more leisure to enjoy the program after the 10:00 a.m.  
Eucharist.  Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers.  I look forward  
to talking with you about how we can be peacemakers.

The Gathering will be meeting on Sunday too at 9:00 a.m. in the  
Shires Library.  We’ll be talking about worship and liturgy.  Please  
join us whether you are new or not.  We’ve had some powerful  
conversations and I know that the spirit will be with us.

Finally I wanted to invite you to do a new ministry at Christ  
Church.  We’d love to have more readers and more people to go out and  
bring communion to the sick and shut-ins of the parish.  Let me know  
if you are interested.  Below I’ll include information about a  
reader’s workshop that will be taking place in Portola Valley on Nov.  
14.

Here’s a little quote from Frederich Buechner that might be helpful  
to you today.  He’s a super preacher reminding us of a difficult  
truth about the Lord’s Prayer.

““Thy will be done,” is what we are saying.   That is the climax of  
the first half of the prayer.  We are asking God to be God.  We are  
asking God to do not what we want but what God wants.  We are asking  
God to make manifest the holiness that is now mostly hidden, to set  
in all its terrible splendor the devastating power that is now mostly  
under restraint….  You need to be bold in another way to speak the  
second half.  Give us.  Forgive us.  Don’t test us.  Deliver us.  If  
it takes guts to face the omnipotence that is God’s, it takes perhaps  
no less to face the impotence that is ours.  We can do nothing  
without God.  Without God we are nothing.  It is only the words “Our  
father” that make the prayer bearable.  If God is indeed something  
like a father, then as something like children maybe we can risk  
approaching him anyway.”

May God bless you this bright day.

Love,

Malcolm




Reader’s Workshop



Saturday November 14 from 12 noon to 5:00 p.m.

(directly following the deanery meeting) Christ Church Portola Valley

will be hosting a readers' workshop, offered by All Saints Company.

Facilitated by Donald Schell and Lizzie Calogero, a professional

actor, the worshop will work to improve our skills at reading

Scripture, examining the technical work of voice, posture and

projection, as well as the challenge of communicating meaning from

ancient texts.



The workshop includes lunch and refreshments, and we're happy to offer

discounts for groups from parishes who attend. Could you please ask

your readers and/or deanery delegates if they are available, and let

Steve Foss know in the All Saints Company office

<steve at allsaintscompany.org>.