Holy Week

This Holy Week, we will look together at questions. There is no question The Christian Community has ever faced like the existential one we are facing now. A question that rises in my soul in response to it, as I wrestle for answers every day, is: what do Christ and Michael hope we will be able to make of this situation? How are they working within this and with it?

I think of the story of the healing of the man born blind told in John 9. The disciples ask a question: "Who sinned to cause him to be born blind—him or his parents?" But Jesus replies that it was neither; rather, this man was born blind in order to reveal God at work through him, to reveal God's goodness, you could say—God's permeating reality and ability to make a difficult situation into a doorway through which love enters the world. 

Some have asked the question if they could come be in the church while I celebrate, or if I need a server, or music. Others have asked if they may gather there for different reasons. For the time being, while the question in the world rages on, I have to say no to all of these beautiful and worthy requests. I am hopeful and look forward to answering you with an open church again soon.

I do however feel your presence as you join in spiritually, and each week it grows stronger! Please join me again this week as I celebrate daily for Holy Week: Sunday at 10:30 AM, Monday through Saturday at 10:00 AM.  

Recall Christ's word to us in Luke 21: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Words will not pass away. In celebrating the Act of Consecration of Man together, we heed this word, and help a spiritual-sun permeated new earth to rise. We build Christ community through our inner bearing forth. Never before have there been so many celebrations every day around the globe as are happening right now under this strange confinement. To inwardly hold the service together is an act of strengthening our service to Christ who said: I AM the Light of the World. 

Again, suggestions for joining in:
• Light a candle at the time of the service. 
• Extend your consciousness to the altar (and as far as you like, around the globe!) 
• Recall words, images and gestures from the Act of Consecration. 
• Read the Gospel reading
• Read/Contemplate the Creed
• Pray the Lord’s Prayer
• Sing! He Who Walks in the Darkness and I AM the Bread of Life (see Music page)

HOLY WEEK PROGRAM: Living into Questions Jesus Asked.

Daily Contemplations will be offered via ZOOM. 
Each day the contemplation audio file will be posted on the blog page of our website, where you can also find the links to get on the calls. (The talk from last Sunday night—Cultivating Courage—and a handout is also up there.)

For Children and Families
Palm Sunday morning at 9:15 AM, I'd love to lead the children in some of our familiar movement games, prayer, song and a story over Zoom. Last week, six children joined in. I will be holding the Sunday Service for Children at 10:00AM alone but with all of you in heart and mind. 

There are many resources below offered for how you can enter Holy Week and prepare for Easter. Another mail will be sent out midweek to offer suggestions for a robust celebration of Easter!

Wishing you strength and wonder to live fully into the questions!

Your priest,
Rev. Liza Joy Marcato

Drawing Work with Laura Summer

Dear Friends,
During this difficult time I am offering drawing work with Gospel of John via email and zoom. So far we have had 2 zoom calls and I have sent the pdf of my book “Making Free” to about 40 people. People from Sacramento, Portland, Eugene, Maine, Massachusetts, NYC are joining this work. So I thought maybe you all know others who would be interested. Feel free to tell people in whatever way you choose. I have attached the pdf of the book. You can forward it and/or people can email me. If people are interested in zoom calls, right now they are on Fridays 2pm NY time.

Thanks, Laura

Here is the downloadable PDF of ”Making Free”

www.freecolumbia.org
www.laurasummer.com
518-672-7302

This Week's Sermon

Dear Community of Christians, 

The world has entered a completely new phase in the development of global consciousness. Never before in our lifetime (or ever!) have we felt ourselves to be SO connected to everyone across the globe. The internet and the global media have connected us virtually, which has changed our lives already so much; but now, this new novel virus named "Corona" has made us irreversibly aware just how interwoven our lives are—how vulnerable we truly are to the touch and breath and thoughts and experiences of other human beings sharing this earth together. And now, as the spiritual reality that is COVID-19 makes it way through our human community, we are asked to develop a new social consciousness for one another. To limit our contact to the essential, to self-isolate, to "socially distance" as an act of socially caring. It seems antithetical.

But isn't this the homeopathic principle at work? Like cures like. One great illness we suffer in our growing culture oriented towards personal freedom/development is the ever present danger to go too far in: to become adherents of rugged, uncompromising individualism and social darwinism. Of course, we all know the drill on the airplane: please put your mask on before helping your neighbor. But we all also know it is our call as human beings to then definitely help the neighbor! Love your neighbor as yourself, is how Christ phrased it—because we are so created by God—to be selves—but selves who are on a path to find communion with God and other human beings and ultimately the whole of Creation. The gospel reading this week is full of imagery about this call by God through Christ to human beings to wake up to our true humanity—specifically to be united with Christ, to gather with Him. 

We can understand this in many ways, of course. But I wonder if we are not being called to find a higher unity in Christ. I have wrestled intensively this week between wanting to welcome you into a shared celebration of the sacrament to lend us all strength—the very thing I live for!—and the social call I perceive ringing out to do our part to limit the spread of this virus and help those on the frontline of underprepared hospitals have to deal with as few cases as possible. What is the more right thing to do?

What I do know is this: by the grace of God the renewed sacraments were bestowed upon humanity in 1922. Human beings have been making a relationship to them Sunday after Sunday, for almost 100 years. The Act of Consecration of Man has begun to really live within us. It lives in us and through us into the world, has strengthened us to be able to make Christian community wherever we go and with whomever we meet. That is why it is given to us to practice every time we are graced with the ability to come before the altar. And now, in this Passiontide, the world is in crisis—one could say, growing faster than we know how to incorporate yet. Every crisis is an opportunity, by very definition of the word. To ripen the fruits of this crisis, we will need to practice spiritual fortitude, inner enlivening, and seek new ways of connecting with one another. This crisis is asking us what is most important to us, who we want to be as human beings. It has brought the threshold of the spiritual world to the doorstep of our daily lives. It has asked us: what is the point of all this freedom, of all this selfhood?

What opportunity are we being given to help prepare for the Risen One to rise within humanity? What spiritual activity is now being summoned from us—you and me—as individuals—and from us as a Christian community? What new depth of inner participation can become possible from this physical time out? 

I will be celebrating at least every Sunday of Passiontide at our altar, and holding you all and the world in which we live as I celebrate the Act of Consecration. I ask you to join me inwardly. And I wish you all strength and beauty and revelation in this time of great challenge; and to reach out to one another as if it were the end of the world—because it is. The world as we knew it is coming to an end, and the world we know can be more true and beautiful and filled with goodness is rising. Can we help serve the shaping of this new world consciousness with our Christian community?

Yes, so be it.

Church Closure

Dear Community,

I have been following the development of the coronavirus this week, and it is with heavy heart that I am deciding to cancel all scheduled church activities for the time being. It is not a question of faith in the power of our Sacrament, but a feeling of deepest responsibility to meet the unknown of just how quickly this is spreading, and for whatever reasons. In our area, with increasing numbers of cases in hospitals, we are being asked to create social distance wherever possible to slow the spread of this infection. Hospitals can only handle so much. This is not just about us—we live in a wider community. Right now it is important to limit the risk of becoming carriers (whatever paradigm we live with around disease, we are all undeniably connected!) for we may come into contact with others who are immune-compromised in some way. It feels to me the most ethical and compassionate response while this is still ramping up. Everyday, new things are coming to light. The question becomes more and more, what can I do for others? How can I connect/help even when I must keep distance?

I received this from a colleague this morning:

“By creating fear, crises such as the current one tend to intensify our innate self-centeredness. This anonymous post, which has gone viral in Italy, is a much-needed antidote:  

‘We come to understand that this is a struggle against our habits and not against a virus. This is an opportunity to turn an emergency into an opportunity of solidarity and unity. Let's change the way we see and think. I will no longer say "I'm afraid of this contagion" or "I don't care about this contagion", but it is I who will sacrifice for you.

I worry about you.
I keep a distance for you.
I wash my hands for you.
I give up that trip for you.
I'm not going to the concert for you.
I'm not going to the mall for you.

For you!

For you who are inside an ICU room.
For you who are old and frail, but whose life has value as much as mine.
For you who are struggling with cancer and can't fight this too.

Please, let's rise to this challenge! Come together...nothing else matters.’”

How can the church keep being the church even when canceled? Here are some excerpts from an article online (Five Ways To Be The Church When Church Is Canceled by Erin Wathen) that gives some great suggestions:

“Check on your neighbors. Your older neighbors, your neighbor on chemo, your neighbor whose kid relies on free school lunch, your neighbor who still has to go to work and could use help with childcare… Any time you help someone in your proximity, you are living out the values of your faith community. You are embodying what the whole gospel thing is about, which takes church out of the building and brings it to life for others. This is what we go to church to learn how to do– it is ‘for such a time as this’ that you have spent all those other Sundays in worship.

Pray for your church family. And send notes. Make phone calls. All the things that we do for shut-ins, do for each other now that we are all shut-ins, so to speak. We are one body, even when that body is not together in the flesh. There are plenty of ways to stay connected in spirit, and care for each others’ spiritual needs.

Practice Sabbath. For some, this shutdown of life as we know it is going to cause significant economic hardship. In the spirit of #3, care for your neighbor as best as you can. In the meantime, recognize if your own discomfort is just inconvenience, and keep that perspective. Recognize that downtime can be a gift– an imposed sabbath of time to sit still and be with your family, without the usual rush of places to be and things to accomplish. Read together; prepare meals together (can you share with a neighbor? #3 and repeat). When’s the last time everybody was home for this long? Talk about what you can learn from this season. Talk about your blessings. Play a game. Make something. Listen to music. It really doesn’t matter. Any of these things can be worshipful in their own way, if by ‘worship’ we mean rest and renewal by way of connecting with God and others.

Support your pastors. And elders, and trustees and board members– whoever has to make the really hard decisions about whether and how to gather in times of uncertainty. There is no road map for this, and there is no one right answer. Trust that the folks who ultimately make the call spent some time in prayer, discernment, and very difficult conversations. Know that they heavily weighed consequences, including your disappointment, and ultimately did what they thought was the best thing for the wellbeing of the community.

Send in your pledge. This may seem like a small thing in the grand scheme right now, but trust me. It matters that you continue to get your offering in, as long as you are fiscally able…Even if the building is empty, bills and salaries need to be paid; what’s more, you’re helping your church maintain mission commitments to the community in a time when that commitment is more important than ever.”

We do not yet know the repercussions of this world event; but most likely we will have to find ways to help one another as the health and economic consequences of this become more clear. Please let me know if you would like to be on a contact list/receive regular phone calls or need help with anything else! Faith DiVecchio  and I are ready to help.

I am limiting visits to the most essential, but I stand ready to help; if you need someone to shop for you, to bring a warm meal, drive you somewhere, etc. PLEASE do not be afraid to reach out! 413-854-8875.

I will be holding the service tomorrow alone—with all of you, and our world, in my heart. I will be thinking of alternative ways to reach out to you and bring spiritual nourishment during this time—and I'm taking requests! Passiontide begins. Stay in touch. Your struggles are my struggles.

Faithfully yours, Rev. Liza Marcato

Passiontide

A letter from Rev. Liza Marcato

Dear Congregation,
What a week it has been, both locally and globally. First—to our local situation: You received a letter the week about a change in the priests sent to your congregations, and this has landed as quite a shock for many of you. Leaving Hillsdale and our other congregations brings great sadness for me, but it also feels like the right time—even though it also never feels like the right time—I could also stay here for many more years to come. It is not an easy job Lenkers have to look at the whole Christian Community and the small number of priests and to figure out how to keep the movement moving forward by best pairing priests and congregations. Vowing to be on a lifelong path of becoming also means living into faith in the guidance of the spiritual world, as it comes through our Christian Community leadership. There is no lack of love behind such changes, but a call for a courageous leap into a new direction. Hearing in March of changes coming in mid-summer and beyond gives us an abundance of time to process my leaving and your receiving a new priest in Carol Kelly.

We are also part of a new global happening. The world has changed it seems overnight. The Coronavirus situation sweeping the entire human community continues to grow in its effect, and we do not yet know how it will be contained or managed or gotten through. There seems to be something different about our global response to this crisis, and the level of awareness and responsibility that each of us is challenged to bear. It is a time of testing—pushing us to be flexible, awake, and responsive to constant outer change and in the midst of that, find a deeper relationship to that which grounds and centers us. This naturally causes uncertainty, unleashing and stoking fears that we might not have even realized we carry in our souls.

We know that the human being lives between the pull of extremes. Christ lives with us in this, right in the midst of every struggle that the human being must bear in the spirit, in the soul and in the body. It is the power of Christ who dwells within us through which we can find the strength to become active in our center, between being pulled out of ourselves or getting lost in our own despair. We cannot deny the material fact that people are getting sick, that COVID-19 is communicable, and that we have to take care to limit the spread of the virus as best we can. It is, on a positive note, something that is reminding us in the most powerful way just how connected we are to everyone else on this planet—the air we breathe, the spaces we inhabit, the openness to each other. On the other hand, as those who strive for a living and real connection to the spirit in our religious practice, we also know there is a power that cannot be underestimated in the resilience of the body and the transformative power of the spirit, and the healing power of love—even right into the body. Orienting ourselves on Christ, we can avail ourselves of His calming and centering presence in meeting everything that comes to meet us out of the future with an inviolable peace. Recall His promise that we hear in every Act of Consecration: “I stand at peace with the world. This peace with the world can be with you also, because I give it to you.” This peace is not some magic that releases us from having to wrestle for the right responses—but helps us meet whatever we have to meet, whatever decisions we have to make.

About this Sunday
I will be in church on Sunday. I will celebrate the Act of Consecration of Man, and unless otherwise instructed, still offer communion to anyone who wishes to participate. I ask that anyone who thinks they might not feel well, or is in any way concerned about susceptibility to use wise self-assessment and refrain from outwardly taking communion, or stay home as needed. There is a great power in following along and participating spiritually, or even in turning one’s thoughts towards the Act from home at 10:30 AM, reading the Gospel and Creed aloud, and speaking the Lord’s Prayer. It is totally acceptable to partake in any way deemed best. It has been decided across The Christian Community to not give out only part of the communion—for our sacrament lives in direct connection with the first Communion and the ongoing practice by the early Christians. The cup was shared by Christ Jesus and the disciples in the building up of a new community centered in love, not fear; built out of the future and not the past. 

This is the path we are on; and we have to lovingly accept where we are on that path, especially in this time of much that is not yet known; but we will not be swayed from our striving towards our goal.

There is also a communion that can take place in the soul when we read words that carry regenerative, healing power. Below is a list of suggested readings for you.

Gospel Readings to lend perspective and strength in this time

• Luke 21, the promise of the Second Coming in a time of great distress

• John 13-17, the entire content of the Footwashing, the Last Supper and everything Jesus wanted to tell the Disciples before going to the Cross

• Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, The Lord’s Supper as described in the three synoptic gospels

• FEAR NOT: Matthew 10; look up “fear not” in the Bible

• 1 John 4: God is love…Perfect love casts out fear. Read the whole chapter…

• Psalms: 23, 27, 31, 46, 121. Pick one and say it every day! 

If I can lend support to any of you during this time through a visit, a phone call, or anything else, please do not hesitate to reach out. I will be praying for you. Please pray for all who are on the frontlines or in any way struggling in this global situation.  You can reach me at 413-854-8875, 518-325-1166 or lizamarcato@gmail.com

Thank you and best wishes to us all,

Your priest,
Liza

Letter from Rev. Craig Wiggins

To The Christian Community in the Taconic-Berkshire Region
 
Dear friends,
I am writing to you today to inform you about changes in the priestly work in your community.
 
There comes a time in every priestly biography, and in the biography of a congregation that change is warranted. Rev. Liza Marcato has served with joy and enthusiasm since September 2010. We can all be very grateful that she has brought the sacraments and festivals to young and old as well as caring for the whole community. Caring for the many altars and the people who gather around them, the central task of the priesthood, has stood in the forefront of Liza’s work. While recognizing all that has taken place here, the Circle of Seven (central leadership) has determined that her energy and many gifts are needed elsewhere. She and the new community will grow and develop in new ways. As soon as conversations with the new community are finished, I will provide you with more information about the new sending. In preparation for her new task, Liza has requested a sabbatical, which will begin on August 1 and run through the Fall. The leadership expects that she will be entering a new assignment at the end of that time.
 
We are also very happy that Revs. Emma Heirman and Matthias Giles, both priests and also a married couple, will be taking on the work in the Washington DC/Baltimore congregation.  In conjunction with that change, the Circle of Seven has decided to send Rev. Carol Kelly to your congregation. After her children’s camp in Maine and farewells in her current congregation, she will take up the work in September.
 
A priest from Australia, Rev. Darryl Coonan, has offered to spend time with your community from May 4 through mid-July, helping out where needed.  Please prepare to welcome him by providing living space, transportation and an appropriate contribution to his living expenses.
 
Rev. Franziska Hesse, who has helped out in New Zealand and Spring Valley the last few years, will be entering retirement and moving to Harlemville on May 1. Her support will be provided by the Central Fund. She will make herself available to bridge possible gaps in the summer.
 
With all these changes in your congregation this year, now is the time to continue or even increase your financial support in order to help your congregation stay strong during a time of transition.
 
Saying farewell to a priest with whom you have worked for ten years will take time. In reflecting together, individually and in community, you will be able to realize what has been built up in the years of Liza’s ministry. Welcoming a new priest in community affords the opportunity to strengthen what has been built up and venture into new territory together.

With warm greetings,
Rev. Craig Wiggins
Lenker/Regional Coordinator
 
 
P.S. Having just heard about the developments in New York State concerning the coronavirus, I want you to know that I hold the area and its people intensely in my prayerful thoughts.

State of Emergency

Dear Congregation,

Gov. Cuomo has just declared a state of emergency for New York, which enables funding to support testing and response to the Coronavirus developments. It is not required that we cancel large gatherings yet. It may come to this in the next weeks, and we will keep you posted as things develop.

All events at church are still on for tomorrow, and if you are feeling strong and healthy enough, please come! If you are worried/concerned, please do whatever you need to, and remember the power of prayer - that can be done anywhere, anytime. I look forward to seeing you, and let me know if I can lend you support in any way during this Lenten season. Remember His words: Fear not, I AM. 

The reading for tomorrow is Matthew 17, the Transfiguration. Blessings for strength, health, and maintaining community connections even if and when we have to stay home! 

Rev. Liza Marcato

PS Those who come to church and receive communion can also think of those who couldn't make it, for whatever reason!