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The Samaritan

212 West Lancaster Avenue | Paoli, PA 19301 info@good-samaritan.org |

CLERGY

Rector

The Rev’d Phillip Channing Ellsworth Jr

Assisting Priest

The Rev’d Marcia

Wilkinson

VESTRY

Andy Balsan

Tom Connett

Mark Dixon

Mary Ernst Elrena Evans

Whitney T. Kuniholm

Angela Linden

Ian MacDonald

Jim McGuire

Jonathan Purifoy

Amber Skinner

Rusty Smith

Richard Toland

Mary Anne Weightman

WEEKLY SERVICES

The Service of Holy Eucharist

Sunday, 7:30 am Rite 1, Chapel

Sunday, 9 am Rite 11, Church

Sunday, 11:15 am

New Chapel, Church

Adult Christian Formation Class

Sunday, 10:15 am

Ashton Hall or Choir Room 1 The Lord of the Dance

The Rev’d Phillip Channing Ellsworth Jr

STAFF

Director of

Student Ministry

Jessica Campbell

Day School Director

Barb Condit

College / CCO

Campus Minister

Dan Garrison Edwards

Executive Assistant to the Rector

Missy Freiling

Maintenance Director

Connor Gisel

Organist

Gary Gress

New Chapel

Minister of Music

Josh Guenther

Theologian-in-Residence

Christopher A. Hall

Administrative Coordinator

Barb Hohorst

Director of Family Ministries

Kimberly Lindquist

Photographer-in-Residence

Larry McGill

Technical Director

Jarrett Moses

Writer-in-Residence

Christie Purifoy

Creative Director

Melodee Dill Stephens

Director of Dance Ministry

Karen Watkins

Financial Administrator

Betsy Wolford

Director of Music & Parish Administrator

Richard Zuch

Maintenance Team

Alphonse Campanese

Beau McFetridge

Mayrel Vargas

Christie Purifoy, Elrena Evans, and Bonnie O’Neil

Growing Season Kimberly Lindquist

Each Wednesday we release The Samaritan Weekly via email. A thoughtful, quick-to-read newsletter with meditations, reflection prompts, and other resource links to encourage our journey together here at The Church of the Good Samaritan. Upcoming classes and events for all ages are also listed. To subscribe, please email melodee@good-samaritan.org.

The Lord of the Dance

BY THE REV’D PHILLIP CHANNING ELLSWORTH JR

“The Creator loves pizzazz,” wrote Annie Dillard. This issue of The Samaritan is devoted to creativity corum deo, to the freedom and privilege given us in the presence of God as sub-creators to create and bless. In Genesis, God says, “Let us make man in our image, and let them have dominion,” as the Authorized or ‘King James’ Version translates it. The Hebrew word is artful and strong. It can well be rendered exercise skilled mastery amongst the creatures, skilled mastery suggesting something like a craft, an art, of being human. From God’s perspective, we material creatures occupy a very special place of power and privilege and responsibility in the world. But the condition for our exercise of skilled mastery is set by the prior blessing of the creatures of sea and sky and dry land. They receive the same blessing we human creatures do, pru u’revu, “be fruitful and multiply.” I dedicate this piece to all the students, present and past, of the Good Samaritan Dance Academy.

And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the horn. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent which David had pitched for it… And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will make merry before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.” FROM 2 SAMUEL 6

I want to write to you about how, to the horror of his young wife, and in a blare of strange, wild music, a young King David got the rhythm of God under his skin and danced away himself with all his might and became what he became. I want to set him dancing before you now, and in your mind’s eye I want you to try to see him dancing way off through the dimness and mystery of three thousand years. The music he’s dancing to, if we could hear it, would be an offense to our ears, I suppose—the harps and castanets, the tambourines and cymbals—but we can’t hear it, of course. We can only see that he hears it, hears something through it, beyond it, because it is plain even at the distance of thirty centuries that more than just his body is caught up in more than just the music; his whole being is caught up, and he abandons himself to the dancing.

And that is why his wife, who is the daughter of a king as well as the wife of a king, is so horrified, because the king, her husband, has forgotten himself. He has forgotten himself and his kingly dignity, and to make matters worse, he has done it in the presence of the servants. That is why the queen, who in no sense forgets herself, despises him in her heart.

She wants him to be a king not so much for his sake as for her own sake, so she can be a queen, but instead he becomes a dancer, and his body glistens with the fury and the joy of it, and his bare feet beat the wild rhythms of it into the bare earth in front of the holy ark where the glory of his God dwells.

David is not interested in being what his wife wants him to be, and when she berates him afterwards, he answers her out of the fury that is

still upon him with, “I will make myself more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes!” David isn’t interested primarily in the music the musicians are playing. What really interests him, what he is really dancing to, comes out when he says, “I will make merry before the Lord.”

He is not dancing simply to the music that comes from without. He is dancing to the music of his merriness, his wild gladness that wells up from within him in the presence of the ark. He is dancing his religion. He forgets

David Dancing , @Richard McBee, 1998, Aucoin Collection

himself, forgets to be a king, forgets to live up to the image that his wife has of him or his servants have of him. But in forgetting himself, of course, he happens also to become himself.

I think that for high school and middle school students, it’s hard to forget yourself and to be yourself at a dance. And of course it’s especially hard to be yourself if you’re not quite sure who you are. A young person, and to some extent every person, is a person who is still looking for a self to be. When you are looking for a self to be, the temptation is always very great to be a self that you think other people are going to like.

David had his Queen Michal with her own ideas of what a king should be, and at a dance you have someone like her too—the partner you’re dancing with, and the friends who are there dancing, and they all have their ideas of the kind of person you should be. So, very often, that’s the person you try to be: you put on the face you think they will find admissible, and in general dance their way not only because you want their approval and want to be popular with them, but because in a very real sense you need their approval as something to give you security in a world where God knows there is much cause to be insecure, just as they need your approval and are wearing a face to please you.

The sound of a dance, the sound of our society in general, is often the sound not of human beings meeting other human beings but the sound of masks clattering up against masks. And this is so because just as we were afraid at the dances of our adolescence, we’re afraid still. You’re afraid to open yourself to another’s knowing you for fear that in knowing you the other will reject you. You don’t speak your mind truly for fear that you’ll sound like a fool, and beneath that fear is the darker fear that maybe you are a fool. You’re afraid that someone very important will ask more of you than you feel you have in you to give. You’re afraid the world will dish out more to you than you are able to take.

Not all of the truth, thank God, and not all of the time, but part of the truth at least part of the time is that we are afraid of each other, you and I, and afraid of our lives. And a sadder truth still is that, the way this world works, part of the time our fears are not unwarranted. And when this is true, the dance we end up going to with our lives is not really a dance after all but a masquerade.

Even so, Christ calls us to the Dance. Some of us might not associate Christ with dancing, but the primitive Christians, Christians of the earliest Christian centuries, in the clumsy art of their catacombs, depicted Christ as Orpheus, the fabulous musician of Greek mythology whose rhythm none could resist, who danced the fawns out of the forest and the fir trees down from the hills. And they had warrant for it, after all, for what else did Jesus say of himself? Speaking of the unresponsiveness of many to his mission, and to that of John the Baptist before him, “You are like children,” he said, “sitting in the street complaining to one another: we have piped to you and you have not danced, we have mourned and you have not lamented.” Mourned, that was John calling to repentance. Piped, that was Jesus dancing them into the kingdom of God with the music of everlasting joy.

The reason [David] wasn’t afraid to be himself was that he was dancing in the presence of the One by whom he found himself not rejected but accepted, not threatened but blessed.

When I say you I mean me too, because to some degree for all of us life is a masked ball. To some degree for all of us life consists of trying on many masks until at last, by God’s grace, we find the one that fits who we really are and it becomes our face, so that the whole process turns out to have been a process of self-discovery. But unfortunately it can also be a process of self-concealment and selfdeceit and eventual self-loss whereby in our efforts to endear ourselves to each other we wear masks so foreign to our natures that when we meet, we meet not on the basis of who we are, but instead we meet solely on the basis of who we want others to think that we are. And when that is true we don’t really meet each other at all.

This is why the lyres and cymbals that David dances about as he returns the ark to the temple in Jerusalem, and writes about in the Psalms, are illuminating parables of true religion. For the whole mystery of practical Christian faith comes down to Augustine’s turn of phrase of the Book of Common Prayer: “whose service is perfect freedom.” God our release, and God our control. Listen to what the poet John Milton says of his Lycidas in heaven: “There entertain him all the Saints above, / In solemn troops, and sweet societies, / That sing, and singing in their glory move, / And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.”

Let me end where I began, with the young King David dancing. For as long at least as the moment lasted, he was not afraid to be himself no matter what the queen might think or the servants or all Israel. The reason he wasn’t afraid to be himself was that he was dancing in the presence of the One by whom he found himself not rejected but accepted, not threatened but blessed. He wasn’t afraid to be himself because he found himself in the presence of the One with whom he felt not fear finally but a gladness and a oneness that rose up in him like music. He wasn’t afraid of life because the source of life itself had gotten under his skin, calling forth his true self in all its nakedness, setting it free to be made whole and real.

FROM THE RECTOR’S WARDEN

A Biblically Faithful Church

BY WHITNEY T. KUNIHOLM, RECTOR’S WARDEN

When the Vestry initiated a Parish Discernment process which led to Fr Ellsworth’s election as Rector, our top concern was that Good Samaritan would continue as a “biblically faithful church.” Since then, Fr Ellsworth has observed that the unique charism of this parish is we have we have three different worship styles all of which share a commitment to God’s Word.

But what exactly is a “biblically faithful church?” Some would say all Episcopal Churches are biblically faithful because we follow the Lectionary; our worship is full of Scripture. But over the years churches who follow the Lectionary have strayed from what the Bible teaches.

I believe one of the reasons for this, especially among congregations who desire to be biblically faithful, is what I call the “Bible Superman Model.” What’s that? It’s the assumption that if the Rector preaches Bible-based sermons every week then Voila! it’s automatically a biblically faithful church. Oh, and the Rector should also be excellent at liturgy, pastoral care, strategy, leadership, administration, remembering names… and going without sleep!

But the Bible Superman Model misses the point. We are thankful that in Fr Ellsworth, we have a leader who firmly “believe(s) the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation,” as the Ordination vow states, and demonstrates that in his preaching.1 But the litmus test of a biblically faithful church is not just the clergy, it’s also the congregation. Are we faithfully reading and living out what the Bible says? The fact is, if Good Samaritan is to continue as a biblically faithful church it will require a shared commitment of the clergy and congregation to God’s word.

PRAY.

Being biblically faithful means more than becoming a Bible reading robot. We must do what it says, and praying for one another is a good first step.3 As I said in a recent Samaritan Weekly article, my vision is the time after a worship service is for fellowship and prayer. A time when people compassionately listen to each other and have the courage to say, “Let’s pray now….” Imagine the healing and spiritual strength that such an ethos of corporate prayer ministry could bring to Good Samaritan.

LOVE.

If Good Samaritan is to continue as a biblically faithful church it will require a shared commitment of the clergy and congregation to God’s word.

Because of that, I’d like to offer three suggestions on how we can more fully embrace our identity as a biblically faithful church.

READ.

The starting point is a congregation-wide commitment to personal Bible reading. A few years ago, a study found the number one predictor of spiritual health in a church was the degree to which its members were reading and reflecting on Scripture outside of worship.2 It was more important than attendance, service, giving or even prayer. Do we have a quiet passion for reading and living God’s word every day? If you need help, try this: each week pre-read the Lectionary passages listed in the wrapper, so you come to church ready to hear God’s word.

The ultimate way to live our commitment to God’s word is through love.4 Years ago, I was part of an inner-city church with lots of problems; the congregation had dwindled, the programs were disorganized, and the building was deteriorating. But it was a great church! Why? Because a family of five adult siblings who had emigrated to America loved everybody. They were genuinely happy to see anyone who came to church, and you could feel it. Even a broken church that truly loves people can make a big difference.

What is a biblically faithful church? It’s a community of clergy and laypeople who are committed to reading God’s word, praying for one another, and loving everyone that comes through the door. Together, let’s make that true at Good Samaritan.

1 The Book of Common Prayer, page 526.

2 MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth, Greg L. Hawkins and Cally Parkinson, pages 117 – 119.

3 James 1. 22

4 John 13. 34 – 35

The Reredos Lives of the Apostles

BY JOSH GUENTHER,

The reredos is an ornamental screen covering the back of the altar. Present in most Anglican and Episcopal churches, reredos are typically ornate and made of wood. Some wooden reredos are painted in gold, while others are made of stone, jeweled metalwork or drapery. At The Church of the Good Samaritan, the reredos is much simpler. While made of wood and painted in gold, there are twelve symbols representing Christ’s apostles. These symbols are simple, minimalist depictions that reinvent classic Christian typology to reference the apostles. Their simplicity aligns with the church’s evangelical heritage. The Church of the Good Samaritan’s reredos illustrates the church’s evangelical identity, while honoring its historic Episcopal roots.

Good Samaritan’s history began when a small chapel was built in 1876 by prominent Philadelphia families moving out of the city to the new Main Line suburbs. As the church grew over the next 70 years, primarily under

the 40-year leadership of Rev’d Horace Andrew Walton (1902-1942), significant renovations were done to the original chapel, adding an additional aisle, sacristy, and lady chapel replete with a painting of the Madonna and Child.

Following the long rectorship of Rev’d Walton, the church experienced a stalling of growth, likely encumbered by the war effort and a search for new identity. In 1954, a new rector was installed. Rev’d Alfred E. Whistler, Jr now led a bustling congregation experiencing the post-war baby boom. Primary sources from his era state that “under (his) able guidance, the size of the parish has grown leaps and bounds.” During this period, a parish hall was added in 1951, and ground was broken for a new church on March 17, 1957. The new church was dedicated on Easter Day 1958.

Included in this renovation was the reredos. The reredos symbols were designed by Edna Andrade and were her modern interpretation of traditional symbols. She designed them for her husband’s architectural firm, Wright, Andrade and Amenta. This firm, based in Philadelphia, won the architectural bid for the new church. They were purportedly inspired by the dimensions and materials of Noah’s Ark; the exposed beams and wooden ribs connote these inspirations.

At this point in her artistic career, Edna Andrade was teaching at the Philadelphia College of Art. She is now considered one of the early leaders in the Op Art movement. Museums throughout the United States feature her work, characterized by her visual explorations of symmetry, rhythm and harmony. However, she did not emerge into prominence until after her marriage ended in the 1960s. Her later work significantly

NEW CHAPEL MINISTER OF MUSIC

St Peter is depicted as a crowing rooster. Using a rooster to depict Peter can be seen in Roman catacomb frescoes dating to the 3rd century AD. The symbol relates back to the narrative described in the Gospel of Matthew (26. 70), where Peter denies knowing Christ in the temple courts while Jesus is before the Sanhedrin. Peter hears the rooster’s crow and immediately starts weeping. Yet the crow’s symbolism does not remain one of betrayal and denial; instead, it is redeemed to represent Peter’s repentance and Jesus’ reconciliation with Peter on the Sea of Galilee’s shore.

Across from the St Andrew’s Cross is a façade of The Church of the Good Samaritan. This symbol was chosen to represent St Thomas. As a patron saint of builders, he is often symbolized by depictions of churches. According to the accompanying description, Thomas travelled to Malipur, India. Upon further research, the traditional site of Thomas’ burial is Mylapore, a discrepancy in spelling only.

To the right of the crowing rooster is a palm branch overlaid with a sword, representing St Paul. The palm represents rebirth and eternal life—signifying Paul’s emphasis on resurrection. According to the description in the nave, the sword is a sign of Paul’s Christian militance. While this couldn’t be directly confirmed with secondary sources, Paul is often symbolized by a sword because it was the instrument used in his martyrdom. St Paul is included on this chart because he is an important figure within the Anglican Church.

Beneath the St Andrew’s Cross are three scallop shells, arranged in an inverted triangle. These scallops represent St James Major, as they are an ancient sign of pilgrimage. St James the Major is the patron saint of Spain, because of his missionary journey to the region. Today, many people follow the Camino de Santiago, a route that leads to the traditional resting place of St James’ relics.

Beneath the rooster is an X-shaped cross, with two fishes above and below the cross. According to church tradition, St Andrew’s crucifixion took place on an X-shaped cross. The St Andrew’s Cross is also found on the national flag of Scotland. In John’s Gospel, Andrew is a witness to the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

Across from the scallop shells are three money purses, also arranged in an inverted triangle, representing St Matthew. According to the description, the money purses represent his original calling as a tax collector. Interestingly, there is no discussion of repentance (as there is for St Peter), nor is there any description of Matthew’s new calling in Christ.

PETER

THOMAS

PAUL

JAMES MAJOR

MATTHEW

Beneath the scallop shells is a depiction of a serpent rising from a chalice. According to the secondcentury apocryphal work, Acts of John, St John was given a sacramental cup filled with poison to drink. The poison “issued from” (left) the cup as a serpent. This symbol can be found in Catholic iconography, dating back to the 13th century. John is given an arguably unimportant position in comparison to Andrew or Thomas, despite John’s more prominent role in the gospels and early church history. Perhaps the location of this depiction is due to its striking imagery.

Across from the Tau Cross is a saw flanked by two stones. These symbolize the martyrdom of St James Minor. St James Minor was the son of Alphaeus, distinguishing him from St James Major. Less certain is the identity of James, the brother of Jesus. Some early church fathers combined these two characters together, while others maintain the separation of these two characters.

Across from the sacramental cup is a sailing boat. It symbolizes the missionary journeys Sts Simon and Jude made together. According to church tradition, Simon and Jude traveled to Persia where they were martyred. Little else is known about these two disciples. While Luke refers to him as Jude, he is called Thaddeus in Matthew and Mark. Simon is called “the Zealot” in Luke’s gospel. Sts Simon and Jude share a feast day (October 28).

Beneath the sacramental cup is a Tau Cross and loaves. Traditionally, St Philip was crucified on a T-shaped cross, and was a witness to the loaves and fishes. Jesus asks him in John 6. 5, “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?

Beneath the Tau Cross is a fig branch. Bartholomew, also referred to as Nathanael, was first miraculously seen by Christ under a fig tree. It is this miraculous encounter with Christ that convinces Nathanael to follow Christ.

The final depiction is a battle axe over an open Bible. These represent St Mathias, the disciple chosen in Acts to replace Judas Iscariot. Traditional accounts vary on his martyrdom—some purport he was stoned, others suggest he was killed with a halberd.

JOHN

SIMON & JUDE

PHILIP

JAMES MINOR

BARTHOLOMEW (NATHANAEL)

MATHIAS

diverges in style from this reredos. However, commonalities include an emphasis on geometric shapes, flat 2D-design, and minimalist line usage.

The installation of the reredos coincided with the building of the new church. The motivation to build this specific reredos is unknown. While there is little concrete evidence that the congregation wanted to upgrade or change their aesthetic for the purpose of social distinction, they certainly had the resources to achieve this change. In the Tredyffrin-Easttown Digital Archives, Good Samaritan’s 1930 endowment was $77,000. Adjusted for inflation, this is an endowment of roughly $1.3m. Additionally, there was social expectation to provide new institutions for a post-war baby boom. The 1950s were a dynamic period of growth for the American church. As Carol Tucker reported in USC News, 1997, “During the 1950s, nationwide church membership grew at a faster rate than the population, from 57 percent of the U.S. population in 1950 to 63.3 percent in 1960.” There was also motivation to signal a new season. Rev’d Walton was the rector for 40 years until 1942. Then the church went through a period of organizational uncertainty until Rev’d Whistler was called in 1954.

collector as his “original calling.” Nothing is said about Matthew’s new identity in Christ, or the scandalous nature of Matthew’s occupation. This is in contrast to Peter’s symbol, a rooster, representing Christian repentance. One would hope this was an error of omission rather than intention. The Church of the Good Samaritan has always been an affluent parish; surrendering our wealth to God and recognizing our deep reliance upon Christ is a continual battle.

Alongside these parish-level changes, there were significant cultural and sociological changes occurring that affected our parish’s churchmanship. A large Billy Graham crusade occurred in nearby New York City, during the same calendar year as the building of the new church. Additionally, theological reforms were beginning in the Catholic Church, eventually leading to Vatican II’s liturgical reforms in the 1960s, and the Episcopal Church, eventually leading to the ordination of women (19741976), a new prayer book (1979) and a hymnal (1982). In particular interest to our local area, the first Episcopal female ordinations occurred in Philadelphia at Church of the Advocate.

These

[symbols] call us to remember that, beyond the cross, we are called to go and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In analyzing this piece, there are some fascinating details to consider. Firstly, the selection of apostles. There are thirteen apostles, represented by twelve symbols. Paul and Mathias are included, whereas Judas Iscariot is excluded. Additionally, Sts Simon and Jude are combined into one symbol. This is not unexpected, as they share a feast day on the Christian calendar (October 28). Church legends suggest that Simon and Jude were missionaries together, traveling to Persia. On a practical level, little is known about Simon and Jude’s life after the Resurrection; combining them together was a decision rooted in efficiency and utility.

Another significant theme of these reredos symbols is the connection between martyrdom and mission. Wherever possible, these symbols highlight the apostles’ missionary journeys, and if relevant, how they were executed for their faith. St Andrew, St Philip, St James Minor and St Mathias are all symbolized by the tools of their martyrdom. Relatedly, St James Major, St Thomas, St Simon and St Jude are symbolized by icons that reference their missionary journeys. Supporting missionary work is a deep cultural value of the Church of the Good Samaritan; it’s not surprising to see this value highlighted in the reredos.

The description of St Matthew’s symbol is striking. He is symbolized by money purses, but it refers to his previous occupation as a tax

I was initially drawn to this reredos because my worship team students asked me about it, and I could not properly answer their questions. I encountered the drawing at the back of Good Samaritan’s nave, but it did not answer all of my questions (or my students). I was able to find some further information using Tredyffrin-Easttown’s library. They have quarterly records of the local historical society dating back to the early 1920s. However, these historical records needed to be supplemented by some online resources to confirm their accuracy. Finally, I encountered our church’s resident historian. Joe Kennedy archives many of our church’s records, documents and artifacts. He is also a wealth of information, adding colorful detail to my historical understanding. This project would not have been as enjoyable without him.

The Church of the Good Samaritan’s reredos reflects a church connected to its culture, while remaining steadfast in the gospel. These symbols simultaneously represent the parish’s AngloCatholic roots and its current evangelical identity. The reredos represents the culture of its creation: upper-middle class 1950s America. It also bears the mark of its creator: Edna Andrade. Yet there is an enduring quality of these symbols, representing the missional call of the gospel lived out by Christ’s apostles. They call us to remember that, beyond the cross, we are called to go and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May this reredos continue to remind The Church of the Good Samaritan of its true calling for generations to come.

THE JOY OF THE ORDINARY

BY CHRISTOPHER A. HALL, THEOLOGIAN-IN-RESIDENCE

The word “ordinary” can get a bad press. When you hear the word “ordinary” what words rise in your mind?

Boring? Hum-drum? The same routine? The same people? The same me? Every day the same thing?

“I’m tired of the ordinary,” we say to ourselves. I need something new, something different, and something exciting.

Maybe. Perhaps we need to take a second look at ordinary time, though, for it is the time we inhabit for 99 percent of our lives. What characterizes most of this time? Mary Pipher reminds us that most “real life is rather quiet and routine. Most pleasures are small pleasures—a hot shower, a sunset, a bowl of good soup, or a good book.” Television suggests that life is high drama, love, and sex. Television families are radically different from real families. Things happen much faster to them. Things that are not visually interesting, such as thinking, reading, and talking are ignored. Instead of ennobling our ordinary experiences, television suggests that they are not of sufficient interest to document.

Two spiritual disciplines that have helped me as I seek the joy of the ordinary are slowing and silence. If I am moving too fast or my life is too noisy, I am apt to miss the gifts God offers through the ordinary with each passing day. These disciplines help me ennoble the ordinary experiences that make up ordinary time.

I remember Richard Foster’s words from Celebration of Discipline: “In contemporary society our adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds.” When I first read those words, they leapt off the page. Maybe the same is true for you.

I remember an event at Good Sam where creative people imitated our creative God. In the early 1990’s, Debbie and I attended a weekend retreat for adults at Good Sam. We brought Josh along with us—yes, the tall guy who helps with youth ministry. I think Josh was around six at the time. We knew those involved in youth ministry had come up with some creative activities for the young folks while the adults spent time on retreat, and we hoped Josh wouldn’t be bored.

When Friday night’s adult session ended, we said goodbye to our friends. It was time to collect Josh. We headed to his Sunday School room and found him buzzing with excitement.

“Dad, Dad!” Josh exclaimed. “Yeah, Josh. What’s going on?” “Dad, guess what we’re going

to do tomorrow night.” “I don’t know. What?” “DAD!” he nearly shouted. “We’re going to circle our chairs, and the teacher’s going to cover them with a blanket. It will be like a cave underneath. Then we’re going to crawl into the cave, and she’s going to turn out the light!” “That sounds exciting,” I said. “THAT’S NOT ALL, DAD! We’re all going to turn our flashlights on inside the cave! We have to remember to bring a flashlight from home. Don’t forget.” “Wow!” I said. I was getting a little fired up myself.

There stood my little boy, quivering with excitement, and I couldn’t help but join in. He was my boy, after all. I still remember the moment, over a quarter of a century later.

The next night we returned to Good Sam. The only flashlight we’d found at home was a big yellow one, long and heavy.

Josh cradled the flashlight in his arms during the drive to church. When we arrived, we walked into Ashton Hall together, his left hand in my right. We headed down the hallway. The adventure was soon to begin.

Debbie and I learned about slowing and the ordinary while we lived in France. We decided to take a jaunt of sorts, and decided to take the TGV, le train de grand vitesse (“the train of great speed”). It looked like a long projectile, sleek and streamlined.

We stepped on board, settled in our seats, and waited excitedly. Soon we’d be traveling at 120 miles per hour through the French countryside. How much we’d be able to see. We’d never traveled that fast while still on the ground and wondered what it would be like.

The train started to move, slowly crawling out of the station. As it gained speed, we felt little movement inside the cabin, although the countryside outside our window began to speed by faster and faster. When we reached top speed, my eyes hurt if I tried to focus on houses or trees; the ordinary became invisible. We were simply moving too fast for our eyes to track with our speed.

If we move too fast in too loud and frenetic an environment, we miss much along the way, inattentive to the joy and beauty of ordinary things, ordinary spaces, and ordinary time. We just don’t notice.

Josh excitedly pulled me down the hall, his right hand swinging back and forth with the heavy flashlight. Josh walked with determination and excitement. We were experiencing together one of the highlights of his six-year-old life. I wished I could crawl under the blankets with him.

A few steps from the classroom door, Josh stopped. He caught his breath, looked up at me, gripped my hand even more tightly, and said, “DAD, THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT!”

And it was. As Josh’s joy expanded, so did mine. From one perspective, this time with Josh seems so very ordinary. Yet it was suffused with joy, the joy God delights in spreading through ordinary time. And, thanks to some creative folks at Good Sam, God blessed. He blessed through their creativity. I’m thankful.

If I had rushed to get back to my “adult” retreat, I’d have missed out on the blessing. But I was moving slow enough to spot what God was offering to me in sweet, joyful ordinary time. I wonder how many joyful experiences he offers us in ordinary time each day.

We gave up trying to see houses and trees, the beautiful ordinary that surrounded us. In effect, our speed blinded us to what was directly outside our window. The sound of the train traveling at high speed made ordinary conversation difficult. Things were too loud and too fast for us to do much more than sit and look at one another. Yes, we reached our destination very quickly. We just didn’t see much along the way. Ponder our experience on the TGV as a parable of sorts for the pace at which many of God’s precious image-bearers are leading their lives in the twenty-first century. Too often our lives move at TGV speed, but God moves at a much slower pace. God offers the beauty and joy of the ordinary to slow movers and slow lookers. How ironic to live at a pace where, in a manner of speaking, we leave God and ordinary time trailing behind. If we move too fast in too loud and frenetic an environment, we miss much along the way, inattentive to the joy and beauty of ordinary things, ordinary spaces, and ordinary time. We just don’t notice.

There are beauties and wonders very near us that we only see and appreciate if we slow down and quiet down, ordinary things Joyce Huggett mentions such as “a perfect rose or the scent of honeysuckle, the embrace of a friend, the taste of bacon.”

So, I invite you during this ordinary time to slow down and quiet down. What or whom might you see if you lived a more paced life and transitioned from rushing to walking, from feverish activity to a slower, less hectic rhythm in your day?

Why do we choose to live at such a heated pace, rushing from one person, thing, or event on to the next? What are we hoping to accomplish? Is it worth the great cost? Is there a little boy with a long, yellow flashlight in your life? “Dad, I’m here. Do you see me?”

Take some time to ponder the pace of your life and how things came to be this way. Perhaps you’re already moving slow. Congratulations! If you sense you’re moving too fast, practice the sacrament of the godly pause. Over time the pauses will lengthen and the ordinary will light up.

Ordinary time and space are God’s gift to us. The cultivation of attentiveness and appreciation expands our ability to perceive the wonders he sprinkles through ordinary space and time. The result is joy, and yes, contentment. I see Jesus smiling.

CREATIVITY & connection

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

Who is God? Who are we? We can trace the answers to these questions all the way back to the first five words of the Bible: “In the beginning God created…” (Gen. 1. 1). God is Creator, and we are not simply those whom he made but those whom he made in his creator image. We are the imago dei. Image of God. Our true identity is so marvelous and so exalted, you would be right to pause here in your reading simply to absorb its profundity: “When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?” (Psalm 8).

The first tasks given to humanity were tending the garden God had planted and naming the animals God had made. From the beginning, we were invited to exercise our own creativity in partnership with God’s creativity. This is our purpose. This is the glory we share with God. If we doubt this, we need only spend time with a child or recall our own childhoods. Every child is born an artist. They demonstrate this innate self-knowledge first when they smile and babble and later when they pick up crayons and stack building blocks and transform mud into pies. If we consider the matter carefully, we might even decide that a mud pie complete with dandelion decoration is almost as miraculous as water made into wine. No dog or tree ever considered making such a thing. No bird or flower ever played with such attentiveness that play became a kind of prayer. And yet the children in my neighborhood play in this way every day, regular as clockwork, from the time they leap from the schoolbus until their parents begin shouting “dinner time!”

Most of us know we were artists once, yet we live as if unaware of any great loss. We are wrong to shrug. More has been lost than the scribbles proud parents hang on the refrigerator. To lose touch with our creativity is to lose touch with our capacity for vision and with the kind of hopeful imagination with which we water buried seeds, turn the other cheek, or search for the pearl of great price. Creativity is our birthright. Have we sold ours to satisfy a superficial hunger? Like Esau, have we sold our blessing for a mess of pottage? The green, growing warmth of summer is nearly upon us. Now is a good time to remember our

childhoods, to remember our creativity, and to say yes to God’s invitation to co-create.

Artist and Good Sam parishioner, Laura Adams, recently put it this way: “To me, the creative process (like motherhood!) is God’s incredible gift to us of allowing us to take part, even in a small way, in the extraordinary act of creation. Unlike God, we obviously don’t create out of nothing, but we are still able to use the materials and the resources that he has given us to bring something into this world that didn’t exist before, which is an incredible thing when you think about it.”

The good news about our own God-given creativity is that it is nearly as endless and multi-faceted as God’s own. We can weave fabrics or grow flowers like Robin Smith (I grew a towering hedge of vivid orange tithonia flowers for several summers in a row after encountering the plant for the first time in Robin’s beautiful garden). We can arrange flowers like Betsy Williams and our Good Sam Altar Guild so that the harvest of a garden becomes an expression of our praise. Like Rusty Smith, we can craft tables and chairs that are both useful and beautiful. We can design church publications like this one as Melodee Stephens does with such thoughtful creativity. We can write sermons, create podcasts, and tell stories to children. We can offer surprisingly kind words when angry ones have been hurled at us. We can offer a well-timed joke when a meeting turns unproductively tense.

scope within the matter—the stuff—of creation. The gardener, the painter, the repairperson, and the engineer all create with matter. Second, our creativity is given scope within language. The poet, the songwriter, the pen pal, and the conversationalist are all at play with words.

Our God-given capacity to live creatively in a material world doesn’t mean we have a box to check off, like exercising three times each week. I cooked a meal! I planted a tree! Done and done. Instead, recalling that in the beginning we were given a garden to tend, we recall that our relationship to God’s creation is meant to be a caring one that leads to general flourishing. Our Genesis origin story should prompt us to ask whether we are living primarily as consumers or creative caretakers. After all, we can cultivate beauty and goodness, truth and justice in creative ways as gardeners or bakers or kindergarten teachers. What matters— whether we are young or old, working or retired—is whether our orientation to the stuff of life is primarily one of mindless consumption or imaginative caretaking. Consumption may soothe our troubled spirits temporarily, but making something awakens our spirits to a wider experience of God’s animating life in the world. This remains true even if all we’ve made is breakfast.

“To me, the creative process (like motherhood!) is God’s incredible gift to us of allowing us to take part, even in a small way, in the extraordinary act of creation.”

LAURA ADAMS, PARISHIONER

It is important to recognize just how varied human creativity can be, but there is a risk in this exercise. While it is a good thing for someone who would never dream of picking up a paintbrush to see and name the unique forms their creativity takes, we do run the risk of patting ourselves on the back too soon. Our creativity isn’t only a quality that shows up in surprising ways no matter how we neglect it. Primarily, it is a God-given capacity we are invited to value, to nurture, and to steward with care. Those first tasks given to humankind in Genesis can help us take stock of our own creative lives. First, we were given by God a garden to keep. Second, we were given by God animals to name. First, our creativity is given

Like the natural world, language is a common inheritance. It is also, like air and water and soil, a kind of natural resource deserving of creative care. Marilyn McEntyre has authored several books on Christian faith and language, but the title of one has always stood out in particular to me: Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies. “Like any other life-sustaining resource,” she writes, “language can be depleted, polluted, contaminated, eroded, and filled with artificial stimulants.” The very real value and potency of language can be hard for modern people to grasp. Who among us didn’t chant in childhood “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? The Word who spoke the world into being testifies to the power of words. When Isaac blesses Jacob believing him to be his firstborn Esau, the words he offers come from such depths and are released with such power that they cannot be recalled or transferred no matter how Esau weeps for his lost blessing. Words matter more than we know. The Word can be present in our humble words. Recognizing this, why wouldn’t we take care with spoken and written words? Why wouldn’t we enter into a more playful, creative relationship with the language we use every day?

If writing a poem feels unattainable, begin by reading one. The Bible is full of them. The book of Job, to give just one example, begins with prose and ends with prose, but when God speaks to Job, only poetry will do. Perhaps the greatest gift inherent in God’s gift to us of his own creativity is the way that creativity connects us. Receiving the poetry of Job we are drawn deeper into the heart of our Creator. Honoring the creative offerings of others turns out to be the capstone of a creative life. Poets need readers, composers need musicians and attentive listeners, while filmmakers dream of viewers. Gardeners desire garden visitors and fine cooks require friends at the table. Our creative gifts are like God’s fingerprints on us, but they are also the beautiful, tangible expression of our belonging to one another. To create—even in solitude—is to draw near to God and to the people God has made.

dance

BY ELRENA EVANS, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE 1990

I walked into the sanctuary here at the Church of the Good Samaritan in 1990, at not quite twelve years old, and thought… I’m home

The prayer books, the organ, the candles, the vaulted ceiling that seemed to stretch up almost into forever… and, perhaps most of all, the dance.

The dance ministry began in 1983 when Fr Dan Sullivan asked Valerie Henry, parishioner and dancer, to start a dance choir. In 1997, Gwen Prestwood took over as director, with an increased focus on growing children’s classes and emphasis on technique. Karen Watkins became assistant director in 2010, and began to grow the ministry into a full-fledged dance academy. Karen became director in 2019.

Today, the dance ministry offers eleven weekly classes in a variety of styles for dancers of all ages, with four new classes planned for the fall to meet growing demand. In addition to classes and rehearsals, the dance ministry maintains a regular prayer list, overseen by a dance choir chaplain who also writes a twicemonthly, dance-focused devotional. In part because the dance ministry is so unique—not every church has one!—we currently welcome dancers from 28 different churches.

a ministry of encouragement. Mentoring and healing. Cross-generational prayer. Dragging your body down the steps to the studio in times of grief or struggle, and leaving with a heart that feels lighter.”

“Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes delight in his people.”

PSALM 149. 3 – 4

Perhaps it is this aspect of the ministry that helps us not only train, but retain, dancers. Over the years we’ve had several dancers leave for college, move away, get married—and then find their way back. We’ve had dancers who represent the third generation of Good Sam dancers in their families. And dancers who have been with the ministry their entire lives. My eldest daughter, Annika, likes to say she’s been dancing at Good Sam since before she was born, as she made her dance debut on Pentecost Sunday the year I was pregnant with her. In our spring concert this year, we danced a piece choreographed by long-time dancer and teacher Miriam Fulton, called Let the Ground Rest. The piece is about fallow seasons in our lives, and how God is present with us even when we can’t see fruit… the times when we need to let the ground rest.

The dance ministry has been a continuing point of connection for me with family, students, and friends old and new, who seek to serve God and express their love of him through worship and movement.

GWEN PRESTWOOD, DIRECTOR EMERITUS

I love the communal nature of dance and how God models it to us through perichoresis; a term used to describe the intimate dance between the Trinity.

NEEKA GUENTHER, YOUTH MINISTRY LEADER AND DANCE CHOIR RINGER

Why do we praise the Lord with dancing? Perhaps the simplest answer is because we are called to. Episcopalians intuitively understand the need to praise the Lord with our bodies— in our Sunday services we stand, we sit, we kneel as we are able, we make the sign of the cross or genuflect or raise our hands. Embodied worship allows us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, worshiping the Lord with our whole being.

The dance ministry is an extension of that embodied worship.

Dance offerings on Sunday mornings are only part of the ministry, says Karen Watkins. “Dance classes and rehearsals are themselves

At the end of the piece, the soloist has grown tired and frustrated with what feels like a failure to see any growth, and she begins to drift away—from the church, perhaps even from the faith. But as dancers kneel to the ground in stillness, planting their seeds of faith and waiting in prayer, a small group of dancers notice the one who is hurting, and they go after her, and bring her home.

As we were learning the choreography, I could feel the impact it was having on the dancers. Because isn’t that what so many of us long for? To have someone notice, when we are hurting… and to have someone come after us, be the hands and feet of Jesus, and bring us home.

For so many people, for three generations of dancers, the Good Samaritan Dance Ministry has been just such a place. I’m grateful to call this ministry my home.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GOOD SAMARITAN DANCE ACADEMY, CONTACT KAREN WATKINS, DIRECTOR OF DANCE MINISTRY, AT DANCECHOIR@ GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG

KAYLA BENSON, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE 2004

Dancing at Good Sam is a highlight of my week, every single time. I’ve been here since I was six, so officially twenty years! God knew my heart needed to be surrounded by sisters in Christ, who were just worshiping and dancing for his glory.

I often think about all the verses in the Bible that reference “Be still,” and that is not my go-to when I’m anxious, stressed, or depressed. So I never understood.

“Okay Lord, ‘Be still’…what does that mean?” Then one day it clicked: that being still in God’s presence looks different for everyone, and dancing is a way that I can pray without words and be still.

JULIA DUTILL, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE 2009

The first time I came to Good Sam Dance I was three and a half years old. And I never left. I think it was the community that brought me closer... It was such a blessing to be ministered to, by people like Karen and Elrena, and through them I learned to minister to others.

Most importantly, I just learned to dance for Jesus. And when I decided to pursue a dream of becoming a professional dancer, I got accepted into the trainee program at Ballet Magnificat. I’ll be going halfway across the country this fall, but Good Sam is still my home. It’s the North Star, the root that I’m always going to come back to… the place where I was able to come and learn what it meant to dance for the Lord.

KAREN GREGORY, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE 1983

The first time I came to Good Sam was for a dance workshop, and I knew the Holy Spirit wanted me to be here. The Lord had brought me into a love of worship through singing and raising my hands, and through the dance ministry I was introduced to adding dance and movement. Dance is part of who I am. It’s how I express myself to Jesus. It’s always going to be— worshiping the Lord through dance, at this church, my home church. I don’t think of expressing my worship to the Lord without dance. Even if I was in a wheelchair and I could lift up one hand, I would do it.

I like to dance because I do it to worship Jesus, and I like worshiping Jesus.

MARIELLE EVANS, 13, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE (BEFORE!) BIRTH

I began dancing at 19, and never expected dance to be anything more than learning skills as a beginner. I’ve learned dance is a way to worship my King—in a beautiful ministry, built by a group of believers, supporting and praying for one another.

ANNA PUSTAI, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE 2021

Good Sam Dance has blessed my daughters with wonderful friends, Christian fellowship, encouragement, and of course excellent dance instruction—all for the glory of God!

MIA PUSTAI, MOM OF FOUR GOOD SAM DANCERS

Dancing here is really fun because of the community, and all of the people that are here. We can all count on one another.

AMELIA WATKINS, 14, GOOD SAM DANCER SINCE (BEFORE!) BIRTH

PHOTOS BY KAYLA BENSON

CREATIVITY

arts

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

There is a persistent myth of the solitary, starving artist, but that is not a myth we embrace at Good Sam. Instead, we recognize the innate creativity of every image bearer, while honoring the particular gifts of those who live as artists in our midst. They need us, and we need them. They need us to receive their work, not as products to consume, but as offerings worthy of our attention. We need them because art can provide the beauty our spirits desire, it can offer invitations for reflection, and it can even be the provocation that moves us to see our world and our lives with more clarity.

ARTIST PROFILE: TJ WALSH

When I see a painting by our cover artist TJ Walsh, I can’t help but stop and stare. There is so much energy in the swirls and splashes of color that he captures with the flexible, quick-drying medium of acrylic paint, that I find it impossible to rush past one of his paintings. His art is arresting. TJ first came to Good Sam in 2009, and while his life has changed a great deal since then—he has been married to Samantha since 2014 and they now have two young children—he remains committed to the church community where he found healing and friendship.

Painting has nearly always been a part of TJ’s life, and he even chose painting as his major when he first attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Later, he felt the anxious tug of practicality that so many of us feel when we are young and trying to discern the path between education and employment, so he shifted into the study of graphic design. Today, he owns his own private practice offering psychotherapy and professional counseling while also offering coaching and brand consulting for creative entrepreneurs. As well, he is a speaker and teacher eager to help therapists connect with their own creativity for necessary self-care in a demanding profession.

Both art and liturgy offer needed space to breathe. When we find a time and a place to attend to our own breath—when we catch our breaths—we also reconnect with the breath of God in us.

If these creative and professional roles appear surprisingly disparate, I came away from our conversation with an inspiring sense of the deep integration in TJ’s life. He and I acknowledged together that artists tend not to compartmentalize life and work, identity and vocation. This offers challenges for us and those who love us, but it is also a beautiful way of

Walsh

life in which making meaning matters more than making products. Art-making is not a productive sphere of activity. It appears to solve few problems, yet it can be a necessary part of life, both for the one who makes it and the one who receives it. In the same way, TJ knows that his therapy clients may come to him seeking solutions to a problem, but he is committed to offering something more by creating a space for them in which they can slow down and simply be. This is also the gift of art. By arresting us, TJ’s expressive and abstract paintings challenge our productivity-driven forward momentum. TJ thinks of his paintings not as objects but as “living things” that invite connection and encounter. His use of metallic and iridescent elements results in paintings that come alive—or are “activated”—as light shifts around and across them. Abstract paintings like TJ’s highlight the process of their own creation. Unlike more representational art, these paintings reveal the messy movements that brought them into being. Creating them, TJ says, is a way of praying, a kind of nonverbal conversation with God. He finds that this conversation also happens in church with others, which suggests to me that both art and liturgy offer needed space to breathe. When we find a time and a place to attend to our own breath—when we catch our breaths—we also reconnect with the breath of God in us. This world would keep us too busy to attend to the Holy Spirit. Art arrests us enough to attend.

My paintings always start from a place of observation, so for me, art is also about the act of looking. I’m drawn to objects in the world around me that hold a wealth of detail and intricacy, and I suppose I want to draw the viewer into that world as well through my paintings and encourage them to also engage in a deeper act of looking. This process of intensely studying the world and transcribing it, and possibly transforming it, through my paintings also does become a kind of meditation for me, and I’m hoping the viewer will engage in that meditative contemplation as well.

Photography is a major intersection with my faith in this season. I’m a terrible singer and a marginal musician. However, the talent I’ve been blessed with is capturing images and telling stories. So, I’m glad to have an opportunity to “worship” in a way that may not be very traditional, but it still allows me to be a blessing to the Most High. As a news producer, I’m on the front lines of seeing some of the worst the world has to offer. Using the same talents to share the love of God helps me keep life in perspective. Photography gives me a small insight of how God sees the world. There is the way we see the world… and there is the way the camera sees it. The camera can capture light and time in ways our human body cannot. Often, the click of a shutter release (or a tap on your phone’s camera) simply captures a moment in time. However, with the proper settings, a camera can expose the laws of nature and physics just as God created them. No Photoshopping, editing, or even artificial intelligence needed.

The one word that comes to mind about Tom becoming a potter is tenacity. He had a core desire to do this, and after more than 25 years of sitting alone in a basement studio at the wheel, he still would rather do that than anything else. Hundreds of pots thrown out not seeing the light of day before feeling any were good enough. Disappointments at every step of the process of making pottery. Continued tenacity. Hours of mixing chemicals. Trying new formulas. And then there’s the business of selling.

ANNA KOCHER, ARTIST Picasso said, “Art is a lie that makes us realize truth...” The devout Catholic and masterful American writer Flannery O’Connor echoes this description: “The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode.” The unflinching pursuit of truth is one point of overlap between my life as a Christian and my life as an artist. It emerges in my work as a continued preoccupation with the truth of the body, in all its incarnational beauty and frailty; in the quotidian experiences through which we all have to search for “the lovely;” and in the universality of longing.

The way I encounter God through art-making, however, isn’t something I think about, but rather a more intimate experience of the presence of God. Brother Lawrence, in Practicing the Presence of God, described how mundane acts such as cooking and doing dishes could function as a vehicle for worship. He wrote, “Make it your study, before taking up any task, to look to God, be it only for a moment, as also when you are engaged thereon, and lastly when you have performed the same.” In my studio, I look to God as I paint. Unlike when I’m cooking or doing dishes and my mind is full and busy, when I’m painting my hands are engaged, my mind is quiet, and my spirit is open. Often my times of painting are times of crying out to God; but the discipline of art-making has taught me that, as Brother Lawrence expressed, “One need not cry out [to God] very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think.”

LARRY MCGILL, PHOTOGRAPHER-IN-RESIDENCE

LAURA ADAMS, ARTIST

TOM LONGACRE, POTTER, AS SHARED BY HIS WIFE, CAROL LONGACRE

on this tray using a table scarf made by Carol’s grandmother over one hundred years ago.

Laura Adams

Anna Kocher

CREATIVITY music

BY JOSH GUENTHER,

OF MUSIC

Music is inseparably linked to the human experience. Songs soothe a crying infant, celebrate milestones, and mourn a loved one’s death. We create melodies to laugh, dance, cry, yearn and remember. When words fail, music embodies our emotional realities and offers entry to the transcendent. From the beginning of the church, Christians have sung their praises and prayers to God. The Church of the Good Samaritan continues this tradition weekly, in styles both old and new. Take a look at how musicians from across our community experience God through their artform.

BETTE FERRIS, WORSHIP TEAM MEMBER

Music has wound around and through my faith since I was a young teen singing with my sister and her guitar at area churches! When I open my Bible, I love that I find music from Genesis to Revelation, with the sacred songs and poems of the Psalms filling more pages than any other book. So, for me, loving God’s Word goes hand-in-hand with loving music about him. Music is a pathway to learn about him, worship him, and to share his love.

Music goes into deep places in me. As musicians in the church we sing the songs several times before Sunday—the message of those songs goes deeper. By Sunday morning I often find myself overwhelmed by my own brokenness and need for God, overwhelmed by the knowledge of his love, and so very grateful!

Songs are often a form of prayer for me whether they are lyrics and tunes written by others (from hymns to worship songs), or my own words and melodies that flow from my heart and voice, never to be heard again. “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5. 19).

TOM CONNETT, WORSHIP TEAM MEMBER

For me, music absolutely intersects with faith. I have a healthy dose of ADHD so I really struggle to sit in a pew and concentrate quietly. When I’m on stage and fully engaged with the worship music, that’s where I feel the most connected to God. He put me on this planet for a reason.

EMILY PETERSON, WORSHIP TEAM MEMBER

Music can speak when there are no words left to say. For me singing the words of a beloved hymn or worship song gathers me into the presence of God and reminds me of His love for me, but music itself can be a meditation. A few notes strung together, bow on string can be a prayer, a meditation, a reminder of the beauty of God’s faithfulness and reassurance that he is with me. A quiet hum walking to the car is a moment in his presence.

In worship we as musicians listen to where the band is moving, but there is such beauty in listening together to see where the Holy Spirit is moving in the congregation, in the sermon giver, in us. Music is a shared experience just as prayer is both speaking and listening. Being in God’s presence, music is a wordless conversation with our Father.

GIDEON COX, COMPOSER

Fundamentally, the creative act is an act of love. In creating, however imperfectly, I believe we gain a deeper understanding of who God is and what he has done for us. For God is love. He created us, the universe, and all that is in it, out of love. He sustains and redeems His Creation out of love. As Christians, I feel we also create to show/reveal God’s glory (again, however imperfectly). Some of the most beautiful sacred music I have ever heard has brought me to tears. In those moments, God’s love, power, majesty, and glory were made manifest in the most profound way. In my own modest way, I try to accomplish this in my musical compositions; to show forth or reflect something of God. Also, musical composition, like any creative act, can be a kind of prayer, plea, or supplication. I feel this is definitely the case with many of the pieces I compose.

To listen to Exultate Deo, composed and directed by Gideon Cox, and performed at the 9 am service on June 2, 2024, scan the QR code.

L to R: Nancy Vogt, Bette Ferris, and Emily Peterson leading worship on Pentecost Sunday.

NEW CHAPEL MINISTER

RICHARD ZUCH, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC & PARISH ADMINISTRATOR

Music and Faith. “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding” (Psalm 47. 6 – 7). Music used in a worship service exists to aid people in the worship of our Lord and Savior and to enhance that worship. God is always the focus of our worship and, therefore, our music. Music is both a gift from God (Job 35. 10) and our gift to God. Knowing that God loves us so much as to send his only Son to die, how can we not break into praise? As our gift to him we offer him the best we have. This, of course, means we give him our hearts, but it also means we strive to offer him the best music we can offer. Both our hymns and our anthems are really mini sermons which reinforce God’s word to us. We use our souls, bodies, and minds to worship him in our music.

CAROL LONGACRE, CHOIR MEMBER

I am not one of the “incredibly gifted” musicians. In fact, I can barely read music at all. This lack has taught me something about God. Choir challenges me to be the best I can be, but it doesn’t exclude me from participating if I am not as good as others. God does the same. He gives me opportunity to grow in what gifts he has given me and delights in me even if my offerings are small and seemingly insignificant. Just like I lean on my fellow altos to sing the part, I lean on the other voices in my life—prayer partners, spouse, and teachers—to stay in tune with the Lord. I am wired for expressive worship. The rich and wonderful music the choir brings feeds my soul and spirit in profound ways and I pray it does the same for the congregation.

MARY WALMSLEY, CHOIR MEMBER

There is an exhilaration in singing God’s praises. My worship is augmented by singing music composed by the great masters based on words from Holy Scripture, and I get to do it twice every week! I was one of four children and our mother taught us to sing. When we traveled, we passed the time by singing rounds and canons. When my brother’s voices changed, we sang in four part harmony and soon learned that each voice was a necessary part of the whole, drawing us closer as a family. The Good Sam Choir is like a family. We sing together, laugh together, pray together, and worship together, and it is good, very good indeed!

GARY GRESS, MUSICIAN, CONDUCTOR, TEACHER, PIANIST, AND ORGANIST

I am keenly aware that my abilities as a musician are God’s gift. It has been my responsibility to be disciplined about developing and refining the gift, but He provided it. When I plan programs, choose music, practice, and certainly perform, God’s presence, strength, wisdom, guidance are—must be—at the core of what I do. I don’t compose often, but once when I wrote a hymn, it was an amazing time of being aware of the Holy Spirit working in me in laboring over the text and writing the music.

As a teacher, I am aware that God works through me as well as in and through music to reach my students. Music continues to be the vehicle through which God has been able to build relationship with students and to speak about God with them.

As a conductor, I have an awareness of my responsibility of communication with the musicians I am leading, and in building relationship in a common work to offer something of excellence that honors God.

My work as a musician has showed me the mystery and depth of God’s creativity. In one sense, in considering his creation, there isn’t a functional need necessarily for music; one could technically live this life without it. But just as he chose to include unfathomable beauty in his physical creation, or even something as easily overlooked as the gift of flavors and tastes, he chose to include music in his divine order. Yet music is more than an added dimension of our earthly experience which can inspire our lives, bring comfort, and unify people of any land through an instantly common language and experience. It’s a primary means of worship, the language of worship established in heaven. If it is this important and amazing in our fallen world, I can’t even imagine what our experience of music will be like in the perfect state!

JS Bach included two sayings in his compositions: Jesu juva (Jesus help me) and Soli Deo Gloria (for God’s glory alone or to God alone be the glory). For any Christian musician seeking to serve and honor God, we remember the source of our gifting and the need for absolute dependence on God’s ability to carry it out. Once that is established, the process of preparing, planning, practicing, and performing produces praise and worship of an Audience of One in a way that secular artists can’t begin to understand.

To listen to the final movement of Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 1 played by Gary Gress at the 9 am service on June 2, 2024, scan the QR code.

Gary Gress

Prayer the Anglican Way

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

As a child, I worshiped in a Texas church that offered two books in its pews: the Bible and a hymnal. Our prayers were always spontaneous, rarely eloquent, but full of heartfelt sincerity. Other Christian traditions have bequeathed different gifts to the treasury of Christian prayer, like the meditative Jesus Prayer from the Orthodox tradition or the Rosary from the Catholic. The Anglican treasure is the Book of Common Prayer, and in the pews at Church of the Good Samaritan, you’ll find the Holy Bible (black), the Episcopal hymnal (blue), and the Book of Common Prayer (red).

Our “red book,” as we sometimes call it, is only a recent update to the prayer book that has guided Anglican worship since Archbishop Thomas Cranmer prepared the First Prayer Book in the English language under Edward VI in 1549. The meaning of this book has shifted with time and history. What was initially a radical Protestant answer to perceived Catholic “superstition,” in turn helped send the Puritans to America seeking freedom from its discipline. This is a book that continues to mean different things to different people, but as for me—raised as I was without it and encountering it first only through my study of British history and literature— I never open the copy I keep at my bedside for daily prayer without a feeling of surprised gratitude.

The Anglican way of prayer is a path paved by written prayers, in particular the Collects that are exquisite gems of poetic brevity and rich theology. Where other traditions might emphasize spontaneity and novelty, the Anglican Way values tradition and repetition. We do not pray only with Collects, but like a basket of loaves and fishes that multiplies to feed thousands, these brief prayers seem to “collect” or gather up all the various prayers we offer. I still pray spontaneously as I was taught in childhood, and I fall back again and again on the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”). But it is when I pray the Anglican way that my spirit feels most at rest, as if I am being carried by the prayers of countless others. The Book of Common Prayer enables me to pray with more beauty, deeper theology, and more connection to the global Church past and present than I could ever summon on my own.

Made in the image of a great Creator, humans compose, make, build, paint, write, and shape incredible things.

In the Anglican Communion, we have a prayer book that is wonderful in many ways, but I give thanks especially that it is a work of art.

A COLLECT FOR THE RENEWAL OF LIFE

From Daily Morning Prayer: Rite II, BCP p. 99

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness during the day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A COLLECT FOR PEACE From Collects for Various Occasions: Traditional, BCP p. 207

O Almighty God, kindle, we beseech thee, in every heart the true love of peace, and guide with thy wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquillity thy dominion may increase till the earth is filled with the knowledge of thy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A COLLECT FOR EARLY EVENING From Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families, BCP p. 139

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

WE ASKED: WHAT BOOKS ABOUT PRAYER HAVE BEEN HELPFUL IN YOUR PRAYER LIFE?

JESSICA CAMPBELL

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, by Anne Lammott

While I don’t always agree with Anne, I love reading her books. Her authenticity and raw struggles with faith are beyond relatable. This short book on these three essential prayers is easy and engaging.

FR ELLSWORTH

The Psalter is the only part of the Bible that is clearly formulated as prayers packaged and ready to be put directly into our mouths, and I love praying through the Coverdale Psalter using the beautiful 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

CHRISTOPHER A. HALL

Without a doubt, it’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, by Richard Foster. Richard Foster prays lots, and it shows in this book. Inward to personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others. He discusses 22 different types of prayer. A treasure chest of insights on prayer.

WHITNEY T. KUNIHOLM

Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, by Dallas Willard

This book has given me the careful thinking and practical help I’ve needed for exploring how to make prayer a two-way relationship with God.

Be Thou My Vision, by Jonathan Gibson

I love the Book of Common Prayer, but in some seasons I just want something different. This 30-day devotional, drawing from various Reformation voices, is historically-rooted and accessible.

MELODEE DILL STEPHENS

Opening to God: Lectio Divina and a Life of Prayer, by David Benner

This book has helped me experience a renewal in my own posture for prayer. “Prayer is not merely something we do; prayer is what God does in us. Prayer is not just communication with God—it is communion with God. As we open ourselves to him, God does the spiritual work of transformation in us.”

RICK ZUCH

The book that has given me the most aid in my spiritual life is the Gospel according to John. Particularly Chapter 14 where Jesus promises to “come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, you also may be” and Chapter 15 where Jesus talks about abiding in Him. The reasons for these chapters specifically is that they help me to keep my eyes on Him.

KIMBERLY LINDQUIST

Breathe: A Child’s Guide to Ascension, Pentecost, and the Growing Time, by Laura Alary Breathe aims to help children answer the question, How can Jesus go away, yet promise to be with us always?, a question that is not easy, even for adults. Biblical stories of the Ascension and the events of Pentecost allow children and adults alike to wonder about what it looks like to watch for and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. The book walks through the seasons of the liturgical calendar in a way that is both thought-provoking and approachable.

JOSH GUENTHER

CREATIVE PRAYER PRACTICES

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

At The Church of the Good Samaritan, we pray “by the book,” as Christians around the world do who keep the traditions of the Anglican Communion. These are the prayers we pray in common out of the treasury that is our Book of Common Prayer. But these written prayers are each themselves offerings of great creative richness. They weave language and theology and Scripture in ways that only happen when the wisdom of the Holy Spirit meets our God-given capacity to create. Longtime parishioner Elrena Evans was so inspired by our tradition of written prayer that she wrote a whole book of creative, meaningful prayers. You can read one of these special prayers at right. Praying from and with our creativity is beautifully consistent with Anglican tradition.

Melodee Stephens, our Good Sam Creative Director, recently introduced me to the creative prayer practice C.S. Lewis called Festooning. Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, who prayed the Lord’s Prayer one phrase at a time amplifying and expanding each, Lewis would slowly pray through portions of Scripture, embellishing creatively as he went. As Melodee explained it to me, festooning our prayers can be as simple as personalizing a written prayer with our own concerns. We might pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven… including your work in me and my relationships with those around me... and that difficult conversation I must have today.”

One more idea to try is a practice called Visio Divina. Like Lectio Divina, the better known practice of sacred reading, Visio Divina (meaning “divine seeing”) provides a quiet space for attention and encounter. First, we take a moment to quiet our souls and slow our breathing. Then, we meditate imaginatively on a work of art, listening, and perhaps journaling. The aim is to reflect on truth with mind and with heart. The works of art shared in The Samaritan Weekly email each week can all be prayed with in this imaginative way.

Writing our own prayers, perhaps following the form of Anglican collects, prayerfully festooning Scripture—Psalm 23 is wonderful for this—or imaginatively engaging with a work of art are all ways of slowing down in order to attend to God with our full, creative selves.

When we actively engage our creativity in prayer, we bring more of ourselves into God’s presence and give God more of our attention.

The French philosopher Simone Weil famously wrote that “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” In a world of distractions and short attention spans may prayer be for each of us a spacious place of freedom, rest, and joy.

BY ELRENA EVANS

“If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up— into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.”

L.M. MONTGOMERY, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

When do you feel a prayer? For me, I feel a prayer when I dance. In moments when my heart finds itself without words, I pray through movement. Dance is my prayer.

Perhaps you pray through running, through gardening, through painting. Perhaps a delicious home-cooked meal is your prayer.

In The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence says that washing dishes is a prayer! This season, I encourage you to try some different creative prayer practices. Here are a few suggestions:

• Recite the Jesus Prayer on a walk.

• Take five minutes to thank God for each of your five senses.

• At every red light, note a place you’ve seen God in your day.

• Try re-writing a psalm in your own words, or writing your own collects. Whatever you choose, I pray that our creative God will meet you there, in delightful and unexpected ways.

PRAYER: FOR MOMENTS OF DELIGHT God of infinite delight, thank you for the many ways we see your fingerprints on this world. Help us to not lose sight of the joy and delight you created, both in this earth we inhabit and in the beloved children who dwell here. Show us delight in small and unexpected ways, Lord. Catch us by surprise. We are ready and willing to be amazed by you, today and always. Amen.

From Special Grace: Prayers and Reflections for Families with Special Needs by Elrena Evans, InterVarsity Press, 2022.

BY BONNIE O’NEIL

Several years ago I grew fatigued with my prayer life. Not just bored. Downright fatigued. My prayers felt more like a holy shopping list or Dear Santa letter than they did deep communion with God. Pressing into what I noticed led me to seek out a spiritual director, which led me to become trained as a spiritual director, which led to my discovery of Centering Prayer. Centering Prayer offers us a space to quiet our noisy minds as we replace our wordy prayers with silence so we might center ourselves on the person and presence of the Lord. Anchoring ourselves in a word or phrase that best describes what we need to know or experience about God in this season, we come to God in silence. Repeating our centering word when our minds naturally wander returns us to enjoying the presence of God. Practicing Centering Prayer has helped me be more settled in my spirit all throughout the day and has taught me a way to access the presence of God whether in my devotional times, in a checkout line, or in the other in-between moments of my day.

DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES FOR PRAYER PRACTICES

CREATIVE PRAYER: Festooning CREATIVE PRAYER: Lectio Divina CREATIVE PRAYER: Visio Divina CREATIVE PRAYER: Centering Prayer

WE ASKED: WHAT PRAYERS HAVE BEEN MEANINGFUL TO YOU?

MARY ERNST

A prayer I turn to from Teresa of Ávila:

Let nothing disturb you; Let nothing frighten you; All things are passing away, God never changes. Patience obtains all things Whoever has God lacks nothing… God alone suffices.

This speaks to me as I am often fearful, fretful, and tossed about by the tempests of my life.

JEFF DILL

I return to the prayer For Quiet Confidence from Prayers for Family and Personal Life, BCP p. 832:

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CAROL KUNIHOLM

The prayer I return to most often:

Show me what love looks like. Show me a wise path forward. Show me how to get through the day. Show me who you say I am. Show me where I’m wrong. Show me what I’ve been given and how to use that more faithfully. Show me how to serve you better. Show me how to pray.

That simple prayer began when I was a young parent and realized that there was little in my family background that prepared me to parent my own children well. In some moments of depression and desperation I prayed “Show me” and God began to show me his own great love for me and what that

love would look like extended to my children, husband, and others around me. That simple prayer lifts me from my own perspective, opens the door to seeing in new ways, and has led me on some unexpected adventures. I continue to pray it, in new forms, every day.

RICK ZUCH

The prayer I return to is the Lord’s Prayer. It covers everything (and I take each petition individually and add the praises, thanksgivings and requests that I have). Besides, Jesus gave it to us. How could we do better?

JONATHAN PURIFOY

Petra: Beyond Belief

Songwriters: David Lichens / Trevor Hall / James Messer And from faith to faith we grow Towards the center of the flow Where He beckons us to go Beyond belief, beyond belief Leap of faith without a net Makes us want to hitch our bed Waters never part Until our feet get wet, whoa There’s a deeper place to go Where the road seems hard to hoe He who has begun this work Won’t let it go (let it go!)

During my formative years as a new Christian in high school and college, I started listening to Christian rock, including Petra. Their album-titled song, Beyond Belief, after all these years, still echoes in my mind. I can clearly hear the synthesizer, the crashing cymbals, and the harmonies. The lyrics (set to 80s style rock) continue to encourage this aging believer; reminding me that although I may feel surrounded by the enemy and life’s difficulties, I am actually surrounded by God.

Nurturing Growth

CHRISTIAN FORMATION FOR EVERY AGE

Growing in Knowledge

BY KIMBERLY LINDQUIST, DIRECTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRIES

We have spent time in Good Sam Kids over the last few months growing together in our knowledge of the Sacraments. During our baptism services we enjoyed conversations with our students both recalling our own baptisms and talking about what it means to be baptized. If you would like to be baptized or have your children baptized, please scan here for our baptism interest form.

GROWING

IN COMMUNITY

Our family gatherings have proven to be great opportunities not only for parents in our church to get to know each other better and build community with each other, but for the kids in our church to build their friendships outside of seeing each other on Sunday mornings. We are looking forward to gathering together this summer through church-wide events and with other family events.

Family Events Summer 2024

June 24-28

VBS 2024 SCUBA: Diving Into Friendship with Jesus 9 am – 12 pm

July 13

Family Picnic for families with kids, infants through 18 Offsite location, 5 – 8 pm

PREPARATION FOR HOLY COMMUNION

A group of our elementary students spent several weeks learning and preparing for communion. During this time, students were given the opportunity to join Fr Ellsworth for an interactive look at what happens behind the Altar when we gather for communion each week! We also gathered and baked communion-style bread together and discussed the Biblical symbolism of our ingredients and the process in which we put them together.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT KIMBERLY LINDQUIST, DIRECTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRIES, AT KIMBERLY@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG

After a discussion about what it looks like for us to come together and follow Jesus, one of our students (Eli Yates), brilliantly created a scene of what it looks like to pray and take communion using Legos.

The Green Growing Season

Exploring Ordinary Time through the Lens of Godly Play

BY KIMBERLY LINDQUIST, DIRECTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRIES

Each year in Godly Play, usually in the fall, we wonder together with the children of our church about time. We look together at the Circle of the Church year, which includes a wooden, clock-like calendar that maps out the weeks and seasons of the Church year. The 52 individual liturgically-colored pieces mark the great mysteries of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, the times for getting ready for those mysteries during Advent and Lent, and finally filling in the remaining spaces with the green blocks representing the green growing seasons we often call “ordinary time.” We are reminded that although the pieces look like a clock, we aren’t measuring hours, but weeks and seasons. The Godly Play story reminds us that “It is all here. Everything we need. For every beginning there is an ending, and for every ending there is a beginning. It goes on and on, forever and ever.” When we consider in each season there is a purpose, we can remember that ordinary time is not ordinary at all, but counted, sacred time. This time allows us to grow in our knowledge and love of our Creator.

GROWING THROUGH CREATIVITY

Godly Play is a Montessori-based curriculum that emphasizes the whole personhood of children, nurtures belief and faith through wondering and play, and models the liturgical life of the church through stories, symbols, and rituals. Godly Play uses the physical

environment of the room as well as natural materials and other elements to help convey the richness of Christianity and our tradition. In a time when so many of us are attached to screens and the toys advertised for even our youngest come with flashing lights and blaring sound effects, our Godly Play room stands out as a different sort of place, one for encountering in reverence. It is a place of co-creation and worship. As a ministry, we are particularly focused on offering our children and their families a rich feast of real things, giving our littles not just “Don’t do that!” but instead “Taste and See!” We want to give them real things, important things—the good, the true, the beautiful. Leah Sioma

CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF THE CREATOR

Each week at the end of our lesson, the children line up in front of a mirror at the door. A sign on the mirror says, “You are wonderfully made by God.” I take each child to the mirror and I say their name. “Look into the mirror. Do you see yourself? You are wonderfully made by God. He loves you.” Then the children return to their classrooms and are given time to respond to the story through art and play. Victoria Ellsworth

Godly Play set for the Parable of the Good Shepherd

YOUTH MINISTRY

One Hundred Five

BY JESSICA CAMPBELL, DIRECTOR OF STUDENT MINISTRY

At the winter youth leader’s meeting, I gave everyone a piece of paper and asked them to see how many students they could list in two minutes. This spring, I handed each of them a printed packet of 105 names, every student in grades 5 – 12 listed in our Realm database, and asked them to write a fact about as many students as they could. Then we shared.

Charlie loves Doctor Who.

Renee lives for cheerleading.

Isaac can draw a perfect Verizon flip phone.

Liv runs track and has a killer voice.

Zachary does color guard.

Stephen plays hockey.

Mark is involved in Focus.

And A LOT of our students live and breathe soccer.

Our leaders and students have had lots of great conversations this spring as we have gone through the Alpha Youth Film Series on Sunday nights. “Is God real?” “Why does bad stuff happen to good people?” “Was Jesus actually God?” “Who is the Holy Spirit anyway?” “How can we fight evil?” “Why should we care about the church?” But the reality of youth ministry is that most of these conversations never would have happened without the conversations about soccer, cheerleading, or flip phones happening first.

There is a principle in youth ministry (and life, really) that my time on Young Life staff drilled into me—you have to earn the right to be heard. Gone are the days (if they ever existed) of strictly positional influence, and relational equity is more important than I think it has ever been. Parents, teachers, and youth leaders have positions of authority to be sure, but the level of impact can be strongly linked to the amount of time and effort we put into building relationships with those we lead.

Our leadership team is ready to race go karts, play mini golf and sing karaoke with students like we did on the spring retreat. We are ready to show up at plays and sporting events with ridiculous signs and loud voices. We are willing to strap on harnesses and zip-line at Urban Air, get lost in corn mazes, grab coffee on a Tuesday afternoon, or just sit on a couch and ask students what the best and worst part of their last week was. And we want to do this for every single name on this list of 105 students and then some, we want to show up for students on Sundays, and Mondays and Tuesdays… whether youth events are the right fit for them or not. How can we start learning facts about and building relational equity with your student?

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT JESSICA CAMPBELL, DIRECTOR OF STUDENT MINISTRY, AT JESSICA@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG

1. The Middle School Mystery Tour goes bowling. 2. Giant Nacho Table on the spring retreat. 3. We highly recommend gaming with your leader. 4. A cold day at the beach on the spring retreat. 5. Go Kart racing on the Boardwalk. 6. Club 56 diving into the Bible.

YOUTH MINISTRY

Creative Youth

The Trial of the Big Bad Wolf, Matilda Jr, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, and two dazzling renditions of Willy Wonka—Good Sam Youth leaders enjoyed a wide variety of student performances this school year. One of the highlights was seeing Senior Garty Bowersox take the stage as the Candy Man himself, the lead in Phil-Mont Christian’s Willy Wonka musical. Garty has jumped head first into serving at Good Sam since his family began attending, as a member of a New Chapel Lunch Team and the Good Sam Youth Worship Team. He attended the middle school Fall Breakaway retreat as a student leader this year, and has helped lead music at the Good Sam Kids’ family Christmas service and Vacation Bible School. Garty has a heart for sharing his faith with those around him and is excited to be attending Messiah University in the fall where he will study theater and English education. His high school drama director, Will Liegel, has been a great influence in his life, and he one day hopes to do the same for young drama students looking to use their talents both to entertain people and to honor God.

Youth Events Summer/Fall 2024

June 11 – August 13

Youth Summer Bible Study

Tuesday evenings, 6 – 8 pm

(offsite: email for address)

June 2 – August 18

Club 56

Sundays, during the 9 am and 11:15 am services

June 24 – 29

VBS and the Middle School Week on Mission

July 6 – 13

Standing Rock

Mission Trip

August 1

Reading

Phillies Game 7 pm

August 16

Family

Bowling Night 5 – 9 pm, Devon Lanes

August 25

Pancake Breakfast

August 27

Ice Cream Social and Parent Night 6 – 8 pm West Lawn

September 3

Good Sam Youth Launches

Tuesdays, 6 – 8 pm

September 8

Good Sam Youth Core Groups Launch Sundays, 10:10 – 11:10 am

September 27 – 29

Breakaway Middle School Retreat

7. Beads and ice cream on the Middle School Mystery Tour. 8. This year four youth (and two youth leaders) were confirmed by Bishop Gutiérrez. 9. High school girls small group. 10. Selfies with middle school girls.

Good Sam News

College Ministry

BY DAN GARRISON EDWARDS, COLLEGE/CCO CAMPUS MINISTRY

In January of 2023, I began to feel a burden around our Donuts&Discussion ministry at West Chester University. I continually encountered this nagging question as I prayed: “Why is a church in Paoli nurturing relationships at WCU when there are so many churches a stone’s throw away from campus?” I let the question sit, and we continued to do the work the Spirit has entrusted to us. In March of that year I met the American Baptist pastor Evan at WCU’s “Better Together Day” hosted by the university’s interfaith organization. The Baptist Church of West Chester is on High St. and right on the walk from campus to downtown.

Evan was curious about Donuts&Discussion, so Katie and I invited him to check it out. My good friend Chris from Westminster Presbyterian also began to ask about our donut table. How did we do it? What was our “vibe”? How did we choose questions for the white board? I told Chris to “come and see.”

After much prayer and discussion, Spring of 2024 marked our last semester facilitating Donuts&Discussion at West Chester University. But it is far from dead. Instead, we have handed it over to Chris and Evan to continue this wonderful ministry of conversation and free donuts. I am so very proud that the Spirit nurtured and grew this ministry through Katie and I. But I am even more overjoyed that over a year ago, the Holy Spirit heard my question, and raised up ministers of the Gospel in West Chester to facilitate this ministry of hospitality in their own community.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” 1 CORINTHIANS 3. 6

Pastoral Care

Are you in need of pastoral care? The Pastoral Care Team is composed of clergy and laity, bringing their own field of experience and expertise to minister collectively to the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of our community.

If you are in need of a listening ear, a phone call, or a friendly visit, we encourage you to reach out! We are also able to provide meals, loan medical equipment, and assist with transportation needs to and from church, or occasional medical appointments or shopping trips. For those unable to join in our communal worship, Holy Communion can be shared by taking consecrated elements from our altars, along with the wrapper, inserts, and a brief summary of the Sunday sermon, to those who are homebound or in the hospital. And as we enter the transition from earthly life to eternal life, sometimes expected, often not, the clergy spend counseling time with the family and friends of loved ones, explaining the bereavement and grieving process, funeral preparations, and offering a faith-based course in Walking the Mourner’s Path.

Our goal is to be a compassionate presence in the name of Jesus Christ, who, as the ultimate Caregiver, has commanded us to love and care for those around us.

TO CONTACT THE PASTORAL CARE TEAM, PLEASE EMAIL MARCIA WILKINSON AT MARCIA.WILKINSON@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG

Welcome Buttons

If you’ve noticed a small red circle with the Good Sam logo on someone’s jacket or lapel, congratulations! You’ve spotted a visitor to our church. These small red markers were created with the intent of making sure every visitor to Good Sam is welcomed… and we need your help to do so!

But what about when you see someone you don’t recognize, and they aren’t wearing anything that signifies them as a visitor? Perhaps you want to go up and say hi, but it feels awkward. What if they’re longtime members, and you just don’t recognize them? What if you’re sure you’ve never seen them before, but then they recognize you?

Be encouraged: these small moments of awkwardness can pass quickly, and maybe a brand-new friendship is on the other side. It’s okay to say “Hi”! It’s okay to ask what service they attend. Most people will remember a friendly smile and a greeting long after any awkwardness has passed. So go ahead: say hello, and welcome to Good Sam!

God’s creativity started with a garden. And Good Sam’s garden is in full bloom!

Have you been to visit our community garden? Perhaps you joined us for our rainy Rogation Sunday procession on May 5. Whatever the weather, you are always welcome in the garden.

Located on the west side of the church near the Paoli Pike entrance, the purpose of the community garden is to grow food, knowledge, and relationships, and to bring glory to God and blessing to ourselves and others. On any given day you can see butterflies, bees, flowers, and food—come, step inside the gate and see what’s growing!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE, EMAIL COMMUNITYGARDEN@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG.

Good Samaritan Day School Chapel

BY BARB CONDIT, DAY SCHOOL DIRECTOR

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning in the Chapel, our little ones at the Good Samaritan Day School attend a chapel service led by Kimberly Lindquist, Director of Family Ministries, and Josh Guenther, New Chapel Director of Music. Through story and song, our primary goal is that every child knows that God loves them, no matter how different we are from one another.

Some of us have blue eyes, some have brown eyes, some of us have light hair and some of us have dark hair. We wear different clothes and our parents have different traditions and careers. We celebrate our differences, and together we learn that God loves each of us! Kimberly tells us every week to tell someone that God loves them and wants to be their friend. Along with the service, coordinated coloring sheets and in-class lessons convey God’s message in a fun, loving way.

Each week, Kimberly also tells us a Bible story from our Jesus Story Book Bible. One of our favorite stories is “The Good Samaritan,” our namesake! Kimberly climbs up in the newly-refurbished stained glass window depicting the Good Samaritan to tell this story. I remember when my own children attended the Day School back in the 1990s, Fr Dan would jump up into this same window to tell the story as well.

Parents are always welcome to attend chapel, especially when their child is a “chapel helper.” It is a big deal for these little ones to light the candles and carry the cross!

We hope every child who attends the Day School goes home each day knowing that God loves them and wants to be their friend.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE GOOD SAMARITAN DAY SCHOOL, CONTACT BARB CONDIT, DAY SCHOOL DIRECTOR AT BARB.CONDIT@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG

Holy Week 2024

Our journey from Lent to Easter culminated with Holy Week. From the Maundy Thursday footwashing and stripping of the altar, through the last words of Christ on Good Friday, through the emptiness of the graveside service on Holy Saturday, and finally to the triumphant celebration of the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, we walked, together, the path that Jesus took for us.

From sorrow to joy. From darkness to light. From desolation to the ultimate victory.

The various services of Holy Week combined to give us a richer experience of the fullness of the Easter promise. Many parishioners who were able to attend all or most of the services noted how meaningful it was to reenact the Easter story in this way. And we hold onto that Easter journey, going forward, as we say: We remember his death, We proclaim his resurrection, We await his coming in glory.

Confirmation and Bishop Visitation

“ Strengthen, O Lord, your servant N. with your Holy Spirit; empower him for your service; and sustain him all the days of his life. Amen.”

Thirteen confirmands heard Bishop Gutiérrez say these words as he placed his hands on their heads during the combined service for confirmation on March 17. Four parishioners were also received into this church. It was a time of reflection, welcome, and celebration, as the congregation renewed our baptismal vows and then stood with the confirmands, both physically and spiritually.

Liam Barasa, one of the confirmands, had this to say about the experience: “Confirmation was meaningful to me because I got to learn a lot. I feel like I have gotten a lot closer to God. My understanding has grown a lot about more things about Christianity.”

May we all be so strengthened, empowered, and sustained!

Have you seen the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania’s YouTube Shorts series, Places of Belonging? Scan QR to watch the video of Good Sam, taken on Confirmation Sunday!

ADULT CHRISTIAN FORMATION

Virtues & Vices

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

When I was a young woman, I met a pastor at a Christian retreat center. One night over dinner, he shared how his faith and life had been transformed when he encountered the stories and teachings of the desert fathers and mothers. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Christian monastics from the Egyptian desert had not figured large in my Sunday School education, but I immediately latched onto his comment. Somehow I knew he had shared a path with me I needed to remember though at the time I had never heard the word “patristics” and could not fathom how to initiate an encounter with ancient desert wisdom.

Dr. Chris Hall, the teacher of our recent Christian Formation series on Virtues & Vices, is a patristics scholar, a gifted teacher, and a humble guide to the Christian life of transformation. I have been blessed as much by the knowledge he offers in these classes as by the personal testimonies he shares each week of having been himself set free from vices like pride and anger. If, like me, you have missed attending in person, these teachings are all available on the Good Samaritan YouTube channel. Beginning with pride and progressing through topics like anger, lust, fear, envy, and sloth (to name only the first six classes), Dr. Hall gently invites us to consider the vices that may have a hold on us. I admit that this self-examination is not something I generally feel eager to do, but my eyes have been opened to the high price I pay when I remain unwilling to see myself truly. Dr. Hall’s primary encouragement is that when we submit to being changed by our gentle shepherd Jesus, we are set free to love. With love as the goal, virtues like humility, kindness, fidelity, courage, and equanimity begin to seem more and more desirable.

“Admitting my pride hurts. Not admitting my pride hurts others.”

CHRIS HALL / SESSION 1: PRIDE

“A lengthening of memory is an antidote to fear.”

CHRIS HALL / SESSION 4: FEAR

“Every vice is rooted in an inability to see clearly… the only fruit of envy is bitterness.”

CHRIS HALL / SESSION 5: ENVY

Strange as it may seem, the path to this joyful, peaceful, loving life was laid out for us in part by faithful Christians who long ago journeyed into the silence and solitude of the desert. Some of these desert fathers come to vivid life in Dr. Hall’s teaching. I was especially taken with the stories of Abba Moses who was transformed from an angry volcano of a man into a gentle and kind spiritual mentor. Two books recommended in this teaching series are Roberta Bondi’s To Love as God Loves: Conversations With the Early Church and Rebecca DeYoung’s Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies. These would make excellent companions for those of us wishing to embrace the life-changing path Dr. Hall has been illuminating for us.

We live in a world in which so many around us are desperate for happiness and meaning and loving connections with others. We may even feel some of that desperation ourselves. It is ironic—though perhaps

not really surprising—that impoverished but faithful men and women who lived out their faith in the first centuries of the Christian church hold the secret to this kind of life. As Dr. Hall explains it, they walked a path of transformation that begins with being selfishly and insanely curved inward on the self to living more like a planet that revolves around the sun and reflects its good light. God is the one who ultimately brings us from slavery to freedom, but these early fathers and mothers of the church have mapped the way for us. We need not walk on desert sands in order to have our own lives similarly remade, but we can walk the wise path of silence and solitude even in our own times and places because we too have a gentle shepherd who loves us enough to change us.

To watch the Virtues & Vices

Adult Christian Formation series on YouTube, scan the QR code.

JOIN US FOR OUR 10-WEEK SUMMER ADULT CHRISTIAN FORMATION SERIES:

David & God: A Love Story

BEGINS JUNE 16, 10:15 AM, ASHTON HALL

212 West Lancaster Avenue | Paoli, PA 19301

info@good-samaritan.org | 610.644.4040 good-samaritan.org

Connect with the Community

Men’s Picnic / June 26

All men (and their children) are invited to an evening of outdoor fun! Brush up on those yard game skills and come ready to play!

Family Picnic / July 13

All families with kids, infants through 18, are invited to an offsite picnic. To RSVP and receive picnic location, email kimberly@good-samaritan.org.

Church Picnic / September 7

Join our entire church family for an evening of fun. With live music, bounce houses, food, lots of games and the annual corn hole tournament, this is a great event to end your summer.

Upcoming Events

June 16 (through August 18)

Adult Christian Formation Summer series begins: David & God: A Love Story

June 24 – 28

Vacation Bible School

June 24 – 29

Middle School Week on Mission

June 26 | 6 – 8 pm

Men’s Picnic at West Rectory

July 6 – 14

Standing Rock Mission Trip

July 13 | 5 – 8 pm

Picnic for Families with kids infants through 18 years (to be held at an offsite location)

August 1 | 7 pm

Reading Phillies Game

August 16

Family Bowling Night Sponsored by Men’s Ministry

August 25 | 8 am – 1 pm

Pancake Breakfast

August 27 | 6 – 8 pm

Youth Ice Cream Social Parent Night

September 3 | 6 – 8 pm

Good Sam Youth resumes

September 7 | 5 – 8 pm

Church Wide Picnic

September 8

Adult Christian Formation September series begins: God’s Glory, Our Delight

The Samaritan / Summer 2024

The Samaritan

The Lord of the Dance

FROM THE RECTOR’S WARDEN

A Biblically Faithful Church

The Reredos Lives of the Apostles

THE JOY OF THE ORDINARY

CREATIVITY & connection

dance

CREATIVITY

arts

ARTIST PROFILE: TJ WALSH

CREATIVITY music

TOM CONNETT, WORSHIP TEAM MEMBER

EMILY PETERSON, WORSHIP TEAM MEMBER

GIDEON COX, COMPOSER

Prayer the Anglican Way

WE ASKED: WHAT BOOKS ABOUT PRAYER HAVE BEEN HELPFUL IN YOUR PRAYER LIFE?

MORE FOR SUMMER READING

KIMBERLY LINDQUIST

CREATIVE PRAYER PRACTICES

Nurturing Growth

CHRISTIAN FORMATION FOR EVERY AGE

Growing in Knowledge

GROWING

PREPARATION FOR HOLY COMMUNION

The Green Growing Season

Exploring Ordinary Time through the Lens of Godly Play

GROWING THROUGH CREATIVITY

YOUTH MINISTRY

One Hundred Five

YOUTH MINISTRY

Creative Youth

Good Sam News

College Ministry

Pastoral Care

Welcome Buttons

Good Samaritan Day School Chapel

Holy Week 2024

Confirmation and Bishop Visitation

ADULT CHRISTIAN FORMATION

Virtues & Vices

Connect with the Community

Church Picnic / September 7

Upcoming Events