The Samaritan / Winter 2023

The Samaritan

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

CLERGY

Interim Priest-in-Charge

The Rev’d Phillip Channing Ellsworth Jr

Assisting Priest

The Rev’d Marcia

Wilkinson

VESTRY

Louise Barasa

Darren Clipston

Tom Connett

Tammy Cooke

Elrena Evans

Reuben Garrett

Nick Gibson

Gary Henderson

Whitney T. Kuniholm

Ian MacDonald

Jonathan Purifoy

Leah Sioma

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

Contemporary Service, Church

Tuesday, 8:30 am Rite 1, Chapel

The Daily Office

Morning Prayer

Wednesday, 8:30 am Rite 1, Chapel

8:30 am Rite 1, Chapel

STAFF

Director of

Student Ministry

Jessica Campbell

Day School Director

Barb Condit

College / CCO

Campus Minister

Dan Garrison Edwards

Maintenance Director

Connor Gisel

New Chapel

Minister of Music

Josh Guenther

Theologian-in-Residence

Christopher A. Hall

Communications

Barb Hohorst

Director of Family Ministries

Kimberly Lindquist

Photographer-in-Residence

Larry McGill

Writer-in-Residence

Christie Purifoy

College / CCO

Campus Minister

Katie Staronka

Creative Director

Melodee Dill Stephens

Director of Dance Choir

Karen Watkins

Altar Guild Chatelaine

Betsy Williams

Financial Administrator

Betsy Wolford

Director of Music & Interim Parish Administrator

Richard Zuch

Maintenance Team

Alphonse Campanese

Beau McFetridge

Mayrel Vargas

Videntes Stellam

BY THE REV’D PHILLIP CHANNING ELLSWORTH JR

All they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and incense: and shall show forth the praises of the Lord. Arise and shine, O Jerusalem: for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. ISAIAH 60

More than two events of significance happened in Jesus’ life, that he was born and that he was raised from the dead. The liturgical season gives witness to that, and the informing metaphor of the Winter edition of the magazine is the season it spans, Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, and as a kind of inclusio, Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church Year. My own blood has been moved by the winsome, penetrating pieces you’ll find in these pages from Christie Purifoy, Chris Hall, and Josh Guenther. Each meditates, is a chewing of cud, on the God who draws our lowly humanity into the highest precincts of His own action. The whole irrational munificent season flags our imaginations down to reflect on the coming of God’s love to us in the person of God’s only begotten Son. The humble last being first, as this magazine orders things, the Magi arrive to adore Jesus, bringing with them, as it were, the whole world for whom Christ is manifest as King not just of the Jews but of the Gentiles.

Matthew in his gospel wants us to see Jesus as the promised king who was to come, the fulfillment of the covenant of Abraham, that through Abraham’s royal seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. His gospel ends with The Great Commission where Jesus, after his death and resurrection, commands his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything

I’ve commanded you. And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” His gospel ends with this global perspective. It also begins with it. Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus’ human ancestry that emphasizes all the non-Jewish members of his lineage, the Gentiles who were incorporated by faith. In that genealogy we find the wife of Judah who was a Gentile, a Canaanite woman. Rahab the harlot, again a Canaanite woman. And Ruth the Moabitess who adopted the people of God as her people when she said to her mother-in-law Naomi, “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1. 16). So in Matthew then we have early in Jesus’ life these magi whose appearance represents the first fruits of this wonderful harvest of international, multilingual people of God that God has always desired for his own. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever’” (Revelation 11. 15).

We celebrate Epiphany on January 6 because the magi likely began their journey about 900 miles east of Nazareth. Picture a trip, by camel, from Good Samaritan to St Louis, Missouri. (If you listen carefully to the Alleluia and Verse the Good Samaritan Choir sings at Gospel processions—a piece written by my friend Bill Trafka, which the St Bartholomew’s Choir

The title of this essay comes from the antiphon for the Feast of the Epiphany: Videntes stellam, Magi gavisi sunt gaudio magno, et intrantes domum obtulerunt Domino aurum, thus et myrrham. Translation: Seeing the star, the Magi rejoiced with great joy; entering the house, they offered the Lord gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

premiered on the Feast of the Epiphany 1996 in the liturgy that ordained me a priest—you can hear camels plodding westward across the Levant.) By the time these Gentile sorcerers paid tribute to Jesus, Mary’s son was perhaps two years old.

Magi are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. In Daniel chapter two they’re translated as sorcerers or enchanters. In Acts we read about a magus named Simon, and another named Elymas. Magi were involved in the black arts, in the occult. They cast spells. They did the kinds of things that would have made Madame Blavatsky’s hair stand on end.

So what we see in the passage from Matthew (2. 1 – 12) appointed for the Feast of the Epiphany and read throughout the world, is the advent of Jesus the Savior who comes not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The magi are trophies of God’s grace. Practitioners of the basest sort of Gentile idolatry, they surrender the instruments of their sorcery to him.

They present to him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Why? Because the first tribute you offer to a conquering king is your weapons. Just so, the magi bring the very things they’d used against the Holy One of Israel. The incense they had offered to their gods is now offered to the Lord of lords. The gold they used in various incantations, the myrrh they used to make an ink with which they would write their spells against their enemies, they surrendered it to him as tribute.

That’s what worship is. Not flattery, not telling God, your cosmic buddy, what a great guy he is. But prostrating yourself before the Most High, falling down, lying low at his feet. It’s as in the last stanza of In the Bleak Midwinter. “What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man—a magus—I would do my part; Yet what can I give Him? Give Him my heart.”

We know that, just in terms of the timing, the whole celebration of Christmas and Epiphany assumes a counterfactual relationship to astrology. Starting from the Year of our Lord 336, the Western Church appointed December 25 as the day to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus. Why that date? It had to

do wholly with the fact that the major competing religion dominant in the Roman Empire at that time, particularly among the military, was Mithraism. Mithras’ birthday was celebrated on December 25. Mithraism was a men’s only club and a religion of astrology, and— because Mithras was a god of war—it glorified military prowess.

So when Christians in the 4th century decided to celebrate Christ’s birthday on December 25, that’s evangelism. They were saying, ‘No. It’s not Mithras. Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Don’t worship the stars! Worship the one who made them, the one through whom all things were made.’

About sixty years or so before Jesus was born, Cicero, the Roman philosopher and consul, defined a sacramentum as “an oath of loyalty taken by soldiers to the emperor.” That’s what a sacramentum is: an oath of loyalty. We worship by celebrating and eating the Lord’s Supper. It is a sacrament. As we eat it, we are swearing loyalty to Christ the King. Like soldiers, we’re reporting for duty, ready to do whatever the Lord Jesus commands! Tertullian the Church father says, “We are called to an army of God when we respond to the words of the sacrament.”

So as you come to the Altar, as you kneel or stand and make a throne of your hands to receive the sacrament, to take the flesh and blood of Jesus into your souls, your throats, let these words from the Word made flesh ring bells in your Advent / Christmas / Epiphany minds: “Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out.” Jesus saw the entire calling of his life to be one of defeating Satan. The Apostle Paul writes, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

And finally the poet John Milton, in his On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, writes:

See how from far upon the Eastern road The Star-led wizards haste with odors sweet: O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet.

By his muse, Milton sees the magi bearing their gifts as they follow the Star of Bethlehem to the Christ child, and he, being Milton, wants to beat them to the scene! So I ask you. If you could outrun the magi to lay down your tribute; if you could lay words at the wordless one’s feet, what would they be? I choose these:

O Blessed Lord Jesus, our choicest gift, our dearest guest; Let not our souls be busy inns that have no room for you and yours, but quiet homes of prayer and praise, where you may find the best company, where needful cares of life are wisely ordered and put away, and where wide, sweet spaces are kept for you. So when you come again, O Blessed One, may you find all things ready, and your servants waiting for no new master, but for one long loved and known. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

BY JOSH GUENTHER, NEW CHAPEL MINISTER OF MUSIC

CHRIST THE King

Then on the third at break of dawn

The Son of heaven rose again O trampled death where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the King! O PRAISE THE NAME, HILLSONG WORSHIP

I am new to the Anglican tradition. Growing up in a small Baptist church, my interactions with the Christian calendar were limited. Our church celebrated Christmas and Easter. We gathered around an Advent wreath, but we didn’t connect Christ’s incarnation to his present redemptive work.

I am drawn to Anglicanism because it is grounded in the wisdom, teaching, and worship patterns of the historic Church.

My inexperience leads to unexpected discoveries. Innately assuming that every holy day has a long and storied past, I was surprised to learn the Feast of Christ the King was first celebrated in 1925. Pope Pius XI instituted the feast—officially entitled the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe—to honor Jesus as Lord over all creation. It is a magnification of the Feast of the Ascension (celebrated 40 days after Easter), recognizing the present rule of our risen Lord. This naturally leads to a question: Why did Pope Pius XI institute a feast that essentially already existed? Historical context illuminates the purpose of Pius XI’s actions. In the prior decade, secular nationalist revolutions in Mexico and Russia weakened the Church’s influence in those nations. During the same year as the feast’s institution, the Scopes Monkey Trial captured American interest as the role of Christianity in public education was debated. The impact of the Great War still weighed heavily on humanity. The world’s social topography was changing, and Christians were looking for solid answers.

NOVEMBER

At the beginning of his papacy, Pius XI chose a motto: “The Peace of Christ in the Realm of Christ.” His choice illustrates the twin fears of Christians from that era: peace was elusive, and the church’s influence on society was shrinking. Nearly a century later, these fears remain. Our present reality is marred by sin and death. War, injustice, poverty, extremism, hatred—the effects of a fallen world cannot be overstated, nor can they be fully understood. It feels like the world is falling apart because it is falling apart. This is not the way life should be. There’s this deep desire inside each of us that the world can be better. That desire should prompt us to start asking questions: Why are we here? What’s my purpose? Why is there so much fear, hatred, and pain? Can we do anything about that?

Every person is searching for answers to these questions. As Christians, we believe that the answer to these questions is found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is our living hope. This hope is our inheritance through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Death’s present reign is

a mirage. Pius XI wanted to remind us that Christ has already won. He presently reigns as King of the Universe. The power of sin and death was broken upon the cross, and the eternal victory of Christ was secured in His resurrection. As Paul writes to Timothy, “but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 2. 10).

Recognizing Christ as King is liberating and empowering. Yet it is vitally important we do not abuse the liberty and empowerment of the gospel. The gospel is not a free ticket to heaven; it’s an invitation to partner with God in his redemptive work. When we recognize our identity as co-heirs with Christ, we also assume the responsibility of redeeming His creation. The gospel frees us for the mission, not from the mission.

The gospel empowers us to further His Kingdom. Yet we often attempt to craft this Kingdom in our own image rather than Christ’s. The peace and realm of Christ were established not through violent means but through the greatest example of sacrificial love. Philippians 2 reminds us that God highly exalted Christ as Lord because He humbled Himself to the point of death. The path of life is found not through government legislation or any earthly means but through the cross.

DECEMBER

Christ the King Sunday is simultaneously a lament and a reminder. We lament a fallen world that is not yet fully redeemed. Yet we are called to remember the hope of the gospel’s restorative work. We are called to remember that Christ reigns as Lord and King of the Universe. And finally, we are called to join in the mission of God, restoring His good creation by spreading the hope and peace of the gospel: Christ is King!

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER IN RESIDENCE

An Advent Interruption

While advertisers promote the number of shopping days left till Christmas, we in the Church of the Good Samaritan— alongside Christians around the globe—prepare to embrace the interruption that is Advent. These weeks before Christmas might seem to flow smoothly on a tide of consumption and sentiment. Flush with candy canes and Jolly Saint Nick, with twinkly lights and gingerbread, Advent is the one season of the church year we might be tempted to relegate to the Sunday school and nursery crowd. Yet each year, newspaper headlines offer up enough suffering and tragedy to leave even the most mature among us craving a sugar-sweet distraction from the darkness of December. But is this the best that Advent offers us?

As a mother of four, I am no stranger to the countdown approach to December. With my children, I have opened tiny windows in Advent calendars, dropped small gifts and candies into each of twenty-four mittens on an Advent garland, and one year even helped my youngest to snip off one ring each day from a construction paper chain she had stapled and scotch-taped together “all by myself.” My children believe themselves too old for Advent calendars, but I still pull out my favorite every year: a large cardboard replica of a snow-covered house in which each window reveals a family preparing for the holidays with bustling coziness. I am unashamed to admit I desperately want my own home to ooze as much Christmas cheer as this illustrated cardboard calendar dream. Still, I recognize that whether our motivation is commercial or sentimental, this counting of days has the potential to blunt the sharp edge of this season. Because Advent is an interruption.

Our Scripture readings from the lectionary for November and December quickly dissolve any spoonful-of-sugar notions we may hold about Advent. For one, John the Baptist is a central character, and as far as I know there are no popular holiday cartoons about the saint who ate locusts and cried out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the kingdom of God!”

Upon closer inspection even Mary—blessed mother, God-bearer—who appears so meek and mild in all the decorative nativity scenes we set out this time of year, sings a song that is more like a victorious battle cry than a lullaby. Indeed, if we enter Advent in the posture of Mary—be it unto me according to thy word—we may find we’ve embraced a sword to the heart.

Of course, most of our days are “counted.”

We count the days until vacation, we count the days until we recover from the flu, we count the days until our savings account is full, or until our child is home again and safe. Always, we are looking ahead, but Advent interrupts our days by insisting we are not looking far enough ahead. Each Sunday, we recite, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again,” but do we believe it? And are we so busy counting our days that we have missed Christ’s coming to us this day? For the Christ who promised to be with us till the end of the age would reveal himself to us today, if only, like his disciples, we would not persist in drifting off to sleep.

Perhaps we count our days like one with insomnia counts sheep: to distract ourselves from fear, from sorrow, and from the growing darkness of yet another winter. In her collection of Advent sermons, Fleming Rutledge reminds us—needfully—of the obvious: “Advent begins in great darkness.” In her words, the “purpose” of this season “is to take an unflinching inventory of darkness. That’s why the Anglican tradition refuses to celebrate Christmas until Christmas Eve. It’s one of the very best things about us, one of the things we really do well. Our liturgy is designed to show that we are willing to refuse the easy comforts of the commercial Christmas. Advent is an exercise in delayed gratification.”

This Advent path of “delayed gratification” isn’t for the sole purpose of self-denial. It isn’t so we at the Church of the Good Samaritan can feel superior to those Christians who are already indulging in full Christmas revelry. Rather, by beginning in darkness, we can receive a message

of hope that is too easily missed in a world bent always on soothing itself back to sleep. Sleep is certainly the more comfortable choice. In sleep, we are eased from sunset to sunrise—from light to light. It takes courage to keep awake through all the long hours of the night with lamps trimmed like bridesmaids waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. Those who have stayed up all night know exactly how dark the night can be.

Here again, John the Baptist is a meaningful figure. He proclaimed the coming Christ with boldness, but in the darkness of Herod’s prison, he was beset by doubts. He was, Jesus told us, “more than a prophet,” yet he worried: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

John’s ministry had been interrupted by his arrest, and he had time to consider the reports he was hearing about the deeds of the Christ. The man he had baptized was performing many miracles, but did it really matter? I imagine John thinking, “The blind see and the lame walk, but aren’t I still in prison? And aren’t we all still in the prison of the Empire? I thought the light, when it came, would be brighter.”

Forgive me if I make John a mouthpiece for my own secret doubts, but I assume we’ve been reading the same newspaper headlines lately, so can you blame me? The small lights of the Advent season, these candlelights and twinkly lights, seem hardly to make a difference in a world that is, year after year, still so deadly dark. If we have trusted to the soothing act of counting down our days, perhaps it is simply because it hurts so much to stay awake and aware of the hurts in this world. Wouldn’t it be easier to sleep away the night, unseeing all that is wrong in the world out there and all that is wrong in the world of our own hearts?

In her book by the same name, Madeleine L’Engle calls Advent “the Irrational Season.” The name is apt because no other stretch of days in our church calendar stretches to encompass so much paradox and so many contradictions: Advent is a beginning in which we consider the end. We prepare for Christmas and Christ’s first coming as a way of preparing for his second. And if Mary’s heart is pierced, she has also, according to her song, been filled with good things. Contradictions like these are bumps in the road, and they are why Advent can feel so disruptive. But disruption is a gift when we have fallen asleep and are in danger of missing the hope that comes to those who wait—eyes wide open—in the dark.

Each year at Advent, I fill my home with cozy comforts like the ones I love in my cardboard calendar house: candlelight, baking smells, and It’s A Wonderful Life on the television. But my hope is that these seasonal comforts are exactly that: comforting but not soporific during these days that invite us to explore the wildest paradox of all: we wait for that which we already possess. We long for a time when the Light of Christ will be so bright we will have no more need of the sun, yet even now we are filled as Mary was filled, “to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3. 19). Because of Christ, we feel how dark the dark is—out there and in ourselves. Because of Christ, we are filled to the brim with Light. What a painful yet wonderful privilege it is to wait for our Lord in the dark as children of Light who walk—always, now and forever—in the Light.

Dark and light. Doubt and faith. Emptiness and fullness. The Christ who will come again is also Emmanuel, God with us. The cave of the nativity becomes the empty tomb, and death is swallowed up by life, though now we perceive this glorious reality like one peering through a tiny calendar window. Welcome, Church of the Good Samaritan, to the irrational season. Welcome to Advent.

FAMILY & YOUTH MINISTRIES

Meaningful Memories

OBSERVING THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR FOR FAMILIES

BY KIMBERLY LINDQUIST, DIRECTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRIES

As our calendar year comes to a close and we enter into the season of Advent, the church year is getting ready to begin again. The first Sunday of Advent, December 3, marks the beginning of the liturgical calendar. In her book Advent, a book in the series The Fullness of Time, Tish Harrison Warren writes, “We begin our Christian year in waiting. We do not begin with our own frenetic effort or energy. We do not begin with the merriment of Christmas or the triumph of Easter. We do not begin with the work of the church or the mandate of the Great Commission. Instead, we begin in a place of yearning.”

If you’re like me, you may be inclined to begin listening to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving, or maybe even before! In our family, we typically spend December baking cookies, looking at lights, decorating the house, and getting presents ready. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle in the big countdown to Christmas, especially with kids! The excitement builds with anticipation, and the stress, of Christmas Day. My children are one and three years old, but if you have children of any age, this may sound familiar. Christmas morning arrives and the kids manage to wake up extra early, zip out of bed and begin checking out the presents. In our home we always start with cinnamon rolls, but before lunchtime, the gifts are opened and the kids are busy with them. We often enjoy time with family or go to church and everyone goes to bed having had a wonderful Christmas!

That is until everyone wakes up on the morning of December 26 and the post-Christmas feelings set in. Christmas is over, now what?

I have found myself looking for ways throughout the year that my family can make special memories and traditions while also orienting our lives around the life of Jesus. The liturgical year draws me in and invites me to participate in the ancient practices of some of the earliest Christians. In her book, Sacred Seasons, Danielle Hitchen writes “[The liturgical year] anchors us in God’s great story, calling us to remember together the work God has done for us.” Participating in these traditions is not merely an individual activity, but one that joins us with Christians, past and present, around the world. Hitchen explains that the biblical sense of remembering is more like the idea of “experiencing again or bringing to life.” By practicing the discipline of remembering or experiencing each season and the unique story that it tells, we are able to take notice of what God has done in the past, is doing now, and what is to come. This is a practice that requires us to slow down and refocus. Observing the liturgical calendar is a form of spiritual formation. Through it, we have been given a yearlong guide to experience again and again the story of God’s love and the history of His people. If we are able to enter into Advent embracing the waiting and allowing ourselves to sit in the hope that comes with awaiting the coming of Christ, rather than jumping straight into Christmas music and cookies, we open ourselves up to remembering the pure joy when Christmas comes. In the liturgical calendar the Christmas season lasts from December 25 through January 5. When we allow these extended days of the season to remain full of Christmas spirit and celebration we not only buffer the disappointment at the end of the day on December 25, but also prolong the celebration of Jesus’ birth. This requires some discipline! Depending on your family, your existing traditions, and your children, there are many ways you can adopt new practices into your annual traditions. It can be overwhelming to know where to begin. Jess Campbell and I have compiled a list of some activities for families and children of various ages. If you’re interested in going deeper, we have also included some helpful books and resources!

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

Here are some reminders if you’re hoping to observe the liturgical year with your family and kids. Don’t try to do it all! Try one new activity for the upcoming season and see how it goes. Don’t worry if things don’t go as planned—if you have children, you know that things rarely do, but sometimes they end up better! And have fun! Find practices and activities that you are drawn to and that you will also enjoy!

Advent Resources and more!

BY KIMBERLY LINDQUIST, DIRECTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRIES, AND JESSICA CAMPBELL, DIRECTOR OF STUDENT MINISTRY

JESSE

TREE ORNAMENTS

► This storybook and optional ornaments provide a great look for children at Jesus’ family tree to help them learn more about many of the people in God’s story!

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas, by Ann Voskamp, available on Amazon

► During adolescent development, it is normal for teenagers not to join in with every family activity. Faithward’s printable Jesse Tree ornaments and readings allow students to take ownership of this Advent tradition. Visit faithward.org/jesse-tree/printable-jessetree-ornaments/

FAMILY ACTIVITIES

► Nativity scenes can be utilized for further conversation by discussing each of the characters at the beginning of Advent and where they might be at the beginning of the season. Find different places throughout the home to represent Heaven, shepherds fields, Nazareth, Persia etc. Slowly move each of the characters into the empty thresh as the season progresses.

► Advent Calendars are a great way to count down the days to Christmas! Consider adding scripture readings to each day to read together!

► Scripture Union’s God’s Promise Kept – 2023 Advent Celebration Kit provides a sticker to place on a tree each day along with a candle to light and a passage of scripture to read. This option is great for younger kids! Visit store.scriptureunionresources.com/godspromise-kept-2023-advent-celebration-kit/

► Advent Cards with activities and questions to spark meaningful moments of conversation. Parent Cue by Orange Leaders offers a beautiful set of 25 cards and is customizable. Visit thinkorange.com and search “advent.”

FAMILY DEVOTIONS AND CONVERSATION STARTERS

► Spending some time each day doing family devotions or having conversations about Advent is a great way for the whole family to refocus.

All Creation Waits ― Children’s Edition: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings for Children, by Gayle Boss, available on Amazon

► The Names of Jesus devotional is available as a free pdf download, and has adjustable activity and discussion ideas for different situations, so families can be creative. Each daily encounter takes no more than 10 or 15 minutes, with a bonus longer idea for weekends.

Names of Jesus Family Devotional Visit youthministry.com/wp-content/upload/ymprod/Advent-FamilyDevotional.pdf

► Great digital devotionals are available for older students. The YouVersion Bible app provides plans that can be read on their phones solo or with others. Bible Project’s Advent Guide and Word Studies Advent Series videos are also great resources.

Visit bibleproject.com/guides/advent/ for the Advent Guide.

Visit bibleproject.com/explore/category/advent-series/ for the video series.

A FAMILY GUIDE FOR THE YEAR

► The time-honored traditions of the liturgical calendar guide Christians through a year-long meditation on the life of Christ. With fun activities, recipes, and meaningful liturgies, the writer helps guide you into rhythms and rituals of observing the liturgical year with your family.

Sacred Seasons: A Family Guide to Center Your Year Around Jesus, by Danielle Hitchen

ADVENT BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS – ADULTS

► Advent: The Season of Hope, by Tish Harrison Warren, part of the Fullness of Time series

► Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us, Then, Here, and Now by Scott Erickson

► Silent Nights: Advent Reflections for Hearts in Crisis by Kristen Lavalley

YEARLONG REFLECTIONS – ADULTS

► The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year, by KC Ireton

► The Book of Common Courage: Prayers and Poems to Find Strength in Small Moments by KJ Ramsey

► The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days, by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie

For Upcoming Children and Youth Events, see the back cover!

A Tradition of Celebration

BY LEAH SIOMA, PARISHIONER AND VESTRY MEMBER

This Advent season, our family will be celebrating with a Jesse tree tradition, which is a daily practice of hanging an ornament on a tree. In Isaiah 11. 1, it says, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” So the idea is that each ornament is one of these “shoots,” each a representation of a person in Jesus’ lineage. From Noah to Ruth to Jonah to Joseph, Jesus’ family tree is featured. The boys get a kick out of adding an ornament to the tree each day, and we talk together about the men and women who make up the crooked, strange, overlooked, and magical story of our Christian family tree.

I’ve become captivated by the idea of traditions in our home and our life together. These traditions are anchors for our children’s memories. They are a way to connect these little years through to the older ones to come. In the blur of sleepless nights, diaper changing, and constantly lost shoes, they are a way to remember and cherish this brief time we have together.

And with that, their cyclical nature is important. They’re reliable, enjoyable experiences we can wait on and then meet. After Good Friday, we will always have Easter. In our story, death never wins. With Christ, life always bursts forth.

Moreover, traditions are celebrations. There is so much good in the world, and these traditions are a way to mark those important things and explain their meaning. We break out the candles because this time is extra special! We make once-a-year cookie recipes because this birth is worth the extra effort. We (quite literally) glow up our homes to share the cheer and comfort of our Savior being born. In all of this, our kids are ever so slowly developing an appetite for what is worth loving, what is worth effort and time, what it means to be a Christian.

A Jesse Tree is a way to live into the Christian tradition together, with all of its truth and goodness and beauty. I hope it’s something the boys remember together 20 years from now. I hope it’s something that they look forward to each year and that relates the specialness (and frankly, strangeness) of the people God chooses to serve and to lead. And I hope it wraps them further into our church together.

(In case you’ve met my rambunctious boys and are now wondering about the safety of toddlers handling 31 ornaments, I’d like to reassure you I made fabric ones. Any nice things are mostly non-breakable things in our home!)

Rafe, David, Theo, Leah, and Ambrose Sioma

The Sioma Family’s set of Jesse Tree Ornaments

2023 Christmas Tree Sale

Begins Friday, Nov. 24, 1 – 5 pm

Saturdays 9 am – 6 pm

Sundays 10 – 11 am; 1 – 5 pm (Until sold out)

The Christmas tree sale this year will be focused on ‘sharing a little bit of Christmas’ with those who come to buy trees. We will advertise our Christmas service times and share information about the HELPS ministry and how it provides assistance to those in need.

The sale will include small gift items. Over 100 pint-jars of Plum, Peach, and Elderberry Jam will be ready for sale with a suggested donation of $9. Handmade beaded ornaments will also be on display with a suggested donation of $35—a perfect gift for those traveling as the ornaments are almost unbreakable. Christmas cookies will also be available. As the cost of trees has increased, The HELPS ministry is suggesting a minimum donation of $85 per tree. We also will have a selection of trees less than 6' tall this year, and those will have a lower suggested minimum donation.

TO VOLUNTEER TO HELP OR TO CONNECT ABOUT BAKING COOKIES, CONTACT BRUCE ACKERMAN AT BHACKERPERSON@AOL.COM

CHRISTMAS TREE SALE AND HELPS

HELPS Ministry Outreach

BY ROSE DODD, HELPS MINISTRY

HELPS is not an acronym—it is what we do—a Good Samaritan outreach program. HELPS provides short-term financial assistance for people in need in Chester County. Currently, Angela Linden, Rose Dodd, and Tracy McGuire are HELPS counselors who deal directly with those in need. Most callers are in a temporary overwhelming need and report causes of need such as loss of a spouse’s income, shortened working hours, loss of benefits, and other unanticipated expenses.

HELPS provides one-time assistance of up to $300* for financial needs such as utility bills, prescriptions, rent, or other immediate needs. We emphasize that HELPS is a short-term assistance; not ongoing— each client is eligible to receive funds one time in a twelve-month period.

People in need call the Church of the Good Samaritan office, connect to the HELPS voice mail, and leave their contact information. HELPS volunteer counselors return the calls, verify and document the need, and if the client meets the guidelines, arranges payment from the HELPS fund. All funds are sent directly to the vendor; not to the individual.

As of October 25, we have received 262 requests for assistance this year. We assisted 154 clients for a total of $43,008. We started 2023 with $35,292 available funds. Because the funds were being depleted faster than donations coming in, we had to discontinue accepting new request for three weeks in July and August. We do continue to respond to each request and give clients information about other agencies to contact.

We are not able to help everyone. Some of the reasons for not helping someone include the request is much greater than the $300 limit, the person has no way of continuing to meet their expenses after our one-time help, or some simply do not do all the paperwork necessary to meet the HELPS program requirements.

However, even if we cannot help them financially, we do try to help by directing them to other agencies and resources available, such as our own Food Closet Ministry. Sometimes the counselors find that they have helped someone in a difficult situation by just being a “listening ear.” We often hear comments like “Thanks, this is the first time I felt that someone was really listening to me. Thank you for caring.”

The ministry is entirely funded through donations: from the Christmas Tree sale, trust funds, other designated gifts earmarked for the HELPS Ministry, and donations from parishioners.

We often receive thank you notes from those we have assisted:

“You all made such a difference and it is so deeply appreciated.”

“Thank you so much for helping with me with my PECO bill. I’m so grateful. God bless you all.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HELPS MINISTRY, CONTACT ROSE DODD AT ROSEHELPS@WINGSERV.COM.

*The amount is dependent on the HELPS funding.

THE BEAUTY AND WONDER OF THE

Incarnation

BY CHRISTOPHER A. HALL, THEOLOGIAN-IN-RESIDENCE

Every year at Christmas we at Good Sam celebrate the birth of Jesus. Who is that little baby lying in a feeding trough, hoping to be fed soon, and apt to need a diaper change?

Yes, it is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. All of us affirm this wonder and beauty each week when we recite the Nicene Creed, and in a special way we rejoice at Christmas, a time of year that often brings a smile to our face and tears to our eyes.

FEBRUARY

The incarnation is a wonder and a beauty. Even the angels seem surprised that God has pulled this off. Who would have thought that God—in the person of the eternal Son— could enter our world as a human being, yet never cease to be God? Yet this is the mystery we celebrate as we worship Jesus, who became what we are to save us from what we had become. God the Son, sent by the Father, conquered the mayhem of our sin and death.

Let’s pause to ponder the incarnation more closely, calling on the help of ancient Christian leaders known as the church fathers. These folks, almost all of them pastors and teachers, helped formulate the Nicene Creed’s statement that the Son of God “became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.” When we speak these words together every Sunday,

we affirm that Jesus Christ was and is fully human and fully divine. The incarnation is a profound mystery, for how is it possible for a human being to be God, or for God to become a human being? How could both of these statements be true?

The church has never claimed to comprehend how Jesus Christ could be fully God and fully human, for this appears to be a logical impossibility. Yet the church at Nicaea in 325 AD and later at Constantinople in 381 AD affirmed the truth of the incarnation; it never stated that it understood how this could be so. The poet Ephrem the Syrian describes the mystery well. “He who occupies all space lies in a manger. He who knows all things begins to learn.”

Jesus is not partly human and partly God. No, no. He is fully human and fully God from

the moment of his conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Fully God? Absolutely. Every characteristic we predicate of God we proclaim to be true of Jesus: omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, and so on. Jesus as God possesses infinite power, is fully present everywhere in the universe, and knows everything it is possible to know. Every description of God we find in the Bible is absolutely true of Jesus. If God is infinitely righteous, so is Jesus. If God is infinite love, so is Jesus (1 John 4. 16). Jesus is fully God. The incarnation changed none of this, for God cannot stop being God.

And yet the baby wiggling his toes in the manger at Bethlehem is also fully human, with all the characteristics of a human being, apart from sin. How can a single person be both divine and human? As finite human beings, our ability to comprehend the mystery of the incarnation breaks down. One reality would seem to rule out the other. We may feel confused or daunted by the mystery of the incarnation, and tempted to resolve the tension the mystery presents by modifying either of its poles. “Jesus was fully human, but not fully God.” “Jesus was fully God, but not fully human.”

Let’s explore this a bit more fully. I’ll be drawing on some thoughts from A Different Way as I do so. Jesus is fully human.

Did Jesus have a real human mind? Yes. Luke writes, for example, that Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2. 52). Jesus’ knowledge grew as he matured; he first had the conceptual capabilities of a baby boy, then a child, then a teenager, then an adult. His knowledge grew as he grew physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Simultaneously, though, as the eternal Son of God, Jesus knew all things and never ceased to have this knowledge, for his mind was the mind of God. In the wonder and beauty of the incarnation, Jesus never ceased being God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He is fully God, fully human—that’s who Jesus is and always will be.

How about a human soul? Yes, Jesus has a soul, ancient Christian thinkers proclaimed. Why? Jesus must be all that we are, to save all that we are. Jesus is saving our mind, our soul, our will, and our body. So, to save us, the eternal Son of God becomes all that we are apart from sin. Jesus possesses all that characterizes us as humans, including a human soul. Just as we have souls that animate our bodies, so Jesus has a fully human soul, though a sinless one. If Jesus was soulless, he would not be fully human.

In the church’s history ... the wisest theologians coach us to preserve the mystery, to think and live reverently, to adore the incarnation’s beauty and wonder. With equal emphasis, then, we affirm Christ’s deity and humanity, and worship Jesus as the savior of the world.

How about a human will? After significant debate, the church declared that Jesus has a human will, as we all do. He freely made choices throughout his lifetime. For instance, Jesus chose twelve specific disciples. He chose how he would spend his time, what food he would eat, when and how he would pray, and in what places. He never chose wrongly. For Jesus’ will is not fallen and bent like ours. In his humanity, Jesus never swerved from the will of his Father.

What about a body? The church declared in council that Jesus has a real body, a body received from his mother, the Virgin Mary. Jesus had arms, legs, stomach, brain, blood, tongue and male genitals. Every characteristic of a male human body was true for Jesus’ body. He slept, ate, breathed, had bowel movements, and so on. Jesus has, to this very day, a resurrected, human body.

In the church’s history, though, the wisest theologians coach us to preserve the mystery, to think and live reverently, to adore the incarnation’s beauty and wonder. With equal emphasis, then, we affirm Christ’s deity and humanity, and worship Jesus as the savior of the world.

Human mind, human soul, human will, human body—Jesus has them all. He is fully human. Yet not for one instant does he cease being fully divine.

So, this Advent and Christmas, enter fully into the wonder and beauty of the incarnation. At the heart of the incarnation is a wonderful message: God loves us! He has become what we are to save us from what we have become, and that should make all of us smile.

Recentering Our Life Around Following Jesus

A REFERENCE GUIDE TO HELPFUL SPIRITUAL PRACTICES PRESENTED BY CHRIS HALL IN HIS BOOK, A DIFFERENT WAY

COMPILED BY MELODEE DILL STEPHENS

In the second half of A Different Way, Chris focuses on specific spiritual disciplines that can enable us to recenter our steps as we follow Jesus. Here is a short compilation of several ideas presented in the book.

Love for God and love for neighbor are the means and the goal of healthy spiritual formation. We don’t pursue a different way to become experts in spiritual disciplines. We don’t pursue a different way to practice silence, solitude, or simplicity for its own sake. We pursue a different way with Jesus to develop and nurture love for God and our neighbor. Each spiritual discipline presented in A Different Way trains us in how to love well. They are a means of grace God uses to grow our ability to love. Think of the disciplines, then, as the trellis or scaffolding for supporting and facilitating love’s growth in our lives.

CHAPTER SIX: Read Christ into Your Heart

Learning to read in a different way.

Listen to Scripture. Listening focuses our attention and slows us down. Utilize a Scripture app like Dwell to listen to biblical texts. Choose a passage and listen to it repeatedly over a period of days or weeks.

Lectio Divina. A slow-paced, meditative reading of Scripture—allowing ruminating and percolating. Set aside twenty minutes a day and simply receive whatever the Lord offers you in a passage. Have ears to hear and to receive. Consider steps you can take into silence (less technology is helpful).

CHAPTER SEVEN: Commune and Communicate with God

Our learning in prayer and about prayer will never end.

Communion with the Trinity. God is, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, immensely, intensely personal. Nothing disinterests God. The very asking, conversation, and sharing in prayer enhances the relationship. The Problem of Distractions. We often get distracted in prayer. Try repeating a short phrase from a psalm—short direct prayers help tether the mind.

CHAPTER EIGHT: Slow Down, Quiet Down

If we move too fast in noise and crowds, we miss God’s generous gifts. Solitude and Silence. Taking intentional time in solitude and in true silence helps us discern how God is moving in our life, and allows us to be in a posture of listening. Distraction and noise strangles attentiveness. Slowness. Hurry sickness—rushing, anxiousness, and hurry result in lack of time, energy, or love for what matters most. We must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. Slowing grows our attentiveness to God’s voice. Try a Media Fast. One day each week or month take a step away from technology: no email, no social media, no music, no TV, no radio. Time in the “desert” significantly helps us form practices we need to simplify our lives.

CHAPTER NINE: Keep in Step with Jesus by Living More Simply Seek first the Kingdom of God.

Internal Simplicity of the Heart. Our heart’s allegiance to Jesus is to be first above all else. We are creatures that are incurvatus in se—curved in on ourselves. We instinctively place our ego at the center and need straightening. Hidden Service. Nothing transforms our bent desires like serving in secret.

Steps to Simplicity. Do you pretend to know more than you do? Do you manage impressions through your purchases or accomplishments? Examine your relationship with the tyranny of things

CHAPTER TEN: Confess What is in Your Heart Jesus never sinned but understood the dynamics well. Read the Gospels Repeatedly and Slowly. Meditate on stories where Jesus helps people deal with their sin. How is Jesus helping you change?

Pray Through Your Life. Confess your way through the years, inviting Christ’s light and love into darkness that overshadowed your life at specific times or places. In confession, our love and compassion for other sinful image-bearers grows. An Act of Trust. How might you develop deeper trust in God’s love for you and his forgiveness? With renewed hope in God’s provision, invite Jesus to initiate the new beginnings you long for.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Count it All Joy Distorted ideas and practices cause misery. We are Beginners. Gladly assume the posture of a beginner over and over again.

Play and Childlikeness. What brings you joy? What steps can you take toward fun and play with God as your friend, your playmate? Growth is Slow. Spiritual formation is the slowest of all human movements. Embrace the freedom to be patient with yourself and with others. Healthy Spiritual Formation. Begins with grace, is nurtured by grace, and reaches maturity through grace. Healthy spiritual formation increases and nourishes joy and human flourishing. It focuses on training, not trying, and keeps step with Jesus in the power of the Spirit.

We asked The Church of the Good Samaritan staff and vestry members: WHAT BOOK HAS BEEN MEANINGFUL TO YOU IN YOUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY THIS YEAR?

CHRIS HALL Theologian-in-Residence

Thirty Steps to Heaven: The Ladder of Divine Ascent for All Walks of Life, by Vassilios Papavassiliou. An Orthodox priest provides helpful commentary on an ancient classic, John Climacus’s The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Very accessible and wise.

The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris.

A surprise New York Times bestseller. Norris’s reflection on her vocation and experiences as a Benedictine oblate. Very interesting and insightful. People interested in Benedict of Nursia and a modern person’s interaction with his thought and practices will enjoy this book.

BARB CONDIT Day School Director

Breath as Prayer by Jennifer Tucker. This book has been calming for me during times of stress and anxiety.

JESS CAMPBELL Director of Student Ministry

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Whatever your season of life might be right now, this is a book that will gently show you that “the good of being delivered from hurry is not simply pleasure but the ability to do calmly and effectively—with strength and joy— that which really matters.”

WHITNEY T. KUNIHOLM Vestry Member

Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley. I am currently in the middle of this book and it is fascinating and inspiring to see how the Christian faith has developed and spread since the First Century.

PHILLIP ELLSWORTH Interim Priest-in-Charge

The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, by Jaroslav Pelikan. Two out of three books I read now are books I’ve read before. This author talks about the need for creeds. “My faith life, like that of everyone else, fluctuates. There are ups and downs and hot spots and cold spots ... I’m not asked on a Sunday morning, ‘As of 9:20, what do you believe?’ … They’re asking me, ‘Are you a member of a community which now, for a millennium and a half, has said, we believe in one God?’”

LEAH SIOMA Vestry Member

The Lifegiving Home by Sally and Sarah Clarkson. This book shares very practical, rich ways to live in a Christ-filled home together. For example, the Clarkson family has a modest “shepherd’s meal” on Christmas eve each year to wait like the Biblical characters for a baby to be born. For us, making our faith more visible in our family life prompts us to draw near to God more.

CHRISTIE PURIFOY Writer-in-Residence

In Good Time: 8 Habits For Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace by Jen Pollock Michel. It’s an accessible but thoughtful exploration of time and how we might reimagine our often anxious relationship with it.

DAN GARRISON EDWARDS College / CCO Campus Minister

The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon, an Episcopal priest. In this bizarre and beautiful cookbook that one could ever hope to find, Capon writes about God’s presence in the midst of our lives, and especially in our food. When I treat food as an inconvenient necessity in a hurried life, Fr Capon reminds me that even something as simple as black coffee and toast is a gift to be savored and worthy of thanksgiving.

ELRENA EVANS Vestry Member

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I finally read this book this year ... and I found I resonated deeply with the themes of redemption and forgiveness throughout the story.

JOSH GUENTHER New Chapel Minister of Music

Christian Women in the Patristic Era by Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes. I read this last semester for a Church History course. From Thecla to Perpetua and Felicitas through to Augustine’s mother Monica, I learned about the impact early Christian women had on the church despite the societal obstacles they faced.

MELODEE DILL STEPHENS Creative Director

Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton. Guidance and practical exercises for creating a “rule of life” to create more space for the practice of spiritual disciplines. It has challenged me to make steps in arranging my life and priorities with intentionality in the goal of becoming more like Jesus. It has been a helpful guide to entering practices while also living my real life.

GARY HENDERSON Vestry Member

The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge. To fully appreciate Resurrection Day, I need to fully understand the shame, agony, and degradation that occurred on the cross. I need to grasp the full gravity of sin and what separation from God really means. With this greater understanding, I am beginning to grasp the glorious Good News of the resurrection.

The Engine Room

BY THE REV’D PHILLIP CHANNING ELLSWORTH JR

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. MATTHEW 2. 1 – 3

April, 1964, the Port of Yokohama. My mother Akiko, my sister Vicki and I are on the deck of the USNS Buckner. My father looks at us through his 8mm camera, recording us in black and white. The three of us are holding paper streamers the other ends of them held by my grandmother Kura and my Aunt Kimiko and Uncle Nobumasa and my bespectacled linguist grandfather Yoshiharu on the pier below. He looks up at us the way God did once in Bethlehem as a baby when he looked up at the huge heads of the cattle.

It will take eleven days to get to the Golden Gate. We stop in Honolulu, and some of us are given a tour of the engine room.

It used to be said that if you were traveling by ship, the worst thing you could do was to visit the engine room. Getting too acquainted with how things work can be alarming. I think of this whenever I watch people serving the Lord here actively, as members of the Altar Guild, as Musicians or Acolytes, Lay Readers, as Chalice Bearers or Alpha team workers, as teachers or ushers or lunch or food ministers in Alpha or the Atrium or through the Thrift Shop or the Food Closet ministry, or HELPS, as members of the Vestry, as donors. Not everyone wants to be in the engine room.

And that’s where Christmas is actually a bit worrying. To go into the cave of Bethlehem to see the child is like going into the engine room.

This is how God works. The entire system of the universe, ‘the fire in the equations’ as Kitty Ferguson and scientists describe it, is contained in this six pounds or so of quivering flesh. The God who does his best work at night, who says “Let there be light” and of course there’s light—has given himself away so completely that we meet him on Christmas night in helpless vulnerability. This is what’s happening in the engine room: He gives away all we might expect to find in God of strength and success as we assume them. The universe lives by a God who gives his energy away.

We have been shown the engine room of the universe, and it ought to worry us. We who are so wrapped up in being safe and successful, who worry tirelessly about being in control, about keeping up appearances, it ought to worry us that God would get himself into trouble. Merry Christmas, my friends.

Endowment

In the Winter 2023 edition of the Samaritan magazine, Andy Balsan, a member of the church’s Investment Committee, wrote a question and answer article on Church of the Good Samaritan’s endowment. In this article, he explains what an endowment is, how it supports the work of the church and beyond, and how it is managed here at Good Sam. It mentions that distributions from the endowment partially support our operating budget each year. Most of the endowment’s approximately $1.2 million balance is due to market gains, but also from donations from parishioners over the last few decades.

For those who would like to support the endowment and consequently an additional boost to the operating budget, contributions of any size can be made to the account. Currently the account is made up of three segments: unrestricted, churchyard maintenance, and building maintenance.

TO DONATE TO THE GOOD SAM ENDOWMENT, CONTACT BETSY WOLFORD AT BETSY.WOLFORD@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG.

Planned Giving

Planned giving refers to leaving an estate gift to the Church of the Good Samaritan in your will. Good Sam has benefited from various estate gifts over the years to support operations, the endowment, or particular ministry areas of the church such as building maintenance. Estate gifts are over and above pledges received and can greatly impact the church’s ministry impact. Just as you give a proportion of your earnings on an annual basis, would you consider giving a portion of your estate to the church as well? Gifts of any amount to any ministry area are welcome.

CONTACT BETSY WOLFORD AT BETSY.WOLFORD@GOOD-SAMARITAN.ORG TO DISCUSS YOUR PLANS OR ASK QUESTIONS.

FROM THE RECTOR’S WARDEN

Vestry Update Discernment and the Rector Search Process

BY WHITNEY T. KUNIHOLM, RECTOR’S WARDEN

For the past year, The Church of the Good Samaritan has been in a discernment process concerning the selection of a new Rector. But that raises a question, “What is discernment?”

Seeking God’s direction, which is a simple definition of discernment, takes many forms. It can involve praying, reflecting on the Bible, seeking wise counsel, recognizing God’s hand in circumstances, listening for the “still small voice”1 of the Holy Spirit, using our common sense, and often, all of the above. But regardless of what form our discernment takes, we must always ask, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”2 As followers of Jesus today, we will be most alive in our faith and most effective for our Lord when we align ourselves with the answer to that question in every aspect of our lives.

“Lord,

As a congregation we’ve been asking God what wilt thou have us to do? regarding the next Rector. Over the summer, our corporate discernment included a Parish Survey (with 302 participants). Then in the fall, we held three Parish Discernment meetings (with 194 participants) to review the Parish Survey and Parish Profile, and for discussion and prayer. All this input has gone to the Vestry, who canonically is responsible for making the final decision about the Rector. This level of participation in the discernment process has

been essential because as God’s Word reminds us, “in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”3

It’s important to recognize that this has been a mutual discernment process. While the parish has taken its steps, Phillip and Victoria Ellsworth have been on their own journey, prayerfully trying to sense what God is calling them to do. The Vestry is aware of Fr Phillip’s unique challenge, leading the parish while being evaluated by the parish, and we are grateful for the gracious way he has navigated that dynamic, going over and above the call of duty as our only full-time priest.

Finally, the Vestry has been in “discernment mode” all year long. In January through April, we completed a thorough due diligence and prayer effort that led to our selection of Fr Phillip as Interim Priestin-Charge. Since then, the Vestry has discussed, prayed about, and voted unanimously in favor of each step of the Rector Search Process at our monthly meetings. And as a regular part of our work as Vestry members, on the fourth Monday of each month, we gather in the Lady Chapel for Vestry Prayer. In all these activities each Vestry member has tried to balance their personal opinions with an open heart that says, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”4

what wilt thou have me to do?”

As

followers of Jesus today, we will be most alive in our faith and most effective for our Lord when we align ourselves with the answer to that question in every aspect of our lives.

As we approach the end of 2023, we have come to a critical point in the discernment process: before conducting a national search, the Vestry must decide whether to call the Interim Priest-in-Charge as Rector. This Diocese-required step, based on best practice, is the culmination of our year of discernment. As this issue of The Samaritan goes to press, the Vestry and Fr Phillip are in the final stage of the process, which according to our By-Laws involves nominating a candidate for Rector at one Vestry meeting and then voting at the following meeting. As soon as the outcome has been finalized, one way or the other, a special communication will be sent to the congregation.

Thank you so much for your part in this process! We’ve all done our best to discern but, as fallible human beings, we still “see through a glass darkly.”5 So together let’s pray that God will honor the intent of our hearts, which is to “seek his face”6 and follow where he leads. To God be the glory.

Good Sam News

Fall Fest a Success!

Good Sam’s first annual Fall Fest and Trunk or Treat was a huge success! Thank you so much to all of our creative Trunk Hosts who helped generate a fun environment for over 300 people from the community to come through and enjoy the event. Shout out to the Guenthers for winning “Best Overall Trunk” with their Christmas-themed trunk.

“Most Energetic Display” went to Good Sam Dance Ministry and the Good Sam Youth Boys’ Jurassic Trunk took “Honorable Mention.” In addition to collecting candy from volunteers, families could paint pumpkins, decorate their own candy bags, play lawn games, and enjoy refreshments on what turned out to be a beautiful fall day. We look forward to even more Trunk Hosts and families next year!

Fall Men’s Retreat Recap

Forty-five men got together in October for the annual Men’s Retreat at the beautiful grounds of nearby Daylesford Abbey. Through five teaching sessions, Dr. Chris Hall led us in a very thoughtful examination of how we can grow more into the image of Christ. Chris offered questions to guide small-group breakouts and then we reconvened as the larger group again to collectively reflect on our thoughts (and ask more questions!) helping us to learn and digest the teaching. A very meaningful time together!

“I particularly enjoyed the setting... and the chance to share, to catch up with men I don’t see very often, and to meet some new friends.”

“The small group discussion was really good.”

“It was a very helpful time for me, especially as I have now had time to review my notes and reflect on what God’s Spirit has taught me and especially on changes I need to make.”

Are you a College Student?

Are you looking for more meaning in your life?

JUBILEE: THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Join with thousands of college students in Pittsburgh on February 16-18 for Jubilee 2024. Listen to great speakers and make new friends from across the country. Attend workshops about pursuing Christ in your major and future career. Visit jubileeconference.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT DAN GARRISON EDWARDS (DGARRISONEDWARDS@CCOJUBILEE.ORG) OR KATIE STARONKA (KSTARONKA@CCOJUBILEE.ORG).

Good Sam Youth Boys’ Jurassic Trunk – Honorable Mention

Josh and Neeka Guenther – Best Overall Trunk Award

Christie Purifoy Named Writer-in-Residence

Christie lives an ordinary life, in theory; except there are no ordinary lives, if you look closely enough. And boy does she look closely. She has a keen eye for the world as pure gift, the world where her feet are planted, given by whoever rescued Israel from bondage in Egypt and raised Jesus from the dead. And she writes like an angel.  PCE Jr

A Listening Life

BY CHRISTIE PURIFOY, WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

Madeleine L’Engle is remembered not only as the award-winning author of A Wrinkle in Time, but also (by me at least!) as writer-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. In the memoirs published as The Crosswicks Journals, L’Engle offers reflections on home and place and the rhythms of the church year that—when I read them twelve years ago—helped convince me to shift my focus from academic to creative writing. I never imagined I could fill her shoes, but I did want to follow in her footsteps.

As writer-in-residence at my beloved Good Sam, I hope to go on learning from L’Engle’s example of a deeply rooted and deeply generous artistic life. Every word I have written for the past decade has been shaped by my participation in the worship of this church. It is a joy and a privilege to turn my attention to writing on behalf of the community that has given me so much.

Some of what I will offer as writer-in-residence is known to me: I will write sermons, pieces for our beautiful quarterly magazine, reflections and welcome notes for our printed Sunday wrappers. More is yet to be determined. I have already asked a few of the many writers in our midst for their ideas (if you’ve read any of the regular offerings from Elrena Evans, Carol Kuniholm, or Bonnie O’Neil, you know we share our pews with many talented writers). For myself, I am grateful for the chance to write for a particular community of people sharing life in Christ in a particular place. Good writing is all about the particulars, after all, and I anticipate a great deal of fun as I write for readers with whom I already share so much—literal—common ground.

Here at the beginning of this new endeavor, my promise is that I will do my best to listen well. The writing life—like the Christian life—must be a listening life. After all, the Word of God is in our midst, and the Word of God speaks. Sometimes in words. Sometimes in the silent pause between them. In the church, we need our logical thinkers and our clear communicators. We need our engineers and our teachers. We also need our artists, for it is they who help us hone our ability to hear the voice of God even when realism fails and the brushstrokes of our lives become abstract or when the definitions of words falter and we can find meaning only in rhythm and rhyme. We will all experience days when words fail. I pray that every word I offer helps prepare you to hear the Word that speaks to us—praise God!—in so many different ways.

CHRISTIE PURIFOY

Christie Purifoy is a writer and gardener who loves to grow flowers and community. She has worshipped at Church of the Good Samaritan since 2013. Christie is the author of two memoirs, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons (Revell 2016) and Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace (Zondervan 2019). A book of essays and photographs celebrating the garden called Seedtime and Harvest: How Gardens Grow Roots, Connection, Wholeness and Hope will be released by Harvest House Publishers in March 2024, completing her trilogy of gardening gift books that began with Garden Maker (2022) and A Home in Bloom (2023).

Christie earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Chicago. Eventually she traded the classroom for an old farmhouse called Maplehurst in West Grove, Pennsylvania where she and her husband Jonathan Purifoy are raising two sons and two daughters. Jonathan is a member of the Good Sam vestry. Today, Christie teaches and cultivates conversations rooted in Christian faith and the arts locally at the Maplehurst Black Barn and globally in the Black Barn Online (blackbarnonline.com).

With her longtime friend and fellow author, Lisa-Jo Baker, Christie has cohosted the Out of the Ordinary podcast weekly for the past five years. Learn more about Christie’s work through her website (christiepurifoy.com) or connect with her on Instagram (@christiepurifoy), where she extends the hospitality of Maplehurst through photography.

Q&A with Jane and Andy Balsan

How long have you and Andy been attending Good Sam?

We have been attending Good Sam for 13 years.

Tell us a little bit about your vocations and family life.

Andy runs a wholesale HVAC distribution business and Jane works in Human Resources at the company. We have three children, Abby who is in her third year at University of Pittsburgh, Lukas who is a senior at Conestoga High School, and Joel who is a freshman.

What contributed to your decision to make Good Sam your home?

A sense of community and an inclusive church environment for newcomers, coupled with a shared commitment to embodying and practicing Biblical principles and a strong youth group.

What of your experience at Good Sam has been especially meaningful to each of you and as a family?

Our family has always been part of a homegroup (except for about a three-year gap). For Jane, studying the Bible within the community in Women’s ministries has been meaningful. When Abby was in middle school, she and Andy had the opportunity to go on a Summer Missions trip to Bolivia with the youth group.

How have you sensed God’s presence in your life (or more globally in the church) in this season?

We cannot live out the Christian life on our own. We sense God’s presence through sharing life with the family of God. This blessing is especially felt during difficult times.

How have your children engaged with Children and Youth Ministries?

All three of our kids have been involved in Children’s Ministry and Youth Group. They have taken advantage of all the offerings that Children’s ministry gave them when they were young, from Sunday school to VBS and then when they got older, they volunteered to help in VBS and the Philly Project with the youth group. Our kids also tried to go on as many retreats as possible. Andy and Jane taught Sunday School and helped out with VBS while our kids were in Sunday school.

As a couple, how have you engaged with other ministries of the church?

Andy is involved in Men’s ministry and has been in a men’s group that meets Friday mornings at 7 am. He has served on Vestry and was Financial Warden a few years ago. He is currently on the Vestry Nominating Committee, Building and Facilities Committee, and the church’s Endowment Committee.

Jane is a part of the Women’s Insight Bible Study and teaches on a regular rotation. The purpose of the study is not only to study the Bible in a community of women, but to give opportunities for women to use their gifts in building God’s church by serving each other. Jane has also served on the Missions Committee.

As we enter the Advent season, are there any traditions in your family that you would like to share?

Serving as a family with the Good Sam Christmas Tree Sale has been a Christmas tradition. It’s a wonderful way to talk to people in the community and invite them to church and to join the good work that Good Sam is doing. We also try to simplify and not participate in many of the culturally expected things so the Christmas season doesn’t become an overly busy time that distracts from celebrating God’s gift to us.

Lukas, Abby, Joel, Jane, and Andy Balsan

MUSIC: THE CHURCH OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN ORGAN

From Hushed Whispers to Majestic Paeans of Praise

BY GARY GRESS, ORGANIST

Think: Calliope—Circus music.

The origin of the modern-day pipe organ finds its roots in an unlikely arena of Roman entertainment for games, circus, and banquets in an instrument called the hydraulis. This ancient organ utilized a complicated system of water and air pressure to send the sound through various sizes of brass pipes. It was brash and far from the colorful possibilities of today’s instrument, but it is said that it was Nero’s favorite instrument.

Yet, perhaps for good reason, the early church did not incorporate the instrument in its worship until somewhere around 900 AD, at which point along with the development of so many other aspects of the great Medieval cathedrals, components such as bellows, wind chests and the concept of different pipe timbres evolved. In time, the organ grew to become the preferred instrument to inspire and support congregational singing in the great houses of worship, and with the creative spirit of musicians and organ builders, we have come to know and enjoy the precise clarity of the German Baroque, the lush, sonorous colors of the French Romantic or the American hybrid organs that aim to incorporate the best of all worlds.

No matter the style, the resources of the pipe organ are vast, allowing for the hushed whispers that draw one into opening meditation, the supportive evocations of an orchestra enhancing the choir, or the majestic and triumphant paeans of praise elevating worshipful congregational hymn singing. In each, the pipe organ is a tremendous enhancement, even if only a veiled musical attempt to mirror the glorious sounds of worship that occur simultaneously in the Throne Room of heaven.

One thing that has not changed since the Roman hydraulis is the complicated nature of the instrument, which requires constant upkeep and maintenance. And so, we find ourselves at such a point with the instrument at the Church of the Good Samaritan. The organ had a major renovation in 2007, however, several areas were not finished well, including the efficiency and tidyness of the wiring in the chambers. The present condition of the wiring makes it unnecessarily cumbersome and tedious (close to impossible) to try and service the organ. Additionally, the wear and tear on pipes is an ongoing maintenance issue impacting the ability to not only tune the pipes, but also to use them. Finally, within the past 10 years, lightning struck the church and overloaded the solid-state electrical system controlling the digital sounds of the instrument that were added during the renovation, taking offline some of the most essential colors of the pedal division. The current need is to bring the instrument into its full potential by bringing the electrical components up to code, repairing pipes, and restoring the solid-state program through a more reliable and flexible system, creating not a louder, but rather a richer, more colorful and balanced instrument for the church’s worship and music needs.

Our organ is a fine instrument operating at about 80 percent of its capacity. It’s going to take an estimated $120,000 to repair that literally spiritual instrument.

Music is foundational to Christian worship. What does the prophet Isaiah witness when, in his apocalyptic vision, the scrim is pulled back on the mid-most mysteries of the universe? The same thing John (see, Revelation), in his apocalyptic vision witnesses; namely, the six-winged angels singing the Sanctus: Qadosh, Qadosh, Qadosh, Holy, Holy, Holy.

Fr Ellsworth is presently recruiting a Director of Music. It will be significantly more likely that he will attract a higher caliber of talent to lead a musical program in the Anglican Choral tradition if the instrument necessary to support it is playing to full capacity.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN SEEING US MEET THIS IMPORTANT NEED, PLEASE SPEAK WITH FR ELLSWORTH DIRECTLY.

On Church Growth

BY THE REV’D PHILLIP CHANNING ELLSWORTH JR, INTERIM PRIEST-IN-CHARGE, FROM AN ESSAY FIRST PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 6 2023

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. I

If one thing above all was true of the first Christians and their fledging church, it was that they were alive. After the darkness of the crucifixion and the mystery of the resurrection, the scattering uncertainty of Jesus’ followers turned into a period of realization, powered by the Holy Ghost, that Christ would live in what they came to call the Body of Christ.

To be alive a body must grow. That is the law of all living things. Health and life itself depend on growth. There is no no-growth option.

Let me make a few observations on words and the Word, and then recount some principles and experiences in church growth. Biblical religion is dynamic. It’s impossible to follow the narrative line of scripture without sensing movement and growth. Humankind exiled from the perfect garden; people formed by exodus and wandering; kingdom building followed by the rebukes of the prophets who smelled the rot of static, self-satisfied corruption; a Jesus community of proclamation and healing in the context of journeying, recruiting, and preparing for a new community of journey and growing.

Biblical Greek gives us dunamis, the word behind “power” in Acts 1. 8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Dynamic means potential force or energy, marked by continuous, productive activity or change. That same New Testament Greek should inform our understanding of health. Hygeia means “living well,” or more precisely, “a well way of living.” Euexia means “well- habitedness” or “good habit of body.” English words for health all point to “wholeness” or “completeness,” and however spiritually rich this notion is, we have almost unconsciously let ourselves slide into an understanding of wholeness that is structural and static.

The Greek words correctly point us to the functioning and activity of the body—not only its working but its working well. So I make sure to read often, and to teach clearly, how these understandings fueled the early church. Paul and his successors and colleagues richly put this language to work in their descriptions of mission and growth and in their teaching about it. Ephesians 4. 11 ff. speaks of “building up the body” and of “the whole body working properly.” Colossians 1. 16 and 2. 19 make clear that growth is not just biological but firmly based on Christ. I try to remember, too, that growth is mysteriously cumulative; and even the committed, converted soldier of growth is likely to benefit (or suffer) from others’ work. Paul, who wasn’t always modest, writes engagingly about this in 1 Corinthians 3. 5 – 15. To grow, leaders must have a clear-eyed knowledge of their congregation’s past and its personalities. And of course, Jesus’ own teaching constantly uses growth parables (especially the Sower in Matthew 13. 3 ff., and its parallels) and his ministry repeatedly challenges his disciples to fish for people, seek the lost, and prepare for the challenges of a growth-focused ministry. He collected a growing number of followers, he “trained” disciples (James the son of Salome and Zebedee being one of the first), and he preached a growing Kingdom. I see no reason to think that our task is any different.

A word about numbers. They aren’t by themselves indicators of anything. But if as members of Christ’s mystical Body we’re doing what we’re supposed to, increasing numbers do matter. Obviously, they measure the reach of our work. They are indicators of whether the body is healthy because it is growing or sick because its organic functions are beginning to shut down. But church leaders, and clergy especially, are often heard putting down any emphasis on growth in numbers. Undeniably, and for a lot of complex reasons, mainline churches like ours have seen an alarming erosion of our share of the population. We could argue about the causes, but why not establish growth as a goal, embracing it as faithfulness to the Great Commission and as commitment to the living health of our beloved church?

You still hear leaders—clergy especially—defend small and declining numbers by saying that numbers are not really the point. I fail to see what glory there is in the rationalization that if we’re growing in numbers we are somehow into people pleasing and peddling cheap grace. Isn’t it just possible that growth and trouble can go together? “Disturbing the comfortable,” which many of us clergy have taken to be the litmus test of our own courage and integrity, often looks a lot like taking a ‘stand’ on issues. Might it not also look like squeezing the faithful to make room for their neighbors?

GROWTH PRINCIPLES

There is always resistance to growth. Members of a body will resent the strategies that lead to growth, namely, the kind of preaching and worship that strengthens the faithful and also appeals to the seeker. In the mid-90s, we were going through astonishing growth at St Bartholomew’s in New York. My boss, the Rev’d Bill Tully, in a moment of grace (he had run out of clever answers and had tired of being defensive), was able to reply to a parishioner who exploded one Sunday after the service, “I don’t know anyone here anymore. I had to fight for a seat. And they don’t even know how to use the prayer book!”And Bill said, “I don’t know everyone anymore either, Tom, and if you and I did know them all, this parish would be stuck and ready to decline and die.”

Hallowed habits keep us small. The pastoral model of the priest as caretaker— or even a team of ministers primarily offering empathy—seems to ensure putting maintenance over mission. Good pastoring is Biblical and indispensable, but we need to rethink how we do it, or else we will continue caring for a diminishing flock.

The Prayer Book is not enough. We have an unsurpassable liturgy and a book that makes it easy (for the professionals) to open it and “do” it week after week. Attracting people who are unchurched, unfamiliar with the liturgy, or turned off by church memories or associations requires user-friendly leaflets, the best music we can offer (regardless of style), and constant evaluation and improvement. For God to be glorified, Jesus preached, and the Spirit to enliven the proceedings, the Rector and the professional staff will work to get the mechanics, the distractions and the mediocrities out of the way.

I’m all in favor of the essential mystery of the religious “transaction” but in most of our churches, getting there is almost impossible. At Good Samaritan we will constantly audit the barriers. The church’s signage, our advertising, our ushering, our child care, our furnishings, our sound systems, our coffee, our seats, our lights, our communications editorial standards, our website, our recruitment of

fresh volunteers, and our willingness to run, at least sometimes, counter to our own preferences—I could go on—will be subject to constant improvement.

Long services are killing the church in many places. A service of Holy Eucharist with music, real preaching, and 200 coming to communion, can be done beautifully in an hour. It requires work, coordinating, and discipline. People will forgive long services on special occasions. They will be more likely to come to other venues for teaching and mission and group life if we don’t wear them out at the primary event.

Large and growing churches are staff-intensive. For the Church of the Good Samaritan Vestry, one question to decide is whether we should get the vestry out of the program business where everyone seems to wear a portfolio hat, and adopt the older, focused model of vestry purpose: to raise support of the mission (and plan long range), to maintain the fabric and the property, and to call a Rector. For various reasons, one being the pandemic and the prolonged shutdown of public in-person services, parish members have been sidelined or have dropped out of the parish altogether. The professional staff of the Church of the Good Samaritan has become severely attenuated given our aspirations, and we need to evaluate, restructure, and strengthen our assets. We need to get in increasing numbers lay people—as Jesus got Peter (to his everlasting astonishment)—back on the team and not just on the sideline but back onto the field. I would have us consider every effort to accomplish that, by God’s grace. Perhaps it could mean the creation of a standing committee called the Parish Council. This isn’t an either / or proposition, but I know this: a key to our strength and growth will be focusing as a Vestry on the big picture and empowering both lay people and professionals for day-to-day operations. This will leave wide berth for just about any model of lay ministry and involvement. For more about this, see the essay I wrote for the February 2023 edition of The Church of the Good Samaritan newsletter.

The professional staff should be highly disciplined and focused on worship, clear communications, continuous improvement of what is offered, and the constant removal of barriers to growth. A corollary, of course, is that the Rector focuses on very few things. Nothing empowers everyone else more than such powerful and humble focus in his or her leader. If the Rector is controlling he is not powerful, humble, or in control.

Learn what we can from the “emerging church” or “mega church” movement. Our job is more difficult than that of the pastor or team who invent a congregation from the ground up. But surely we can remain faithful to our theology and our traditions and still learn from those who have aggressively sized up their markets and really thought about the realities of churchgoing in this society. Few of us Episcopalians would want the somewhat plastic feel and consumerist obsession of these churches, but we can imitate some of their focus, their commitment to constant evaluation of what they’re doing, their regard for the nonchurched, and their responsiveness to those who are just more at ease with a different style of worship. All those elements, it seems to me, are essential for growth and faithful to the Great Commission.

212 West Lancaster Avenue | Paoli, PA 19301

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

THE JESSE TREE

See article on page 8.

A Tradition of Celebration

Upcoming Events

FRIDAY DECEMBER 1 | 6:30 pm

Good Samaritan Dance Ministry Concert

A worship dance concert with performances by teens and adults, alongside a few delightful pieces performed by our youngest dancers.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 3 | 9 am

Festival of Lessons and Carols for Advent

Through our experience of sacred Word liturgy and song, the story of the coming of Christ gradually unfolds and deepens our understanding of God’s message of love and redemption.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 3 | 8:30 am – 12:30 pm

Advent Wreaths

Join us to make an advent wreath for your family.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 9 | 10 – 11:30 am

St Nicholas Brunch

Younger students learn about St. Nicholas, make crafts, and enjoy music and breakfast together while youth students help serve them.

RSVP to kimberly@good-samaritan.org.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 9 | 7:30 pm

Chester County Choral Society Concert

A holiday concert featuring Christmas favorites, Ave Maria, Magnificat, and songs for Chanukah.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 17 | 6 – 8 pm

Youth Group Christmas Party

Students should bring a wrapped gift of novelty/ fun socks to exchange ($10 suggested). For more information, email jessica@good-samaritan.org.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 24 | 11:15 am

Christmas Eve Family Service

With special interactive elements for children.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 24 | 5 pm | 8 pm

Christmas Eve Services

With traditional music and choir at the 5 pm service, and contemporary music at the 8 pm service.

MONDAY DECEMBER 25 | 10 am

Christmas Day Service Chapel