The CATHEDRAL TIMES The weekly newsletter of the Cathedral of St. Philip · Serving Atlanta and the World · May 3, 2020
WHAT IS A HOLY PLACE? By the Very Rev. Sam Candler, Dean of the Cathedral Welcome to my home study again! Wait! Hardly any of you have ever been in my home study! But you sure have seen a lot of it lately, in online video worship services. Most of you have seen me praying different parts of our Sunday service, or preaching the sermon, or recording midday meditations, from that home study. I am usually in some sort of religious garb. And the study is often set up with candles and holy items. Then, on another day of the week, you have seen me in a regular video meeting, maybe in regular clothes, and you have said, “I know that familiar place! Where are the candles?” Are there only some parts of the week when my study is holy? During this season of quarantine prayer, and online religious services from everywhere, the question arises, “What is it that makes a place holy?” I remember that it was ten years into my ministry as a priest that I even considered making a trip, or pilgrimage, to the ultimate holy place for Christians, “The Holy Land” (of Israel/Palestine). When people returned from Israel and told me how moving it was to have walked in the footsteps of Jesus, I had replied that I could just as easily walk in his footsteps here in the United States. In fact, I continued, it might even be more faithful. Jesus the Christ is everywhere, and one need not journey to Jerusalem to find Christ. (I have ended up making five pilgrimages to Israel/Palestine – and it is holy!) What makes a place holy? Well, it may be that a place is holy simply because holy people have prayed there. A holy place is where holy people have prayed. And who are the holy people? They are you. And me. The holy people are those who have struggled and rejoiced through life, and who have marked those struggles and joys with a sense of space and time. Holy places are where holy people have somehow sensed the divine in whatever circumstance they have been in, wherever they have been, and then marked that particular space and time. Yes, those places can be anywhere, and they ARE anywhere. They are where we grew up; they are where we came of age. They are where we were married. They are where we had children. They are where we have loved, and they are where we have lost love. They are where someone has been ill. They are where someone has died. They are where we have sensed someone above us and beyond us, and somehow loving us and strengthening us, no matter our circumstance. They are where we have experienced the fullness of humanity – and divinity, too. I remember, years ago, when one of my faithful friends explained to me why she loved serving on the altar guild, preparing the vestments and vessels for Sunday services. She said something like this, “When I tend to those particular altar vessels as if they really do contain the body and blood of Christ, then I am able to see the body and blood of Christ everywhere else.” Her words represent what I believe, too. If I can locate the presence of Christ, particularly, in a special place, then I am set free to experience that same presence anywhere else, as well. We who have known the presence of God in the special place we know as the Cathedral of St. Philip are now—I hope—knowing the presence of God in the special places of our homes. Yes, my study is holy when I experience the presence of God there. But so is whatever place you are watching and hearing our online service! Yes, your homes, too, have more and more become holy places – because you are praying there. A place—any place—is made holy, when holy people have known the presence of God there. A place is made holy when holy people have prayed there—no matter what the prayer. Yes, we make our pilgrimages. To Israel, or England—or to India or Thailand—or to the seacoast or the mountains. And those pilgrimages will return, one day! God is truly in those places. But God is also right where we are, right now. God is in our homes, where we have struggled, and where we have loved. God is where we pray. God is where we live. Those places, all of them, are holy. AMEN.
This SUNDAY
MAY 3, 2020 · The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A Acts 2:42-47 · Psalm 23 · 1 Peter 2:19-25 · John 10:1-10
EACH OF THESE SERVICES WILL BE LIVESTREAMED AT CATHEDRALATL.ORG/STREAM, ON THE CATHEDRAL APP, AND ON THE CATHEDRAL FACEBOOK PAGE.
8:45 A.M. AND 11:15 A.M. HOLY EUCHARIST Celebrant: The Rev. Canon Cathy Zappa Preacher: The Very Rev. Sam Candler
4 P.M. CHORAL EVENSONG RECORDED MAY 12, 2019 Celebrant: The Rev. Dr. Thee Smith Stephen Caracciolo, Preces & Responses Charles Wood in E flat, No. 2 Benjamin Britten, Rejoice in the Lamb
PRAYER List FOR THOSE WHO ARE ILL OR RECOVERING: IMMEDIATE NEEDS Corey Cashion • Charlie Gearing • Mike Greenlief • Mary Chase Mize
LONG TERM PRAYERS R. Huntley Allen • Patricia Anderson • T. Mayo and Pat Atkins • Warren Barnes • Edgar and Judith Beach •
Perry Benton • Virginia Bicksler • Heather Clark • Sue Clary • Marie Corrigan • Terry Dornbush • Sarah duBignon • Kitty Dukehart • Deborah Ellington • Randy Farmer • Robert Fox • William Ham • Katie Hughey • Louise Kan • John Kelleher • Chris Kopecky • Lisa Krysiak • Rose Leon • Elaine Lyon • Patricia Madison • Carol McDonald • Glenn Miller • Ashley Minear • Royce Mitchell • Henri Muller and Family •
Susan Myers • Charlie Neal • Linus Nickel • Marion Palmore • Joann Lewis Pobst • Garry Pryor • Rowland Radford • Rubye and Wayne Reid • Tommy Ripley • Agnes Elizabeth Robertson • Peter Sanders • Louis
“Skip” Schueddig • Bill Sutton • Julie Thompson • Tommy Truesdale • Ryan Webb • Lowell Palmer Weicker, Jr. • Faye Van Winkle • Karen Young
FAMILY AND FRIENDS Eileen Abeyesundere • Alford Family • Karyn Bacon • Bettina Bass • Suzette Brading • Tom Bingham • David Bond • Lynn Chandler • Andrew Clark • Robert Coatney • Robert Discavage • Maureen Fernandez • Carleton
Fuller • Bruce Gillies • Holloway Family • Tom Ingegneri • Stephen Jones • Bernard A. Kan • Pete Livezey • Joyce Lyford • Richard Malek • Pat Martin • Michelle Maxwell • John McCann • Bonnie Shields McCormack • Diane McCrory • Bob McGill • Will McGuffin • David Mickle • Dawna Dunn Newton • Steven Norman • Sally Taylor Rogers • Frank Roth • James Sands • Lillian Sandoval • Patricia Schooley • Jim and Becky Settle •
Steve and Colleen Settle • Milton Shiver • Tina Susco • Yvonne Tate • Pierson Thames • Jeffrey Thomas • Janiece Townshend • Roger Traylor • Ron M. Wallace • Katherine Welden • Sara Wilkerson • Woodfin Family • Whit A. Wright • Patricia Young • Hollis Youngner
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE DIED Robie Fisch • Michael McClelland • Oscar Barnes O’Neal • Jacqueline Stewart • Sarah Van Voorhis Woolfolk Wiggins
This letter is part of a series of fictional letters by Canon George Maxwell intended for Episcopalians young and old who wonder what it means to be faithful in the world today. Dear Anna, I appreciate you asking about where Jesus is in what I have described as a journey of becoming. We don’t usually think about Jesus as a teacher advancing a curriculum designed to bring about our inner transformation, but my sense is that this is how he saw himself. It’s as if Jesus came down from a higher level of being, revealed to us who we might become, and then led us into the awareness and understanding that we would need to make that realm manifest here on earth. Think about Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom of Heaven. I realize that the Gospels of Mark and Luke refer to the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of John uses the term “life,” but essentially, they’re all talking about the same thing. Now, put aside all of the times that you have been told that the Kingdom of Heaven is a place that you will go when you die. That’s true, I think; but it’s more than just that. It’s also a way of seeing things through God’s eyes.
I like the way that Cynthia Bourgeault puts it in her book, The Wisdom Jesus: “The Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it’s not a place you go to, but a place you come from. It’s a whole new way of looking at the world, a transformed awareness that literally turns this world into a different place.” So, you asked about the importance of Jesus in our spiritual life. I think Jesus makes it all happen by revealing to us the one he calls Father and then leading us into a relationship with his Father that, through the Spirit, allows us to call him our Father as well. It is the intimacy of this relationship that dissolves our sense of separation from God or each other. They tell me that the journey of becoming ends with our being so filled with God that we can’t tell where God ends, and we begin or what part of our innermost being is us and what part is God. Every now and then I get a glimpse of this sense of oneness and I’m always thankful for it. Your affectionate uncle, Ames
Old Fashioned Sunday School and Parenting Unscripted meet at 10:10 a.m. on Sunday via Zoom. Contact the organizer for information on where to connect: Canon George Maxwell, gmaxwell@cathedralATL.org for Old Fashioned Sunday School, and the Rev. Nate Huddleston, nhuddleston@cathedralATL.org, for Parenting Unscripted.
The CATHEDRAL off ST. PHILIP
The Very Rev. Samuel G. Candler, Dean Dale Adelmann, Ph.D., Canon for Music The Rev. Lauren R. Holder, Canon for Community and Education The Rev. George M. Maxwell, Jr., Vicar The Rev. Catherine Zappa, Canon for Liturgy and Pastoral Care The Rev. John William Harkins III, Ph.D., Priest Associate The Rev. Nathan G. Huddleston, Priest Associate for Youth and Young Adult Ministries The Rev. Julia B. Mitchener, Priest Associate for Children’s Ministries The Rev. Deacon Juan Sandoval, Deacon for Hispanic Ministries The Rev. Theophus “Thee” Smith, Ph.D., Priest Associate The Rev. Carolynne G. Williams, Canon Associate for Pastoral Care and Elder Ministry Del King, Senior Warden Dorsey DeLong, Junior Warden
CATHEDRAL TIMES SUBMISSION DEADLINES: FOR THE SUNDAY, MAY 10 ISSUE, THE DEADLINE IS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29. FOR THE SUNDAY, MAY 17 ISSUE, THE DEADLINE IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 6. TO RECEIVE THE TIMES BY EMAIL, CONTACT MELANA DICKSON, MDICKSON@CATHEDRALATL.ORG. TO SUBMIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT REQUEST, CONTACT THE EDITOR, DAN MURPHY, AT DMURPHY@CATHEDRALATL.ORG.
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OUTREACH OUTREACH—IS GRATEFUL! Last week the Cathedral kitchen was busy—first donating food in our freezer to Holy Comforter Episcopal Church who continues to feed its community by delivering meals, and then packing up 150 lunch bags for our neighbors at Crossroads Community Ministries. Thanks to your gifts to the Discretionary Fund for the Needy and our amazing chef Lauren Raymond, we are able to provide healthy meals safely to our community in need. Your gifts to the Discretionary Fund for the Needy also enabled us to make meaningful financial gifts to seven of our community partners ramping up their efforts in the face of food shortages and other emergency needs. Thank you!
SEW MANY MASKS We continue to be grateful for all the mask-makers of our community! If you are making masks and are in need of fabric, please contact Canon Lauren Holder, lholder@cathedralATL.org. Thanks for all you’re doing!
PASTORAL Care
United THANK OFFERING
COMMUNITY SUPPORT GROUPS
UTO INGATHERING IS MAY 10
Hospice Atlanta, which regularly holds grief groups and other support groups at the Cathedral, is now offering virtual support groups to anyone in the community, free of charge. Throughout May and June, Hospice Atlanta will hold these groups: • Distanced Grief: Loosing a Loved One in the Midst of a Global Crisis (Thursdays, 7-8:30 p.m.) • On the Frontline: Support for Healthcare Workers Caring for COVID-19 Patients (Sundays, 3-4:30 p.m.) • Breathing Through the Crisis: Mindfulness Practices Applied to COVID-19 (Mondays, 7-8:30 p.m.) • The Juggling Act – Group Support for Parents “Trying to Keep it Together” (Tuesdays, 7-8:30 p.m.) • Single Parents Raising Teenagers through COVID-19 (Tuesdays, 7-8:15p.m.) For more information or to register for any of these free groups, please contact Barbara Moore, 404-869-3086 or barbara.moore@vnhs.org.
In this time of uncertainty, the United Thank Offering invites you to notice the good things that are happening each day, give thanks to God for your blessings, and make an offering for each blessing. Through UTO, your blessings become blessings for others. Be grateful each day and share your gratitude by putting a note of gratitude into your Blue Box or an envelope. You can also send a note or short video (5-10 seconds) of what you are thankful for at cathedralATL.org/UTO. We will compile the videos for our UTO ingathering on Sunday, May 10. This pause of gratitude acknowledges the blessing and allows you to remember the good things that are happening all around us, whether that may be our clergy and staff connecting with us in new ways, medical professionals on the front line, our family and friends, and so many more. Then the week before the UTO Ingathering on Sunday, May 10, you can open your Blue Box or envelope and read and count your blessings before making a donation online at cathedralATL.org/UTO.