AAnn EEppiissttllee ffrroomm SStt.. PPaauull’’ss 112 East Main Street, P.O. Box 206 Lock Haven, PA 17745 570-748-2440 www.saintpaulslh.org October 2009

BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS TH If you want to come prepared to make your own 10 A.M., SATURDAY OCT. 10 beads, you will need a pendant-type cross, five larger beads, and 28 smaller ones. Bring a wash Do you have a cat, dog, ferret, bird, or hamster you cloth (useful to keep your beads from rolling away), would like to have blessed? Or even a turtle or a and if you have needlenose pliers, they will be most fish? Father Richard Cohoon has graciously agreed welcome. We will have plenty of prayer bead kits to come back to St. Paul’s for a command available, instructions, printed prayers, and all other performance of his warm and cuddly blessing of the needed materials and tools. Please call Claudia animals on Saturday, October 10 in front of the Horner at 814-383-4496 with questions and to let church. His able assistant, Father Will, has agreed her know how many beaders to expect. to bless the water and hold the bowl. Make sure your pet is caged and/or leashed. No snakes, please! CHILDREN’S CHOIR BEGINS! Mary Lou Kyle-Bittner announces that the first rehearsal of the new Children’s Choir will be SHARING SPIRIT TIME TOGETHER: Sunday, October 4, following the service at 12 SPIRITUAL JOURNALING 9/26 noon. Gather in the Lord Room (behind the 10/24 sanctuary) for snacks with the congregation, then get ready to have fun and sing! All children are For our October gathering of ST2, we will learn welcome; bring music-loving friends, too! Kids about the use of Anglican Prayer Beads as a way of need not be church members to sing. prayer. Join us Saturday, October 24 at 9:00 a.m. for time to gather, a light snack, time for prayer, and instructions on how to make Anglican Prayer Beads. You can easily make a set for yourself in one session, and you may enjoy making them for others as gifts. The method is simple enough for practically any age to master.

For Episcopalians, beads are a relatively new form of prayer, although throughout the centuries, many religious traditions have used some physical device as a means of focusing and/or counting during prayer. Prayer beads can help to bring people into contemplative or meditative prayer—really thinking about and being mindful of praying, of being in the presence of God—by use of mind, body, and spirit. The touching of the fingers on each successive bead is an aid in keeping the mind from wandering, and the rhythm of the prayers leads to stillness and listening for God.

SUPPLY PRIESTS FOR TWO SOUP'S ON! AT THE HARVEST SUNDAYS AT ST. PAUL’S FOOD CELEBRATION OCT. 17

Father Will is to help lead the first Leadership From 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday, October 17, at the Retreat for College Students at Youth Retreat Farmer's Market behind the Courthouse, we will be Center in Frenchville, sponsored by the Episcopal serving up our best soups for sale at the Harvest Diocese of Central Pennsylvania the weekend of Food Celebration. Earlier this summer, the Outreach September 25. Fr. Ron Lynch will supply and lead Committee decided that St. Paul's should revive our Bible Study on Luke afterwards. The next weekend once-annual Fall Soup Sale in conjunction with the Fr. Will makes his annual retreat at the ELCA's downtown fall festival. Vestry has designated Whittel Farm near Elizabethtown. Jody Cole will Tiffany Allen and Jacqui Anastos as co- lead the 2009 Icon Writing Retreat, and Fr. Will coordinators of this major fundraising event. unveils his second icon, St. Francis of Assisi, at the Organizers of the larger event have also asked that Blessing of Animals. Fr. Elaine Silverstrim will St. Paul's sell Apple Dumplings this year. Please supply at 11 a.m., and Hospitality follows in the contact Tif or Jacqui if you will bake! Upper Room.

VESTRY VOTES TO RESCIND THE CAVE PROPOSAL

After voting unanimously in June in favor of The Cave Proposal to provide safe harbor for the teenagers who congregate outside St. Paul's, the Vestry, by a two-thirds vote among those present, Flowers at St. Paul’s voted to kill the project. A straw poll open to the entire congregation on Sept. 13 showed two-thirds Your Name______in favor of the project: 6 in favor, 4 opposed, with 2 Date Desired______uncommitted ballots. In memory of___ In honor of__(check one) In other action, Vestry decided to clean up and Name(s) ______professionally restore the room in the basement for Al-Anon meetings which will take place at 7:30 on Tuesday evenings. Vestry also voted to scrape and professionally repaint the ironwork in the front of the Church. Furnace conversion to natural gas will Type of flowers: ______Real wait until all the oil is used up. Wood steps on the ______Silk side will be replaced. A Fall UTO Ingathering was proposed.

Make out check for $30 to St. Paul’s notated ―flowers‖, and mail to: Phyllis Durost, 219 Kennedy, Mill Hall, PA 17751

CAMPUS CORNER A Word from our LHU Protestant Campus Minister

My heart is heavy. I am sitting along the banks of Pine Creek at the Little Pine State Park reflecting on the events of the week. I come seeking respite from an emotionally-taxing week as I faced poverty head on.

It is not atypical to think of college students as being poor; a college club advisor is always cautious about charging too much for an event, lest the students’ laundry doesn’t get done nor textbooks get purchased. But I am talking about a different kind of poverty that hits at the heart of survival. And yes – I’m talking about Lock Haven University students, several of whom are members of the Protestant Campus Ministry.

This past week alone, I encountered a student who had stopped taking his medication because his prescriptions ran out and he didn’t have the money to renew them. He yearned to go to a doctor for a check-up but didn’t have any health insurance. PCM explored the necessary channels to get him the health care he needed.

A student desperately needed a job so he wouldn’t be evicted from his apartment but he didn’t have any nice clothes to wear to an interview. PCM helped clothe him.

A commuting student’s only mode of transportation, a bicycle, broke down while going to Wal-Mart to get diapers for her baby. PCM picked her up, figuratively and literally, and brought her, her baby, a case of diapers and ailing bicycle safely home.

Another student dropped by my office. He had a huge duffle bag on his back. I said facetiously, ―It looks like you have everything you own in that bag!‖ Much to my absolute embarrassment, it was. His parents live too far away to commute. He doesn’t have a car or bicycle. He has a bed to sleep on but not a place to keep his clothing and belongings. He had not eaten in days and when I took him to the campus dining hall, his stomach would not tolerant too much food all at once so we sat there for a couple of hours as he ate food in small amounts.

Yes, my heart is heavy but thankful that we were able to help. I usually write about upcoming events, weekly meetings, bible studies and worship in these monthly newsletter columns – all of which, of course, are important to our ministry. But PCM ministers in other ways as well and I seek your fervent prayers and generous financial support to make these ministries possible.

I am reminded of the hymn we sang in church last Sunday – ―Here I Am, Lord‖ by Daniel Schutte.

I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will send the poor and lame. I will set a feast for them. My hand will save. Finest bread I will provide, 'Til their hearts be satisfied. I will give my life to them. Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.

From the banks of Pine Creek, my heart finds refreshment to return to the needs of our students. I will return to campus with the assurance that the Lord will continue to lead us. Thanks be to God! Pastor Jeff Seeley

On Pilgrimage with Father Will Shall return next month! Instead, please enjoy the sermon of our Presiding , The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, from her visit to Church, Williamsport on September 13.

We came over here Friday on the train from New York. We weren’t very far into New Jersey when the train stopped – and it wasn’t at a station. We sat on the tracks for 10 or 15 minutes, and the very solicitous conductor came around to tell us that there was a disabled train ahead of us, and that he didn’t know how long it would be, but they were working to fix the other train. Eventually we would move. He came around again, twice, in the next half hour, to tell us the same thing. After a while I turned to Dick and said, “we need a new verse for that old saw, “if you have time to spare, go by air. Maybe, ‘to hang around, go by ground.’” A bit later the conductor made an announcement, “we’ll let you know if any new developments develop. Thank you for your continued kindness and patience.”

Some people think this is what means when he says, “take up your cross,” that we’re supposed to respond to life’s unexpected events with grace and good humor. Patience and kindness are certainly appropriate and useful spiritual gifts, but the kind of wisdom that Proverbs and Jesus are talking about actually goes a lot deeper.

A word about proverbs and wisdom. The image of lady wisdom is a bit better known than it was before we started to use the lectionary in the 1979 prayer book, but we still don’t hear about Wisdom very often. In the Hebrew Bible (OT) Wisdom is a personification of God, sometimes understood as God’s active presence, not unlike the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. She also shows up as God’s fellow builder in creation, like a holy architect or master builder. Wisdom stands in the street and invites the foolish to turn in and feast at her table, to take in what is good and reject the foolish. Wisdom is what James is alluding to when he challenges teachers to be careful with their tongues. Jesus is spoken of in the gospels as Wisdom’s child and Wisdom’s prophet, and he clearly does the same kinds of things Wisdom does – inviting whoever is hungry to a bountiful feast, and offering the Word of God as the main course. Compare the close of this Proverbs reading, “those who listen to me will be secure and live at ease, without dread of disaster” with the words of Jesus, “those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Hear echoes also in “fear not” and “my burden is easy, my yoke is light.”

The kind of wisdom Jesus challenges us to receive is about the hard work of the kingdom. If we acknowledge Jesus as king or lord, then we’re also going to have to recognize that following him isn’t just about patience and kindness, necessary and useful as they are. Kindness and patience are signs of the converted or wise heart, but they are not the only fruits of that deeper wisdom.

I get letters periodically complaining about something the church has done, or what its leaders are talking about. They’re usually variations on “the church is going to hell in a handbasket, we’re losing members, and what are you going to do about it?” I’ve had several in recent days about health care, along the lines of, “How can you possibly think it’s the church’s job to engage in politics? I go to church to feel safe, not to be harassed about politics!” I write back and point out that loving our neighbors is about healing the sick, and that a systemic change is probably the best way to ensure that every sick person has some access to health care, and that in this country politics is the way we change dysfunctional systems. I understand politics as the art of living in community, and Jesus actually talked a lot about that kind of politics. And yes, even in the church, some people may get mad and leave if they think they’re going to be asked to help or be responsible for other people.

Taking up our cross and following Jesus isn’t always sweetness and light – there certainly isn’t much of it in the suffering that precedes Easter. But the assurance of the gospel is that God can bring new life out of the worst that the world can dish up, and following Jesus to Calvary is the way to find that resurrected life.

A bishop from Pakistan was in my office last week. He talked about the blasphemy law in Pakistan, and how it’s routinely misused to settle grudges against Christians or other minorities. A number of Christians have died recently in riots, murders, and house burnings that have followed spurious charges of blasphemy or disrespect of the Koran. He also told me that he’d just been to visit his brothers in Canada, all five of whom emigrated there decades ago. They don’t understand why he stays in Pakistan. His response is, “I must keep going back. We will not change this injustice if we don’t continue to show others we love them.” Yesterday I had news of a church burned by extremists in a village in another diocese of Pakistan.

People of faith in this country do need to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, remembering that his mission instructions are usually about healing people and bringing good news. And yes, health care reform in the U.S. and peace in Pakistan are going to require some changes, because the systems we have now hasn’t yet reached God’s dream of wholeness and a healed world. We’ve had a pretty good example of the pain involved in the public conversations about health care in the last couple of months. But you and I don’t live in the midst of darkness, we live with hope for light. When you think about health care reform, who is “living in dread of disaster” right now, as Proverbs puts it? Is it the wise or the foolish?

I had a very interesting conversation on that train ride over here. A young man stopped and asked me “are you a sister in the faith?” I said, “I hope so!” His response was, “do you have a word for me?” I offered the end of the Proverbs reading because I was wrestling with it right then, “those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” He knew it was from Proverbs, and asked where, so I gave him chapter and verse. “That’s a good word,” he said, and went on to his seat. He came back 30 minutes later and engaged me for quite a long time. He said he had read that there were 11 major religions in the world, and something like 30,000 denominations, and was trying to figure out how to pick the right one. He was no beginner, either. He quoted a lot of gospel, by chapter and verse, including the part where Jesus says, by your fruits you will know them. He went on and on, about how some preachers think that the gospel is about collecting riches, but no, that wasn’t what Jesus meant. Nor was going to war, or thinking that God can only speak in one way or through one tradition. A wise young man.

How do we know spiritual wisdom when we meet it? By its fruits – yes, patience and kindness – but also justice and healing and peace. Sometimes those fruits don’t emerge for a while, until after Good Friday and the emptiness of Holy Saturday. But we keep picking up our cross anyway, and walking down the road after Jesus. When that young man got off the train, he didn’t wish me “happy trails.” We said to each other what I will say to all of us, “a blessed journey.” As we take up our cross, and follow Jesus down that blessed way, our refrain really ought to be, “on the road again.”

SERVERS IN THE CHURCH IN OCTOBER Hospitality Ushers Lector October 4 Lynn Bruner Hedges Mary Lou October 11 Marge & Tom Stacey Foulsham October 18 Eileen Dooley Tif Bernard October 24 Hedges Chip Foulsham November 1 Needed! Marge & Tom Don Bittner If your name does not appear on the list and you would be willing to serve, please inform Joanne Black or Margie Blair. Would you like to learn to help with Holy Eucharist and the Prayers of the People (that is, to serve as a chalicist)? Talk with Lynn Bruner, Stacey Foulsham, or Father Will. Thank you!

PEOPLE AT ST. PAUL’S October Birthdays: Jason Bitner 10/3 Phyllis Durost 10/13 Margie Blair 10/14 Parishoner News: Lynn Bruner & Ben Blascovich joined the Board of Directors of the Clinton County Women’s Center; Betty and Walter Hilton, deceased of our parish, were founders of the Center, which is also known as Hilton House! From 9/30 to 10/4, Lynn will be appearing in The Vagina Monologues at Millbrook Playhouse, as part of a fundraiser for the Women’s Center. See www.millbrookplayhouse.com for tickets. Send parishioner news, birthdays, and anniversaries to [email protected]!

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church PO Box 206 Lock Haven, PA 17745