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Redeemer News • November 2017 VOLUME 2017 • I S S U E 1 0 The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer • 2944 Erie Avenue, Cincinnati, OH. 45208 • 513-321-6700 P A G E 2 F T R You might want to sit down for this: We’ve decided to move to using the color blue during Advent instead of the color purple. Your response to reading this may vary from, “Over my dead body!” to “We use purple during Advent?” to “When’s Advent again?” because you’re an Episcopalian, and we Episcopalians are notoriously all over the map on every issue, no matter how small. But I believe the color blue and the Season of Advent are about to matter to you, and I’d like to explain why right now. Let’s talk about Advent irst. The word comes from the Latin for “coming.” Fittingly, during the Season of Advent, the Church prepares for the coming of Jesus. We do this in two distinct but connected ways: We use this time as a preparation for Christmas (the day on which we celebrate Jesus’ birth – His coming into the world). We also use this time to meditate on what’s become known as “The Second Coming” – or Jesus’ return, which inaugurates the end of the world. We have a tendency to think of the end times as terrifying and awful. But Christian Scriptures point to the “end of the world as we know it” as the time when justice reigns, when things are made right, and when God’s reconciliation of all things through the redemption of Creation is fully and inally consummated. In short – we as a religious community recognize that Jesus Advents, that He comes into our lives, and that this coming, this Adventing, is a total game-changer. The world is changed when we recognize God’s presence in it. The world is redeemed by Christ’s Advent. We don’t just want to celebrate this on Christmas Day, any more than we just want to listen to Christmas songs on Christmas Day – we want to devote some time to preparing our hearts and minds for the joyful recognition that God has come into the world in a unique and powerful way in Jesus. Hence the Season of Advent: The season of preparation for the Coming of God in Jesus, the season where we as a Church get ready for Christmas and all that that means for us. Now let’s talk about liturgical colors. Episcopalians, like other Christians, use speciic colors to mark speciic times in the life of our Church. We like aesthetics. We like when things are beautiful. We recognize that beauty draws us into a deeper awe of God. And we like symbolism. Our entire traditional worship experience is illed with symbolism. Everything means something – even when many of us don’t understand what something means, we like the idea that it means something. So it’s no surprise that we’d have different colors for different seasons, and that these different colors would come to symbolize for us larger truths about who God is and who we are in light of that. For many churches in the Anglican tradition, the liturgical color for Advent is purple – the same as the color for Lent. In the life of the early church, purple dye was extracted from certain shellish, making it the costliest color to produce. Subsequently, it was reserved for royalty. The Church would break out the purple for Advent and Lent because these are two seasons where we prepare ourselves to recognize Jesus’ glory – in His birth and in His death & resurrection. But, as you probably have realized by now, the traditions and practices of the Church over centuries are pretty varied and diverse. Since at least the 7th century, some Christians have been using blue as the liturgical color during Advent. Blue is often connected to Mary. And Mary, as the one who was pregnant with Jesus, has an obvious connection to Advent. Blue has been used to signify hope, expectation, and heaven. All these things considered, you can see why it could be a solid choice as an Advent color. Purple, by the way, is a ine color, and is perfectly wonderful for both Lent and Advent. In the life of the Church, purple has come to signify repentance. In fact, it has so powerfully come to signify repentance that many Christians, after years of using purple for Advent, came to treat Advent as a “mini Lent.” Some churches even stopped saying “Alleluia” during Advent. P A G E 3 I believe repentance – real, honest searching, self-inventory, and seeking of God – is an important aspect of Advent. I do. That being said, Advent and Lent are just plain different. There is a difference between preparing for the birth of Christ and preparing for the death of Christ. There is a difference between anticipating Jesus’ coming into the world and Jesus’ suffering in and for the world. These are different kinds of preparation, different kinds of repentance. Episcopalians are an aesthetic people – a people who recognize the power of symbol, of color, and of beauty. Since we recognize that Advent and Lent are different, it is natural for us to want to make that distinction in an aesthetic, colorful, physically beautiful way. And we are a people of tradition. So it’s important we don’t just make things up whole cloth. Lo and behold, for hundreds and hundreds of years, many Christians have made the physical and spiritual distinction between Advent and Lent. After much prayer and contemplation, after spending time in discernment and conversation with the Altar Guild, the Liturgy Board, the Sanctuary Worship Team, the Vestry, and the Admin Team, we have decided to move forward and embrace a new old way of living into the great expectation of Advent. As one of my dear friends recently said to me, blue is like the night sky, just before dawn, and Advent is the dawn of a New Year. Blue connects us to Mary, and opens up space for us to welcome a more feminine type of waiting, a powerful, prayerful, anticipation and expectation for the coming of the God who makes all things new. My hope for you this Advent is simple: I hope that you will be inspired to recognize the coming of Jesus Christ in your heart and in your life. I pray that you will breathe deep the spirit of joyful expectation. There is no question that God is doing beautiful things in your life and in the life of Redeemer. My prayer is that you see it. I hope that the blue of Advent will help draw you into a beautiful, powerful meditation of all the ways in which you see God showing up; all the ways in which you wait for a newer, better, more just and merciful world. I hope this old new Advent blue will surround and support you as you dare to hope for a world in which Jesus is visible everywhere you look. I pray that you will dare to believe that the God who made you is in fact coming – and that there is healing in Her wings. Bless you during this holy time of preparation. Your friend and brother in Christ Jesus, Philip Hart DeVaul † R P Since the last publication of this column, we have recognized the following milestones in our parish life: DEATHS BAPTISMS William R. Hardy, long-time member Carolina Paige Trucco, daughter of Christine & Matteo Delle Ernst Taylor, mother of Bill Taylor Mila Ann von Allmen, daughter of Anna & Douglas Joe Busken, brother of Linda Busken Jergens Nancy Tenney Coleman, mother of Pinky Laffoon WEDDING Lauren Kapuscinski and Dalton Hart P A G E 4 A W W A B On Thursday, November 2, The Rev. Philip DeVaul sat down with Ann Blemker and spoke with her about her life at Redeemer, and the extended family she found here. To hear the interview in its entirety, please visit the Redeemer website. Go to: Redeemer-cincy.org, click on “Welcome” > “Latest News.” Are you able to say why it was hard for you? Yeah. Al felt that if people didn’t understand his sermons, that was their problem. He was very bright, but when he gave a sermon you couldn’t relate it to today and your own life. It was very intellectual. It was spiritual in some ways, but it was very dificult. I can tell you, as a person, he was a wonderful human being. My mother died suddenly while I was in Chicago. He met me at the airport with my father. You don’t forget stuff like that, at all. But I think when Jim came he attracted a different – well, irst of all, he was young. Every other rector had been older. So Jim naturally was going to attract more young people, and that changed the makeup of this church greatly. For the better. Today I’m honored to sit down with Ann Blemker. Ann, how long have you been a member of Church of What ministries are you involved with right now? the Redeemer? IHN. I still will do meals when they’re here. Home 70 years. Baptized, conirmed, and married here too. Comforts is my big one now. I’m curious for someone who has known this church, What do you do with Home Comforts? what do you think has stayed the same? When you Make deliveries. It’s up and down. It can be a good think about Redeemer as you were growing up, as experience; it can be a marginal experience.

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