Grace Notes Newsletter of Grace Episcopal Church, Alexandria, Virginia March 2011 Rector’s Reflections Inside this Issue The Way of the Cross From the Assistant Rector..........2, 6 Lent and Easter this year fall extremely late in the calendar with Ash Worship Schedule ........................... 2 Wednesday on March 9 and the Day of Resurrection on April 24. I always Lenten Services.................................3 look forward to our celebrations of Lent, Holy Week and Easter. This year Graceful Worship.............................3 we are adding back to the schedule the Monday 6:30 pm Holy Eucharist, Welcome Missy Greene ..................4 which precedes our dinner and program. Monday nights in Lent are a wonderful opportunity for our parish family to come together for worship, Chili Bowl..........................................4 fellowship and education. Announcements ...............................5 We’re also adding back the Friday 12:15 pm Holy Eucharist, which begins Music Notes......................................6 with the Stations of the Cross. The wooden hangings on the two side walls March Birthday.................................7 of the Nave are beautifully crafted. Each one has a verb title that describes Outreach to the Hungry..................7 Our Lord’s last hours of life. We use “The Way of the Cross,” a devotional Monday Nights in Lent...................8 booklet, as we move from station to station. The 14 stations include 8 from School News.....................................9 the Gospel records of the Passion and 6 from Church tradition. A Letter from Fr. Yohana ..............9 In some ways I’ve already experienced “The Way of the Cross” and the Evangelism......................................10 reality of Easter. My step-father’s recent death had for me and my family the feel of the way of the cross. We walked with Perry through several Junior Warden’s Report ................11 “stations” including: failing health and physical suffering, scans and Eco-Notes.......................................11 biopsies, malignancy diagnosis, hospitalization, hospice residency, death. All Growing @ Grace .........................12 this took place very quickly, less than the 40 days of Lent before Easter. Connections....................................13 We had a wonderful celebration of Perry’s life on “Super Bowl Sunday,” From the Parish Register ..............13 which, of course, for all of us, is first and foremost, the Day of Parish Staff......................................13 Resurrection. I’m very excited this year (because of Perry) to look forward Easter Flower Request ..................14 to our Lenten “way of the cross” and our celebrations of Jesus’ victory over death at Easter. I hope and pray that our liturgies and programs at Grace Church help each one of us to live fully into the experience of Christ’s Passion and Glory. We never know when or how God will bring each one of us first to the cross and, then, to the empty tomb. Grace, Peace and Love, —The Rev. Robert H. Malm Worship Schedule From the Assistant Rector Sunday Schedule Holy Eucharist Rite I ................ 7:30 am WINE AND SPIRIT Child Care ..............8:45 am – 12:45 pm La Santa Eucaristia .................... 9:00 am Choral Eucharist Rite II .......... 9:00 am Recently, I learned that I like red wines. I really never have been much of a Christian Ed classes.................10:15 am “winey,” and in fact until quite recently, I really didn’t drink socially at all. I Choral Eucharist Rite I...........11:15 am was a true teetotaler, except for the wine at the Eucharist of course. Holy Eucharist Rite II...............5:00 pm However, last fall, my wife and I went on a wine tasting tour near Weekday Eucharist through March 8 Charlottesville and got to see the wine making process, which was fascinating. In the process we sampled some terrific wines as well. And Tuesdays, Rite II with healing .... 6:30 pm Wednesdays, Rite I........................7:00 am perhaps this new appreciation accompanies a general mellowing in me, from Thursdays, Rite I ........................ 12:15 pm an all-or-nothing disposition of my youth and early adulthood, to allowing myself an occasional glass. Well, since then, I’ve generally enjoyed some wine when we have company and opened a bottle for hospitality’s sake. Weekday Eucharist Beginning March 10 Mondays, Rite II .......................... 6:30 pm Last night, we had a truly exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon, given to us by a Tuesdays, Rite II with healing.... 6:30 pm friend (a fellow priest) and his wife not long ago. The deep darkness of its Wednesdays, Rite I .......................7:00 am cranberry hue, the full bodied and earthy flavors and sublime aromas were Thursdays, Rite I........................ 12:15 pm intoxicating (if you’ll forgive the pun). This was an amazing wine, bottled in Fridays, Rite II with 2006, and yet was still about $20 (kind of our cut off for what we’ll pay for Stations of the Cross ................. 12:15 pm such things).1 They say a little wine gladdens the heart (see Ps. 104:15 in BCP). And there Grace Church is: is something very satisfying about sharing a good wine with friends, much like the joy of sharing a well prepared meal. Such gathering around an A center for worship and fellowship exquisite meal, or a well aged wine, is reflective of that other meal for which A school for discipleship and we gather every Sunday, with those whom we love, the Eucharist. That feast stewardship too features wine. Of course, the wine of the Eucharist is more satisfying and spiritually nourishing than any other wine in the world. A community for healing and The wine we use at Grace Church, before the consecration, is quite fine, but outreach not in any way extraordinary. It is a Taylor Tawny Port. Ports, originally from Portugal, are typically slightly higher in alcoholic content, and have been stopped earlier in the fermentation process to retain their sugars, thus About Grace Notes their sweeter flavor. However, after the consecration, this typical port is Grace Notes is published 10 times a year quite different, isn’t it? by Grace Episcopal Church, There has been much debate throughout the ages about how it is different. Alexandria, Virginia – monthly except St. Thomas Aquinas would say that while this still looks like wine, and tastes for combined July/August and like wine, it is no longer wine, those are just the “accidents” that remain. December/January issues. Deadlines The former wine is now the blood of Christ, and its “wineness” no longer for submitting copy are by midnight on exists. It has been transubstantiated. Martin Luther would demur. He’d say, the 15th of the preceeding month. The “No. It is Christ’s blood, Christ is present in this sacrament, but it still next Grace Notes deadline: March 15th retains its wineness.” This could be described as a consubstantiation. Then for the April issue. there are the memorialists who say this simply is wine and the presence of Articles should be submitted by e-mail Christ is merely symbolic. We drink it in “memory” of Christ’s sacrifice for to [email protected]. All us, the spilling of his blood. Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker would articles are subject to editing. Grace probably say, “it is wine, but for the one who receives it with faith, it is the Church’s newsletter team includes blood of Christ.” This position has come to be known as a receptionist Doug Prince (editor), Beth Wiggers, theology. Amy Barron, Gary Carter, Kristine Hesse and June Huber. (Continued on page 6) 2 March 2011 Grace Notes Lenten Services Ash Wednesday Service Schedule Wednesday, March 9, Ash Wednesday begins the Season of Lent in the Church year. Plan to attend one of our services as you prepare to observe a Holy Lent. All services will include the imposition of ashes. 7:00 am Holy Eucharist 9:00 am Grace School Chapel 12:00 noon Holy Eucharist with Hymns 6:00 pm Children’s Liturgy and Holy Eucharist 7:30 pm Choral Eucharist 7:30 pm La Santa Eucaristía Note: The Children’s service is designed for children and those who enjoy worshiping with them to observe Ash Wednesday. The service will include the imposition of ashes, as well as Holy Eucharist and a child-friendly sermon. Please join us as we begin the holy season of Lent by exploring our call as God’s people in community throughout the world. Weekday Observances in Lent Confessions: Parishioners are invited to take advantage of “walk-in” opportunities for the Rite of Reconciliation (private confession) on Tuesdays from 5:45 to 6:15 pm and on Fridays from 11:30 am to 12:00 noon. Stations of the Cross: During the Lenten season, the Friday 12:15 pm liturgy begins with the Stations of the Cross. Graceful Worship The Roots of How We Worship (Part 5) Since at least the 1970s, Anglo-Catholicism has been dividing into two camps, along a fault line which can be traced back to Bishop Charles Gore's writings in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1890 he edited and published Lux Mundi, a series of essays by different writers who wanted to bring the Anglican Church into a better relationship with modern scientific and historical knowledge. In his own essays he expressed the belief that Biblical and archaeological studies and scientific discoveries had made it necessary for the Church to re-examine—and perhaps restate—some of its traditional doctrines and practices. The Oxford Movement had been inspired in the first place by a rejection of liberalism and latitudinarianism in favor of the traditional faith of the “Church Catholic,” defined by the teachings of the Church Fathers and the common doctrines of the historical eastern and western Christian churches. Until the 1970’s, most Anglo-Catholics rejected liberalizing development such as the conferral of holy orders on women.