The Third Sunday of Advent

Main
  Who We Are
  Anglican Identity
  Upcoming Events
  Links

Our Worship
  Divine Office
  Services
  WOW
  Homilies

Our Ministries
  Prayer List
  Lay Ministry Rota
  The Servant

San Esteban
  San Esteban

Search:

The Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2005
Isaiah 65:17-25, I Thessalonians 5:12-28, John3:23-30
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

On Monday of this week several of us had an incredible experience of being on what I considered to be holy ground. When we hosted the regional confirmations in November, Jody Heileson, the young woman with ALS who was baptized here on Pentecost Sunday was ill and could not be with us. On Monday Bishop Irish came to her home with some of us to celebrate the Eucharist and confirm her, including Dan Herron, Dona Pedersen and Bill Pitcher, who have been going weekly to visit Jody and her partner Jessica. It was an incredible time of the Spirit moving among and through us as we opened up the Scriptures, prayed for one another, shared the bread and the cup, and witnessed Jody's confirmation. In my reflection on the reading concerning the love of God, I commented that I see the love of God in our community, specifically these three folks who have taken on the ministry of sharing and caring with Jody and Jessica.

I see the love of God throughout our St. Stephen's community, in your ministries, great and small, known and unknown. This evening we will have “A Celebration of New Ministry” to mark my being called as the new rector of St. Stephen's. But this evening will not just be about the rector, it is about you and your ministries in this place and your efforts, to use Paul's words to the Thessalonians, “...to do good to one another and to all.”

I see you living fully and boldly into our Mission Statement of being “a welcoming, confident community with a diversity of gifts; where all are equal in Christ. We live our baptismal vows through mutual respect, shared ministry, and joyful worship.” I reflected on your ministries this week and noted some of them.

Your ministries are public and private. We all benefit from the behind the scenes work of the Altar Guild, the Vestry and Isabel and Matthew our Wardens, Dave Kelly our treasurer and Martha Rice our clerk, the bulletin and newsletter put together by Martin, Barbara's work in the office, the quiet support of the Varners, and our website maintained by David Evans, to mention a few. Then there are those who I call the “do'ers,” those who come and “do” things around the church from minor repairs, to changing our very high light bulbs to ongoing maintenance. You have no idea how grateful I am for all of you.

We have a full listing of worship opportunities here, especially now with the added Sunday congregation of San Esteban and Padre Pablo Ramos. Our Sunday worship is supported by our hymn selection group as well as our Worship Committee. We have our Sunday worship and our ongoing—yet small—Morning Prayer on Tuesday's and Thursday's. On Sunday we have our healing prayer group and new prayer chain/circle. We have our wonderful musicians (Sandy, Barbara, Wendy and Julie) who add so much to our worship together. Frank Crookston and our very faithful group of acolytes and lay assistants. And we have WOW, the gift of Marjorie Ball to the parish of an incredible dinner, worship and a program every single Wednesday of the year! That is a lot happening in worship for this rather small congregation.

In conjunction with all of that we have numerous classes, more than some parishes twice our size. Martin's Sunday group and mine that meet at 9:30, our Sunday School with Eileen and Martha Rice and our many dedicated teachers, Becky Ball's great work with our youth group, and Pat Pitcher's long-standing Bible Study group. There is also my very enjoyable, if at time raucous, EFM group on Monday evenings.

You also reach out beyond the walls of this place with Prison Ministry and the Comfort Ministry group. There is also the ongoing support of the community pantry. We also open our doors to a local AA group and a Moms 'n Tots program on a regular basis. This is in addition to the various community groups that use our parish hall for functions and offer a generous donation for its use. To look at the church's calendar, you will see just how busy and well used our facilities are by us and the broader community.

There is also the crucial ministry of presence of just being here, sharing in the breaking of the bread and the prayers, giving of your tithes and offerings. You make this community vital and alive.

I have not named all of you who do ministry, to do so I would have to start over here and name you one by one as I go pew by pew around the church. As I read the Epistle reading for today I had the image of you sitting there as I read: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.” No worry of the saints of St. Stephen's quenching the Spirit.

So as we together gather tonight for A Celebration of New Ministry, it is the ministry of all of us that we will celebrate. It is the ministry of this community of the baptized, the saints of God, we will celebrate as we enter into a new phase of the history of St. Stephen's Parish together and I give thanks for each of you. Through it all, I hope that each of you will be able to say, as I do very often, “I am who we are.”