Using the Arts to Proclaim Christ

by Trevor Thompson
Director of Pastoral Ministries

In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we observe and admire the creative ways the early apostles proclaimed Christ to all peoples.  Through their witness, many were healed, and “there was great joy in that city [Samaria].”  Many were baptized and received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.  Throughout Christian history, people of faith, like those early apostles, have been creatively proclaiming Christ.  One of the most effective and touching ways has been through the arts:  music, storytelling, theater, performance arts, visual arts, and poetry.  Next month, as you see below, there are two beautiful opportunities in our community that share in this ministry of creatively witnessing the Good News to others.  I am confident that these events will stir up the Spirit of truth and bring great joy to our community.  Hope to see you!   

Justice Theater Project

presents HOME by 

Samm-Art Williams 

This play tells the gentle saga of everyman Cephus Miles, who leaves behind his family farm in NC and travels north for more opportunities.  His epic journey from adolescence to adulthood spans the 1950’s through the Civil Rights Era and the Vietnam War,  showing us all the importance of coming home.  For more information about Justice Theater Project, this performance, or future performances, go their website:  http://thejusticetheaterproject.org/            

Wild Goose Festival

This family-friendly festival of the arts, spirituality, music, and justice brings together offers a remarkable line-up of artists, musicians, speakers, and performers of all kinds in June in Chatham County. 

Franciscan Richard Rohr, OFM and Jesuit John Dear, SJ will be among the noteworthy Catholic speakers. 

Check out the website for ticket info and full line-up:  http://www.wildgoosefestival.org/

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Talking and Performing Music with Parish Youth

The parish middle school and high school youth came together on May 15^th as part of their “Everyday Topics” series.  The focus was on music, especially looking at how music expresses the emotion, faith, spirit, and beauty and sadness of everyday life. 

Jim Wahl, parish Coordinator of Music and Liturgy, and Trevor Thompson, Director of Pastoral Ministries, helped organize the evening, offering some opening praise music, prayers, and words of introduction to the topic.

We were honored to have award-winning musician David LaMotte, veteran of 10 CDs and 2000 concerts in 47 states and on four continents, lead this discussion on music.  David performed three of his original songs (see videos of two of those songs below).  LaMotte also works for the NC Council of Churches as their Program Associate for Peace and is the founder and director of PEG Parterns, a non-profit that supports schools and libraries in Guatemala.  With words of reflection between each song, David engaged the youth on the power of music to express our emotions and spirits, the way images and metaphors trigger on our imaginations, and the way music can affect different people in different ways.  David also offered a glimpse into the way the music industry works, especially the politics of “Christian music.”  He encouraged the youth to seek out music that speaks to their soul and to be open to music that often doesn’t get airplay on the radio. 

Operations Coordinator of the Wild Goose Festival - Jacob Kuntz – was also on hand to share some words about this awesome festival coming to our area (Chatham County) in June.  This festival is attempting to bring together many musicians, storytellers, and speakers to engage in a celebration of spirituality, the arts, and social justice.  David LaMotte will be one of the performers at the Wild Goose Festival. 

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CARING FOR THE NEEDS OF OUR COMMUNITY

by Trevor Thompson
Director of Pastoral Ministries

We hear in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles a story of how the early church figures out how to handle new questions that have arisen from her rapid growth and diversity.  Numerical growth leads to overload for the apostles in the administration of the common fund for the poor.  As a result, the Greek speaking Jews are being overlooked in the daily food distribution.  This is also a question of diversity for the early church.  As non-Hebrew speaking people joined the church, the apostles had to face the reality of their own neglect  In other words – were the Grecian widows not getting fed because there were just not enough time in the apostles’ day or did they as Hebraic Jews hold some kind of racial superiority and discrimination over the Grecian Jews?  Either way, it’s clear that the resulting complaints with this larger, more diverse, and more complex church are threatening to destroy the church’s unity. 

It’s in this context that the Twelve gather the community and face the problem immediately and openly.  The apostles name their primary task in building the church is to prayer and the Word of God, and thus they choose seven Greek-speaking members of the church to take over the responsibility of making sure the social needs of this young church are not neglected.  We hear the qualities of a good candidate for this task; we hear the participatory process of the community for making this decision; and we hear the way these men were commissioned to service.  And the passage ends with a sign of success – continued growth of the gospel way of life. 

This witness story from two thousand years ago sounds a lot like the history of our parish in north Raleigh, a parish that in the past twenty-five years has grown from small and intimate tribe to a diverse 5000+ household behemoth – from a place where everyone’s needs were known and met to a church were now people can remain anonymous and their needs unnoticed, a place where people all spoke the same language and had the same politics to a place where there’s diversity of opinion, race, sexuality, and culture.  And so, like the apostles of the early church, realizing that they could not effectively care for all the needs of this community, the friars created structures and called forth reputable members filled with wisdom and spirit to manage the operations of this complex organization.

Here at St. Francis of Assisi, through your generous contribution of time, talent, and treasure, we continue to care for the needs of our community, and we have many, many opportunities to share in this responsibility within the seventy ministries of Pastoral Ministries.  I am thankful for your on-going support.  There are always new needs emerging, and we always need more help in making sure everyone is cared for.

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St. Francis Brings Inclusive Message to OutRaleigh

 By Chuck Small

             Those who attended the inaugural OutRaleigh festival, a celebration of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, not only were able to see how the Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi welcomes them but also could hear that message of welcome firsthand from our pastor, Fr. Mark Reamer.

            Father Mark was among more than a half dozen leaders of the Raleigh faith community who stood onstage to offer OutRaleigh participants a warm welcome May 14 on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. Among the other faith communities represented were Temple Beth Or, Pullen Baptist Church, Umstead Park United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh and Community United Church of Christ. Because of time constraints, Father Mark was one of only three faith community leaders to address the festival.

            Participants heard a clear statement that St. Francis is a faith community that welcomes everyone. Father Mark quoted the parish mission statement that “we are one family living in community confronted, challenged and comforted by the Word of God, reaching out to all persons and their families.”  He elaborated on the word “all,” that it excludes no one.  Indeed, all are invited to believe and belong and build up the kingdom of God.

            Referencing Catholic church teaching, Father Mark described the U.S. bishops’ pastoral statement “Always Our Children” and explained the program of the same name that St. Francis GLBT Ministry has developed for GLBT people and their families.

The Catholic Church’s pastoral message is one of acceptance of self within the divinely revealed truth about the dignity and destiny of human persons, Father Mark said.

            He concluded by reminding those present: You are always Gods children!

            Participants had the opportunity to learn firsthand about St. Francis GLBT Ministry by coming to a table set up at the festival. About 10 parishioners staffed the ministry table at various points in the day, providing copies of the ministrys 2011-12 calendar, information about the Always Our Children program, and a save-the-date flyer for the Oct. 14-16 retreat at St. Francis Springs in Stoneville, NC.

            OutRaleigh is the first of several outreach efforts the ministry makes each year to the Triangle’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. In August, the ministry will have a table at the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival at Durham’s Carolina Theatre. And the last weekend in September, the ministry will have a table at N.C. Pride on the East Campus of Duke University. This year will mark the 10^th year that the ministry has been the sole Catholic parish presence at Pride.

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What Does It Mean To Be Saved?

by Trevor Thompson, Director of Pastoral Ministries
Fourth Sunday of Easter

The question “are you saved?” is not a new question, nor specific to fundamentalist Christianity.  The Jews of Jesus’ day were also quite anxious about who was going to be a true member of God’s people when God’s rule was fully established.  Each different Jewish group (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essences) had rival answers about salvation.  For example, you could be assured of being God’s people (salvation) if you were obedient to the sacrificial laws and demands of the priestly class; or if you obeyed the oral law in all its detail; or if you went off to a desert and lived a life of strict ritual purity in community.  Jesus, however, proposes to redefine what it means to belong to God’s people, and this is truly revolutionary.

It’s this context then that we should hear today’s gospel reading that suggests that the way to the Shepherd’s green pastures is through Jesus, the “gate.”  This is not necessarily an attempt by Jesus to narrowly define salvation, or a way to offer a competing piety to the Pharisees.  We must remember that Jesus’ way of eternal beatitude is the way of forgiveness, healing, suffering for the sake of righteousness, and welcoming people who were not welcome in any of the existing categories of Israelite life at the time – people who were never going to keep the ritual laws or who had failed to be faithful to the moral law.  This way of Jesus was less about signing up to an exclusive, pious society and more like swimming in an overwhelming current of divine loving activity.  In this vein, what is means to belong to God’s people – to be saved – is to live a life that bears witness to Jesus’ way, that is, to put into practice forgiveness, trust in God’s goodness, patience through suffering, an offering of peace and healing and radical hospitality to others, especially those on the margins.  Living this way is what repentance and baptism meant for Peter and the disciples in today’s first reading.  Indeed, this is abundant life, the green pastures beyond the gate.

I believe that our liturgy acts as a kind of ritual-school for Jesus’ way of salvation in divine love.  Through our listening to the Word and participating in the breaking and sharing of the Eucharist, we will slowly begin to recognize the Shepherd’s voice and follow him through the gate. 

And in time, perhaps, you’ll also feel called to volunteer in one of our parish ministries where you might begin to put this divine love into action for others. 

See the many ministries of our parish on our parish website, or contact me with other ideas of how you might be feeling called to put into practice the divine saving love of Jesus.  Live in the saving and abundant life of Jesus!

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St. Francis of Assisi visits Haiti to Continue Rebuilding

Members of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Disaster Recovery Ministry traveled to Fondwa, Haiti as part of delegation with Family Health Ministries, Inc. to continue the ongoing rebuilding of Haiti after the devasting 2010 earthquake.  This St. Francis’ second trip to Haiti but the first with Family Health Ministries.  Their main task was to help build “Kay Professeurs” or a home for secondary school teachers who regularly commute from Port-au-Prince.  

 

Parishioner delegate John Budway reflects on this experience, “Whether it was putting together bunk beds, painting Boss’s house, repairing/reinforcing  a staircase, nailing together the teachers’ dormitory, fixing the water leak/runoff in the sisters’ home  or spending quality time getting to know the school kids, the orphans or the sisters, everything you did was appreciated. You really made a difference in the lives of others.”

 

If you would like to be part of future callings to serve in disaster recovery efforts, please contact Janet Mintel at jmintel@nc.rr.com

See pictures below from the trip:

Friday, May 13, 2011
Team in front of house, almost complete. 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 12, 2011  

The team is feeling some pressure to finish the “Kay Professeur” so all painting work has come to a halt

most of the team with Madame John and her daughter Valencia on Wednesday morning

 

Raising the last wall of the house late Wednesday eveningThe team installs rafters Thursday am Wednesday, May 11, 2011

 Wednesday, May 11, 2011
A couple of heavy rain showers inspired part of the team to rework a gutter system inside one of the sisters’ homes. 

Tim with phase 2 of the new inside gutter system

 

JT and Jen helping load the lining

The professors’ house team worked an extra hour on Monday to finish the footings so they could cure overnight. By Tuesday evening, they had completed the plywood floor and raised one wall.

Se Simone surveys the progress

 

 

 

JT passing out albendazole

 

Liz passing out candy

 

Lisa collecting wrappers

Monday, 9 May
After attending mass with Father Joseph, the team got to work on three different projects. Rain interrupted some of the work, and made the trek down and back up the mountain to and from the new orphanage a real challenge. 

Tim

 

JT sanding

 

prep walls for painting

 

John, Jen and Bob Langley, worked with locals to measure the breathtakingly beautiful house site on the mountainside

 

 

Meanwhile, Liz, Lisa, Gil and Tom assembled bunk beds for the replacement orphanage with help from Sister Simone and Guilleume.

 

 

Sunday, 8 May
The team traveled to Fondwa after stopping Leogane briefly. They enjoyed two meals, unpacked, and met with Father Joseph to learn more about his work in Fondwa.

 

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Experiencing Resurrection

by Trevor Thompson
Director of Pastoral Ministries

Third Sunday of Easter

Over and over we hear stories of our spiritual ancestors who had the resurrection right in front of them, and they couldn’t see it.  Remember Mary Magdalene, the first to encounter Jesus in the garden, who thought he was the gardener, until he said her name.  The disciples all thought she was hallucinating until he appeared to them in the upper room.  Remember last week’s gospel we saw Thomas holding onto his disbelief until Jesus shows up once again, asking Thomas to dispel his doubt by putting his fingers into Jesus’ wounds.  And then again in today’s gospel, two heavy-hearted disciples walk and talk with Jesus for miles and still don’t recognize him, until he breaks the bread, blesses it, and gives it to them. 

It is clear from these stories that it’s so easy to miss the point, to misinterpret our experience, and to not recognize what’s really going on.  Yet, experiencing resurrection seems necessary if we are going to be witnesses.  And so Jesus continues to find a way to reveal himself in the midst of our daily lives, meeting us on the way, finding us behind our locked doors and doubts and despondent lives.  Although resurrection is not a one-size-fits-all experience, we nevertheless hear today that the transformative, eye-opening experience for the disciples is in the “breaking of the bread.”  We might do well to ask ourselves how and where we are experiencing the resurrected Jesus. 

For some resurrection comes as light and grace; for others as forgiveness and compassion; for some as beauty and light; and for others as healing and comfort; for some as a warm meal and a new job; and for others as community and prayer and liturgy.

As Director of Pastoral Ministries, I continue to hear stories of people experiencing resurrection in these ways through our ministries here at St. Francis of Assisi.  For example, I’ve had recent emails about people finding healing through Stephen Ministry, compassion and comfort in Emmaus Ministry, and community in our Young Adult Ministry. 

It’s also the case that once we have experienced the new life that is in Jesus, we often feel compelled to share this new life with others.  Therefore, many parishioners give their time, talent, and treasure to our ministries so that we might be the way others experience the resurrection.  I can’t help but to think about the financial donations to help with the regional tornado relief or with the disaster in Japan, or the parish delegates leaving today to help with on-going earthquake relief in Haiti, or the many parishioners who visit the children and families in Duke’s Children Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House. 

How and where might you experience resurrection today?

How and where might you bear witness to others the fruits of this resurrection?

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Coalition Conversation: Wake County Schools

The Franciscan Coalition hosted a series of three conversations on the current school assignment issue in Wake County schools in what are being billed as “Coalition Conversation:  Searching for the Common Good – Wake County Schools.”  The intended outcomes to this series: 

1. To foster discussion that shows respect and mutual understanding among participants; 
2. To gain a deeper and more informed understanding of this complex issue; 
3. And to help our parishioners and our other community members better understand the Church’s social teaching, the moral dimensions of public policy, and the importance of their participation on matters affecting the common good. 

The line-up for this series: 

 Thursday, April 28 Theme:  “Informing”

T. Keung Hui, News & Observer, Staff Education Reporter

Cash Michaels, The Carolinian, Editor

Thursday, May 5 Theme:  “Sharing Perspectives”

Dr. Rev Barber, President NC NAACP

Dr. Tim Tyson, Historian and Duke University Senior Research Scholar

Wednesday, May 18 Theme:  “Listening”

C. Steve Parrott, President Wake Education Partnership

Tony Tata, Superintendent Wake County School System

This series builds on a very successful March 2010 panel conversation we hosted that included members of Great Schools in Wake Coalition from WakeUP Wake County and Wake Schools Community Alliance.  Each session includes an introduction to Catholic Social Teaching by Fr. David McBriar, OFM, presentations by the guests of honor, Q&A moderated by Jeanne Tedrow, a St. Francis of Assisi parishioner and the co-founder and CEO of Passage Home, a nonprofit community development corporation in Raleigh, and small group discussions by the attendees. 

Here are a few pictures from this series:

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Community Garden Plants Vegetables and Blesses Ground with Service

On April 30th, under beautiful sunny skies, the volunteers of the Community Garden gathered together to plant the summer vegetables in the two beds in front of LaVerna center on the St. Francis of Assisi campus.  Already they have harvested several times the spring crops and donated to Interfaith Food Shuttle and Our Lady of Rosary Outreach.  With tomatoes, basil, squash, beans, and many other crops, this looks to be a very productive garden. 

One of our local Girl Scouts troops led by parishioner Lisa Curran continues to be of service to this project in planting herbs and flowers around the land and painting ceramic garden plates that identify the plants.  

Later that morning, Fr. Mark Reamer, OFM led a prayer service and ground blessing of the community garden.  During the service, everyone participated in a reading from Genesis of the creation story and in a ritual soil sprinkling with prayers of fertility for the garden.  The morning ended with a celebratory potluck.  

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Short Course on Voluntary Simplicity Provides Community and Inspiration

In March and April, parishioner Tracy Hurley, a member of the Care of Creation ministry, facilitated a short course for the parish on “Voluntary Simplicity” using a text from Northwest Earth Institute.  These session allow parishioners to addresses the distractions of modern society that keep us all from caring for ourselves, our relationships, and our environment.  Many participants came to this topic wanting to simplfy their lives materially and spiritually, especially during this penitential season of Lent.    

As the course finished, the participants formed a Google group to continue to share information and resources, and even possibly to plan trips or other events, so that they can continue to support and encourage each other in this quest to living more simply.  Participant Bonnie Wolf noted that finding like-minded individuals who want to live with less was one of the best of aspects of this course.  Another participant Diane Steinbeiser sees herself (and her family) committing to paying more attention to where her food comes from and is looking at joining a food cooperative for fresh, locally-grown produce.  Participant Janice (Ryan) Marchok also wrote a column “Why are We Obsessed With Stuff” for the North Raleigh News about her experience in this course.  You can read it here. 

For future short courses on Voluntary Simplicity or other peace and justice topics, contact Kathleen Owen in the Franciscan Coalition for Justice and Peace, 847-8205 or kathleen.owen@stfrancisraleigh.org

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