May 11, The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Wednesday, May 7, 2014 at 11:49AM A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Bruno
May 7, 2014
from The Bishop's Office
To the People and Congregations of the Diocese of Los Angeles
This new Easter season unites us in responding to the ways in which God is calling us into new, resurrected life in Christ. We enter this Eastertide as a united diocesan community, joined together in daily ministry and shared service in our neighborhoods. This unity has been strengthened through the years by coming together around challenging issues and seeking common ground for understanding as we are led by the Holy Spirit.
Vitality continues to emerge from the firm stands the Diocese of Los Angeles has taken in respecting the dignity of every human being - the calling of our Baptismal Covenant. It is wonderful again to live within the full Christian promise of Easter.
After a May 7, 2014, appearance in Orange County Superior Court brought final resolution to the litigation, the Episcopal Church, of St. James the Great, Newport Beach, will continue in ministry free of the challenge of appeal by parties who left the parish in August 2004. This action follows the California Supreme Court's January 2009 decision affirming that all Episcopal Church parish properties are held in trust for the present and future ministry of the local diocese and wider denomination.
In steadfastly supporting this position, the Diocese of Los Angeles has secured assets given by generations of Episcopalians and assisted in establishing favorable precedent for the future, and particularly for other dioceses to prevail in similar cases.
Invested in this position is more than $8 million in costs incurred on behalf of the Diocese of Los Angeles and the Episcopal Church by the Bishop as Corporation Sole. This expenditure resulted in retaining multimillion-dollar properties in Newport Beach, La Crescenta, Long Beach and North Hollywood, and in establishing important legal precedent. While the congregations of St. James the Great, Newport Beach, and St. Luke's of the Mountains, La Crescenta, continue in ministry within the Episcopal Church, congregations will not be restarted as All Saints, Long Beach, or St. David's, North Hollywood. The Corporation Sole currently holds title to the church property in Long Beach - a city where there are three neighboring Episcopal Church congregations - and a negotiated settlement allows the present congregation to worship on site while remunerating the Diocese for use of those facilities. Meanwhile, the Oakwood School has purchased the North Hollywood property, a fitting use in the mission of local secondary education.
As we move forward I ask your prayers that understanding will continue to grow among us as we experience resurrection anew in Christ. In that Easter spirit, we are called to look forward and, as leaders of local congregations, to strengthen the work that our parishes and missions are called to do. We can also share in current diocesan initiatives, including the Seeds of Hope nutrition and wellness program, the Hands in Healing outreach to youth and young adults, and Horizons & Heritage, the upcoming observance of the Episcopal Church's 150th year in Southern California.
It is important that we remain in community, not in isolation, and that in charity we create space for people whose views may differ from our own. We are not here to judge one another but rather to be in joy with each other in the name of Jesus. As resurrection people, we are looking forward to doing those things that would reflect the will of Jesus Christ, working to include people of all views and positions, making the Diocese of Los Angeles a beacon of inclusive, loving, joyful action in Christ Jesus.
So I call each of you to renew your local ministries and to share in the ministries of the Diocese. The door to the future is open. We will participate in our diocesan community by continuing to develop Hands in Healing and taking seriously reconciliation. Through Seeds of Hope we will keep nurturing new ministries in this Diocese for food security and care of our environment through curriculum in our primary, secondary and Sunday schools. We will continue to dwell in the new life and abundance of our diocesan community.
Within the Episcopal Church, we go through careful processes to examine what is best for the whole community. In General Convention, we come to places of corporate decision, and whether we agree or disagree, we move forward in joy. We do the same in our Diocese, where there will be no declarations of "I told you so" or "we won" regarding important deliberations. Here I think of times when General Convention meetings have observed times of silence and prayer before the announcement of significant votes taken, and it has been through such prayer that God has guided us from positions of separation to being made whole.
I call you to pray for one another and for the unity of the entire Episcopal Church.
Almighty God, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
-The Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Unity of the Church
Together in Christ,
+ J. Jon Bruno
Sixth Bishop of Los Angeles
Hands of the Angels May 10,
The Hands of the Angels Knitting group meets on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays 10:00 a.m. in the Parish Hall Living Room. Everyone is welcome to join and if you’d like, learn how to knit. The next meeting will be Saturday May 10, 10:00 a.m. Parish Hall Living Room
Emmaus Road
Emmaus Road has begun a new book, Jesus, by Fr. James Martin SJ. We’ve read two other books by Fr. Martin, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything, and My Life with the Saints. Fr. Martin is an engaging writer and we look forward to a good time with his book. Here’s a brief description. James Martin, SJ, gifted storyteller, editor at large of America magazine, popular media commentator, and New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, brings the Gospels to life in Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and invites believers and seekers alike to experience Jesus through Scripture, prayer and travel.
Emmaus Road will read Chapters 4 & 5 for Monday, May 5.
Coffee Hour Sign Up: May and June
We need people to volunteer for Coffee Hour for both services on Sundays in May and June. See the calendar for dates. You are welcome to email your sign up to the office or sign up after Church.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
May 11, 2014
CGS Level I
The Rite of Baptism I
Sources: Romans 6:3-11; Hebrews 6:4, 10:32; Ephesians 5:14
Baptism is the gift of risen life. Jesus who died and is risen is the light of the world. His inextinguishable light and life are stronger than darkness and have conquered death. Through the gift of Baptism, we die and rise with him and receive his eternal light and life.
The presentation of Baptism usually follows Easter Sunday or is given when one or one’s family member will participate in the Rite of Baptism.
In Level I, we visit the Baptism presentation to enjoy with the child the Baptismal sign of the gift of light and ponder its meaning. Other aims of this presentation are to present an opportunity to fall more deeply in love with the Good Shepherd and to encourage fuller participation in the liturgy, i.e., the Rite of Baptism.
In this presentation, we recall the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from death. There is a special day for us as well, the day of our Baptism. We recall the Prophecy of Light given earlier in the year. A special moment to speak of is the day Jesus was born, and light entered the world. We light the Paschal candle at this time. We recall Jesus’ work. We all know Jesus died. We extinguish the candle, as if darkness became stronger than light; death stronger than life.
However, we know Jesus is risen. We re-light the candle. The light was shared until one day Jesus gave his light to each of us. We introduced a small white garment that one typically wears when they are baptized. Those who are baptized will receive their own little light just as with the Easter Vigil and the Liturgy of the Light.
Ponder questions for much later: Why would he give us such beautiful gifts of light? The garment?
For those who enjoy music,
Today, we sang the first verse of “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QISk0oYYpuk
Last week, our song was the chorus of “Like a Shepherd”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSJXi_wXLi4
Our every Sunday departure song is “Go Now in Peace”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toYFppX_uGA
We haven’t quite got the signing yet, but it will come.
Music with the Angels
Our Concert Series for Church of the Angels 125th Anniversary, Music with the Angels, will have three offerings in the month of May.
Sunday May 18: 4:00 p.m. Red Car Trolley
This vocal quartet performs an eclectic blend of music ranging from sacred to secular, classical to contemporary, and featuring original compositions by Southern Californian composers (including Church of the Angels' Music Director, Jim Stanley).
Thursday and Friday May 22 & 23, 7:00 p.m. Salastina Music Society: Mozart Masterpieces
In a rare presentation, Salastina Music Society performs the complete cycle of the 6 string quintets composed by W.A. Mozart, which are generally considered to be some of his most beautiful works. The six masterpieces will be performed over two consecutive evenings. KUSC's Brian Lauritzen will host, providing illuminating details about each of the works to establish historical and artistic context. Tickets available at the Salastina Society website: $40/both nights or $28/one concert when purchased online; $35/concert at the door; $10/students and church members.
Saturday, May 31: 3:00 p.m. Wessex Consort:
Alta Cappella Music from Germany and the Low Countries
The Wessex Consort presents a program of Renaissance wind-band music from Germany and les Pays-Bas. Featuring works by Franco-Flemish masters, quirky character pieces and even a few tenorlieden, the Alta Cappella (rauschpfeife, shawm, dulcian, and sackbut) will be complemented by recorder quartet (featuring an astonishing consort built by Charles Collier), broken consorts with crumhorns and bagpipes, and voice. Freewill offering. More info at www.wessexconsort.com
Further Out
Barbecue for Parents and Children: Sunday June 8, 4:00 p.m.
Fr. Bob and Tracy will host their “beginning of summer barbecue” for parents and children. This is a chance for parents and children to have fun fellowship with one another or one of life’s most amazing journeys. There are not only the school aged children that we see coming into Church at the Offertory, but now a large number of new parents with new young children. We hope that all of you can attend.
125th Anniversary Activity: Renewal of Wedding Vows
On June 21 we will be celebrating one hundred and twenty five years of marriages at Church of the Angels by renewing the vows of every couple in attendance who was married here. The ceremony will begin at 2:00, reception to follow. If you know someone who was married here and we might not have their contact information please send their home or email address tochurchoftheangels125th@gmail.com. Questions may be sent there as well or you may send them to Rebecca Woods atcoaweddings@gmail.com. Wedding dresses and pictures welcome."
Food For Thought
On the Food for Thought Table this weekend two articles about the relationship between Science and Religion.
1. From The Pacific Standard, The Reformation. Focusing on the social sciences this article raises the question about replicability of scientific experiments and how more and more claims are made for discoveries that can’t be confirmed by repeated experiments. It’s a problem of making the data say what one wants it to say. This is a problem in the physical sciences as well.
2. From The Wall Street Journal, Why Science Has Not Disproved God. This is an article about what might be called the problem of “ ‘atheism of the gaps’ calling in imaginary entities from the vastly deep to plug a theoretical hole.” Religious people have been guilty of plugging in a “God of the gaps” for things we can’t explain either.
3. From The New Yorker, Punditonomics . This article is from James Surowiecki who writes The Financial Page column in The New Yorker. He writes about all the different people in different disciplines who make predictions. It doesn’t matter if one is wrong, because no one remembers. So it is worth the risk of being wrong, because if you make one right prediction and it is a spectacular one, you will become rich and famous. It sounds a little like buying lottery tickets!