[Magdalen] opening churches

[Grace Cangialosi]

Some of that works for clergy, as well!
I wear my clerical shirt and collar every Sunday, but usually I have on yoga pants, or shorts, if it’s hot, and flip-flops.
This morning I patched in the Bishop’s sermon—and Frank my coffee while she was preaching!

> On Jul 5, 2020, at 11:26 PM, Mahoney, W. Michael <wmmah at stoneledge.net> wrote:
> 
> Though I, too, look forward to the "real thing", I have to say there are
> some advantages to the streaming services -
> 
>  1.  You can take your coffee with you.
>  2,   You don't have to put on a tie.
>  3.   You can sneak in late or sneak out early without anyone noticing.
>  4.   You can "mute" whatever you don't want to hear.
>  5.   You can shout out, "Nonsense!" or "Heresy"  or even certain
> expletives not suitable for this list.
> 
> Irreverently,
> 
> Mike M
> 
> 
>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 3:48 PM Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Well, we had church this morning, and it was pretty good.  We had chairs
>> set out in the parking lot, and a couple of the older folks just didn't get
>> it, and insisted on moving their chairs, which required a little
>> rearranging for family groups, etc.  I learned more than I cared to about
>> how the sun moves into the parking lot over the course of an hour or so,
>> but could see how we need to rearrange a little for next week.  The weather
>> at 9 was perfect, though, and it was so good to be back together to
>> worship.  We did Eucharist, which our Bishop permitted, though he preferred
>> we do Morning Prayer.  Bread only, I consecrated just a sip of wine and
>> consumed it myself.  People filed forward.  All masked, and everyone was
>> cooperative.  I think we were all just happy to be back together, and we
>> even had maybe 1/3 of our Sunday School kids there.  I was too excited to
>> sleep much last night, and was exhausted after just the one service!  We
>> had old prayer books to distribute and everyone took theirs home to bring
>> next week.
>> 
>> Ann
>> 
>> The Rev. Ann Markle
>> Buffalo, NY
>> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 1:13 PM Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I agree with you, Grace+, about full Eucharist with no one at all
>> receiving
>>> the elements. The Celebrant is required to receive at minimum (with the
>>> expectation that at least one other will receive as well). IMHO if no one
>>> will receive, just do a Liturgy of the Word, or the Daily Office.
>>> 
>>> I think sometimes there's a slightly misplaced sense of politeness that
>>> says if the people can't receive, the Celebrant should politely not
>> receive
>>> either, but then there is really no point in doing the Liturgy of the
>>> Eucharist. I'd say the Celebrant's reception of the Sacrament completes
>> the
>>> sacrificial action. (Which is also why the Celebrant receives first and
>>> then takes the Sacrament to the people, also sometimes reversed by a
>>> misplaced sense of politeness.) I think the theology matters and is
>>> sometimes replaced by what seems right to individuals.
>>> 
>>> All this is IMHO, of course, and I'm open to corrections and other views.
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 11:39 AM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> First of all, with regard to the sermon, I absolutely agree that it
>> needs
>>>> to be relevant, both to the external situation and to the particular
>>>> context of the congregation. When I pastored two small mountain mission
>>>> churches and went on vacation, I tried at first to use sermons from a
>>>> service provided by the national church. But they were totally
>> irrelevant
>>>> to our situation, and since a whole year was given at once, they
>> couldn’t
>>>> address current issues.  So I ended up having to write my own sermons
>> and
>>>> leave them for Morning Prayer.
>>>> 
>>>> All of that being said, the sermons our diocese is providing are being
>>>> done by one of the bishops or diocesan staff and are very current. We
>>> only
>>>> get them the week before the Sunday they are to be given, and I preview
>>>> them. I just figured out last week how to actually plug them into Zoom.
>>>> I’ve listened to some of the others, and the quality is mixed. There
>> was
>>>> one a couple of weeks ago that I thought was pretty weak, and I
>> wouldn’t
>>>> have used it.
>>>> 
>>>> As to doing the service from my kitchen, it’s the room with the most
>>>> light, and I’ve put a cross and a lovely picture on the wall behind me.
>>>> This week I’m going to try for a fake background, hopefully using a
>>> picture
>>>> of the inside of the church.
>>>> 
>>>> Rolls sound lovely, but I’m only using the Liturgy of the Word portion
>> of
>>>> the service of Eucharist, through the peace. Then I’m essentially doing
>>> the
>>>> last part of Morning Prayer with the Lord’s Prayer, a few prayers from
>>> the
>>>> BCP, one of the general thanksgiving prayers, Blessing and a Dismissal.
>>> It
>>>> makes the service short, depending on the length of the readings, but
>>>> without music it’s just not a long service.
>>>> 
>>>> We are allowed to do the full Eucharist if there is another person
>>> present
>>>> for the consecration, but then we have to use the prayer for a
>> Spiritual
>>>> Communion and we are asked not to receive the elements, since no one
>> else
>>>> can. That’s the way they’re doing it at the National Cathedral, and I
>>> find
>>>> it very unsatisfactory, so I’m not doing it that way.
>>>> 
>>>>> On Jul 5, 2020, at 11:29 AM, Roger Stokes via Magdalen <
>>>> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Grace,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I have long felt that a sermon should consider the context in which
>> it
>>>> is delivered, i.e. be relevant to the congregation. Decades ago I was
>> in
>>> a
>>>> diocese where the Suffragan "guided by the Spirit" was known to deliver
>>>> basically the same sermon whatever the context with a minor variation
>>>> according to whether it was a confirmation or the institution of a new
>>>> priest. It was a joke around the diocese until I wrote to him to say
>>> that I
>>>> felt his normal confirmation sermon was not appropriate for the
>>>> congregation I was serving then. That must be a problem for anybody
>>>> recording a sermon to be played back for congregations up and down the
>>> land.
>>>>> 
>>>>> When you said you deliver the service from your kitchen the naughty
>>> side
>>>> of me wondered about having some fresh-baked rolls which you take out
>> of
>>>> the oven at the start of the service and then use for the sacrament of
>>> the
>>>> table. (When I was at university we had a roll for communion in the
>>> college
>>>> chapel.) The kitchen would also be a suitable venue for a week when the
>>>> Gospel admonishes us to be like the leaven which leavens the whole
>> dough.
>>>> That would go down well with Zoom and a "here's one I made earlier"
>> bit.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Roger
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 05/07/2020 15:07, Grace Cangialosi wrote:
>>>>>> We are allowed to have outdoor worship with no more than 50 people,
>>>> masks,
>>>>>> no group singing and no sharing of communion.  Some churches are
>> doing
>>>>>> this, some aren't.  We aren't, for a variety of reasons.  Churches
>> may
>>>> also
>>>>>> record or stream services from their buildings with no more than the
>>>>>> numbers necessary to do that.  We don't have the technology for
>> that.
>>>>>> I'm still doing services on Zoom from my kitchen.  Last week and
>> this
>>>> I've
>>>>>> patched in sermons by our bishop and another staff member.  They're
>>>>>> offering us one each week as a break from preaching, if we want. I'm
>>> not
>>>>>> going to make a habit of that, but it was nice to have a couple
>> weeks'
>>>>>> break from preaching. I'd only missed one week of preaching since
>>>> December,
>>>>>> except Easter, when I sent everyone to the Cathedral website and
>> went
>>>> there
>>>>>> myself.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Scott R. Knitter
>>> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>>> 
>>