Sunday Worship, 26 September 2010

Forum on Sunday morning was about the upcoming "experiment" of shared pastoral duties among the Island's Episcopal churches and how it will impact St. John's. There will be parish priests in three of the Island's Episcopal churches and a fourth priest, in a part-time position funded by St. John's, who will be a part of the priestly community. The priests are meeting and sharing what is happening in their parishes. The part-time priest from St. John's will be a part of this community, and on some Sundays there will be joint services between parishes, held only at one location (so, for example, on October 24 at 10 a.m., there will be no service at St. John's but instead a joint service at St. Mary's in Northeast Harbor.) The priest from St. Saviour's in Bar Harbor will continue to have office hours at St. John's weekly. The priest funded by St. John's and the priest from Bar Harbor will take turns presiding at each place. These changes are hard for people - words I heard were: "Who do I tell people is my priest?" "Who do I call for counseling/care?" "Will this situation be evaluated and how?"

The Rev. Stephen Hayward presided over worship at St. John the Divine's in Southwest Harbor this Sunday. The scripture lessons were from Jeremiah and Luke (the story of Lazarus). They tell of how we define ourselves in terms of what we have instead of by what we give and what we produce. Jeremiah is a prophet who sees opportunities and possibilities for us to care for each other and for God's creation. Lazarus shows us a reformation of society - he who had nothing is given everything, the nameless one who had everything was given nothing. There is hope for the future, for changes and reformations to happen. We need only be open to it and to live in a contributing manner.

The words about this lesson are my interpretation of what was said. The actual words said and ideas presented belong to Rev. Hayward and were delivered in a manner that was more interesting and likely clearer than what I have shared here.

As changes and reformation are about in the Island's Episcopal churches, and as change is always difficult, it will take their faith and their contributions to make the moves forward.