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ALL HALLOWS’ E-TIDINGSwww.allhallowsparish.org Tel: 410-798-0808

AUGUST 21, 2009 Highlights1. A Prayer2. Notices3. Prayer List4. Schedule of Volunteers5. Sermon

The Twelfth Sunday after the Pentecost, August 23, 2009

8am Eucharist, Chapel; 10am Eucharist, Brick Church, Coffee Hour following each service

Bring a friend to church this Sunday!

Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after the Pentecost

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Weekday Eucharist:Join us every Thursday at 12 noon at All Hallows’ Chapel

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Parish Announcements

Ice Cream Sunday!

First Day of Sunday School, Ice-cream Social, and

Welcoming our new Youth Ministries Coordinator,

Mike Weber: August 30, next Sunday!Come and join us!

The Sunday school will kick off the new program year once again by hosting the annual Ice Cream Social next Sunday, August 30, 2009. Join us at 9:45 AM in the upstairs coffee hour gathering room at the Parish House to register your children for this year’s Sunday School, “meet & greet” the teachers, and find your child’s classroom. Please bring the completed registration form that was sent to each family via email. (Additional forms will be on hand to fill out if you did not receive one.) And then, during coffee hour after the service, join us for fun, fellowship, and of course, Ice Cream!

“Rally Sunday” on September 13Time flies! Summer is almost over. Mark your calendar for our Rally Sunday on September 13. We will have a potluck luncheon following the 10 o’clock service. All Hallows members with last names starting with A-K are asked to bring a side dish (salad, deviled eggs, etc.). Those whose last names begin with L-Z are asked to bring a meat dish (cold cuts, chicken, tuna salad, fried chicken, etc.). Please contact Molly Weems (mweems@erols.com, 410-721-4895) to let her know what you are bringing and to assist. Our fellowship and sharing will be complemented by the Ministry Fair, where

you will learn about the different ministry committees at our parish. Find out about how we serve God in our church and in the community, and how you can help. Please come with your family, and bring a friend, too. We will kick off the new program year in the fashion of All Hallows, where the saints go marching in!

Master Calendar Meeting: 7PM on Tuesday, Sept 1.  All commissioners and committees are kindly requested to attend this planning meeting for the new program year.  Please send a representative if you can't come to the meeting yourself.  Please RSVP to our Senior Warden, Jim Lloyd at 410-956-5644 or email him at jlloydjr3@comcast.net

Mission and Outreach Reminders…

Food Bank Volunteer Orientation will be held at the Parish House on Thursday, August 27 at 7 PM.  New and current Food Pantry volunteers must attend.  We will discuss our plans for the year and provide brief training on the food pantry’s procedures of operation. Then, at 7:30PM, the Outreach Commission will discuss and prepare for the Rally Sunday, also at the Parish House.

Rally Sunday is around the corner.  The Food Pantry needs your financial support.  Each week we try to provide milk and eggs to our recipients.  The average cost is $85. Food Pantry volunteers shop for these items each week, and they get reimbursed for those expenses. We rely on various pledges from parishioners but it is not enough to support this important ministry.  On Rally Sunday, September 13, we are asking for a one time cash donation.  You can also write a

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check for a tax-deductible donation.  A basket will be placed on the Food Pantry Display table. This is a one time fund raiser for the food pantry.  More details will be given in the upcoming weeks.  

Our parishioner, Chloe Bean is going to college! She will be attending St. Mary's College of Maryland in St. Mary's City. She plans on majoring in history, with an emphasis on medieval European history. Chloe's interests also include archeology and anthropology. She would like to continue to play her cello and hopes to participate in the orchestra.  She leaves for school on the 27th of August.  Please pray for her new journey in life.  May God's blessings be with her!

Brick Church Gate is now open wide:Don't you enjoy this new amenity of All Hallows? Thanks be to God! Also, many thanks to Frank and Judye Jarema, Jim Lloyd and John Smith for their hard work on making it happen, and to parishioners who have contributed to this project. Through their generosity we have over $7,500.00 of the $13,000.00 needed. We are still accepting contributions to

repay funds taken from our endowment for this capital improvement project.  We will bless and dedicate this new gate to God's glory at the 10AM service on September 27.  One note: when you are coming in and out of the parking lot, please stay to the right to ensure further safety. Thanks!

Baltimore Harbor CruiseLearn more about the ministry of the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center during a 2-hour Harbor Cruise on October 7. We board the luxurious Duchess of Pintail from Inner Harbor Pier 5 at 4:45 promptly and return around 7. Enjoy good company, refreshments, and live narration by Port veterans. Please send your check for $50 per person to Baltimore International Seafarers' Center, 1430 Wallace St., Baltimore 21230, by Sept. 18. (Includes snacks, beer, and wine; cash bar also available.) All Hallows' Outreach Commission supports our diocesan ministry to the seafarers.  Please join us for this event.  To register, please contact Michele Smith 410-867-6834 so that we'll know how many of us from All Hallows will attend this event.

Remember in Your Prayers –Your prayers are asked for the sick and those in need -- George Ward, Deacon; Karen Bolinsky, Jermeil Duggins, Helen Smith, Kelly Gibbons, Dale Hall, Don Bywater, Sister Mary Joseph, Brady Thurman, David Edwards, Mike Callahan, Barbara, Alice Enright, Abad Ramirez, Joyce Boido, Eleanor Bagne, Diane Radcliffe, and Bob & Susan Kellogg, Kathy Dine, Courtney Griffith, Joyce Cramer, Lisa Meredith, Aileen, Bryan, Liz, Don, Bill Kremann, Ed Carney, Fran Toy, Laura Blaha, Rich, Joan & Jean Brown, Ed & Ruth Tucker, and Catherine Capossela, John & Pat Bell

For the departedFor those in the armed forces and their familiesThanksgiving to God for birthdays, anniversaries and other joyous occasionsAnglican Cycle of Prayer: Diocese of Seoul, KoreaDiocesan Cycle of Prayer: St. James’ Church, Lothian; St. Thomas’ Church, Garrison Forest

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All Hallows ChoirSoprano Betty Kilgus Jan

Power, Nancy Royden

Alto Lillian Armstrong, Gail Enright, Linda Johnson

Tenor Richard Johnson

and Zen Libowicz

Bass Lee Greenbaum, David Patterson, Michael

Power

All Hallows Sunday School

Sunday School Coordinator Meredith

McQuoid-Greason

Teachers for children & youth group Shelley Hicks,

Jill Shores, Kate Fox, Laura Currey, Kjrsten Hersey, Kirsten

Deichmann, Katherine & Jim Simpson,

Meredith McQuoid-Greason, Dawn & Tom Martel

Child Care Katherine Lloyd, Molly Weems, Erika Johnson, Jackie Amole, Michelle Allen

Emerson, Jodi Kulig &

Kjrsten Hersey

Service VolunteersAltar Guild Chapel: Suzanne Fudold & Martha Fenton

Brick Church: Kirsten Deichmann, Billie Owens & Carol Vrancik

Greeters Chapel: Volunteers Brick Church: Joan King & Judye Jarema Acolytes Chapel: Emily Gibbons Brick Church: Christian Ostberg

LEM Chapel: John Smith Brick Church: Ian Amole

Lectors Chapel: Emily Gibbons Brick Church: Jim Sartwelle

Intercessor Chapel: John Fudold Brick Church: Jim Lloyd

Counters Brick Church: David King & Arnie McKechnie Coffee Hour Brick Church: Katherine Lloyd

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Isaiah 61:10-11 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 1:46-55 Psalm 34 or 34:1-9

A SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND ALISTAIR SO, RECTOR OF ALL HALLOWS’ PARISH, SOUTH RIVER, IN DAVIDSONVILLE, MARYLAND, ON THE FEAST OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN, AUGUST 16, 2009 AT ALL HALLOWS’ CHAPEL AND THE BRICK CHURCH

In the Name of the Holy and Living God, creating, redeeming and sanctifying. Amen.

Buon Ferragosto!

This is a greeting I received from a friend who is a professor and writer at the Rome campus of the University of Notre Dame.

I didn’t know what it meant. So I asked around. One priest friend said, “Fireworks and galore, no doubt! “Ferra-gosto” ---- Fireworks and galore! How witty!

But I finally looked it up in my Italian dictionary.

Well, there is really no equivalent usage in English, except to say “Happy Feast of the Assumption!”

Russian Icon of the Feast of the Dormition, 19th century

Traditionally, on August 15, the Western Church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, while the Eastern Church celebrates the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Assumption means that Mary is assumed into heaven, body and soul, immediately upon her falling asleep, that is, her “dormition” or death. In the Episcopal Church and other churches

of the Anglican Communion, August 15 is reserved as the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin with special devotion. For convenience of celebration, we, at All Hallows’, have transferred this feast to today, August 16.

There used to be much larger scale celebration than what we see nowadays, because August is prime time for summer harvest. And the Feast of the Assumption was generally tied to the blessing of the fruit and herbs. In former times, people would bring their cherished harvest to be blessed and there would be processions and celebrations in their villages, towns, and cities. So “fireworks and galore” and Ferragosto are not entirely unrelated in that sense. Celebrating a feast day is about participating in the life of God through the life of the Church. Of course, we ought it do it with fanfare and glee!

In our church calendar today, there seems to be a long “ordinary, regular” season from the Feast of the Pentecost around the

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beginning of the summer, to All Saints’ Day on November 1. The lack of a celebration of a major feast in-between often leads to the faithful taking a “summer break” from church, alas!

The de-emphasis of the Assumption results both from the shift from an agrarian culture in Europe to an industrialized culture, and from the theological debates on the biblical validity of this feast in much of Western Europe. But the fact that the Assumption remains a public holiday in much of Europe tells us of its original significance.

I think you don’t have to have been a Christian for very long to realize the cultural divide between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, granted that divide has been somewhat narrowed when compared to times past, by the grace of God.

And Mary, the Mother of Jesus, has been caught up in this cultural and religious divide in Western Christianity for centuries

now, unfortunately. By de-emphasizing the role of Mary and giving her as little airtime as possible, Protestant Christians miss out a lot on what it means to be a channel of God’s grace, a vessel of God’s love for humanity.

Oil Painting of Madonna and Child, Cuzco style, located at All Hallows’ Chapel, Davidsonville, MD

Naturally, the Anglican Communion, being the middle ground between the Roman Catholic dogmatic, formularized assertions about Mary, and, the Protestant indifference to the Mother of our Savior, is where we can have a cool-headed conversation about Mary.

And conversation we did have, between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.

So the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission issued this statement in 1981:

We agree that there can be but one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, and reject any interpretation of the role of Mary which obscures this affirmation. We agree in recognising that Christian understanding of Mary is inseparably linked with the doctrines of Christ and the Church. We agree in recognising the grace and unique vocation of Mary, Mother of God Incarnate (Theotókos), in observing her festivals, and in according her honour in the communion of saints. We agree that she was prepared by divine grace to be the mother of our Redeemer, by whom she herself was redeemed and received into glory. We further agree in recognising in Mary a model of holiness, obedience and faith for all Christians. We accept that it is possible to regard her as

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a prophetic figure of the Church of God before as well as after the Incarnation (para. 30).

Can you see “Anglican” written it in through and through---the classic Via Media and middle way?

The ultimate Protestant fear is Mary will take over Jesus. The ultimate Protestant fear is that Mary would obscure the central role of Jesus Christ in our salvation. Therefore, we now emphasize that the understanding of Mary should be “inseparably linked” with the doctrines of Christ and the Church.

In other words, there have been concerns that the overemphasis on Mary will eventually lead to a Holy Quartet as opposed to the Holy Trinity. We can put that to rest now that we have this joint statement of understanding.

But it is also clear from this joint statement that Anglicans do accord Mary with honor in regards to her role in our salvation history and as a model of our faith. And that gives

meaning to our celebration today.

If, therefore, we can see through the lingering smoke of the Reformation that obscures the view of Mary informed by our Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, we may attain the true joy of being in union with Christ, in union with God.

In fact, the key point of Mary is what it means to be converted to God through Christ.

For in the Virgin Mary, we see what Christian conversion entails, which is about participating actively in the life of God, in the life of the Church. Mary participates in the life of God by her total self-surrender to the will of God.

And her total self-surrender to God’s will is a response to God’s grace.

In fact, God’s grace always calls for our response of faith.

And God’s grace also enables our response of faith.

This is seen in the Gospel account of the Annunciation, where the angel’s message evokes the response of Mary.

The Incarnation and all that it entailed, including the passion, death and resurrection of Christ and the birth of the Church, came about by way of Mary’s freely uttered fiat – “let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

In the event of the Incarnation---when the Word was made flesh---God said His gracious ‘Yes’ to humanity as a whole.

This reminds us once more of the Apostle’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:18-20 (Gift 8ff): all God’s promises find their ‘Yes’ in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

In this context, Mary’s fiat can be seen as the supreme instance of a believer’s ‘Amen’ in response to the ‘Yes’ of God.

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Christian disciples respond to the same ‘Yes’ with their own ‘Amen’. They thus know themselves to be children together of the one heavenly Father.

They are born of the Spirit as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

They are drawn into the communion of love of the blessed Trinity.

Mary epitomizes such participation in the life of God.

Her response was not made without profound questioning, and it issued in a life of joy intermingled with sorrow, taking her even to the foot of her son’s cross. Mary’s life of faith also shows that our journey to Christ is likely to be uneven and challenging: one with joy that strengthens us when we experience the fruits of our faith, but also with sorrow that grieves the heart of God when we come face to face with the suffering of the world.

Beloved in God, I invite you to join with Mary’s

‘Amen’ to the ‘Yes’ of God in Christ.

I invite all of us to commit ourselves to an obedient response to the Word of God, which leads to a life of prayer and service to others.

By so doing, we will fulfill Mary’s Magnificat, that we will not only magnify the Lord with our lips, but we will commit ourselves to serve God’s justice with our lives (cf. Luke 1:46-55).1 In doing so, we will bring the Reign of God to our midst, where the hungry will be fed, the lowly will be raised, and the marginalized accepted.

At All Hallows, we actively participate in that sacred mission in many ways, such as by our Food Bank ministry, by channeling the warmth of God’s love through Redeemer’s Quilters and the Yarn Ministry, by making sure children in need will have backpacks full of supplies for the school year, by opening our doors to different support groups, and by making sure that all are not just accepted, but

welcome in this parish. This is the fiat of our parish. This is our response to God’s “yes” to humanity in Jesus Christ.

The treasure of Mary is in her simplicity---the simplicity of responding to God’s grace: you say “yes”, you “trust” and you “do something about it.”

What will you do after you say “yes” to God?

Buon Ferragosto!

Amen.

© Alistair So 2009