Month: February 2024

On Monday, March 4, at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary, we will host Matthew Desmond as our Community Forum Speaker.

Matthew Desmond, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, is one of the leading voices in our country on issues of poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, and racial inequality. His range of expertise is precisely the kind of subject matter for which these forums are intended to address.

Desmond promises to be a compelling and engaging speaker. His book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, and he is the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Fellowship and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award.

His Monday evening lecture will be based on research and insight from his most recent book, Poverty, By America, which many of our congregation, including the Outreach Committee, have read as we seek better to understand the issues BMPC seeks to address through our witness and mission. Desmond writes that we are “the richest country on earth, with more poverty than any other advanced democracy.” His book is praised for describing the complex realities of poverty and giving practical ways that individuals and institutions can address it and alleviate it.

One of the strong convictions that emerged from our church-wide discernment process that created the 150th Vision was the call to “Partner in local mission (Lower Merion Township and Montgomery County) by enlisting volunteers to help address affordable housing and access to resources, services, and support.” Because recognizing issues of poverty and finding ways to address them as a congregation has become a priority, Desmond’s presentation is both timely and urgent. I hope many of our congregation and community will attend.

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church is blessed to have a fund that enables us to host free public forums “to explore issues of significance for the vitality and well-being of the larger community.” The Community Forum was established by a gift from Herbert Middleton, Jr., in honor of his parents, Anna and Herbert Middleton, Sr. This living legacy is a blessing to our congregation and community. I hope you will join us on Monday night to hear Matthew Desmond, whose work and research critically informs our call to discipleship.

n anticipation of Lisa Hancock’s “Natural Mothers” photo exhibit that will be on display in BMPC’s Gallery beginning on March 3, I felt it might be nice to explain how this particular exhibit came together, as it has an incredibly personal connection to my work as a church musician and the path my husband and I took to fatherhood.

I attended the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City as a young boy. Daily rehearsals and services were a major part of my life, as well as rigorous academics, instrumental lessons, and living in one of the most wonderful cities in the world. Gerre Hancock was the Director of Music at St. Thomas Church and a household name in the world of church music and organ improvisation. His wife, Judith Hancock, was the Associate Director of Music and an equally fabulous organist and musician in her own right. These wonderful people helped me find my path and calling to become a church musician. I kept in touch with the Hancocks after my years at the Choir School. After Gerre died in 2012, I forged an even closer and special relationship with Judy as she maintained an interest in my growing repertoire, church work, and personal life.

I knew the Hancocks had two wonderful daughters, Lisa and Debbie. Still, I never connected with them until this past year when they helped arrange for me to visit their mom in a memory care facility in Connecticut, where she now resides. Seeing someone who was such a force and inspiration to me struggling with Alzheimer’s is tragic, but her bright eyes, warm smile, and memories of me as a young boy were a special part of our visit this past April. Since then, I’ve kept in touch with Lisa and feel so pleased to have found a way to support and showcase her stunning photography in BMPC’s Gallery.

“Natural Mothers” is particularly poignant in my home life as the birth mother of my adopted children recently passed away in a tragic house fire. Their mother was the one person who was not actively involved in our open adoption and blended family, but she is the person who brought the twins into this world and, therefore, someone we talk about regularly. The world of foster care is messy, and while there are situations that turn out beautifully, they are not without heartbreak for others involved (so often the birth parents). Seeing these foster care moments caught in still photography is a wonderful way to pause and think about the good things in your life you take for granted and situations you will never find yourself in.

Lisa Hancock will be in the Gallery before and after the 10 a.m. worship service on March 3 to meet anyone who passes through the exhibit.

Photo with Judy Hancock (age 88) in April of 2023. One of the many mothers in my life.

I remember the Ash Wednesday when everything went wrong. I was moving a small bowl of ash, and it tipped over. Black palm ash went everywhere! It is so fine that you can’t just sweep it up but rather need to attack with damp cloths and the knowledge that you will not leave the affair unmarked. My hands resembled those of a chimney sweep- molted with soot. My fingers were tipped with perfect half circles of pitch-black embedded under each nail.

To make matters worse, I had lost 90% of the ash we needed for the evening service and had to call my Episcopalian colleague to see if she had any extra. She was kind enough to point out the streaks of ash across my cheek and nose. It was a mess. After all, what else can be expected with a name like Ash Wednesday? But Ash Wednesday is just a messy start to a messy season.

On the one hand, Lent is an incredible invitation to refocus on God, to take a thoughtful pause from the things that distract us, and to practice the parts of our faith that are the most meaningful. On the other hand, Lent can feel like another set of rules and obligations. It can become one more thing on a long list of things “to do.” After all, the rest of the world doesn’t enter into a “holy pause” just because the pastors start wearing purple stoles on Sunday. People don’t suddenly become more reflective and thoughtful just because we stop using “hallelujahs” in our worship. Violence doesn’t stop because we promise to avoid social media for 40 days. Hunger doesn’t go away because we give up chocolate. I often think that Lent would be easier if we, like Jesus, could spend these 40 days in the wilderness. But Lent has never been an invitation to escape from the world. Rather, it is a call to make this journey through the messiness of the everyday. Perhaps the beauty of Lent is that it reminds us that faith can grow even in messy places and that we can walk with Jesus through the mess.

Now, as a seasoned pastor, I know to be exceptionally careful when dealing with ash. Today, as I clean up from Ash Wednesday, it will take a few rounds to wash away all the oil and ash and a few trips to put away candles and scrape up wax. I hope each of those steps will be a prayer. A reminder of God’s presence even in the mess our attempts to practice faith sometimes produce. I’ll be praying for each of you as your Lenten journey begins. I pray that your shoes get dirty as you explore new paths. I pray that you are distracted by the beauty of creation surrounding you. I pray that you hear God in unexpected places and find the Word of God guiding you in unforeseen directions. I pray that your heart breaks when you see the suffering of others, and I pray comfort surrounds you in the care of a friend. I pray that you hunger for justice and righteousness and I pray that you fight for peace. I pray that you feel the callouses that grow from hard work and service. I pray that within each day, you find time to rest and breathe. I pray that ash and oil stick around, marking you as Christ’s own.

If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, read from the Lenten Devotion and see how others in the church are turning back towards God. You can find copies around the church. You are also invited to join us in Children’s Ministry as we follow a calendar of daily reflections to help us reconnect to God and one another. You can follow along via Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bmpc_children/) or pick up a paper copy in the education building.

Each year, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church asks the youth to lead the church in congregational Worship on Youth Sunday. As the Associate Pastor for Youth & Their Families at BMPC, it is likely unsurprising that I believe this Sunday to be one of the holiest days in our church calendar.

We invite our teenagers to plan the worship liturgy, our youth deacons and elders to preach, and our youth ministry members to provide liturgists for the entire service. Every other Sunday, these roles are filled by pastors or elected leaders of the church. It is consequently a unique and precious moment when we recognize our teenagers’ full membership and giftedness in worship.

Wesley W. Ellis wrote in his book Youth Beyond the Developmental Lens: Being Over Becoming, in terms of ministry with children & young people, “We are watching as human beings are being encountered by God in unexpected ways, and we are waiting to discover how we might be able to join that drama by saying yes to God.” So often, when we think of ministry with young people, we focus on their development and how they might eventually grow into someone worth listening to someday. But Ellis argues that all beings, children to youth to adults to older adults, have something worthwhile to share in the Church. The Church is a place where everyone’s voice is valued.

Each Youth Sunday, we, as the congregation of BMPC, witness God’s action in our teenagers’ lives as they invite us into a deeper relationship with God through their leadership. I hope you can attend this year’s Youth Sunday on February 11, 2024!

This Sunday is also the Souper Bowl of Caring, where all are invited to bring nonperishable goods to support the various hunger ministries to which we at BMPC are connected. Remember to bring nonperishable foods to worship this coming Youth Sunday!

My first winter at BMPC was in 1983. What a winter that was. That February, Philadelphia was struck by a blizzard named “Megapolitan Blizzard” (21 inches of snow). Record cold temperatures prevailed. I still remember going to Chinatown with BMPC members for dinner and thinking, “I’ve never been this cold before!” (this is from a guy who grew up in Iowa and then went to graduate school in Rochester, NY!) That spring, the Music and Fine Arts Council decided to offer a “Midwinter Festival” the following February, on the Saturday before Lent – as a kind of “Bryn Mawr Mardi Gras.” Plenty of skeptics said, “Jeff, BMPC will never go for this.” Happily, they were wrong, and a tradition began that continued for nearly 25 years.

Last spring, our council decided to revive the Midwinter Festival, offering “100 Years of Cabaret” on Saturday, February 10. Produced and directed by Lawana Scales and starring Sherri Shields and Louisa Mygatt as your “guides,” this will be an evening to remember. What will you experience at this year’s festival? Amazing homemade desserts and a program that will walk the audience through 100 years of American history through comedy routines, music, skits, and surprises. Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and PDQ Bach are among the composers you will hear. You’ll hear highlights from “Les Misérables,” “Wicked,” “Porgy and Bess,” and “Miss Saigon.” How many of you know that we have a pastor who is an expert in “lip-syncing?” Did you know that at least two of our pastors are musically gifted and passionate about Carole King? Have you ever heard George Peters do a comedy routine? Did you know that one of the choir’s basses is a fan of Julia Child? Did you know that we have at least two “rappers” in the choir? And, for those of you who remember our early Midwinter Festivals, yes, there will be a “Surprise of the evening.”

Tickets are flying. You may purchase yours Sunday after the 10 a.m. service or from the Music and Fine Arts office during office hours. Chase away the winter blues at BMPC! Celebrate 100 years of Cabaret.