Author: The Rev. Dr. Agnes W. Norfleet

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.

The holidays are only holy if we make them so.

These words popped off the page of one of my Advent and Christmas devotionals a couple of weeks ago when I was perusing the books in my pastor’s study while crafting the Advent sermon series. They seemed to pierce through the holiday distractions, as if to ask: Is the holiness of God’s light and love, mercy and grace, finding room in the devotion and action of my days amid the hurried rush of this busy season?

The holidays are only holy if we make them so. I began thinking about those places where I experience holiness in the bustling, joyful, painful, complicated season of Advent which is about something so much deeper than all the stuff we often get caught up in.

I imagine I’m like most of you. On top of the usual daily rhythms, I’ve been buying gifts and wrapping them up, writing notes and scurrying to the Post Office, donning the dog with a Christmas collar and hosting friends for dinner, making family plans and packing a suitcase for travel. I would suggest that all of this busy-ness is a form of holiness, in that it is bound up in love and joy, but not all of it is pure devotion to God.

When our children were young and Christmas was even more chaotic, I used to wrap their presents in my church study and store them in my closet under my robes and stoles because there was no good hiding place in our house. On Christmas Eve, the four of us went to the afternoon family friendly service, then home for dinner, and I returned to lead the later one. Before preaching and presiding over communion, I’d load all the Christmas presents into my car so I was ready to head out when worship was over and the church locked up. What I remember most about that midnight drive home was its holiness. Gratitude for candlelight and Silent Night, a quiet and solitary sense of peace and joy, awareness of wonder while I gazed at the stars on my drive home. Holiness.

That’s what I hope for each of you come Sunday. In worship may you find the holy in your holiday, and may the quiet holiness of peace, joy and wonder lead you home.

The big 150th Anniversary Celebration weekend is now just hours away! We are excited that so many church friends have indicated plans to be here from among our active congregation as well as from afar. Many months ago, out-of-town members received a Save the Date mailing, and former pastors, Lilly residents and staff received a special letter of invitation.

Because I issued the invitation on behalf of the church, I have been privileged to receive notes from those unable to attend but who are cheering us on from a distance. Pastors Kellen Smith, Charles Grant, George Wirth, Sherri Hauser and Rob McClellen, for example, have corresponded with regret that they are unable to be here and with expressions of gratitude for their time serving Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church as treasured years in their ministry.

My immediate predecessor as Pastor and Head of Staff, Wes Avram, sent a lovely note to share with you, which reads in part:

Lynne and I were touched to receive an invitation to join you for this grand celebration of BMPC’s 150th anniversary year. God’s faithfulness to this congregation is long and deep, as is God’s faithfulness to the world through you. We were honored to share a small slice of that long faithfulness with you and continue to hold you and your good ministry in prayer.

Your inspiring commitment to worship and arts, love for education, deep and thoughtful support for global ministry, and sense of responsibility to Reformed and Liberal faith will surely shape your life for generations to come. You have a role. You have a voice. You have a mission. And you have faith in a God who has chosen you for ministry. Please know that Lynne and I are part of a chorus of support for you, your mission, and your leadership.

I’m entering my fifteenth year at Pinnacle Presbyterian in Scottsdale and will be retiring when I turn 65 this coming spring. Lynne has found a strong vocation in high school nursing here in the Valley of the Sun. After graduating from Luther College, our oldest son Andrew took an assignment in Peru with the Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer program and has followed a number of interests since. He is now embracing life, coaching soccer and pursuing other goals while living on St. Simons Island. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, our younger son Paul is living and working as a musician in Nashville. You loved and prayed for Andrew and Paul when they were children, and we’re grateful.

Thank God for you, and may God bless the work of this congregation for generations to come,

– Wes Avram

At Saturday’s events and during Sunday worship, we will enjoy the sense of reunion with many special guests and church friends. We also will be mindful of partners in ministry, unable to be with us, who have sojourned through the life of this historic congregation, gifted its ministry with their commitments, and have moved on strengthened by their time among us to serve the larger church in many and various ways. Thank God for the breadth and depth of this congregation’s 150 years reaching into the community, the city and the world in Christian service!