BMPC Pastor's Column

 If you could see the journey whole,
you might never undertake it,
might never dare the first step
that propels you from
the place you have known
toward the place you know not.
                                 ~Jan Richardson

Through my own experience with the churches I have been privileged to serve, and in the process of calling pastoral colleagues to join the staff of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, I have learned a couple of things about what becomes, as we say in church lingo, a sense of call.

First, search committees that get elected by a congregation are made up of a diverse group of people who undergo a process of discernment to articulate a vision, draft a position description, and search for and converse with candidates. Together, they pray, dream in abstractions, argue, laugh, debate, and, over time, they become more than the sum of their parts. It’s a Holy Spirit thing.

Likewise, pastoral candidates begin with companion emotions of reluctance and readiness to leave one place of ministry and journey into a new venture. This too is a Holy Spirit thing – hard to pin down, complicated to explain, a mixture of risk, fear of the unknown, excitement for the journey. As Jan Richardson’s poem suggests, we can never see the journey whole when we take that first step.

What a joy it is for me now to look back and recognize that our mutual sense of call, between BMPC and me, feels whole. Thirteen years ago, I could not see the contours of the journey, but today I can say with confidence that the work to which I was called feels complete. The church is healthy, well-staffed, and poised for a bold new chapter with fresh leadership. Last Sunday’s reception of 30 new members, bringing with them 12 new children, is a clear sign of continuing growth and vitality for this congregation!

I am so grateful for the journey here and for your partnership along the way, and now feel ready to step forward into a new season. In Presbyterian polity, a departing pastor, the Clerk of Session, and the presbytery sign a Covenant of Closure, in which I have promised that I will refrain from any pastoral involvement with BMPC going forward. This, too, is a sign of trust that our mutual relationship is complete. Thank you for all your expressions of love and appreciation, and know that while I step forward into the new season of retirement, I do so with much love and affection for you and the corporate ministry of this great church. From a distance, I will continue to give thanks for our journey together.

“Film music is like a small flame put under the screen to help warm it.” — Aaron Copland

Silent Film is one of the greatest cultural legacies of the United States. Sadly, more than 80% of the more than 11,000 silent films produced have been lost. With the introduction of “Talkies” in 1928 (The Lights of New York), the era of silent film quickly ended. During a short, furious period of silent movie palace architecture, America saw a campaign of theatre construction that made gold leaf, ponderous chandeliers, and the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ the rule and not the exception. Thousands of movie houses depended on live musical accompaniment for their silent movies, and while some smaller houses merely had pianos, the vast majority had theatre pipe organs. While these wonderful instruments were not inexpensive, even back then, it was far more affordable to have a “Mighty Wurlitzer” with a few house organists on staff than to pay for a full orchestra or even a modest band to perform in the orchestra pit every day.

These organs became wildly popular, and several manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon to join the Wurlitzer company to have an organ in every movie house in the land. In Philadelphia alone, there were more than 157 theater organs (now only a handful remain in the Delaware Valley).

When the “talkies” became mainstream movie entertainment right around 1930, the production of theatre pipe organs came to a screeching halt. While some organs were used on special occasions for a few short years, many took over the namesake of their chief reason for being – they became “silent.” Some were destroyed when old theaters were torn down decades later, some were ruined and/or vandalized, and a modest number of them found their way into churches and private home installations starting around the 1950s.

While there were originally several thousand theatre pipe organs around the U.S. and U.K., today only a few hundred remain.

One of the greatest films of that era was “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Filmed in 1923 and starring Lon Chaney as the Hunchback, it was Universal Studios’ greatest silent film success. Based on Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel (which led to the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral), it is a masterpiece of stagecraft, makeup, and special effects. It premiered in New York City at the Astor Theater, which installed a large Morton theater organ for the occasion.

It is our pleasure to offer this film on October 31 at 8:00 p.m. in the chapel. The film will be accompanied by our organ scholar, Daniel Carroll, who will improvise the entire 1-hour, 40-minute soundtrack. The chapel organ has a kaleidoscope of colorful sounds that work perfectly in the genre of silent film accompaniment. Daniel is one of my most talented improvisation students. The Hunchback, accompanied by Daniel Carroll, will provide an incredibly enjoyable evening for all ages!

The film is free; concessions will be available! You are welcome to make a contribution toward the expenses of the evening at the door.

This coming Sunday, our new Associate Pastor for Congregational Care, the Reverend Melanie Hardison will be introduced to the congregation! She will be in attendance at the 8:00 a.m. worship service, leading worship at 10:00 a.m., and on hand for the Blessing of the Animals on the front lawn at 4:00 p.m. I hope that you will extend a warm BMPC welcome to her this coming Sunday.

Much of Melanie’s roles and responsibilities are identical to those of previous pastors who have overseen the pastoral care of the congregation, Senior Adult Council, Deacons, Middleton Counseling Center and coordination of the Care Team. In addition, as the church was transitioning from 6 to 5 on the pastoral staff, a realignment of roles brought the Connections Group ministry under her leadership as well, a programmatic and fellowship dimension that Melanie has said further attracted her to Bryn Mawr.

When you meet Melanie, you will soon discover what attracted the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee to her and her candidacy as we engaged a nation-wide search for an individual to fill this role. In addition to her experience and training in pastoral care, she brings a warm and joyful presence, a creative engagement with life and ministry, a love of working on a team with colleagues as well as laity, and a kind and winsome openness.

On a personal note, as I shared with Melanie my retirement plans knowing our overlap on the church staff would be brief, she shared that she is drawn to seasons of transition. She is happy to enter that liminal space that invites discernment, vision and growth which will surely be a blessing as Bryn Mawr enters an interim season between senior pastors.

Grateful for the many ways that this congregation cares for one another and reaches out in Christian love and compassion, I am confident that you will enjoy partnering with Melanie Hardison as she oversees the congregational care of the whole church family.

In the Spring of 2023, the BMPC Session approved a new Statement on Belonging and Inclusion as an outgrowth of the good work of our Anti-Racism Committee over the past several years. If you have not read that statement yet, I encourage you to do so.

One of my favorite sections from that statement addresses the importance of this kind of work being a part of everything we do as a church, not just an isolated priority of one or two committees.

As an outgrowth of our willingness to learn, change, and grow, we commit to ensuring that this work embeds every aspect of our church life from welcome and hospitality to programming and fellowship; from financial, stewardship, and mission decisions to pastoral care and worship life. In all that we do and in all the ways we represent ourselves, the work of diversity and inclusion will be obvious.

To that end, this Sunday afternoon, BMPC church officers, ushers, committee leaders, teachers, staff and volunteers will gather for a training with the Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders of Luther Seminary in Minnesota to be trained on a particular aspect of our work of Belonging and Inclusion – microaggressions.

Microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that deliver demeaning messages to people based on their group identity. These exchanges may be verbal, behavioral, or environmental, and they communicate subtle hostility, degradation, or insult directed at someone’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, ability, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. Their power to cause harm comes largely from the fact that perpetrators are usually unaware of them; microaggressions are often expressed unintentionally and without conscious recognition.

Throughout all of our ministries as a church we are constantly welcoming new people, caring for one another, and interacting in ways that have the potential to either convey a deep sense of belonging or to communicate in subtle ways that someone is not welcome here.

I am so grateful that in this moment, this congregation and its leadership are taking seriously the work that must be done to help us live more fully into our values of Belonging and Inclusion.

The great news is, that Dr. Sanders will also be speaking on the topic of Microaggressions this Sunday morning at 11:15 in Congregational Hall. If this aspect of anti-racism work is new to you, or if you are especially interested in learning directly from someone who is a leader in helping churches do this work with integrity, please join us for that conversation this Sunday following worship.

One of my joys this past year was accompanying the Associate Pastor Nominating Committees in their search for new pastors to call to Bryn Mawr. A pastoral search is a long, and sometimes arduous process, but the overriding sentiment of that good work remains joy. When a group of seven diverse members gets elected to an APNC, they begin as a gathering of acquaintances, church friends with a big task at hand, but also with strong and sometimes divergent opinions about the direction a ministry area should take. Initial debate and even argument ultimately pave the way for consensus to build toward a strong sense of call to an individual.

This Sunday, September 21, at 4:00 p.m. in the Chapel, we will celebrate the joyful culmination of the search that led the APNC for Youth and their Families to the Reverend Andy Greenhow. After a year of diligent work: to get input from the congregation, especially our youth; to establish values and priorities; hammer out a position description; networking, identifying potential candidates and hosting multiple interviews from across the country, we came to unanimous consensus and a strong sense that Andy was called by God to serve BMPC as a pastor and with special responsibility for youth ministry. To paraphrase Greek philosopher Aristotle, these committees become greater than the sum of their parts, and the joy in completion is but one gift of the Holy Spirit.

Join us for Andy’s Installation on Sunday afternoon and for the reception following in Congregational Hall. We are delighted to host the Commission of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, to welcome Andy’s good friend, the Reverend Vincent Kolb, as guest preacher, special musicians, and enjoy worshipping God together for this special occasion in the life of our church.

This Sunday, September 14, at 10:00 a.m. in the Gym, is Youth Kickoff. It’s a chance for 6^th to 12^th graders and their families to hear about events in the year ahead, play games together, meet the caring adults who will be looking out for the youth this year, and for adults to sign all the necessary paperwork. I won’t want to pontificate more than necessary at Youth Kickoff, so I think I’ll use this venue to share a bit about my hopes for the BMPC youth program – and for us.

Many of us will remember exactly where we were 24 years ago today. It is hard to believe that there can be people with their own ideas, dreams, ambitions, and opinions who weren’t even born yet on that day, but that’s our youth. They have only ever known the world after 9/11, with all the fear and uncertainty that we as adults feel and unwittingly impart to them.

Likewise, you may remember where you were when the early adopter in your friend group showed you their smartphone. I remember my friend Mark showing me an app – what is an app? – that could listen to music and tell you what song was playing. They changed everything, and our youth have only ever known a world where adults are buried in their phones.

Finally, our youth have spent at least half of their life in the political and social realignment that began in 2016. For those of us with longer time horizons, the normalization of violent rhetoric, which we saw again this week, will inevitably lead to acts of political violence, feels brand new. But for our youth, it is a fact of life – it has always been this way.

So, what does that mean for the youth program at BMPC? My prayer is that youth at BMPC spend time with caring adults who try hard to set aside their own fears and uncertainties and instead center the ideas, dreams, ambitions, and opinions of the youth. I pray that the BMPC youth ministry models something like an analog community, where people are present with each other and hang in there with each other, even when it would be much easier to escape into our phones. And I pray that the BMPC youth ministry is a place of peace, where the ambient violence of our culture is kept at bay.

I’m looking forward to kicking off another year on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Join us!

Over two years ago, when the church was looking for an Interim Associate Pastor for Pastoral Care and Senior Adults, several colleagues in Philadelphia Presbytery recommended the Reverend Dr. Kirby Lawrence Hill. These were people well acquainted with the size and complexity of BMPC, and with Kirby’s gifts and experience in ministry.

When a team representing our church’s Personnel Committee, Deacons, and Senior Adult Council began to consider candidates, we were quickly drawn to Kirby. Not only did he bring nearly 40 years of pastoral experience, but he also impressed us with his confident demeanor, his compassion and empathy, his creative spirit, his love of God and of Christ’s church, and our mission in the world. Kirby clearly understood the calling of this transitional ministry to help lead congregational care and senior adult ministry, and also to prepare the church for a new Associate Pastor. In addition, he was graciously open to serving BMPC as long as we needed him, which afforded the Personnel Committee time to realign the roles and responsibilities of the pastoral staff with our vision for ministry, as well as to undergo a national search to find a new Associate Pastor.

We have been blessed by Kirby’s presence on the pastoral staff. The Deacons and Senior Adult Council have benefited from his creative leadership; classes and groups from his teaching; the Care Team has been nurtured by his pastoral sensitivity; and the whole congregation by his preaching, worship leadership, and eloquent, heartfelt pastoral prayers.

This coming Sunday is Kirby’s last as a member of the pastoral staff. He will preach at both services, and there will be a special reception in the Atrium after the 10 a.m. worship service so that you can thank him for sharing his gifts with us. While we bid Kirby farewell from the church staff, we are delighted that Nancy Lawrence Hill plans to continue as a member of the Sanctuary Choir and play the Carillon, so they will continue to be a part of our church family in worship. Join us for worship and the special reception on Sunday as we express our gratitude!

You may have heard it called a “reverse coloring” or “blob art.” The premise is simple—first someone (or you) make blobs of color. The shape doesn’t matter, the colors don’t matter, just blobs of paint, random brush strokes, even the ring of a coffee cup left behind on a piece of paper can work. From there, you are challenged to transform it into something. A fantastical beast? A comfy chair?  A complex flower? As one art teacher explained to me, “It is an exercise in seeing and imagining rather than the mechanics of drawing.”

I often think of my ministry in similar ways. As we imagine a year ahead, we know some of what we will be facing, but most of it is a mystery. Blobs are beginning to form, but there’s so much we don’t yet know. Is that the right classroom for a child? Is that friendship going to flourish or fail? Will they love or hate being in a play? Will they ever remember their lunch on a busy morning? Some blobs look ominous and others have such incredible potential.

This Sunday after church, we will pause for a moment of prayer before the start of the school year. Anyone with a backpack, school bag, or just a desire to take a deep breath is invited to attend. It will be an exercise in seeing, rather than in the mechanics of being a good student. We’re going to speak our hopes for the year ahead. We’re going to ask God to help hold some of our worries. We’re going to encourage one another. We are going to pause and remember that while we’re still seeing blobs, God is already at work and invite us to create something beautiful alongside the creator.

As you think about the children, teachers, school administrators, coaches, parents, guardians and grandparents around you, here is a prayer to start the year:

Bless your child for the year ahead.
Bless these eyes that they will look with kindness
and with awe on the world you created.
Bless these ears that they will hear words that help her grow.
Bless this voice as it speaks so that her words build up others.
Bless this mind with curiosity and wisdom.
Bless these shoulders that no burden is too heavy.
Bless these hands to do your work.
Bless these feet to walk in your way.
Bless this heart to grow and grow filled with your love.
Bless each breath and each step as you bless your child today and always. 

Amen.