BMPC Pastor's Column

My first act as the Interim Pastor for Youth & Their Families at BMPC was riding the bus down to Montreat Camp & Conference Center for the 2024 summer youth conference. I knew that 15 of the 40 or so young people on the bus were from Bryn Mawr, but I didn’t know which ones. By the end of the week, I had a strong sense not just of which kids on the bus were in my care but of their idiosyncrasies, hopes, and visions for themselves and their world.

These relationships opened up over a week of worship, reflection, recreation, and, most of all, open space for nothing in particular. Our lives – and the lives of the young people in our church – are full, and there is no space for the things of secondary importance, let alone things like “open space for nothing in particular.”

But we have a call–a law, actually–in the Ten Commandments to set aside one day a week for rest and for God. That’s hard to imagine on a weekly basis, but maybe, if we zoom out a little bit, we can picture it annually. Part of our Lenten disciplines is about giving a portion of the year to our relationship with God, but summer can be good for this, too.

This summer, there are great opportunities for the young people in this church to have some space to dedicate more directly to their relationship with God and their relationships with each other. Rising 6th graders through graduated seniors are invited to a mission trip with our partners at CROSS Missions in Charlotte, NC, from July 6-11. They will have the opportunity to learn more about the various facets of urban poverty and begin to address those issues with their work. Rising 7th graders through graduated seniors are invited to camp at Montreat Camp and Conference Center in Montreat, NC, from July 26-August 2.

In both cases, the week will be filled with worship, reflection, recreation, and, best of all, open space for nothing in particular. This is where the relationships grow and develop, with God, with peers, and with caring adults.

I’m looking forward to this time with the youth of this church, and I hope you have an opportunity for open space as well–this Lent and beyond.

God created us without the ability to foresee what will happen in terms of our health in the future. If we did have that kind of foreknowledge, I don’t know whether it would produce more or less anxiety for us. Part of the process for making these kinds of plans involves separating helpful and unhelpful information (there is a lot more of the latter than the former).

BMPC’s Caring Ministries team, including our parish nurse, Carol Cherry, our social worker, Kathryn West, and the director of the Middleton Counseling Center, Kiki McKendrick, and myself, have been putting together a symposium that will have plenty of helpful information to guide members and friends in knowing how to be well-prepared for whatever lies ahead. Many of us do have the capacity to think, to explore, and to plan. Some of us have delayed putting together a plan because it is uncomfortable to consider physical and/or mental decline. Whether we have procrastinated or not, part of the difficulty in making such plans lies in the ever-changing nature and costs of healthcare systems.

The next two major events in our annual series of concerts will celebrate the gifts of British performers and composers. This Sunday, renowned British organist James O’Donnell will make his area debut, playing our magnificent Rieger organ, supported by the men of our Gregorian Chant ensemble.

James, now Professor of Organ at Yale University, has a long and distinguished career, first serving at Westminster Cathedral in London and then twenty-three years as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey. At Westminster Abbey, James led the Abbey’s music department and oversaw all musical aspects of the Abbey’s work, including directing the celebrated Choir of Westminster Abbey. He was also responsible for the music at royal, state, and national occasions, including the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on 29th April 2011 and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 9th April 2002. Most recently, he led the music for the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, his last event at the Abbey before coming to Yale.

I smile when I recall going to James’s home outside of New Haven, CT, for dinner and seeing photos of him with the Queen, Prince Charles and Camila, and other members of the Royal Family! I first heard James perform nearly 20 years ago at Yale and recall being flabbergasted by his virtuosity and musicality. This Sunday, his concert will celebrate this pipe organ’s strengths, with works by J.S. Bach, Nicholas DeGrigny, Dietrich Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, César Franck, and Maurice Duruflé. This will be a concert to remember! This Sunday, 2 p.m. The concert will last approximately 70 minutes. A free will offering will be received.

This taste of Britain will continue on Sunday, March 17, at 4 p.m., when the choirs of BMPC and The Church of the Redeemer will join forces with an orchestra to present masterpieces of British music composed for choir and organ. Stay tuned for more information!

Here is a to attend Sunday’s concert.

Today, on the eve of Valentine’s Day, I am thinking about love. One of the hazards of professional ministry, I suppose, is that we pastors and preachers spend a lot of time pondering the origins of stories— Biblical, historical, and personal stories. Where did this account come from, and why do we commemorate it quite like we do? Tomorrow, many of us will exchange cards, chocolate, and flowers with those we love, and there’s nothing wrong with that! However, we’ve come a long way from the reason for the original Feast Day of Saint Valentine.

Valentine was a third-century Roman clergyman, likely a priest or bishop, who ministered among Christians persecuted by the Roman empire. For his good work and charity, he was executed on February 14 in the year 269 and buried in Umbria in what is now central Italy. The association of Valentine with romantic love is largely due to the 14th-century work of English writer Geoffrey Chaucer. Over time, he became the patron saint of love, people with epilepsy, and beekeepers. His name, Valentine, was popular in late antiquity and is derived from the Latin word, valens, which means worthy, strong, and powerful.

There are countless reasons to celebrate romantic love, no doubt, but as people of faith at this moment in time, I hope we will also remember the sacrificial, charitable love of the original Saint Valentine and his association with worthy, strong, and powerful love. In a time of trouble, he sought to share the love of Christ among those who were suffering.

Kate Bowler, professor at Duke Divinity School and author, has written a blessing that resonates with the call to faith, which expands our notion of love beyond feelings of deep affection to faithful action:

Lord, the shadowed world is full of troubles.

So give me the good, inconvenient work of love.

Link my life to others so that their worries become my own.

Give me errands I don’t want which ease the burdens of others.

Divert me from the plans I’ve made

to zip from A to B when you have better ideas.

Put my hands to work with a less-grumbling heart

and let their dreams drift into my own.

You’ve given me tools to use and ideas to fashion

that will bring me neither recognition, nor money, nor praise.

You’ve made love such a sneaky thing.

The more we love as you do,

the less we are keeping track of it at all.

While we celebrate the lovely exchanges that have become our Valentine’s Day traditions, let’s also be mindful of the ways Christ calls us to worthy, strong, and powerful love evident in the inconvenient works of love that ease the burdens of others.

Planning for Youth Sunday, occurring this Sunday, February 9, in the 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. services, has been underway for the better part of two months. Our preachers – Nina Bertrand, Maeve Daley-Gibson, and Kylie Liggett – have been writing, re-writing, encouraging one another, and getting used to preaching from a pulpit. They’ve met with Pastor Agnes to better understand the process of preaching and what makes a great sermon. Our high school Sunday school and Wednesday night Student Serve programs have been devoted to understanding all the parts of the worship service and writing liturgy that honors the tradition while interpreting it from their particular perspective. It has been a profoundly enriching experience.

In my former life in theological education, we spent a lot of time talking about formation. How do we form our students in the classroom, in worship, in informal interactions, and in our work as staff and administrators? And more importantly, what does all that formation yield when seminarians graduate and go on to become pastors themselves?

When I came to this call last summer, I knew to expect a high degree of excellence instilled in the young people of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. After all, their formation includes coaches who are former pros, access to unbelievable resources, attendance at the best schools, and an ambient culture of high performance. They are excellent and your experience on Youth Sunday will reflect that.

But more than that, and more importantly, what you will find on Youth Sunday is great faithfulness. You will hear from young people who have been formed in the church to wrestle with Biblical texts, find meaning for their own lives, exegete the culture that has formed them, and imagine another world.

Come to worship on Sunday and marvel at the excellence of the young people of this church. But more than that, allow yourself to be challenged and formed for greater faithfulness, as they desire to be.

Oh, and go birds!!

Just 144 days or 3,456 hours or ~29,000 episodes of Bluey until the start of this year’s Vacation Bible Camp! Beginning on June 23, our congregation will welcome over 150 children to see God at work, experience belonging, and explore faith in new ways. Each year, we select a theme that weaves together an important value of our congregation, core bible stories that define our faith, and the unique learning needs of our youngest members. This year’s theme explores God’s good creation and our place within it. We will learn about light, water, land, plants, and animals. We will also practice what it means to be caretakers of this beautiful creation.

I can’t fully describe the energy that fills the church when children are joyfully singing, enthusiastically exploring, and carefully considering where God is and how God is speaking today, but I hope each of you has the opportunity to experience it in person. If you would like to learn more about VBC and opportunities to help, please feel free to contact me. We’ll have meetings for new volunteers in the spring. . Volunteers can commit to helping in a number of different ways: (1) preparation, (2) working with a station/rotation, (3) working with a group of students, or (4) working behind the scenes.

Moreover, if you know someone interested in coming to camp as a camper, please register soon! Camp is already filling up! If you have a potential camper, please .

Finally, please keep VBC in your prayers. Pray for the students we will welcome, for the discerning volunteers, and for our church to be a place of safety and welcome for all of God’s Children.

Jessica Grose describes herself as a “secular, mildly observant Jew” who covers issues of religion, family, education, and culture as an opinion writer for the New York Times. Despite her almost apologetic religious self-description, her journalistic reporting of American religious life is significant. Anyone who loves the church should know she’s a writer with her finger on the pulse of changing religious trends.

Yesterday, under the banner of “Even Religious People Don’t Trust Religious Institutions,” she wrote about how when their leaders act inappropriately, or even criminally, both secular and religious sometimes try to uphold their public image rather than protecting or seeking justice for those who are harmed. The result is prevailing cynicism about all institutions in American life, particularly among young people. We should take this cynicism seriously, she writes, because it is “contributing to a more disconnected, careless and cruel society.”

More than 500 years ago, the leaders of the Protestant Reformation began to establish a church polity to guard against institutional corruption. Recognizing that individuals are sinful and often guided by self-interest, the Reformers established a form of government in which lay leaders are elected to govern local churches and represent them at regional and denominational governing bodies. In the Presbyterian Church (USA) Ruling Elders have the same authority as Teaching Elders (clergy) in exercising leadership over church governance and spiritual discernment for the whole church.

Our routine Congregational Meetings to elect church officers may seem like simple routine business on the surface. However, what these meetings represent is holding the church accountable to the kind of institutional norms missing in much of our society these days. This is part of our answer to a pervasive cynicism in our culture. Elders are elected to oversee the worship and work of the church with the same authority as pastors in church governance. Deacons are elected as emissaries of compassion to reach out and care for our members and neighbors in need. Trustees are elected to manage the church’s property and finances.

Finally, members of the Nominating Committee are charged with soliciting nominees for next year’s election and assuring they are active members who contribute time, talent, and treasure to the work of the church. There is no set amount of giving that counts as “treasure,” just a demonstrated financial commitment to stewardship. Our elected leaders must also have criminal background checks and undergo training for our Child and Youth Protection and Anti-Harassment Policies.

Our elections at Congregational Meetings, you see, are anything but routine. Our form of church government is a battle against cynicism, the assurance that we hold one another accountable and that we engage our increasingly “disconnected, careless, and cruel society” by electing leaders committed to further the justice, righteousness, peace, mercy, and love of God in the community and world.

I look forward to seeing you in worship and at the Congregational Meeting on Sunday. .

As we approach this coming weekend and the days ahead, as a nation, we are asked to remember the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As people of faith, and even more importantly as a community of faith, we cherish his legacy and his vision for our world. In particular, we are called to consider the church’s role in helping to move the world and our lives to more closely embody that vision.

I believe that when Dr. King offered this prayer for the church, likely over sixty years ago, he was praying for us.

Lord, We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word,

that challenges us to do more than sing and pray,

but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers

depended on us and not upon you.

Help us to realize that humanity was created

to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.

Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.

Help us to walk together,

pray together,

sing together,

and live together

until that day when all God’s children

will rejoice in one common band of humanity

in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray.

Amen.

His prayer makes it clear that the church is called to work together on issues of justice and compassion, to recognize all people’s full humanity, and to be an agent of transformation in the world. This Sunday, following worship, you are invited to join us in Congregational Hall to participate in an ongoing discussion about what that actually means in both broad strokes and in the day-to-day work of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

As we continue to live into the Belonging and Inclusion Statement approved by the Session last spring, you are invited to be a part of helping us implement not just that statement’s goals for our community but the vision that Dr. King continues to challenge us with today.

Many years ago, BMPC member Nena Bryans introduced me to Sister Helen David Brancato. Walking into the court to meet them, I saw Nena with a diminutive older woman. The closer I drew, the more I saw that this nun was a force to be reckoned with! From her dancing eyes to her exuberant energy, I was captivated and immediately became a fan!

I am delighted that Sister Helen will offer a solo show in the BMPC gallery from January 12 to March 2. Her exhibit celebrates the courage and strength of women from diverse backgrounds and eras who have lived with passion and compassion. Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic and visionary, faced exile for standing firm in her convictions. Others, like Dorothy Day, dedicated their lives to the poor and welcomed the stranger through the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement. In Brancato’s painting Song Over the Waters, Eve symbolizes all creative women who continue to channel their energy through writing, painting, teaching, healing, and service. Frida Kahlo, known for painting her pain, also captured her hopes and dreams. These women embodied fidelity and endurance, and these portraits honor the many ways they shared their talents and gifts with the world.

One work stands out to me. Inclusive Feast shows a familiar scene to believers: the Last Supper. However, sitting at the head of the table is a woman. Gathered around her is an assembly of diverse peoples. Diverse in age, diverse in color. One guest at the table holds her baby. I saw this work in Sister Helen’s workshop and was struck by the work’s beauty and message that all are welcome to gather together at the table. This is contradictory to the Roman Catholic Church’s policy that only Catholics may receive the sacrament of communion. I looked at Sister Helen and asked, “Wow, the priests must not have been too thrilled with this painting.” She shrugged her shoulders, laughed, and burst out with, “Not so much!”

Sister Helen studied portrait painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and explored various visual art forms at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. A painter, printmaker, and illustrator, she has exhibited professionally in the Philadelphia and New York areas and formerly taught visual arts at Villanova University.

Sister Helen collaborated as an illustrator with Henri Nouwen on Walk with Jesus: Stations of the Cross and with Evelyn Mattern on Why Not Become Fire? Encounters with Women Mystics. One of her most significant accomplishments has been leading an open studio for artists aged six to eighty at the Southwest Enrichment Community Art Center in Philadelphia.

A recipient of an Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship, her work is part of the collections at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art at Saint Louis University and Villanova University. Sister Helen’s artist statement reflects her deep commitment to her mission:

“My work is bound up with the human condition. I respond to nature peacefully and to human nature with healthy agitation. It is important for me to interact with the lives of the poor. Through painting, I try to bring the depth of my insight into the pain, the strength, and the dignity of my subjects.”

Please join us in the gallery this Sunday, January 12, at 11:15 a.m., where Sister Helen will lead you on a gallery tour and talk.

When a story is told, how a main character is introduced usually allows a reader to gain insight into who that person is. The four gospel accounts in the New Testament each have their own way of introducing Jesus. Two of the accounts start with birth narratives. Luke’s nativity account is beautifully written and is the inspirational piece we usually hear on Christmas Eve. The lowly shepherds are the first visitors who get to see who Jesus is in this account. Matthew has a much briefer birth narrative, but it is quickly followed with a more detailed account of the first visitors that this gospel writer mentions. They are the magi, sometimes referred to as wise men.

One of the hymns about them refers to them as three kings, but even though there are three gifts mentioned that they bring to the Christ child, Matthew doesn’t tell us an actual number of how many folks came looking for the one who had been born as the King of the Jews. To refer to the magi as ‘kings’ is probably misleading. They were likely astrologers, coming from the East, perhaps from Persia. They were certainly Gentiles, which is part of the reason why Matthew includes their story. That God helped them to know of such a significant birth that it would be reflected in the heavens above gives gospel readers a sense of the importance of Jesus’ birth. However, Matthew is interested in making the case that Jesus came not only for people of Jewish heritage but for people throughout the world. You might remember that Matthew is the account that begins with Gentiles being the first beyond the holy family to see the Christ child. Matthew is also the account that ends with Jesus giving the great commission, where Jesus instructs his followers to make disciples of people from all nations. The story of the magi is what gets referred to as ‘Epiphany,’ a Greek word for revelation. Through this story, we grow in our understanding that Jesus’ coming had significance far and wide. It is a big story that begins with a little child.

In our part of the church, Epiphany is observed on January 6, twelve days after Christmas. Some people celebrate the twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas Day to January 5. In different regions, Epiphany is observed with a king’s cake, placing grass outside for the magi’s camels to eat, or other fun customs. For us, it is a time when we continue to explore the significance of the birth of the world’s most famous poor child. This Sunday, January 5, will be a time when we in worship reflect on this story found in Matthew 2. We will explore how it continues to help us more fully understand the person of Jesus Christ, where we would be wise to direct our gaze, and to whom we should kneel. Those are fitting things to ponder as we enter a new year.