Author Archives: ginny

Welcome, Seekers

Posted on by

Welcome to the Episcopal Church. You’re not alone. We’re here for you.

These may seem like platitudes, but the process of finding a place to worship can be nerve-wracking. First, it’s difficult even to come to the realization that you want a more spiritual life, especially if no one else you know is interested or involved in a church. Then you have to listen to where your heart is leading you. It’s hard enough figuring out why you want to worship, but then you have to figure out how you want to worship, too. And then there’s the matter of what to believe, in addition to deciding whether kneeling and special gestures and special prayers are important to the way you worship. After that, you have to explore who you want to worship with. And not just checking congregations out by demographics and age groups and ethnic groups and sexual orientations and all of that, but whether you feel welcome.

What Are You Looking For?

Exploring a new faith tradition, perhaps different from the one you may remember from childhood, can be a daunting yet exciting process. Many churches offer lots of ways to be spiritual, and to worship God, and to know Christ, and to feel the Spirit working in your life. Which one calls to you?

The Episcopal Church can offer many different experiences – it’s something we call the “broad” church. Some individual parishes are more low-key and simple in their style of worship, and some offer a more elaborate liturgy, especially for major holidays or “feasts” of the Church, like Easter and Pentecost. Some parishes are very modern in their outlook, some are more traditional, and many are somewhere in between. Quite often, the architecture of the church is a good clue to the way worship is conducted inside, but not always. This makes entering an Episcopal church for the first time a bit of an adventure.

“Will the people be friendly or will they ignore me? Will they focus on their own families and acquaintances? Will there be music or not? Will I be uncomfortable? Will it be familiar or strange? Will I be interested, or bored? Will I want to come back, or head straight out the door?” These are all questions you might well find yourself asking.

Who Are We?

Holy Innocents Episcopal Church is a small mission parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, which is part of the larger The Episcopal Church in the USA, which maintains a website for people seeking to know more about worship, belief, and spiritual growth from the Episcopalian point of view. In turn the national Episcopal Church is a part of the greater Anglican Communion, as an offshoot of the Church of England. St Columba Episcopal Church is a small parish in the same way.

Both churches were founded at around the same time in the late Fifties, early Sixties, but the buildings are quite different and the communities developed and changed in different ways. Worship styles vary, but Father Ted Durst manages to offer a simple service at St Columba, then a somewhat more elaborate liturgy at Holy Innocents. Currently St Columba’s service is at 9am, and Holy Innocents’ is at 1030am. This allows Fr. Ted to preside at both services, spending a little time with everyone after the first service, before nipping over to Holy Innocents for the second service. Fortunately, the two communities are physically not that far apart. During the school year, there occasionally can be 3 services when there is a Family Mass, which can make Sundays interesting, to say the least.

What Are We About?

We’re currently seekers, too. We’re seeking to know how we might be more a part of and of service to our communities of Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, and Hanover Park. We support the Schaumburg Food Pantry (our upcoming Classic Car Show is partly in benefit of that charity), and we’re looking for other ways that we can contribute our time and talents and support, and to help our villages and the larger world. We’ll be working on more long-range planning for the future so that we may all grow as individuals and as a parish. There are also “fun” activities planned or in discussion for the rest of the summer – besides the Car Show July 10, there’s the big St Columba Flea Market on August 27th, and the third Synergy Brass Quintet concert on August 28th.

Why Do We Do This?

However, the “central act of our worship,” the reason we come together each week, takes place at the altar when Fr. Ted blesses the Bread and Wine and gives it to the people. This shared meal puts us in touch with Christ and enables to take Him into ourselves – this is what being “in communion” means. And then when we are dismissed at the end of the service, we are sent out into the world “in peace.”

There’s a lot of history behind the Episcopal Church, and it continues to be “in the news” even now, with large questions being asked and (it is to be hoped) answered. Fortunately, the “broadness” of experience, worship, and outlook in the Episcopal Church means that you will find a welcome within it no matter what. We’re here for you, and that’s not just a marketing ploy.

At Holy Innocents and St Columba, we are young, old, black, Hispanic, white, married, single, gay, straight, formal, informal, working, retired, and everything in between.

Check the service times, find your way, find a welcome “home.” We look forward to worshiping with you.

The Archbishop For York?

Posted on by
ArchbishopSentamu.jpg

A former Ugandan judge and former Bishop of Stepney and also of Birmingham, Dr. John Sentamu will become Archbishop of York. He replaces Dr. David Hope, who stepped down to become rector of a “traditional” parish in Ilkley, York. Dr. Sentamu is seen as more progressive than his predecessor on many issues, but forms his own opinions on others. Dr. Hope opposed female clergy and other reforms, while Dr. Sentamu opposed the war in Iraq. However, what’s more important is in the causes he supports: displaced auto workers, reducing in gun crime, reducing in racial tensions, and revitalizing people’s involvement with the Anglican church. He hopes to get people as excited about their religion as they are about cricket and soccer.

As Archbishop of York, he holds the second most important post in the Anglican Church in Britain. It’s conceivable that he could be Archbishop of Canterbury one day. He has vowed to ban homophobia in the Church of England. He is looking forward to “developing ways that will enable the Church of England to reconnect imaginatively with England“.

After wrestling with an ugly word that is part of the story quoted below, I decided for the moment to leave it in. If we pretend that problems don’t exist, they will eventually overwhelm us. We must face them. We must look each other in the eye and join together to combat them, just as the new Archbishop of York has pledged to do. We should remember his struggle and his example when we are in the midst of our own travails, and take heart and hope.

John Sentamu, the new archbishop of York, is a mould-breaker in more ways than one.

Not only is he the Church of England’s first black primate; he is also seen as possessing street cred.

He is a trusted adviser to the government on race and the inner cities, yet does not shrink from criticising it.

And he speaks the sort of language most of us use, without taking refuge in ecclesiastical gobbledygook.

…

During his six years as bishop of Stepney in east London he was stopped and searched eight times by the police.

What upset him most was the sudden change in the officers’ behaviour when they realised his identity.

He said: “When they discovered who I was, the way I was then treated was very different. They should treat everybody with respect, with dignity.”

Another time, he recalls, four young white men spat at him and said: “Nigger, go back.”

He replied: “You have wasted your saliva.”

When he moved from Stepney to the West Midlands Dr Sentamu said he wanted to be known as the Bishop for Birmingham, not of it. – BBC NEWS | UK | England | The Archbishop with ‘street cred’

Proclaim From The Housetops

Posted on by

The readings for Sunday, June 19th
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Romans 5:15b-19
Matthew 10:(16-23)24-33
Psalm 69:1-18 or 69:7-10, 16-18

Gospel: Matthew 10:(16-23)24-33

Jesus said to the twelve apostles,

[“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.]

“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.