Saint John Chrysostom - "Golden Mouth"

Today in the Episcopal Church calendar we remember St. John Chrysostom, whose years were 354 to 407. John was known as a good priest and pastor, but primarily he had no small reputation as a good preacher. This guy could turn a phrase. He had a way with words. "Chrysostom" was not actually his name, but more of a nickname meaning "Golden Mouth."

If John had a golden mouth, he apparently had a spine of steel. He served as the Patriarch of the Roman capitol city of Constantinople long before it became known as Istanbul, Turkey. As such, he was in close contact with the powers that were. The Empress Eudoxia took offense at his preaching. She thought he had quit preaching and gone to criticizing her private life, so she exiled John twice. The second time that John was banished he died in tragic circumstances.

From the Book of Common Prayer, page 126, we have this lovely prayer attributed to St. John Chrysostom:

"Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them. Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen."

Pastor Linda

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

Coming Soon

Since I moved here a week ago I have been trying to get my bearings and learn the area. As I drive from place to place, I have begun to think that those orange striped barrels in the highway construction zones are the State Flower of Georgia.

Everywhere I go I see signs of growth and signs that say "coming soon" -- a new bank, a new Target Store, a new shopping center, a new housing development. Each sign is clamoring for our attention and promising peace of mind, happiness, or security.

Yesterday I joined the procession of those clamoring for your attention. My good neighbor Jeff Bennett and his daughter Caralee helped me put up signs for The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek. Actually Jeff did all the hard work of digging the post-holes (with some good help from Caralee who is six years old.) Jeff poured the concrete and made sure the signs were level. He did a great job. Thank you, Jeff and Caralee!

Our signs don't promise peace of mind, happiness, or security. That is something that you work out between you and God. But our signs do say "Coming Soon."

The actual launch date for the new church is November 4, which might seem far away, but it is coming soon. Stay tuned for details on how that will come about.

Peace,
Pastor Linda
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Founding Pastor
The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek
www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

Progress Report

Your Church Planter is now on the ground in Camden County. I moved here last week and I am very excited to gather people to form The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek. At some point in the future we will begin to have Wednesday evening services and gatherings. From this we will move to having Sunday services at 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel at Honey Creek.

In the meantime, I am scheduled to preach one Sunday per month and celebrate Holy Eucharist one Sunday per month at our Mother Church -- King of Peace in Kingsland, Georgia. I am grateful to the Rev. Frank Logue for this invitation. Please see their website at www.kingofpeace.org. I invite you to attend King of Peace and greet me there.

I have prepared an organizational chart of how the new church would function in a perfect world. I will blog more about that later.

Peace,
Pastor Linda
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Founding Pastor
The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek
www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

Going On Retreat

For the next eight or so days, there will be no new postings on this blog because I will be on retreat. This is a specially structured "Centering Prayer" retreat for which I signed up last September. It consists of eight days of focused prayer with a group of about twenty-five people in a mountain setting, where we will also have time to take long walks in the crisp air. We will begin each day with an early service of Holy Communion to set the tone.

The main idea is that we turn our attention to God with as few distractions as possible. There is a phone at one end of the hall which we are to use only if someone we love dies. Most of our meals will be taken in silence as we eat together three times a day. We have to turn off our cell phones, and of course the internet is out of the question.

I have worked hard to carve out this time to go away. I treasure it as a rare occasion to step back and review where I have been as I look forward to the future. I want to sort out my failures from my successes and see how I can improve. I am hoping that a lot of new ideas for The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek will bubble up so I can write them down for use. But for all my plans, retreats seem to take on a life of their own and I am always surprised by what I come away with. There is something about the silence that knits up any frayed edges of my life and causes unimportant things to fall away.

I hope you will make room in your life for a retreat at least once a year. It doesn't have to be an eight-day mega-retreat, but any change of pace can be refreshing both physically and spiritually. If you go on a Centering Prayer retreat, you might find that the silence is golden.

Pastor Linda

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

Restored To Wholeness

My late husband, who died way too young at age forty-eight, loved cars. At a quick glance he could tell me what make and model just passed us on the interstate. For his birthday every year I bought him a subscription to Hemmings Motor News. He devoured it upon its arrival each month.

Since I loved him, I grew to love what he loved - or at least act interested. I began noticing cars too, and for amusement we would go to antique automobile museums or old car shows on the square of small towns within driving distance. Eventually we bought a car that qualified as antique so we could join our local antique automobile club. We would go on trips with our club and take friends along for the ride. That car was a floating boat. The back seat was roomy enough for friends and plenty of picnic supplies.

We also joined the Antique Automobile Club of America and started going to the national shows. We would go a day early so we could go to judging school. At judging school we were briefed on the cars to be entered in that show, and were given guidelines by which to judge those cars. The criteria was simple: each car had to be restored to the wholeness of showroom condition. It could not be "souped up." It had to look just the way it looked when it came off the assembly line. The tires had to be the right brand and size. The paint had to be the exact same paint. If you think this is impossible, just subscribe to Hemming's Motor News and you will find that all this stuff is out there for sale.

The good news in this judging was that it was possible to have several first place winners in one category of cars. Theoretically there could be a whole string of '65 Mustang convertibles that had been restored to wholeness. The cars were not competing against each other. They were competing against the standard of wholeness for themselves.

So you are already out ahead of me and you see where I am going with this. God does not compare the condition of our soul against that of another human being. I believe that God looks at us and wants to restore us to be who God created us to be. Jesus told some of his first followers, "Follow me, and I will make you to become . . ."

My prayer for today is:

"O God, Restore to wholeness whatever is broken by human sin -- in our lives, in our nation, and in the world. Amen."

Pastor Linda

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

Ten Months From Today

Today I am at Honey Creek, checking out the flora and fauna on the marsh and making sure everything is ready for my move. On this date, January 4, 2007, we are ten months out from launching The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek. The date of November 4 will slip up on us, so there is no time to lose. If you would like to be a part of this exciting new venture, please let me hear from you right away. You can respond to this blog, or write to me at:

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

P. O. Box 326

Waverly, GA 31565

linda@oursaviorhoneycreek.org

In the interim time between now and the actual "launch" date of the new church, we will be gathering at Honey Creek for mid-week services, Bible studies, and/or shared meals. We will get to know each other and respect each other's dignity. We will laugh together and maybe even cry together. We will share our expectations for this church, since we will be the church. We will invite our friends and neighbors and get new people involved as we go along. Look around. See who is moving in. Invite them to join us. It's a ground-floor opportunity.

Pastor Linda

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

Washington National Cathedral

Today in the Washington National Cathedral, another American milestone will be passed. The main bell will toll thirty-eight times in honor of President Gerald Ford, for whom a memorial service will include eulogies from the sitting President, a former President, and Henry Kissinger.

Our National Cathedral was the setting for an official gathering to mourn all those who were killed on September 11, 2001.

It has been the scene of many priestly ordinations. More recently its stones witnessed the installation of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church U.S.A.

Here is a bit of history from a Cathedral website:

"In 1893 the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from Congress to establish the cathedral and the site on Mount Saint Albans was chosen. Bishop Satterlee chose Frederick Bodley, England's leading Anglican church architect, as the head architect. Henry Vaughan was selected to be the supervising architect. The building of the cathedral finally started in 1907 with a ceremonial address by President Theodore Roosevelt. When construction of the cathedral resumed after a brief hiatus for World War I, both Bodley and Vaughan had passed away; American architect Philip Hubert Frohman took over the design of the cathedral and is known as the principal architect. The Cathedral has been the location of many significant events, including the funeral services of Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower. Its pulpit was the last one from which Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke prior to his assassination. The Cathedral is the burial place of many notable people, including Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller, Admiral George Dewey, Bishop Satterlee and the architects Henry Vaughan and Philip Frohman.
The Cathedral is located at the corner of Wisconsin and Massachusetts Aves. It is open to the public daily from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm. Gardens are open daily until dusk. Good Shepherd Chapel is open for private prayer 6:00 am to 10:00 pm daily. Metro stop: Tenleytown/AU"

The Washington National Cathedral is our cathedral. You might want to put it on the list of places to visit on your next tour of the Capitol, or visit their website at http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/. Drop by and say hello.

Pastor Linda

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

Starting The New Year Off Right

On January 1 we celebrate the naming of Jesus as part of the Christmas Season. The day is properly called "The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ." It seems right somehow to start the New Year by gathering to worship at this service.

Today at 10:00 a.m. we will have this service of Holy Eucharist at St. Margaret's in Moultrie. This will be my last time to preside at a service there, but today is made more special because I will have the privilege of baptizing Shelton Blake Moore.

I think that for someone two-and-a-half months old, Shelton is doing well to start the New Year off right by getting himself baptized. He won't remember anything about it, and he might even sleep through the whole event, but his baptism will leave an indelible mark on his soul. That is because, as The Book of Common Prayer so beautifully puts it, "Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble." (p. 298)

As Shelton grows up and lives more fully into his name, he will also live more fully into his baptism. This is just the beginning, but he is starting the New Year off right.

Pastor Linda

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com