Love Changes Everything

A witness by Jane Emrick

Our church family had the pleasure of a visit from Bishop Susan Goff for a visit on May 6. She began with a dynamic sermon, and stayed for lunch, fielding questions for over an hour in the Garage.

Her message was titled, “Love Changes Everything.” In it, she noted that “Love takes us on amazing journeys--terrifying and painful journeys.” There was not to be fear in the journey; but rather, the joy of following in our Lord’s footsteps. “Jesus’ love took him through the world. To death. Through death to Life beyond,” she said. And as we come to know him more, we see the complications and growth those changes bring.

Bishop Goff honored us with lots of extra time in the afternoon, and fielded questions while we enjoyed a snack lunch in the Garage. She addressed the issues of how our church can maintain relevancy in a world where the idea of “church” is so different from the way we grew up.

Bishop Goff spoke about reaching out to our fast-growing community, and that (especially for Episcopalians) this can require some re-thinking. “We may be uncomfortable with Evangelism,” she noted. “We may need training in reaching out to others.

“This community is growing, so we have a great opportunity for growth,” she added.

But, she cautioned, we must remember that “church community” is not about going into a building with a cross on the front, for an hour on Sunday morning. It’s more about people building a support system for those who need it. “If the Church budget is spent on buildings, then to some extent, we’ve lost the mission of Christ,” she said.

One sad note, in response to a question, is that a few Virginia Episcopal parishes are closing. Bishop Goff was quick to add that churches that are closing are “mostly in towns and communities that are dying.” And although some congregations are moving on, she said, of course, “the Church isn’t going to die.”

Our Bishop took some time answering a question about the increasing diversity in our church, and how we might address needs of a population that may have been marginalized by other churches. Bishop Goff was adamant in her insistence that we learn to embrace a changing population of believers, with diverse backgrounds and varying spiritual needs. “It’s a different world we live in now,” she said. We must make the effort to learn where people are coming from, and to help them find faith from that place. “Jesus calls us to love people as they are...pulling us to be more than what we are.

“Part of what the church is striving to do, is to give everyone a voice. That’s hard. It can get messy. But the only voice Jesus wanted to silence, was satan’s.”

Bishop Goff encouraged us to be open to a future that looks and works differently than what we may be used to. She referred back to her sermon point that “love changes everything.” She said that if we love, we must change. If we want to spread God’s love, we must understand the needs of those who seek it.

“I’m excited to see what the church will look like in 50 years. I’m kind of sorry that I won’t be around to see that,” she said. She noted that the church community of the future, probably “won’t look like churches of today.

“People choose church now because they seek community,” she noted. She added that that may make our church look more like the early Church in the book of Acts. That early church didn’t rely on a specific “look” or building, or worship on a certain day in a certain way; but rather, was much more fluid as it grew to meet believers’ needs, while following Jesus’ teachings at its core.

But, she said, whether we’re in a building, sharing a space, or re-designing a community, God will be in the midst if we allow his leading. “When it’s not about issues, but about people--we seem to have more room to change.” Bishop Goff left us with prayer and encouragement to embrace our future with open minds and open hearts. Thanks for your loving words!

“Love can require sacrifice”: sleep, money, time, pride, old practices. Bishop Goff encouraged us to follow Jesus’ example--to be like potter’s clay, and to seek growth as we learn to love more and more as he did.

Our Vision In Action

Your generous financial support enables our Missions & Outreach ministry to provide grants to an array of helper organizations, in RVA and far beyond. 


The thank you letters are rolling in and the stories they tell must be shared!  Stories like....

The Franklin Family

... "At Richmond Habitat, we believe that no matter who we are or where we come from, we all deserve to have a decent life. We deserve to feel strength and stability day after day.... Your support helps local families, like the Franklin's [see photo], build brighter futures for themselves and their children.

The Franklin family had been living in a small home with nine people. In order for their two young boys to have a warm bed, Shazier and Sherrie slept on a twin mattress on the floor of a freezing, unheated attic night after night. Because of the generosity of friends like you, the Franklin family purchased their new home through 0% interest mortgage and moved in just in time to create warm holiday memories that will last a lifetime."

This thank you letter from Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity is one of many letters of gratitude we've received detailing the ways lives are being changed by your committment to our vision: live and love more like Jesus every day.

Please click through the slideshow below to see a sampling of letters and stop by the bulletin board in the parlor hallway to read the letters in their entirety.

Gifts that Keep on Giving

There's an old, white Yukon SUV that lives at Christ Church. Over the years it has helped CARITAS families, transported youth to serving sites, fetched Advent wreaths from the florist, and at least twice a year it makes the trek to the Church Hill neighborhood in East End Richmond. That's where George Mason Elementary School is located, a school that CCE has enjoyed a special partnership with for over a decade, first with Richmond Hill's Micah Initiative and now through the impactful organization, Communities in Schools.

In the fall, the white Yukon is loaded with donated backpacks, notebooks, pencils, crayons, and enough glue sticks for a year's worth of classroom assignments. In the spring, as it was this Monday, the Yukon brings bags upon bags of brand new books to be gifted to the students, ensuring they have good reading material at home over the summer break. (You may remember that your donations to the "Buy the Book" drive in March helped add 250 books that reflect GMES's diversity!)

The Yukon was only part of the caravan to GMES on Monday. Other cars brought ice cream, sprinkles, and many cans of whipped cream, as well as teams of CCE'ers who were ready to scoop ice cream and give away books. In addition to the Book Fair, the children are also treated to an ice cream party as a celebration of all their hard work this school year.

Janet Willis serves at GMES throughout the school year. "It was a fun afternoon interacting with the students, teachers and staff at George Mason," she says. "What a treat to share ice cream and give books to each child. There were many smiles!"

There are many opportunities to add to the smiles at GMES. For more information about how you can get involved, please join the GMES Interest Group in Realm or click here.

Be the Good: March

"Be the Good" is an opportunity for our children to learn about local and global community service organizations and participate in hands-on service projects. This mission effort takes place once a month during Sunday School.

For our March "Be the Good," children and helpers packaged Care Bags filled with cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items for ACTS clients. ACTS provides funds, support, and other resources to our RVA neighbors in financial crisis. Their goal is to help those in need live sustainable, self-sufficient, and dignified lives.

"What a gift to be able to provide items that are expensive, yet necessary, to those who struggle each day to pay their bills," writes ACTS Executive Director William H. Poach in his thank you letter. "Your contributions and prayers are greatly appreciated as ACTS continues to further its mission of providing compassionate response and needed resources to our neighbors during periods of financial crisis."

If you feel called to help our children be the heart and hands of Jesus through "Be the Good," please contact us.

Serving is Sweet

On March 7, Christ Church had the pleasure of  providing radical hospitality at our dear partner school, George Mason Elementary. With our friends from First Presbyterian Church, who are also partnered with GMES thorough Communities in Schools, a dessert fair was provided for the 70+ staff and teachers at GMES. Held on the day the teachers have parent conferences until late in the day, the treats were very much appreciated by all. 

Serving Jesus by Serving the Least of These

Through the CARITAS organization, we open our doors and hearts to provide shelter, food, and necessities to individuals and families in need of immediate assistance. 

CARITAS enables all ages to serve!

It was a blessing to see children, youth, adults -- and even our neighbors from West End Islamic Center -- serve together as Christ's hands and feet by...

preparing and serving meals • washing dishes and cleaning up after meals • keeping company, praying with and for and listening to guests • washing and folding laundry • spending the night to ensure guests were safe • providing breakfast, lunch and dinner items • helping with set up and clean up • serving as on-call shoppers • bringing leftover food to the Little Sisters of the Poor • serving as volunteer coordinators • encouraging your children to volunteer at CARITAS •  keeping guests and volunteers in your thoughts and prayers • supporting CCE financially or otherwise so that CARITAS ministry is possible.

Together and with the Grace of God, we are living out: "And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’"(Matthew 25:40)

Our friends from the West End Islamic Center helped prepare and serve dinner one night.

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Learn more about CARITAS.

Be the Good: February

"Be the Good" is an opportunity for our children to learn about local and global community service organizations and participate in hands-on service projects. This mission effort takes place once a month during Sunday School.

For our February "Be the Good," children decorated envelopes to hold the bus passes our church donates to our CARITAS guests. Transportation is a vital need for everyone and one that is extremely difficult for those who are homeless or living in poverty. Giving bus passes allows our neighbors in need to get to work, keep medical appointments, shop for food, go on job interviews, get to school, and much more. 

The children's bright and colorful messages of hope offered encouragement to our CARITAS friends.

If you feel called to help our children be the heart and hands of Jesus through "Be the Good," please contact us.

Radical Hospitality on the Move

No family plans for their child to be placed in foster care. The tough decision to remove children from their home is often carried out swiftly and results in last-minute packing and transportation arrangements.

In all this turmoil, most children entering foster care receive just two trash bags for their belongings.

 

Sweet Cases is an initiative to provide luggage for children entering foster care. Volunteers decorate duffel bags and fill them with a stuffed animal, hygiene kit, blanket, and coloring book and crayons. This small gesture can provide a little bit of love and hope at a difficult time for these children.

Last weekend, our youth choir traveled on their annual mission trip to serve a neighboring community and to share their musical gifts with a sister parish. This year, our youth partnered with Together We Rise to make Sweet Cases for children entering a foster care placement. Our youth worked together to decorate the bags and fill them with goodies. It was a wonderful way to provide radical hospitality those who need it most.

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Click here to learn more about Together We Rise. Contact Laura McNally for more information about Youth Choir.

Our meals are on their way to Mozambique!

On November 19, we partnered with our friends at WEIC to package meals for Rise Against Hunger. We've just learned that a shipping container holding 285,120 meals -- including meals package by our own hands -- has been sent to Mozambique to be used by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. These meals will provide daily nourishment to children and adults in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Adventist Development and Relief Agency is an organization that nourishes lives through food assistance and other services in Mozambique. Click here to learn more about ADRA.

Thank you for helping Be the Church, halfway around the world.

The Season of Epiphany

A Reflection by Robin Teasley 

What of your life has led you to set out on a journey to learn more? What do you consider to be your most precious gifts and are you able to give them to God by sharing them with others?  How will you seek the Christ Child this year?

>Read Matthew 2:1-12<

The season of Epiphany begins on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. On the Sundays that follow, our lectionary gives us stories in the life of Jesus that reveal him to be the Incarnate Son of God through his baptism, his first miracle at the wedding in Cana, and his transfiguration.

Epiphany means manifestation…to make known. From the Greek, epiphaneia, it’s literally the “shining forth” or the revealing of God’s glory in human form at the birth of Christ.  An epiphany is any dramatic moment that instills new spiritual insight, vision, or perspective.  An epiphany is something to be shared!

In our everyday epiphanies we call these “aha moments”, and when we have an aha moment we can’t wait to tell someone about it.  The wise men had an epiphany and they did not stay home doing nothing, but set out on a journey to learn more, to see what God had for them, and to bring gifts to the King of the Jews.

Wise men, or magi, were from the East, Persia most likely, and they were probably astrologers.  Often the birth of a new king was noted by studying the stars.  Why they would travel so far and bring such gifts…to an infant near Jerusalem is intriguing.  The story is the fulfillment of a prophecy of great hope from Isaiah that the Messiah would be revealed to all nations. (Isaiah 60:1-9)

The magi arrive, bearing some rather inappropriate gifts for a baby, but many have attached great symbolism to the gold (signifying royalty), frankincense(divinity), and myrrh(spice for burial). What is more likely is that these were precious to the magi and so they brought what they had that was most precious to give to the newborn king. 

Which may lead us to give some thought to what gifts we might bring to Jesus…. What of us is most precious and will we give it to Jesus?

As God revealed himself in Christ to the wise men, God is constantly revealing God’s self to us - if we are paying attention, we will see signs of God all around us. Maybe it is a star in the sky, or a beautiful sunset.  It might be something a trusted friend says to us that we need to hear, the words to a song at just the right moment, or an answer to a prayer. 

God is constantly shining light into our lives to help us on our journey.  Sometimes the journey can be long and hard. Some times the gifts we bear become heavy and hard to carry, and at other times we may be reluctant to part with our gifts.  But along the journey, through all the ups and down, God is revealed.  

Those times when we become aware of Christ before us are moments of purest epiphany and great joy.  We become wise men/women, not when we find the baby Jesus, but when we realize that the child born king, the Messiah, the Son of God, has found us.  

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This reflection is part of our Christian Learning Community, “Growing in Faith Together.” All are invited to join this group and receive weekly reflections and participate in occasional opportunities to gather for spiritual formation and fellowship. Find the “GIFT” group in Realm Groups or contact our clergy.