All Saints Gazette: Bible, Abundance, Palestinian and Episcopal Statements
Greetings from All Saints!
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our first service at Vrijburg! We'll do that again on March 17, and then again on Easter Sunday. 17:30 will be the regular time, and we're going to keep up the tradition of bringing food to share if we're able. This week, we have Bible study on Zoom at 18:30. See below for the link!
Bible Study
We currently meet on Zoom on Wednesday at 18:30. Maybe you've been reading the Bible for years and know your way around it like your living room, or maybe it's strange, mysterious, and a bit menacing (maybe your living room is strange, mysterious, and menacing? No judgment from the priest with ADHD!) Either way, the Bible always rewards those who spend time with it. And the rewards aren't just for you, but for our whole community. You're never too advanced, and never too much of a novice.
Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88944038056?pwd=4ybNm7bmmD44bzCkAAdSaZ1ZNXM69N.1
Meeting ID: 889 4403 8056
Passcode: 817891
Note that after Easter, we are moving to Thursdays and in person at Vrijburg.
Abundance Inventory
John’s gospel reports that, "many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony."
The woman’s name is not given in the evangel but in Eastern tradition, she is christened Photina, the luminous one. Her continuing witness brought many to the Christian faith. So much so that she is accounted “equal to the apostles”. She is reputed to have drawn the attention of Emperor Nero who had her tortured for her faith. She died a martyr.
“Come and see…”
This woman in her excitement leaves her jar at the well to run and tell the townsfolk what she has experienced. Her testimony isn’t complicated, it is a simple invitation to “come and see..”
What in your life fills you with that kind of enthusiasm? What makes you think, “I must drop everything, I have to tell somebody, this is so good”? When do you feel so filled with “living water” that it cannot but overflow? How can you offer that abundance to people who feel parched? Who do you know who might be lonely or sad? Who might welcome a kind word or a smile? Who just needs an invitation to “Come and see…”?
I have added a musical note to this week’s prompt. Enjoy.
(Thank you to Mpho for this prompt, and we'll call that this week's video)
Communications from the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem and The Episcopal Church
As a Christian community with a colonial herritage, we owe our attention (at least!) to the voices of formerly and currently colonized Christian communities (many of us are in fact also members of such communities ourselves). In that spirit, we direct you to the statement made by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem concerning the murder of civilians in Gaza last week. For your reference, here is also The Episcopal Church's own statement. We do this with full acknowledgment of our church's historical and ongoing complicity in the colonization of Palestine and the horrors inflicted on the Jewish people by Christian and post-Christian communities, and that this is a major cause of the present conflict and a barrier to peace and liberation. But we do not accept that our sins and the sins our ancestors excuse the suffering of any people: Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, or any other.
But prayer will do more than "statements." From the ancient prayer known as the Great Litany (available in our own Book of Common Prayer):
Remember not, Lord Christ, our offenses, nor the offenses
of our forefathers; neither reward us according to our sins.
Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast
redeemed with thy most precious blood, and by thy mercy
preserve us, for ever.
Spare us, good Lord.
...
That it may please thee to make wars to cease in all the world;
to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord; and to
bestow freedom upon all peoples,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
Roving Priest
From about 10:00 to about 12:30 tomorrow (Thursday), I will be at the Amsterdam Central Library, and will grab a lunch somewhere nearby afterward. Send me an email or WA if you want to meet up. -Kyle
That's all for today!
Want to talk to a priest? We want to talk to you too!
Website: https://allsaintsamsterdam.church/
Mpho: mpho@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Kyle: kyle@allsaintsamsterdam.church
General: info@allsaintsamsterdam.church
