All Saints Gazette: Holy Cross (and now you can donate!)
Greetings from All Saints!
This week:
Thursday, 12 September, 18:00: Bible Study with potluck
Sunday, 15th September, 17:30: Worship with potluck
Holy Cross: September 14
This Saturday is Holy Cross Day, a major feast in The Episcopal Church and many other churches. We are unable to have a service, but it merits our prayer and attention (Eucharistic readings here and the Daily Office readings here. Don’t know what that means? Come to our upcoming Prayer Book Spirituality Series—but I digress).
The Feast of the Finding of the True Cross is a bit complicated for many of us. The event commemorated is St. Helena’s discovery of the location of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in the 4th century, along with the cross itself. The Church of the Resurrection (or the Holy Sepulcher as it is more often called in English) was built on the site. The Romans drastically altered the city of Jerusalem after the Bar Kochba revolt in 135, basically erasing much of the Jewish city and building a new Roman city with Roman temples. These were demolished when Constantine made Christianity the official religion. St. Helena was Constantine’s mother, and the stories tell us that on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she learned that the location of the passion and resurrection and the true cross had been safeguarded by the knowledge keepers of the Jerusalem Christian community. A well-versed Jew named Judas dug up the cross for her (actually, he found three cross, and the real one was identified by a healing miracle).
There is no point denying some features of this that rightly trouble us: A new emperor defeats his rivals, re-unifies a divided empire under himself, turns to a new religion with more adhesive potential for a new age, and manages to insert himself and his family into its cast of holy characters and sacred geography. This smacks of opportunism, and we must acknowledge the frequent critique of devotion to the cross as giving religious cover to imperial and gendered violence from late antiquity to the present. Perhaps some of you have experienced the trauma of a way of talking about the cross that says that you deserve for what happened to Jesus to happen to you (a view falsely attributed to St. Anselm and read back into scripture).
And yet, it is striking that the old stories of the finding of the cross tell of it healing. A cross is an implement of torture and murder, and Jesus’ cross was the place of humanity’s most extreme sin and brokenness. But it is a place of healing because of who it was who joined us there. It is a place of forgiveness because God mended the tear in the fabric of reality with God’s own life. It is where God shows us what we have done and what it has meant, and now transforms us and enables us to create a new life for the whole world with God.
Whatever Constantine and Helena’s reasons for lifting up the cross, that is what the Holy Spirit enables us to see in it. In the words that our prayer book offers us on Fridays, “may we, walking in the way of the cross, find it none other than the way of life and peace.”
Scriptures, Cycles, and Sacraments: Prayer Book Spirituality
The Bible study you already know and love (and are planning to come to this Thursday, right?) is alternating with a prayer lab series on Prayer Book Spirituality. Anglican churches ground their lives in a form of worship that has roots in the ancient and medieval church and was given shape in the English Reformation. Some people say it is both Protestant and Catholic. It is rooted in the Bible, the presence of Christ in the hours and seasons, and special actions that access particular blessings. Hence, three sessions: scriptures (19 September), liturgical seasons and the daily office (24 October), and the sacraments (14 November). All at Vrijburg at 18:00. We begin with evening prayer and share a meal.
Taking an Offering
We now have the opportunity to support All Saints financially. We will start taking an offering in worship (cash or electronic), and you can also donate through the QR code or link in this email or make a transfer to our IBAN (all below). Being part of All Saints is and always will be free because we believe that God gives our community what we need and moves us to invest in the community we want. So we ask three things:
1.) Pray that God will move each person to give what is right for them (and money is just one part)
2.) Make a money offering, even it’s small. God multiplies what we give once we give something
3.) Commit to giving regularly, and try giving just a little bit more than what first comes to your mind. (An experiment: try it for six months and see if you really miss it.) You can set up a recurring incasso with our service or a recurring payment in your own banking app.
Eucharist on Sunday, 15 September
You did catch that we’re having church this Sunday, right? 17:30 at Vrijburg. Can you think of anyone to invite? Bring a dish to share afterward if you can (as always, sensitivity to common dietary restrictions is appreciated when possible).
Our People Elsewhere
Mpho is the chair of the Waarheids Commissie’s play on the “human zoo.” You can watch this video about it. The final two performances are this weekend. Mpho’s introduction is in English and the play is in Dutch.
Did you know?
The oldest tattoo studio in the world is Razzouk’s in Jerusalem. The family moved from Egypt in the 13th century and specializes in inking the Jerusalem cross on pilgrims. Holy Cross Day is a very important symbol for Palestinian Christians, and the Arabic and Aramaic words for cross (salib/saliba) are in use as personal names and surnames among Arabic-speaking Christians.
That's all for today. See you Sunday!
Want to talk to a priest? We want to talk to you too! Our addresses are downstairs.
Make a Donation!
Scan this QR-code, follow this link, or set up a transfer in your own banking app to the IBAN below!
All Saints Amsterdam
IBAN NL32 TRIO 0320 8657 62
BIC TRIONL2U
Website: https://allsaintsamsterdam.church/
Mpho: mpho@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Kyle: kyle@allsaintsamsterdam.church
General: info@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allsaintsamsterdam.church/?img_index=1
