All Saints Gazette January 30
Greetings from All Saints Amsterdam
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Prayer Lab on Wednesday (6:30 pm) and worship on Sunday (6:00 pm)! We also have some great commemorations in the calendar this week, including St. Brigid of Kildaire. Her feast is February 1, coinciding with the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc and incorporating many of its themes. And you know there's a new Abundance Inventory prompt (and, yes, a video).
Abundance Inventory
We didn't worship together this Sunday, but the readings sure sparked some discussion in Bible Study! The people of Israel are promised a new prophet like Moses, and Jesus goes into a synagogue, teaches like nobody has ever heard before, and drives out a spirit that was bothering someone. Maybe your words don’t have immediate healing effect. Or maybe they do? Or maybe you can do other things that can heal, enlighten, or even just delight others.
What are some of your talents? Or if talent is too big a word, what can you do well enough to teach someone else? What can you do that brings you and others joy? Think big and think small. Can you host a party? Play a few chords on a guitar? Practice Dutch and explain a few points of grammar? Do you have people you share this with? Can you think of a way to share it at All Saints?
Housekeeping
Prayer Lab Wednesday at 6:30, Old Catholic Rectory (Ruydaelstraae 37), ring the bell
Does worship make a difference? Is it a bit like poetry which, W.H. Auden tells us, "makes nothing happen," even as he calls it a "healing fountain" and urges the poet in the very next section to "still persuade us to rejoice," "make a vineyard of the curse," and "teach the free man [sic] how to praise"? Let's take two of those items, rejoicing and praise, talk about how to do them, and what difference they make. Bring a dish or snack to share if you can, but the main thing is just to come!
Please note that due to space availability, there is no Bible study or prayer lab on February 7 or 14.
Still need readers and children's church leaders!
Sign up for these essential worship roles here (or if Google Docs gives you trouble, just call, text, or email Kyle or Mpho). If you can read this newsletter, you can read scripture or lead prayers at our services! And if you can open a glue stick or even halfway color inside of lines, you can help with the children's activity.
All Saints People Elsewhere
Speaking of poetry, we have a poet in our midst. Check out these poems by Erin! One in particular weaves together themes dear to many of us: queerness, religion, and the Netherlands.
Commemorations and a Video
Thursday is the feast of St. Brigid of Kildaire, a 5th/6th century Irish nun, who has been a favorite of Kyle's since he was part of a campus ministry that took her as its unofficial patron. She is a Christian saint whose stories, rituals, and iconography pay homage to an earlier tradition. The stories about her are mostly legendary, which is to say they're good. One of them is that, looking for a place for community when the local ruler only saw the land as real estate, she told him that she only wanted as much land for her monastery as her cloak could cover. He laughed and said sure! Then she spread out her cloak and it covered the whole county. You can learn more about her at this community's website, including an explanation of the icon above.
Friday is the Feast of the Presentation, one of the major feasts of the church year. It commemorates the Holy Family's visit to the Temple 40 days after Jesus' birth (and thus ends the Christmas cycle). The baby Jesus was met by the aging prophets Anna and Simeon, the latter of whom sang the "nunc dimitis," which is part of the night prayer liturgy:
"Lord, you now have set your servant free *
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
and the glory of your people Israel."
The state of things after Simeon sang this song was very much as it was before, but he could meaningfully proclaim victory. Wondering how that works? Check out this video of Rev. Sekou explaining his protest song, "The Revolution Has Come."
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
