All Saints Gazette: Reading Scripture Together
Greetings from All Saints!
This week:
Morning and Evening Prayer M to F on Zoom at 9:00 and 18:00
House for Mokum, Sunday 8 June, Oude Kerk, 18:30
Next Eucharistic Service: 15 June!
For online events, see church calendar for links
A part of our worship with very ancient roots is that we read portions of scripture aloud. This practice has meant different things and served different functions. It has its roots in Jewish synagogue worship, where the study of the Torah takes the place of the ancient temple cult, and the reading of a Torah portion is the offering. Our reading is also an offering. The Christian practice also developed in times when books were difficult to produce and many people may not have been literate. Scripture was read publicly in order for it to be accessible, since not everyone could read it on their own. I would add that in our times, even though most of us are literate and can easily get a Bible or access the text electronically, it is good not to assume that everybody can. Furthermore, reading or listening to a text as part of a community does something different to us than reading it privately and usually silently. Not only does the brain take it in differently, but it also forms the community that reads it (this is again something that Jewish liturgical practice has taught us). So we do this, even though it is weird in most of our cultures and subcultures to read aloud together, except to children.
You might also have noticed that while the sermon is based on the day’s texts, we read way more than anyone can preach on (in fact, a rookie mistake for preachers is trying to do justice to all four readings). This can mean leaving a lot good material untouched (or sometimes, leaving weird material and awkward questions hanging). But this has an upside too. The preacher always lifts up what has been fruitful in their own study and what they believe God is trying to bring to the community’s attention. But the work of interpreting our scripture belongs to the whole church, not just the preacher. You might notice something different, or have different questions. Perhaps you’ll wish to share them over dinner, with one of the clergy, or with anyone else!
And this week, you’re very lucky, because Mpho wrote up her reflections on one of the texts I (with some regret) left untouched. At her suggestion, I have also made my sermon available in recorded and written form.
Extra Worship Opportunity: Abdijvesper, Oude Kerk, 18:30 on Sunday
All Saints is invited to participate in an evening prayer service at the Oude Kerk, which includes prayer from and for all of the communities of Amsterdam. We could use another reader or intercessor (in English, or you could do all or part in another language), so let us know if you plan to attend. Doors open at 6:00, service starts at 6:30. It’s Pentecost, so it’s nice to be able to worship together, and this is an opportunity to be visible. So please come if you’re around!
Second Notice: Install Signal
We are still planning to migrate our WhatsApp groups over to Signal because of privacy and ethical issues. So download the app if you haven’t! We don’t want to cut people off who haven’t gotten a chance to set it up yet, but the WA group will get deleted at some point.
Support All Saints!
There are countries where churches receive a fair amount of support from their governments, or where the government collects a “church tax” from members and passes it along. There are (or historically have been) churches that can depend on the philanthropy of a few rich people to support their lives. While there are definite advantages to these models, neither is an option for us. So we make a virtue of a necessity! All Saints is what we make it, and what God makes it through us. Can you give something this week? How about every week? Try on a practice of regular giving and see if God doesn’t bless you and us through it!
Use the QR code or this link, or make a transfer through your banking app (the latter saves us a few cents). Please consider making your offering recurring, and pray about what you are called to pledge when we have our winter pledge drive.
Bank details
All Saints Amsterdam
IBAN NL32 TRIO 0320 8657 62
BIC TRIONL2U
Not Just for Me
H/t to Hahye for this week’s video (and you all know you can send me stuff too, right)!
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
Instagram: @allsaintsamsterdam.church
