A Christian community of all ages

grounded in

worship, well-being, and service.

From the Associate Rector

Dear Friends,

Many of you will recall one of my favorite movies, the big 1982 box office hit E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial. In it a little boy named Elliott and a creature from outer space named E.T. form a very special relationship after E.T. has been abandoned in the hills of Southern California when he space ship leaves without him. Elliott finds E.T. and makes a home for him in his bedroom closet. Now obviously E.T. and Elliott are going to become very good friends, and because E.T. is from outer space and has extraordinary powers their relationship takes on unique characteristics.

Take one scene for example.  You need to know that E.T. is a short, squat greenish creature about as tall as a five-year old, and he waddles when he walks.  One of E.T.'s most endearing characteristics is that he loves to eat, just to stiff himself. One day when Elliott is at school and E.T. is alone at home, E.T. decides to sneak out of the closet and raid the refrigerator.  Meanwhile, in school, Elliott’s class is beginning a biology lesson where the class is going to dissect some frogs.  Meanwhile, back at home, E.T. discovers a six-pack of beer in the refrigerator and guzzles a couple of cans.  The scene switches back to the biology lab where something extraordinary is happening.  The same thing that the beer is doing to E.T. in the kitchen is happening to Elliott in the biology lab. He is getting a bit drunk.

So much so, that when the time comes in the lab for the students to chloroform their frogs so that they can dissect them, Elliott, a bit blurry-eyed with E.T. beer, thinks of his short, squat extra-terrestrial friend, and decides to liberate all the frogs, causing chaos in the classroom.  We understand now that for some extraterrestrial reason E.T. and Elliott have what is technically known as a symbiotic relationship.  Because of their closeness, what happens in the life of one happens in the other. This relationship becomes the key to what happens in the movie.   When Elliott cuts his finger, E.T. says “ouch”.

This weekend our church marks the annual observance of Trinity Sunday, a feast that is unique in that it commemorates a doctrine rather than an event or a person.  This important doctrine should not be understood as an obscure theological or philosophical concept but as an exploration of the Christian understanding of God and of our human relationship with divinity. The God disclosed to us in Jesus Christ is not some static Prime Mover or vague higher power. At the heart of God disclosed to us as Father, Son and Holy spirit is the reality of relationship.  

It might sound abstruse, but there is a theological term developed by fourth century theologians pondering the mystery of the trinity that’s worth learning: perichoresis. Literally it means to move around or make space around and describes how the

three persons of the Trinity are is constant motion, moving in through and with one another. It highlights that God’s very nature is relational love.  

The relationship within the Trinity is a dynamic and elegant exchange of love and harmony. Fr. Richard Rohr explored this idea in his book: The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation.   Fr. Rohr writes: “At the heart of Christian revelation, God is not seen as a distant static monarch but … a divine circle dance, as the early Fathers of the church dared to call it (in Greek perichoresis, the origin of our word choreography).  God is the Holy One presented in the dynamic and loving action of three.”

The cover of Fr. Rohr’s book illustrates a famous 15th century Russian icon by Andrei Rublev often escribed as the Old Testament Trinity.  It illustrates a scene from the book of Genesis when three angelic visitors come to Abraham and Sarah who seem to recognize in them a divine presence.  Abraham sets out a meal for them and the icon shows the three visitors circling the table where the food is laid out. Rohr notes that at the front of the table there is painted a small rectangle that some art historians suggest that once was a mirror glued there. Rohr suggests a meaning --- that there is room at the table for a fourth --- the observer reflected in the mirror --- an invitation to relationship, to join in the divine dance.

Genesis tells us that we have been created in the divine image. If so then there is a symbiotic relationship between humanity and God.   When humanity hurts, God says “ouch”. Trinity Sunday then invites us to trinitarian living that vitalizes our faith by recognizing the holiness of God’s creation and God’s people.

We have been created for relationship. In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul uses the metaphor of the human body to emphasize the interconnectedness and relationship among the member of the Christian community: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one, so it is with Christ” 1 Cor 12:12. So, when we humans unite together in a relationship of love and harmony we mirror the Trinitarian nature of God.

Blessings,

Greg+

Worship for the summer is moving to St. George's Chapel in the Parish House on Saturday, June 6 at 5:00 and Sunday, June 7at 10:00.

Please consider helping facilitate this change by joining in gathering and carrying prayer books and hymnals from the church to the parish house after the 10:00 service this Sunday. You can leave them on carts on the ground floor near the elevator.

Weekly worship is on

Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and

Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

Christian Meditation is weekly

on Saturdays, 4:00 - 4:45 p.m., Southside Classroom, Lower Level, Parish House. Details below

Sunday, 5.31 -- Godly Play. 9:45 a.m., Lower Level, Parish House. Please note: This is the last one of the school year!

For all of St. Mary's activities visit our online calendar.

Click on the image above for the service bulletin for this weekend.

Join us in worship at 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays or 10:00 a.m. on Sundays. The liturgical ministers for our worship services are listed in the bulletin.

Worship on Sundays at 10:00 is live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube. Use the comment section to say hello if you use Facebook.

You also can listen to the Gospel reading and sermon at your convenience on Apple Podcasts and Podbean. They are available by 6:00 p.m. on Monday.

We are trying to make better connections between those who are in person and those who are at home.If you miss worship on Sunday and just want to hear the sermon, you can listen to it online.

Prayer requests for individuals can be added to the prayers of the people for weekend worship and in the daily prayers of our prayer team by contacting Parish Administrator, Karen Laroche. We typically keep people in the prayers for one month.

As we wrap up the program year, thank you to Paul Westrom, Liz Stack, Rachel Dugan, Terry Viera and Jason DeFalco for their dedication to Godly Play this spring.

They have revived a program for our youngest members.

Christian meditation continues on Saturdays from 4:00 - 4:45 p.m. in the lower level of the Parish House.

Join in this time to actively process and calm the mind to focus on, ponder, and apply God's Word or presence.

Summer is upon us, and that means students will be home from school.

As school break begins, please consider donating the following the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center food drive --

• canned protein (peanut butter, canned tuna / chicken / beef stew/pasta such as ravioli),
• jellies / jams,
• canned / dry beans,
• juice packs,
• shelf-stable milk,
• instant oatmeal packets/granola bars/
• and of course, cereal.

And if possible, make sure that the canned goods have pop-top openings.

So far this year, St. Mary's has provided 474 pounds of food to the MLKCC Food Pantry. Thanks to all who have left nourishing food in the Church and Parish House to support the pantry. And thank you to the church volunteers who take donations to the pantry.

If you have questions about this ministry, contact Jon Edwards.

Congratulation and best wishes to Immel Somarriba and his family.

Today Chief Hospital Corpsman (Fleet Marine Force/Surface Warfare) Immel F. Somarriba was honored at a retirement ceremony marking his completion of 22 years of dedicated service to the United States Navy.

The full details of Chief Somarriba's career are available online.

For all other types of communication:

Contact the Rector if you'd like it verbally announced at worship. 

Contact Parish Associate for Administration Karen Laroche to be included in writing in the weekly worship bulletin.

Image credits: Richard Grosvenor, Historic Church, watercolor, used with permission.

Stay Connected:

http://www.smcportsmouth.org/