Happy Christmas dear friends! I hope and pray that you all had wonderful times with your friends and family, and that there were shining moments in your worship both in Advent and in the Christmas season that is upon us.

One thing I've been reflecting on lately is change and grace. As I exit the Advent season and approach the Christmas season, I wonder if Mary really understood how much her life was about to change with the birth of Jesus but also how the world would change. And did Joseph ever truly imagine that what the angel told him could be true? That in fleeing his home, traveling, and having to rely on the hospitality of strangers, that this infant entrusted into his care would actually save the world?

Change can be so very difficult, and yet we are faced with change nearly every day. We make countless decisions in the course of just one day, and each decision changes something and impacts the next decision. And where is the grace in that? For me, change and grace hold hands together - I can't embrace change without giving myself the gift of grace to live into the change. Grace reminds me that all will be well, even if it doesn't feel like it right this minute.

Many of us are facing change in the context of our parish settings. I know that this is particularly difficult, in part because church might feel like the one constant, steady thing in a world that is moving and changing faster than we can keep up with. And, my friends, I want to remind you that we follow a God who shows love by changing the world. The One who sent us Emmanuel - God with us - to show that the Kingdom can not come unless we are willing to make change. The wind is shaking the reeds - can you hear it? The time is now.

Photo by Maggie Breen

In March of last year, I wrote an icon to be mounted over the credence table at St John’s, Vernon CT. The icon is called The Hospitality of Abraham ( ἠ φιλοξενία του Αβραάμ) or, alternatively, The Holy Trinity (ή Αγία Τριάς). It is based on the incident referred to in Genesis 18. 

According to Orthodox tradition, this event can be interpreted as a prefiguration of the Holy Trinity. The divine mystery which unfolds in the relationship between the three persons of the Godhead - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - was revealed to Abraham in the form of three visitors. In this way Abraham was given the privilege of seeing a living image of the Triune God. Man, who is created in the image of the Trinity, is thus a relational being, created with the ability to go beyond himself and love others. 

The icon depicts three winged and richly draped angels who sit at table. All turn towards three chalices which are placed in the middle, and they point towards these with their right hands. In their left hands they hold pastoral staffs. The central angel sits behind the table so that only the upper part of his body is visible, while the other two sit on thrones at either side. They rest their feet on a footstool. In addition to this central group of figures, we see a house, a tree and a mountain in the background. Wings, pastoral staffs and haloes indicate that Abraham's guests are heavenly beings. The angel to the left is traditionally identified as the Father. The central angel can be identified as the preexistent Christ because of the cross in the halo. The third angel would then represent the Holy Spirit.

Abraham is bringing wine and Sara is kneading bread to serve the guests. The Son points at the cup of wine, bends towards the Father and thus expresses his willingness to be incarnated and restore mankind. The meal which Abraham and Sarah prepared their guests foreshadows the sacrament of the Eucharist, and the table is the altar where the sacrifice of Christ is commemorated. Furthermore the event can be seen as an anticipation of the heavenly meal in the world to come. Historically understood the building behind the angel to the left is Abraham's house (or tent). The allegorical meaning of the house can be the body of Mary which contained God, the appearance of God's Kingdom through the Church, and the eternal dwellings Christ has in mind when he says: ' In my Father's house are many rooms ' (Jn 14, 2). Likewise the tree behind Christ can be the oak of Mamre, the tree of the holy cross, or the tree of life in paradise. The mountain behind the Holy Spirit can be associated with decisive mountaintop meetings between God and man both in the Old and the New Testaments (Sinai, Carmel, and Tabor).

Now, I like to tie these discussions in with a Saint’s day during the month. If you look in Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (formerly Lesser Feasts and Fasts ), on January 29 ^th you will find Andrei Rublev. This Saint’s feast day seems to be limited to the Orthodox and Episcopal calendars only (i.e., not on the Roman Catholic calendar). 

Andrei Rublev (Андре́ й Рублёв) was one of the finest late Medieval Old Masters of Russia, and probably her most famous iconographer, He is renowned for the Old Testament icon painting, shown to the left, known as the Holy Trinity (1411-25, tempera/wood, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). A pupil of Theophanes the Greek (c.1340-1410), Rublev assisted him with the decoration of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow and in the Cathedral of the Dormition at Vladimir.  

Rublev's Old Testament Holy Trinity (1411-25) (above, left) ranks as his masterpiece of religious art - indeed it must be one of the finest Russian religious paintings in existence. Basing it on an earlier icon painting called the Hospitality of Abraham , Rublev removed Abraham and Sarah from the scene, and through a subtle use of composition and symbolism changed the subject to focus on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. There is nothing naive or simplistic about their delicacy, nothing monotonous in the close resemblance between the angels. Their spirituality pervades the painting as they sit with their eyes mysteriously fixed on a world unknown to us, a world from which these creatures of the spirit, visiting earth for a mere instant, draw breath. 

Rublev's painting combines two important features: a sense of asceticism, and the harmony of Byzantine mannerism. And the figures in his paintings are invariably peaceful and calm. Perhaps for these reasons, his art came to be recognized as the epitome of religious orthodoxy and iconography. Another of Andrei’s icons was The Nativity. I show it to the right (above), just for comparison with last month’s article.

Article and icons provided by David Clarke, a member of St. John's, Vernon

January 2020:

01/03 - NE Region Men's Breakfast, Vernon Diner, 6:30AM

01/08 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

01/09 - TEC Carbon Tracker "How-To", St. John's, Vernon, 7PM

01/15 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

01/17 - Teen Youth Retreat @ Camp Washington, 6PM - click for tickets & details

01/22 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

01/28 - Evening With The Bishops: Northern Regions Parishes Without Clergy, The Commons, 6PM - click for details & registration

01/29 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

01/29 - RLT meeting with Racial Healing, Justice & Reonciliation MN, 6PM

February 2020:

02/04 - Last Green Valley & Beyond Conversation, St. Mark's, Storrs

02/05 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

02/06 - NE Region Leadership Team Meeting, The Commons, 5:30PM

02/07 - 02/09 - "Happening" A High School, youth lead, retreat @ Camp Washington!

02/09 - 2nd Sunday @ Camp, hosted by NE Region Missionary Maggie!, 4PM

02/12 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

02/19 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

02/26 - Community Coffee, St. Peter's, Hebron, 10AM

March 2020:

03/05 - NE Region Leadership Team Meeting, St. John's, Vernon, 6PM

03/07 - Companions In Mission Conference

You can reach Maggie Breen, NE Region Missionary, the following ways:

MAIL:

Maggie Breen, NE Region Missionary, St. John's Episcopal Church, 523 Hartford Turnpike, Vernon, CT 06066

PHONE: 203-639-3501 x154

EMAIL: [email protected]

From Occupare Faenum Farm:

Fleece Navidad & Merry Christmas To Ewe!

Photo by: Maggie Breen