Pentecost/Whitsunday

Wendy Turgeon has volunteered to "update" :-) our parish Directory. Below is a link to the form, which will also be available at the church. Wendy will be available after the 8 and 10 for the next few Sundays to take photos for the Directory. (Any volunteer(s) to take the "10AM" photos in her stead?) If you live out of town and consider yourself a member of our community, please fill it out and send it in. Photos can be e-mailed, if you wish to the parish office, with your form.

Parish Directory Form

View as Webpage

Pentecost from "An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,"

The term means "the fiftieth day." It is used in both the OT and the NT. In the OT it refers to a feast of seven weeks known as the Feast of Weeks. It was apparently an agricultural event that focused on the harvesting of first fruits. Josephus referred to Pentecost as the fiftieth day after the first day of Passover. The term is used in the NT to refer to the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1), shortly after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. Christians came to understand the meaning of Pentecost in terms of the gift of the Spirit. The Pentecost event was the fulfillment of a promise which Jesus gave concerning the return of the Holy Spirit. The speaking in tongues, which was a major effect of having received the Spirit, is interpreted by some to symbolize the church's worldwide preaching. In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is now the seventh Sunday after Easter. It emphasizes that the church is understood as the body of Christ which is drawn together and given life by the Holy Spirit. Some understand Pentecost to be the origin and sending out of the church into the world.

The Day of Pentecost is one of the seven principal feasts of the church year in the Episcopal Church (BCP, p. 15). The Day of Pentecost is identified by the BCP as one of the feasts that is "especially appropriate" for baptism (p. 312). Its appropriate. then that at our 10:00 AM Eucharist this Pentecost we'll be baptizing little Florence Frances Brigham.

The liturgical color for the feast is red. Pentecost has also been known as Whitsun or Whitsunday, a corruption of "White Sunday." This term reflects the custom by which those who were baptized at the Vigil of Pentecost would wear their white baptismal garments to church on the Day of Pentecost. The BCP provides directions for observance of a Vigil of Pentecost, which begins with the Service of Light (p. 227). The Hymnal 1982 provides a variety of hymns for Pentecost (Hymns 223-230) and the Holy Spirit (Hymns 500-516).

+Our Pentecost "Flames and Winds" Frontal

Whenever our red silk frontal is placed on the altar there are always questions about it. Therefore I thought this Pentecost would be a good time to answer.

First, something about the donor. Sr. Joy Wright has been an active member of our diocese for many years. After graduating with a degree in music, she spent several years as a missioner in Australia. Upon her return, she tried her vocation with the Sisters of the Nativity, an Episcopal Order which at that time had a school and convent in Bayshore. When she left the community she remained in our diocese and served several congregations as an organist and lay minister. When St. Lawrence of Canterbury called the first female rector in our diocese, Mother Hope Koski, Sr. Joy went to serve with her as organist and lay minister. Upon Mother Hope's retirement, Sr. Joy served as an interim lay minister, leading bible studies, playing the organ and assisting the supply clergy. After my appointment as Vicar, Sr. Joy stayed on for a time but decided she wanted to concentrate on adult education and teaching and began work in St Peter's Bayshore and Messiah in Great River. Before she left St. Lawrence she took vows as a "Diocesan religious" and once more became Sr. Joy. She has suffered a massive stroke and now lives in a care facility in Huntington.She is on our prayer list.ist.

Sr. Joy donated this frontal and matching vestment to St. Lawrence of Canterbury. When the decision was made by the parishioners and diocese to close St. Lawrence, Sr. Joy asked me to take the frontal with me to St. Mary. Sr. Joy also gave us the beautiful purple and silver silk frontal and vestments we use at Lent.

Now, something about the artist. Juliet Hemmingray is perhaps the best known liturgical innovator and textile artist in the Anglican communion. Residing in England, (where our frontal was made), she has designed vestments and frontals for the Archbishops of Canterbury and many cathedrals and major churches. Below is a picture of a frontal like ours in Grace Cathedral San Francisco. (Though they have placed another white layer on top for a feast day

El Greco

The Collect

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Lesson

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

`In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below,

blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

The sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood,

before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "

The Second Lesson

Romans 8:14-17

All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Christ sending out the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City.

Fr. Plant's Commentary on the Gospel

Rev'd Up from St Mark's New Canaan CT; with the Bishop of Connecticut for the Feast

The Gospel

John 14:8-17 (25-27)

Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."

I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Commentary

As a brief commentary, these lines by poet Jessica Powers on today’s feast of Pentecost:

That was the day when Fire came down from heaven,

inaugurating the first spring of love.

Blood melted in the frozen veins, and even

the least bird sang in the mind’s inmost grove.

The Dove Descending

The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror

Of which the tongues declare

The one discharge from sin and error.

The only hope, or else despair

Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-

To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.

Love is the unfamiliar Name

Behind the hands that wove

The intolerable shirt of flame

Which human power cannot remove.

We only live, only suspire

Consumed by either fire or fire.

-T.S.Eliot 1888-1956

from Little Gidding, Four Quartets

The Jewish day of Pentecost celebrated the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. The story in the book of Exodus of the giving of the law is marked by characteristic Baal imagery: God appears on top of a mountain, with thunder, lightning, cloud, and earthquake. Exodus 19:19 says that when Moses talked to God, "God would answer him in thunder." So in Acts 2 God arrives in "a sound like the rush of a violent wind," and fire appears, not on the top of a holy mountain, but on the top of each believer’s head.

–Gail Ramshaw

Treasures Old and New: Images in the Lectionary p.423

Now an angel of the Lord appeared to

Moses in a blazing fire –

a fire that devours fire;

a fire that burns in things dry and moist;

a fire that glows amid snow and ice;

a fire that is like a crouching lion;

a fire that reveals itself in many forms;

a fire that is, and never expires;

a fire that shines and roars;

a fire that blazes and sparkles;