Torrence's Weekly Message
“Memories Re-Called”
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As we were in the kitchen at St. John’s yesterday afternoon assembling dinner for the residents of “The Haven” one of you mentioned an upcoming visit with friends at Virginia Beach. Well, that really opened the doorway to my memory last night as I found myself wandering back in time with scenes from my beach times. Not detached as if watching a movie on a screen, but intimately as if re-playing myself in the scenes as the movie reel is running and any action is “a work in progress.” The Atlantic Ocean, especially that stretch of ocean from the north end of Virginia Beach to the southernmost tip of Sandbridge, is “my” beach. The one that particularly occupies my heart and mind memory bank. Though I have memories of Myrtle Beach from long ago and more recent ones from North Carolina’s outer banks, my most treasured “reels” flow out of my experiences that stretch along that narrow Virginia strip. Where the sand feels so familiar in an ancient and abiding way, where the sun’s rays bathe my body as if anointing me and where the dome of a night sky sprinkled with stars arches over my heart-huddled form, amazing and yet comforting me within heaven’s vast intimacy.
I’ve talked before about the experience of “dropping into my heart space” and it happened again for me last night with what seemed at first as a re-run of old scenes. But it was more than that. I was “there” and “here” at the same time, not just as a character moving along in a long ago set-in-time-and-space pattern of action on a movie reel, but as the real me in present time experiencing myself anew. The remembered sand between my toes, the salty ocean wave I rode body surfing towards the beach, the musical notes of my children’s laughter weaving in and out of the sounds of crashing waves and cries of wheeling gulls, it was all so real to me again. It was if I were in this very present dimension of time and space, yet one that was encompassed by some other larger dimension that collapsed the distance of years into a present presence.
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As my heart held my mind memories in the warmth of sunlight and starlight remembered from a thousand, thousand moments of time along that tiny stretch of vast ocean sliding over a sandy strip of land, I tasted the salt of tears gently bathing my eyes. Time collapsed and I fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. Were they tears of sadness or tears of joy? Both, I know. But held within an immense sense of gratitude and thankfulness for this mind and heart combination gifted to each of us from our beginning. Combining, from time to time, to offer not just a dark hole to slip through into a more vast star studded universe, but a doorway to draw us across a threshold to the next small step towards continuing life. In my evening of recollection (re-collection) I am thankful for this mind of mine that sifted through a storehouse of memories, both starkly real and richly colored, and this heart of mine that received what was offered, sifted through it all, restored and refreshed what it found, then offered it all to me in a way that would gift my way forward.
I woke to a beautiful morning, stood river-side and let this Rappahannock River flow through my heart and mind. This river, moved by wind and deep currents, journeys towards the bay, then the ocean. In this heart space of mine re-crafted, re-arranged last night, I know in an absolutely real way that my journey, wind weathered, also continues along deep currents.
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As can only happen when we stand in such expanded time and space, my eyes fell on a piece of paper I had recently pulled out of some files I was sifting through last week. The paper includes a picture of geese flying through a morning sky in their “V” formation and some poems I had pasted under the picture a few years ago for a fall retreat I was leading on the theme “Callings & Yearnings” for members of a Maryland Church that was in transition. The first one about the geese I wrote in my thirties but revisit each fall. The second is one by a retired Methodist pastor and fierce poet named Ted Loder from his book
Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle.
I offer them here for whatever re-membering and re-collecting may be happening in your life as our season turns to fall.
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picture courtesy of Pinterest. No copywrite infringement intended
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‘The Calling”
The geese flying south, wing over wing,
are so sure of the way they are to go.
I wish I were.
Is there a whisper, quiet, certain, deep inside
that will send me north or south
as my seasons turn?
The geese do not plan their course.
They seem to feel a stirring from within,
then turn as one, begin their journey.
I watch them, strain to hear the calling,
yearning to know my way
like the geese.
Torrence
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A Portion of a Prayer Poem
by Ted Loder
O ingenious God
I rejoice in your creation
and pray that your Spirit touch me so deeply
that I will find a sense of self
which makes me glad to be who I am
and yet restless
at being anything less
than I can become.
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October's
"Chesapeake Style"
Torrence has a monthly column, usually on page 7, entitled, "If Churches Could Talk."
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Flower Arranging 101
10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 28
th
at St. Mary's Whitechapel
The class is free but
registration is needed.
You may sign up by calling our office at 804-462-5908.
All are welcome!
St. Mary's Whitechapel
5940 White Chapel Road
Lancaster, VA
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Food Basket.
Don't forget to bring a donation for the Food Basket each week between now and Christmas.
HELP!
We need 2 people to sign up to deliver
Meals on Wheels
on October 15
th
and one additional person on October 29
th
. Please notify the church office {(804) 333-4333} or E-mail {reply to this or send to [email protected]}
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Through a Celtic Lens: An Invitation for
Sunday evening, Oct. 21
st
Grace (Kilmarnock) offers a Celtic Evening Service once a month during their "program" year. I attend it on a regular basis and have experienced it as very rich. I have pondered the idea of Farnham & St. John's offering a Celtic service occasionally for our area of the Northern Neck, but would like to get parishioner input and thoughts about doing so. So I invite you to join me for the Sunday Oct. 21
st
service at 5:30 p.m. at Grace and then (on your way home) join me at my home for Sunday supper.
Please
RSVP by Wednesday, Oct. 17
th
so I can appropriately prepare. And I promote "carpooling" for this evening.
Torrence
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Sign up for
Journey through the Bible.
The first class is next Tuesday,
October 2
nd
.
Call {(804) 436-7591} or E-mail Torrence {[email protected]}. Supper provided at 5:30~ class starts at 6:15.
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Bag Lunch & Conversation
(B,L & C)
is returning on
October 4
th
at noon. Bring or send to the office a copy of a news article. Our goal is to consider and develop a specific way/process for reading the news with the idea of "How the issue is working in me and where/how God might be at work in the issue?"
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Get ready for the return of
1
st
Friday: Supper & A Show
Fall Theme:
A Study in Leadership
beginning at 5:30 p.m. on the 1
st
Friday of the month with a potluck supper and the movie beginning at 6:00 p.m. We'll begin on
October 5
th
with
"Churchill"
a 2017 historical war drama film about the actions of Winston Churchill in the hours leading up to D-Day. The movie was criticized by some Churchill historians as erring in some of the ways the script portrays Churchill, however, the film offers an excellent opportunity to examine our leadership theme.
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Items needed for
local mission trip to Haiti:
Advil (children & adult)
Tylenol (children & adult)
Benadryl (children & adult)
Aspirin
Tums
Benadryl cream
Anti-fungal cream
Neosporin cream
Cough Drops
Multi-vitamins
(child & adult)
Immodium AD
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From Sept. 26
th
World Peace Service
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Spencer & Beane
Friday, October 26, 2018
7:00 p.m. Farnham
Episcopal Church
The concert is free of charge
(donations appreciated at the door).
sponsored by Cople Parish, and Farnham & St. John's Episcopal Churches.
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Sunday September 30
th
Morning Prayer
&
the Blessing of the Animals
10:00 a.m. at Farnham
a "Come as You Are" Sunday
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Sunday October 7
th
Holy Eucharist
9:00 a.m. at
Farnham
11:00 a.m. at
St. John's
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Sunday October 14
th
9:00 a.m.
at Farnham
Morning Prayer
11:00 a.m.
at St. John's
Holy Eucharist
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Sunday October 21
st
Holy Eucharist
9:00 a.m. at Farnham
11:00 a.m.
at St. John's
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Come Worship With Us
Sunday Service this week
10:00 a.m. Farnham Church, Farnham
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