A Note from Fr. Steven

Dear People of St. Paul's,

A couple of years ago, Ellen, Jack, my parents, and I visited the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. If you have not been, I commend it to you as a moving and powerful witness to not just the horrors of that day but the remarkable response of those who ran toward the chaos to help. It's a testament to the goodness of humanity and a memorial to lives ended all too soon because of hate and violence. The museum is filled with some truly powerful stories.

One such story is told in the handle of a squeegee. It seems that on the morning of September 11, 2001, Jan Demczur and five other men were ascending the One World Trade Center elevator when the car suddenly came to a halt and then started to rapidly descend as the tower was hit by the plane. Someone hit the emergency stop button but then, upon smelling smoke and yet unaware of what all was happening around them, the men knew they would need to find a way out. They pried open the doors and found themselves staring down what would later be discovered to be layers and layers of sheetrock. Fortunately, one person had a pocketknife, and they began to try to make a way out, only for that knife to fall from their hands and down the elevator shaft. Left to whatever tools were in the elevator, they started to use a squeegee blade, only for that to fall off, too. Eventually, the only tool left was the handle of the squeegee and, after 90 minutes seeking a way through, they finally made a hole in the sheetrock and found themselves under a sink in the men's restroom on the 50th floor. The men would get through the hole that they had made and make it out of the tower just minutes before it collapsed.

Today, I find myself pausing to remember that not everyone survived—2,996 people were killed in NYC, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, PA. I find myself pausing to remember with gratitude the incredible response from so, so many and the price they continue to pay with terrible illnesses that still affect those responders. I find myself pausing to remember the worst of humanity that inflicted that violence and the war that followed for many years after in the Middle East, and especially those who served in the armed forces in that time. I find myself in some degree of awe at the power of hate and fear to compel hearts to do the worst, if we let that fear convict us.

But, I also find myself filled with gratitude and awe at the powerful capacity of humanity for good. In the moments immediately following the planes crashing into those towers, in the face of faith-based (and utterly wrong) hate that sprang from these moments, and in the years and years to come, hundreds and thousands of people gave anything and everything they could to tell another story. It's a story that seeks to ground our relationships, not in fear and suspicion of difference and the other, but in a belief in the inherent goodness and dignity of each person. It's a story that says hate may seem to have the day, but love is the only force that will always win. It's a story that says we can make that good and that love come alive in how we live our lives and that our neighbor, just as ourselves, should be the primary recipient of such goodness and love—all of it a free and unending gift of God.

When I saw that squeegee handle on display in the museum, I was reminded that such a way of goodness and love always finds a way, even against all odds and even when it would never seem possible. And, it so often finds a way through unexpected, even ordinary people who commit with their whole lives to using whatever they have to chip away at the despair and darkness of our day to let God's light that will never fade in. I pray that, day by day, I might never lose sight of the power of a small bit of faith to do more than I can ever know when it is joined with God's unending grace and love. And, I pray that such a small bit of faith, using whatever I might give that day, will let God's light shine even just a bit brighter. I hope you—and our community—will continue to join me in these prayers and in this work.

Fr. Steven

This Sunday Morning

We begin at 9:00 AM with:

Bible Study | Garden Room | Readings

Nursery | Birth–5 Years | Walnut Room

Sunday School | Toddlers–5th Grade | Third Floor

And continue at 10:00 AM with:

Worship | Nave | O come, ye servants of the Lord - Christopher Tye

• Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Trenton

Children's Worship | Pre-School–2nd Grade | Walnut Room

Find out more about what's happening at St. Paul's on our website.

To view the Sunday worship bulletin and join us for online worship, click here.

Full calendar is available on our website.

Upcoming Events

Sep. 11: TGIFF | Readeys' Home | 5:30–7:30 PM | Info Below

Sep. 13 & 27: Book Group | 11:30 AM | Archive Room | Info Below

Sep. 13: Acolyte Training with PIZZA! | After Service | Info Below

Sep. 16: Youth Choir First Wednesday Rehearsal | 5:30 PM

Sep. 18: Cuartetos Guitarreros Concert | Ensemble Iberica | 7:00 PM | Nave | Info and Tickets

Sep. 20: Young Adult Group | River Market Meet Up | After Service | Info Below

Sep. 26: Oktoberfest | 5:00–9:00 PM | Info Below

Upcoming Services

Sep. 13: Holy Eucharist | Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost | 10 AM | Nave

Sep. 16: Midweek Eucharist | 12:10 PM | Chapel | Hildegard of Bingen, Mystic and Scholar

Sep. 20: Holy Eucharist | Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost | 10 AM | Nave

Sep. 23: Midweek Eucharist | 12:10 PM | Chapel | Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Announcements

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