St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church - Elizabeth, NJ

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  • Home
  • Welcome
    • History >
      • Historical Sizzle
    • I'm New
    • Let's Get Acquainted
    • Rev. Canon Andy J. Moore
    • Leadership
    • Mission
    • Habits of Grace: Prayer into Action
    • Bishop Curry Who is my Neighbor >
      • Bishop Curry
    • Make a Gift
    • Services
    • Gallery >
      • May 7 Covid-19 Testing
      • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala >
        • 25th Years of Priesthood Gala
        • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
      • Harvest Sunday
      • Sunday School Father's Day 19
      • Men's Club Community Flea Mkt
      • Community Christmas Party
      • Thankgiving Baskets
      • Celebration for High School Gradates
      • Homecoming 2018 >
        • Homecoming
      • Music in the Garden
      • Mother's Day 2018
      • Mother's Day 2018
      • Sunday School Youth Sunday
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Christmas Mass St. Elizabeth's
      • Christmas Eve Mass
      • Christmas Eve Mass
      • Christmas Eve Mass
      • Community Christmas Party
      • Frist Presbyterian
      • Feast of All Saints
      • Sanctuary Sunday 2017
      • International Food Festival
  • Get Involved
    • Sunday School >
      • Sunday School Lift Ev'ry Voice
      • Black History - MLK
      • Sunday School Black History
      • Sunday School Black History ii
      • Youth Ministry
    • ESL Cerificate of Achievement
    • Computer Literacy
    • Episcopal Church Women
    • Mens Club
    • Outreach
  • Hall Rental
  • Calendar
    • News & Events >
      • Bishop Curry Easter 2022
      • Bishop Chip Heart of The Matter
      • Bishop Curry Address the Nation 1/6
      • Bishop Curry Christmas Message
      • Christmas Poinsettias
      • Advent Worship Services
      • ECS Sunday - Bishop Chip
      • Bishop Chip COVID-19 Testing
  • Contact
  • Realm E-Giving Launch
  • Living Like Job
  • it's Friday....but Sunday Comin!!
  • Bishop Curry
  • Past Masses
    • Zoom Service Aug 23rd, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 16th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 9th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 2nd, 2020
  • Lenten Sermons 2021
  • Thanksgiving Basket Nov 22nd
  • New Page

Hard Ears Christians

3/2/2019

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Mark 9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them.

The celebration of the Transfiguration of Jesus seems both a fitting climax and a creative bridge into the season of Lent. For it climaxes the whole concept the revelation of the unique power and awesome presence of God embodied in the person of Jesus. Jesus is now fully revealed and established as the one whom all the prophets proclaimed would come and set God’s people free. Yet this freedom is not limited to political or socio/economic power; at it’s very heart it is about allowing the power of God to be present in our lives. The freedom to live out one’s fullness lies central to the eternal quest of each of us. I often wonder how the world would have been if the crime of slavery had not been committed.  I wonder how African peoples might have developed without chains around their feet (both literal and figurative) and how the rest of the world would see us without the blinding misconceptions developed because of the collective slave experience. 
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What would life be like if we are able to look at ourselves and experience the full freedom from the pains and chains of sin and brokenness?  What would life be like if we awake without the chains of fears, guilt and shame of our past, our present addictions and mental struggles? What if? Lent is a time in which we are called to invest in the joys  of self-discovery. For in so doing we would be able to witness the power of God at work within us. Jesus came to transform the world one soul at a time beginning with me. I have come that you may have life and have it in full abundance. (John 10:10) Or as St Paul shares “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2.

My friends one of the most difficult and sometimes frightening experiences can be spending time with ourselves. We run and hide from it because we are either ashamed or fearful of what we may discover. We fill our time with gadgets, social media and other forms of distractions as we seek to drown out the call from Jesus to come away with him for a little while. We enter or stay in some relationships because of the fear of what we may discover if we are alone. Come and find your true freedom. Sunday worship is a weekly invitation to come away with Jesus for self-discovery, an invitation many turn down using some very creative excuses. Many are not aware that worship at its very heart is a public conversation between you and your God. If we only trust God a bit more we would accept that the plans He has in store for us are for good, fulfillment and even abundance. “ For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.” Jer. 29:11

Christian friends I am discovering how valuable and important to know who and what has shaped us into who we are today. Many of us respond to situations in our lives sometimes not being fully aware of why we do what we do. We would say “I am not sure what I was thinking I just reacted”. Many of the things we cling to and struggle to gain are often outside our fullest understanding thus we find ourselves easily becoming passengers in our own story. Like Peter in Mark 9:6 “He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” The disciples were shouting out of fear because they did not fully understand the spiritual realm in which they were invited to participate by Jesus. Many a Sunday we are invited to participate in a similar experience but out of fear or misunderstanding we would respond inappropriately. We are afraid to let go and let God take control. We are afraid to put “our all on the altar”. Can you manage yourself better than the one who creates the sun and the moon and the stars? Can you manage yourself better than the one who keeps and sustains the universe? Humanity is still discovering the wonders of the creation. Humanity is discovering new things about how the human body functions. There was a time the common thought was that we only use 10% of our brain power. Now we are learning that is not true we actually use 100% of our brain and that it represents three percent of the body's weight and uses 20 percent of the body's energy. This knowledge comes only through study and discovery.

Can you imagine what the disciples conversation would have been if God did not shout at them over their fears and say be quiet and listen. They would of have only 10% of the fullest possible experience of the Transfiguration. “O Jesus wasted our time going up that mountain, we could be better off doing something else. I might be better of home sleeping. Why did he have to drag us all the way up there for some free show”. In other words, the normal human response to divine actions can be much greater if we are willing to listen to the voice of God. Thus, God had to gather them collectively and say will you just listen to Jesus. My friends never you dare put a period where God places a comma. Sometimes the struggles of life may be painful and even overwhelming at times. In life things fall apart, injustices seem to prevail, but the love of God is forever present. God makes a way where there is no way. Where we see ending God sees fresh starts and new beginnings. “And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Rev.21:5 is not an end of time promise but one for when we get to our end then God begins.

My friends, Jesus boldly declared in John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Or in Mark 7:14 He pleads “Listen to me all of you and understand this …”  In order to be a good follower of Jesus we must be willing to listen for and to his voice. This is not about us telling Jesus what we want to hear but allowing Him to shape our response to the world. We got called out of this world in order to save it. “ He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” (2Timothy 1:9) We are called out not just to save ourselves but for the purpose of God. 

The ultimate question one may ask is “What is the purpose for which God has saved you?” The response if you listen keenly may sound just like the one given to Elijah. It is for a time like this you have been saved. Now is the time where everyone is called to be seeking the ways of God in order to walk faithfully into his divine purpose. Now is the time for us to be gathering around to build this church for the honor and glory and works of God. Why did God place his breath in you? Why has God kept you alive when others have passed on? Why has God bought you here at this period in your life? What is God expecting of you? Why has God place your husband or wife in your life at this time? What is God hoping to do by entrusting these children to our care? Why has God bought you here to this church at this time? Look beyond the people, places and things, listen a bit more carefully, pray a bit more deeply, offer yourself more generously and you will discover the same truths that these are the questions that each of us must face and respond. The ultimate questions on the worth and value of our lives may not be how great you were as a parent, a worker, a server or a runner but how well were you as a listener to the voice of Jesus. The disciples could have missed it all if they were not willing to stop and listen to the voice of God. Are you willing to risk losing it all because of being hard ears? Tune in to the voice of God and see what wonders you discover about yourself.
 
 
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Living Well Though Lent

3/1/2019

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Mark 9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them.

The celebration of the Transfiguration of Jesus seems both a fitting climax and a creative bridge into the season of Lent. For it climaxes the whole concept the revelation of the unique power and awesome presence of God embodied in the person of Jesus. Jesus is now fully revealed and established as the one whom all the prophets proclaimed would come and set God’s people free. Yet this freedom is not limited to political or socio/economic power; at it’s very heart it is about allowing the power of God to be present in our lives. The freedom to live out one’s fullness lies central to the eternal quest of each of us. I often wonder how the world would have been if the crime of slavery had not been committed.  I wonder how African peoples might have developed without chains around their feet (both literal and figurative) and how the rest of the world would see us without the blinding misconceptions developed because of the collective slave experience.

What would life be like if we are able to look at ourselves and experience the full freedom from the pains and chains of sin and brokenness?  What would life be like if we awake without the chains of fears, guilt and shame of our past, our present addictions and mental struggles? What if? Lent is a time in which we would invest in that of self-discovery. For in so doing we would be able to witness the power of God at work within us. Jesus came to transform the world one soul at a time beginning with me. I have come that you may have life and have it in full abundance. (John 10:10) Or as St Paul shares “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2.

My friends one of the most difficult and sometimes frightening experiences can be spending time with ourselves. We run and hide from it because we are either ashamed or fearful of what we may discover. We fill our time with gadgets, social media and other forms of distractions as we seek to drown out the call from Jesus to come away with him for a little while. We enter or stay in some relationships because of the fear of what we may discover if we are alone. Come and find your true freedom. Sunday worship is a weekly invitation to come away with Jesus for self-discovery, an invitation many turn down using some very creative excuses. Many are not aware that worship at its very heart is a public conversation between you and your God.

Christian friends I am discovering how valuable and important to know who and what has shaped us into who we are today. Many of us respond to situations in our lives sometimes not being fully aware of why we do what we do. We would say “I am not sure what I was thinking I just reacted”. Many of the things we cling to and struggle to gain are often outside our fullest understanding thus we find ourselves easily becoming passengers in our own story. Like Peter in Mark 9:6 “He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” The disciples were shouting out of fear because they did not fully understand the spiritual realm in which they were invited to participate by Jesus. Many a Sunday we are invited to participate in a similar experience but out of fear or misunderstanding we would respond inappropriately. We are afraid to let go and let God take control. We are afraid to put “our all on the altar”. Can you manage yourself better than the one who creates the sun and the moon and the stars? Can you manage yourself better than the one who keeps and sustains the universe? Humanity is still discovering the wonders of the creation. Humanity is discovering new things about how the human body functions. There was a time the common thought was that we only use 10% of our brain power. Now we are learning that is not true we actually use 100% of our brain and that it represents three percent of the body's weight and uses 20 percent of the body's energy. This knowledge comes only through study and discovery.

Can you imagine what the disciples conversation would have been if God did not shout at them over their fears and say be quiet and listen. They would of have only 10% of the fullest possible experience of the Transfiguration. “O Jesus wasted our time going up that mountain, we could be better off doing something else. I might be better of home sleeping. Why did he have to drag us all the way up there for some free show”. In other words, the normal human response to divine actions can be much greater if we are willing to listen to the voice of God. Thus, God had to gather them collectively and say will you just listen to Jesus.

My friends, Jesus boldly declared in John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Or in Mark 7:14 He pleads “Listen to me all of you and understand this …”  In order to be a good follower of Jesus we must be willing to listen for and to his voice. This is not about us telling Jesus what we want to hear but allowing Him to shape our response to the world. We got called out of this world in order to save it. “ He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” (2Timothy 1:9) We are called out not just to save ourselves but for the purpose of God.

The ultimate question one may ask is “What is the purpose for which God has saved you?” The response if you listen keenly may sound just like the one given to Elijah. It is for a time like this you have been saved. Now is the time where everyone is called to be seeking the ways of God in order to walk faithfully into his divine purpose. Now is the time for us to be gathering around to build this church for the honor and glory and works of God. Why did God place his breath in you? Why has God kept you alive when others have passed on? Why has God bought you here at this period in your life? What is God expecting of you? Why has God place your husband or wife in your life at this time? What is God hoping to do by entrusting these children to our care? Why has God bought you here to this church at this time? Look beyond the people, places and things, listen a bit more carefully, pray a bit more deeply, offer yourself more generously and you will discover the same truths that these are the questions that each of us must face and respond. The ultimate questions on the worth and value of our lives may not be how great you were as a parent, a worker, a server or a runner but how well were you as a listener to the voice of Jesus. The disciples could have missed it all if they were not willing to stop and listen to the voice of God. Are you willing to risk losing it all because of being hard ears? Tune in to the voice of God and see what wonders you discover about yourself.
 
 
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Black History

3/1/2019

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Good Afternoon.  I would like to thank Karen Moore who has been a dear friend to me and my family.  I have been invited back to beautiful Grace Church to share in your Black History Month Observations, and for this I am indeed both humbled and grateful. The challenge I received, as best as I understand it, is to share with you the development of my consciousness or awareness of the injustices suffered by Black peoples and the continued disparities and discomforts in which we continue to live.  I have also been asked to explain how I have applied this awareness to my life in the United States and my life as a priest. Initially, let me share that much of these thoughts have been crystallized over time and experiences and shaped within the crucible of my time dwelling and working in Brooklyn, Queens, New York City, Port Elizabeth, Newark, Elizabeth and Springfield N.J.  I have been blessed by many who have actively shared as mentors and friends who assisted greatly in my wrestling with what at times may seem to be much larger struggles than I initially assumed. Shirley Hollie-Davis presently pursuing her Doctorate of Letters at Drew University is an African American by birth and is presently writing a crime novel with a Caribbean flavor, and Canon Leroy Lyons, who is no stranger to this community having spent 40 years as a priest in Plainfield and is originally from Tobago, my home island, have both provided support and guidance in the shaping of my consciousness.

My brothers, sister and I were raised in a loving home and in a close community with an extended church family.  Fealty to family, community, church and to God was always expected.  Living in Tobago, our interaction with a white community was tangential and sporadic.  We have a running joke about this half -white man who so wanted to be viewed among the few would often times ask and answer his own question “How many white people are there in Tobago?  Just a few of us.  Just a few of us!” was the answer to the joke.  As Black children, we learned and were confident in our worth, our intelligence, our beauty.  We were the first children of our nation’s independence, so our lives at that time were infused with our cultures and our histories.  You could see this confidence as people walked down the streets proud of their bodies and taste the excitement in our food.   We understood the weight and destructiveness of slavery, but we saw Black men and women involved in ​making and enforcing laws, teaching and preaching the gospel. Most importantly for us is the fact that we owned property. The boast of a Tobagonian is to be a landowner.  Ownership brought independence, wealth and self-value.  We seemed to be safe from the open-ended bigotry that pervaded our lives, but when faced with this bigotry or hatred, we were armed with the truth of all we had learned about ourselves.  This self-knowledge is invaluable to any successful struggle against hate.  It is not only important to know people are created equally by God, it is important to know the contributions of all people in developing God’s world.  This awareness is what my parents and by extension Tobago gave to me and my siblings.  It is what I brought to the United States and what I bring to my pulpit each Sunday. I must confess that I find it extremely difficult to preach about universal suffering as part of the centricity of cross bearing expected of us as Christians when the burden of the cross seem to lie heavier on some than others.
            
          I have been a parent for eight years.  Parenting is struggle, but it is a job I think I’m pretty good at.  I hope I am giving my children all of the things, thoughts and ideas my father gave to me.  And, I have learned that you cannot appreciate all the things your own parents do or have done for you, until you become a parent yourself; you can only pray you do half as good a job as they did for you.  Every day my wife and I drop our children off on the curb of a dangerous, white world, and we ask ourselves, “Have we done enough?”  This world is dangerous because of the insidious nature of the new racism developing in the United States.  It gnaws at children’s self-esteem and creativity.  It provides only half or partial truths.  Winston Churchill is believed to have said, “History is written by the victors.”  If the white man believes he is victorious over all of us, can we trust his view and understanding of history?  Can we trust he believes children, our children, should be nurtured, loved, allowed to develop pride in themselves and in their community?  Can we trust that his armed police forces will not be waiting for our sons on lonely, dark roads in the middle of the night?  Have we done enough?  Have we all done enough to combat this terror we and our children face each day?  Freedom for us has always been dangerous.  Freedom for us has been a crime as far back as our oldest memories.  In short, life for the descendants of the African slaves (for us and our children) is dangerous.  At an early age my American son began to pine for a land he has only visited, but with which he has attached the concept of freedom.  He has received a promise from us to remain in America until age seventeen then he can go home to Barbados.

While all African Americans know the background of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, not many American Blacks know the West Indian backgrounds of civil-rights era activists like Stokely Carmichael, born in Trinidad and was a server in the local Anglican Church. During his most formative years, his parish was led by one of the most Afro-conscious priests in our diocese. One may never know how much that impacted upon his life.  Many do not know that Malcom X’s mother was born in Grenada, or that Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica.  Each one of these activists understood and advocated for political and economic equality and knew these components were necessary for African Americans to take their rightful place in American society.  They also knew the danger presented in changing the status quo of this established white society.   Stokely Carmichael stated, this change in the status quo would mean for those who were oppressing Africans the loss of a lot of economic benefits and profits and political power. Consequently, white society would have to struggle for their very economic life to ensure that there were no changes in their political status quo. These activists, whether raised in Omaha or Brooklyn, were brought up much like I was in a Caribbean home where truth and hard work were important ideas instilled at an early age.  There is strength in knowledge, in money and in political independence. The most valuable tool given was a joyous and emancipatory understanding of freedom and self-worth.

I always thought it odd that first generation Caribbean immigrants felt superior to their African American brothers and sisters. They may state that “Children from the Caribbean went to better primary schools, didn’t skip classes, had parents who taught them manners, and had more respect for authority and their elders. West Indians are willing to work hard, and African Americans are lazy.  More than anything, Caribbean people can’t stand being mistaken for a black American”.  The beliefs in these differences, I believe, became part of the epic struggle between Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois in the early twentieth century.

It has been one of my joys to be a priest for a congregation of mixed Caribbean and African Americans and I have come to look for the similarities, not the differences, in people.  By the second generation many black immigrants find they have become black Americans. The clipped cadences and other linguistic markers that once identified our parents as foreign have faded.  Another key factor, I suspect, is the lack of land ownership in the United States. Caribbean  families may have had property back in the islands, but here they are growing up with no heritage of wealth to leave for their children.  My friends, despite origins, we are in this fight together; our truths, histories and cultures are mingled.  We are one being oppressed by one white thumb.

During my assimilation process, I had to abandon many of the vestiges of being a “proper Caribbean man’” to eventually assume my place a black man in America. Many would seek to escape by regular ‘home’ visits or in the maintenance of fleeting reminders of a Caribbean culture.  But as we struggle to guide our children through risky pathways, it takes a toll on us mentally and physically.  Soon we begin to fall apart as the scourge of mental illness wreaks havoc in our communities and life-styles diseases debilitate us as we struggle with the dichotomy of who we are and what we are required to be in order to survive. Many who have not experienced the rigors of assimilation never fully understand that it can be a part of a process to break your spirit, your mind and your very being in order to become ‘just another black person’. As I sought to piece together the fragments which are now held together by a deep faith in God, a passionate love for my family and a spirit driven for equity for all Black people. Yet, there are yawing gaps that cry out for fulfillment whether it be for a time past or hopes invested in your children. Sadly, unlike others we do not have the freedom of time to reflect or repent for it seems we are always on the run. My friends, if I may say the most startling difference for me between life then to now is how much running has to be done in order to survive. At times you long for rest to the point of surrendering. The same trait that Afro-Caribbean folks would condemn in their African American brothers eventually comes home in our children as the oppressive weight of discrimination takes its toll. They run from our churches, our teachings, our practices and our cultures. The only place they don’t run from is our homes, their only safe space.

 My friends, every day we struggle to achieve independence for ourselves and our families.  In our own way, we each step out onto the curb of bigotry.  What do we carry with us?  As a priest, it is important for me to keep my parishioners and church independent from institutions that would dictate how monies are spent, how we worship and how we interact with our community.  This is a struggle; a struggle against centuries old prejudices and irrelevant ideas.   It is a struggle against the belief that Jesus was a victim and not a proactive agent of God.  His death is the declaration of a rebellion against those who would take the political and economic powers and independence from the people.  His life and his sacrifice are declarations that life should be lived without fear and death has no sway over those who believe in freedom.  These are some of the ideas and beliefs we should carry as we step out onto that curb each day. 

We deserve good jobs, we deserve good schools, we have a right to vote for our beliefs and for our freedoms, we have the right to be proud of our collective cultures and histories.  As a young boy growing up, I would often times see ships sailing beyond the horizon and would often wonder what lies beyond the horizon. I truly believe I was being shaped and sustained in order to join the struggle for freedom for all of God’s people. God bought me to this land for a purpose and a cause.  
 
This is what I believed as a young man from Tobago and what I believe as an older man, a husband and a father.  There is much work to do for our communities and we need to work together for success.  My friends, know yourselves and believe in yourselves as you believe in our Jesus.  In those certain beliefs, you will find success and victory. 
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I often wonder how the world would have been if the crime of slavery had not been committed.  I wonder how African peoples might have developed without chains around their feet (both literal and figurative) and how the rest of the world would see us without the blinding misconceptions developed because of the collective slave experience.   Ghosts of the slave experience still insidiously determine how people of African descent are viewed, how they interact with one another as a people and how they interact with society as a whole.  The lopsided implementation of justice and the violence in deed and in thought are what continues to stand between those who wish to look at diversity as a gift and those who still harbor centuries-old animosities. The ultimate dream of mine is to assimilate into this American society like any other immigrant.  The Irish, Jews, Russians and Italians faced adversity, but were able to assimilate and become part of the oppression for one reason and one reason only, the whiteness of their skin.  How do one define freedom when one can only look skin deep?   How can one see freedom beyond the depth of one’s skin?  It is our goal, as one people, to provide our children with the necessary tools to support their quest for equality; It is our goal, as one people, to initiate and participate in a conversation that can provide all Americans with the information needed to move this Nation forward from a level of prejudice and fear to a level of equality.   We, as one people, need to create the level playing field through political activism, through education, through protest and through living a Christ-centered life knowing all God’s children are free, equal and loved.         
 
 
  



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    Rev. Canon, Andy Moore 

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St Elizabeth’s
305 N. Broad Street
Elizabeth, New Jersey 07207

Weekend Service Times
Sunday: 8:00am, 10:00am
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