St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church - Elizabeth, NJ
8:00 AM In Person Low Mass/ Liturgy of The Eucharist - 10:00AM Service Via Zoom
  • 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
    • Sunday Service Aug 30th 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 23rd, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 16th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 9th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 2nd, 2020
    • Gallery >
      • 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
    • Moments in Black History 2019
    • Black History - MLK
    • Sunday School Black History
    • Sunday School Black History ii
    • Youth Ministry
    • ESL Fall 19 Classes
    • ESL Cerificate of Achievement
    • Computer Literacy
    • Episcopal Church Women
    • Mens Club
    • Outreach
  • Hall Rental
  • Calendar
    • News & Events >
      • Free Testing for COVID-19
      • Robin Pierre DCN
      • Pastoral Letter April 24th
      • Holy Week Schedule
      • Church Services Suspended
      • Reading Lent4 - Mar 22nd
      • Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing Challenge
      • Absalom Jones Service Sunday 2/16
      • Brad Kleiman in Concert
      • Annual General Meeing
      • Christmas Service
      • Cathedral Day 2019
      • Bern Nix Jazz Festival
      • All Saints Sunday, 3rd, November
      • Sight & Sound 2019
      • Int'l Food Festival July 13th
      • UMHA - Workshop Canceled 6/15
      • Prayer Breakfast Mar 16th
      • MLK Day of Service
      • UMHA - Sunday Dec 16th
      • New Year Eve Service
      • Christmas Celebration Fun Night
      • ECW Trip to Lancaster PA
      • Homecoming 2018
      • Music In the Garden
      • Saxophone Recital
      • Elizabeth Homeless Coalition
      • From Your Door to Heaven's Door
      • Urban Garden
      • Black History Events
  • Contact
  • Realm E-Giving Launch
  • Harvest Baskets Giveaways
  • Rector's Harvest Message
  • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
    • 25th Years of Priesthood Gala
  • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
  • Sunday May 5th
  • Lent 2019
  • Living Like Job
  • Operation Warm Heart
  • 9th Annual Food Festival
  • it's Friday....but Sunday Comin!!
  • Bishop Curry
  • Poor People's Campaign
  • Zoom Sunday Service Oct 4th
  • Stewardship Sunday 10/18/2020
  • Jobs
  • 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
    • Sunday Service Aug 30th 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 23rd, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 16th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 9th, 2020
    • Zoom Service Aug 2nd, 2020
    • Gallery >
      • 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
    • Moments in Black History 2019
    • Black History - MLK
    • Sunday School Black History
    • Sunday School Black History ii
    • Youth Ministry
    • ESL Fall 19 Classes
    • ESL Cerificate of Achievement
    • Computer Literacy
    • Episcopal Church Women
    • Mens Club
    • Outreach
  • Hall Rental
  • Calendar
    • News & Events >
      • Free Testing for COVID-19
      • Robin Pierre DCN
      • Pastoral Letter April 24th
      • Holy Week Schedule
      • Church Services Suspended
      • Reading Lent4 - Mar 22nd
      • Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing Challenge
      • Absalom Jones Service Sunday 2/16
      • Brad Kleiman in Concert
      • Annual General Meeing
      • Christmas Service
      • Cathedral Day 2019
      • Bern Nix Jazz Festival
      • All Saints Sunday, 3rd, November
      • Sight & Sound 2019
      • Int'l Food Festival July 13th
      • UMHA - Workshop Canceled 6/15
      • Prayer Breakfast Mar 16th
      • MLK Day of Service
      • UMHA - Sunday Dec 16th
      • New Year Eve Service
      • Christmas Celebration Fun Night
      • ECW Trip to Lancaster PA
      • Homecoming 2018
      • Music In the Garden
      • Saxophone Recital
      • Elizabeth Homeless Coalition
      • From Your Door to Heaven's Door
      • Urban Garden
      • Black History Events
  • Contact
  • Realm E-Giving Launch
  • Harvest Baskets Giveaways
  • Rector's Harvest Message
  • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
    • 25th Years of Priesthood Gala
  • 25 Years of Priesthood Gala
  • Sunday May 5th
  • Lent 2019
  • Living Like Job
  • Operation Warm Heart
  • 9th Annual Food Festival
  • it's Friday....but Sunday Comin!!
  • Bishop Curry
  • Poor People's Campaign
  • Zoom Sunday Service Oct 4th
  • Stewardship Sunday 10/18/2020
  • Jobs

"Revenge" Palestinian Poem by Taha Muhammad Ali

6/26/2019

0 Comments

 
“Revenge” by Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali (translated by Peter Cole, Yahya
Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin)
At times ... I wish
I could meet in a duel
the man who killed my father
and razed our home,
expelling me
into
a narrow country.
And if he killed me,
I’d rest at last,
and if I were ready--
I would take my revenge!
*
But if it came to light,
when my rival appeared,
that he had a mother
waiting for him,
or a father who’d put
his right hand over
the heart’s place in his chest
whenever his son was late
even by just a quarter-hour
for a meeting they’d set--
then I would not kill him,
even if I could.
*
Likewise ... I
would not murder him
if it were soon made clear
that he had a brother or sisters
who loved him and constantly longed to see him.
Or if he had a wife to greet him
and children who
couldn’t bear his absence
and whom his gifts would thrill.
Or if he had
friends or companions,
neighbors he knew
or allies from prison
or a hospital room,
or classmates from his school …
asking about him
and sending him regards.
*
But if he turned
out to be on his own--
cut off like a branch from a tree--
without a mother or father,
with neither a brother nor sister,
wifeless, without a child,
and without kin or neighbors or friends,
colleagues or companions,
then I’d add not a thing to his pain
within that aloneness--
not the torment of death,
and not the sorrow of passing away.
Instead I’d be content
to ignore him when I passed him by
on the street—as I
convinced myself
that paying him no attention
in itself was a kind of revenge.
Nazareth
April 15, 2006


Read More
0 Comments

Forgiveness as a Platform to Freedom

6/26/2019

0 Comments

 
1Kings 19:11& 12
The Lord said, “Go out. Stand on the mountain in front of me. I am going to pass by.” As the Lord approached, a very powerful wind tore the mountains apart. It broke up the rocks. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake.  After the earthquake a fire came. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. And after the fire there was only a gentle whisper.

Today, I wish to explore the need for creating space in which one can explore their faith. By faith I mean that ongoing struggle to share and participate in the search to find meaning and purpose in a fragmented life.  Faith, I believe, provides us both with the platform and the tools to maneuver through the challenges of life and yet proclaim God’s active presence within us. In other words, how can we claim God’s presence in the midst of all things which seek to declare either its’s absence or powerlessness.

My friends this is the space in which the prophet Elijah found himself after fleeing from the wrath of Queen Jezebel.  How dare he in the name of God stand up to the oppressor? How dare he declare that God is greater than any oppressive force? In fear of death, he fled to the hills and considered many ways to escape even that of suicide. My friends, if one is to combine this story with that of Jesus and the mentally ill man in the gospel story (Luke 8:26-39) there is much that reflects the ongoing struggles within our urban communities as we seek to find ways to maneuver through systematic oppression. 

This week during the commemoration of Juneteenth, I attended a viewing of the movie ‘Emanuel’ on the fourth anniversary of the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. This movie focused upon the act of forgiveness by some of the family members of those who died at the hands of a racist perpetrator. Many members of these families and parishioners of Emanuel immediately forgave the killer.  “How can one forgive so quickly?”, was the main question being asked by this film.  How can one forgive even when the killer is yet to acknowledge the pain and brokenness caused by his own actions? Can I forgive even when there is no remorse shown by the one who has destroyed lives? The response of the victims was simply, “they forgave because of their unwavering faith in a Jesus, who forgives unconditionally”.

The narrator centered the conversation around the centrality of forgiveness in our Christian faith. Christianity, he declares is the only religion in which the central figure is tortured and killed and yet offers forgiveness rather than condemnation or revenge.

My friends, what Elijah and all the prophets discovered, experienced and declared was not just the miraculous power of God but the greatness of God. God cannot be limited to human space, time or a human agenda; even to human feelings.  Because, in spite what humans declare or believe, God has never supported or never invested in any work of oppression of humanity or any part of His creation.  It is just the very opposite.  Whether it is a broken spirited prophet, a nation of people or a mentally ill individual, God who sustains the universe is able to enter into the human spirit as we struggle allowing us to declare freedom.

Jesus’ forgiveness is the gift and the tool through which one can maneuver ways to find freedom.  Freedom begins by first freeing one’s soul thereby creating the space within which one can freely seek out life’s other needs and desires.  Forgiveness for Jesus was not a comforting device but a platform upon which one can now launch into fulfilling our God-given destiny. The divine mystery of forgiveness is that it is both the goal and the tool to achieve the prize. Each of the biblical passages used today ends with a command “to go”!  

As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the “exact representation of God” (Hebrews 1:1-3), Jesus “only does what (He) sees God doing, because whatever God does, the Son also does,” (John 5:19), and “if we want to know what the Father is like, we just need to look at Jesus” (John 14). Jesus is constantly offering forgiveness as a pathway to freedom.  Because once you are free from the chains of hatred, then your act of revenge takes a different shape and form. “This means that blacks are free to do what they have to in order to affirm their humanity”. (James Cone) Our ancestors arrivals on plantations were forced to utilize all available tools in order to negotiate space within which they could hold their fragmented lives together. This remains a necessary skill in order to maneuver through every aspect of our lives including our church.

My act of forgiveness means I am not trapped in a cycle of pain and hatred, and I have the ability and strength to maneuver beyond the boundaries and limitations set by the sins and aggressions of others. The prophetic call which God challenged Elijah to recover and act in His name is the same call the faithful are continually challenged to do.  The prophetic work of declaring forgiveness gives us freedom even in the midst of pain and brokenness is the way for healing and restoration.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ― James Baldwin Forgiveness brings us face to face with the pain and brokenness of oppression and our own personal shortcomings and weaknesses in order to reveal a pathway forward. Now go and tell others how much God has done for you!
 
 
 
 
​

Read More
0 Comments

Trinity Sunday

6/15/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Believing A Myth and Living with Reality
 
Today there are double celebrations of Trinity Sunday and Father’s Day, and I believe they are both closely related. For often times they are clouded in myths while we simultaneously grope to live with reality. How can God be Three in one? How does one sustain a belief in an Old testament God with all it’s troubling revelations? How does that God relate to Jesus Christ’s teachings founded upon profound love? How does the Holy Spirit empower us to activate that love? How can men who were not fathered aspire to fatherhood?

So, I begin by boldly declaring Happy Father’s Day!  I know Father’s Day gets less attention than Mother’s Day, but it is certainly as important.  Ever since I became a father, it has been my goal to be the dad who does what is necessary to care for my children; to make sure they are in good schools, they are feed, they are safe, and they are loved.  This seems to be a natural way to think about my role as a father.  My father was in my life, my brother is in the lives of his children, my friends always make it a point to tell me about their college-age children and how they are making out on their school’s campus.  And, as a priest, I believe deeply in God’s love and want my children to know this love as I do.  I want my children to believe and trust in me as they are taught to believe and trust our God.

1 John 3:2-3
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 
 
I love my children and want to have them grow up with love and the understanding of God’s love.  I am with them and so is God.  There is no myth is this love and I have been determined not to be part of anything that is bad or ruin their love.
  
My friends, on arrival as an immigrant I was led to believe that black fathers are “less than” what we have all have grown up to believe are good fathers.  Black fathers are absent from their children’s homes, abandoning those who need their love and support.  We all see how our communities are devastated by crime, drugs, poverty and poor schools.   The lack of stores selling healthy foods and limited heath care facilities in our neighborhood lead to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and mental health problems that are in every way devastating our lives.  Even President Obama, as a candidate in a 2008 speech delivered on Father’s Day at a church on Chicago’s South Side, chastised black fathers. “Too many black fathers are missing from too many lives and too many homes. …They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison… They are more likely to have behavioral problems or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.”
The absent black father is just another one of the many ills that prevent our children from growing up clear-minded and strong-bodied.  When we listen to what is said and read what is written about black men, we have come to believe, to believe in our hearts there is something wrong with black fathers; something insidious, fundamentally and intrinsically flawed.  We have come to believe that black fathers are pathologically prone to desert their children and are largely responsible for the dysfunction of the black community.  This lack of black male leadership and positive role models make our children the prey of a racist system.  But is this totally true?  I have been reading and have come to believe this myth is just that, a myth that echoes a history of efforts to rob black masculinity of the horror and fidelity our men deserve. 
According to 2013 data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, more black fathers live with their children than do not: “There are about 2.5 million black fathers living with their children and about 1.7 million living apart from them.”  Yet those who do not live with their children are still play a prominent role in their lives.  This 2013 study included 10,000 (black, white and Hispanic) fathers.  More than seventy-eight percent (78.2%) of the black fathers in the study fed or ate with their children on a daily basis; 70.4% helped to bathe, diapered or dressed their children; 82.2% played with their children on a daily basis and 34% read to their children daily.  The percentages of fathers not living with their children were also higher than white and Hispanic fathers included in the study. 
    
What is true and what is false? 

The same can be related to The God of the Old Testament who is clouded by myths and unable to relate to humanity in spite the outpouring of His teachings and mystical presence. Is the God of Leviticus the God of the Psalms?

If every black father were in the home, would his presence remedy the crime in which his children live, would it make health care and better schools more available to his children and his community?  Would his presence end the school-to-prison pipe line or would his children be safe from the tyranny of our criminal justice system?   What I have come to better understand is that we are under siege, and we are the only ones who can lift ourselves from the historical negative stereo types and myths that pit us against one another and against a society in which we must live and uses these myths to keep us in our place.  We have to understand the power of this myth and live in a reality that must dispel it.  This work is communal is the bold message of the Trinity God. Through the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit which inspires us to perform the work of salvation. The church has sustained many myths of God’s love.  Yet its reality is vastly different. It is my work and hopefully yours as well to do the work of navigating through the myths and declare a new reality; that of sacrificial love.  I give because I received from my father. 

So, it is my job and my privilege to honor the fathers here today, to acknowledge the sacrifices made to guarantee our children grow up in faith and in love.  Your children have faith in you as Jesus has faith in His Father.  It is our responsibility to break the myth in our minds and hearts and take on the responsibility that truth and love gives us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can create new realities for our children!


Read More
0 Comments

Feast Day June 2nd 2019

6/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,’

Today we celebrate The Feast of The Visitation of Blessed Mary to Blessed Elizabeth. It is the Feast Day of our church and provides with an opportunity to pause and reflect. How often have stop to consider what may be the reasons why we carry the names we have. How many of us would fondly remember the first time your parents shared why they gave you your name? How much time and energy have we invested in living out the call of our names. Ever so often our children would stop and ask each other the meanings of their names. It normally would lead to some teasing and laughter but the essence of it is the understanding that they from very birth have significance and purpose in the world.

Thus, when Fr Brown and the vestry decided to name this church St Elizabeth’s as much as I understand it, was for a twofold purpose. It was in recognition of the City in which God has placed the church for His work and also the understanding that God can do the seeming impossible. The choice of two pregnant women symbolizing the tremendous possibilities of new birth as well the tremendous barriers that the women had to overcome indicating that nothing is impossible with God. Wrapping them in Kinte cloth was nothing short of brilliant and inspirational! Just about thirty years ago this spiritual entity was birthed here at the corner of N. Broad and Chestnut streets. The grandchild of St Augustine was named St Elizabeth and how she has lived into her name is the question being asked of us today.

In the story of the Feast of the visitation When Blessed Mary visits Blessed Elizabeth there is much music and joy in the air. In the midst of the seeming tragedy of a pregnant unwed young Jewish maiden combined with an elderly upstanding wife of an esteemed Jewish Temple priest also declaring her pregnancy, there is music in the air. Elizabeth courageously welcomes her young cousin into her home allowing her space for contemplation and strength to face the next thirty years of tumultuous living. There is music through songs of joy, thanksgiving, consolation, yet there is also songs of the coming revolution. Elizabeth samples music of the psalms Mary singing cover of the Song of Hannah (1 Sam.2:1-10)

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
    in the Lord my horn[a] is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
    for I delight in your deliverance.
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord;
    there is no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.”

Mary's Version Luke 1
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
    For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name

All our work and ministry in life finds meaning and purpose enveloped in the song of praise. It is about giving glory and praise to God. If we find ourselves working just for gaining wealth, we may become rich in goods but poor in Spirit. The world is dominated today by rich, arrogant fools who believe it is there lust for money which would distinguish them in life. They do so at the cost of others as we witness the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Many of our systems are collapsing under weight of the widening of the chasm between the have and the have nots. Even those who are enacting abortions laws in the name of whatever God they believe in would be more satisfied to see children born to live in perpetual debt, poverty, orphanages, foster care and prisons than allow women to say I am not yet ready because I need a stronger platform. Pay careful attention where abortions laws are being passed if you think it is for the good of the child then tell me why are they also working so hard to repeal Obamacare that would allow poor folks to have greater access to healthcare? 

Mary ran from these men otherwise Jesus would have died with her as she would have been stoned to death. You see at the heart of the message of the visitation is that Mary came to Elizabeth in a mess, but God used Elizabeth to transform a mess into a message. And that remains our call today. How do we welcome folks coming with a mess and provide them with a message of hope, healing and love? Each of us arrived at this place at different point in our lives yet carrying our own mess and the longer we worship, prayed and gave God the space our mess became a message. That remains our call, our gift, our challenge and our song!

The work of Elizabeth then remains the same today. To be a place of refuge for all those who are seeking God’s protection, solace and care. Elizabeth provided a space of God’s Holy spirt to nurture Mary for the lifelong ministry of salvation. We are all invited to share in this valuable and important work and ministry. That’s why God has bought us here at this moment in our lives. Our lives would attain its fullest meaning and purpose when we join with Mary and Elizabeth in the midst of all that we struggle through and declare to God and to the world. In the midst of what ever mess we may carry we boldly sing

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,’

​



Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    Rev. Canon, Andy Moore 

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All
    Sermon

    RSS Feed

    Picture

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

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

Picture