What Blooms in the Shadows
Dear friends,
Hopefully by now you would have received the updates on the possibility of moving from our present location to a new one. It has been quite a struggle to get to this point. However, we believe any change is a leap of faith. I wish to share some pastoral thoughts as we seek a way forward in this process. I write to you in the shadow of the news regarding a number of mainline stores are standing on the brink of bankruptcy as a result of the COVID -19 pandemic. Popular stores, such as Neiman Marcus, J.C Penny, Macy’s and Nordstrom, are all preparing to file for bankruptcy. Additionally, the news regarding urban communities, especially those of black people, are sickened by this horrible virus and have higher rates of death. The virus has wreaked havoc within our aged population. All of these will have a direct effect on our church in varied ways.
As a trained chaplain and your priest, I am providing daily spiritual and emotional support to our health care workers on the frontline of this war. Know, I speak to you as a husband whose wife is venturing out to work on this very same dangerous frontline on a daily basis. I speak as a father coming to terms with a recent scare of having an ill child. This shadow, this scare rocked my wife’s and my own faith to its very core. Shadows can cause a tremendous amount of fear!
My friends, in 1858 a group of Episcopalians, in search of a worship experience to reflect their need, struggles and experiences, formed a new church in our City which was eventually named Christ Church. Six years later in 1859, another group with similar desires formed a different church named Trinity Church and was built on the farmlands in the northern section of the City. A little over fifty years later, in an effort to meet the spiritual needs of the influx of immigrants from the south and the Caribbean, St Augustine’s Church (1913) was formed. All of these churches were being formed under the shadows of social, economic and financial turmoil; these shadows of Jim Crowism, the Great Depression, World Wars I &11,the Civil Rights Movement, and on and on.
All of these people of faith acted boldly and with tremendous sacrifice while under some of the darkest shadows our society has ever experienced. There is no need for me to share how we have now become the product of the merger of those three great entities. It is a story with which we are quite familiar. What we carry is their indomitable spirit of hope and faith! What lay before us, my friends, are both the tremendous possibilities and the fear of risks in either standing still or acting boldly. The looming economic crisis is projected to have a debilitating effect upon our communities and we are well aware historically black people are the last to recover from any financial crisis.
As your priest and your friend, I have been tasked with the joyful and tremendous responsibility to lead St Elizabeth’s through this crisis and through those to come. This difficult task is shared with the hard-working members of the vestry.
To make this move, we are partnering with our Diocese in new and innovative ways. One is well aware of the past tumult that has marked our relationship with the Diocese. Thanks to new leadership and our steadfast approach, we believe we have been able to reset the relationship to one of mutuality. This has led to us receiving a grant of $50,000.00 to support our work during this period of crisis. Additionally, today the Diocese stands on the brink of making the largest single investment to any church by its willingness to provide a bridge loan to support the downsizing of our building space.
My friends, to leave our present building is not going to be an easy task. For the last thirty-two years this has been the home of St. Elizabeth’s. This location has represented an Episcopal presence for over 150 years. Yet, the future calls us forward as it did to those upon whose shoulders we now stand. The challenges before us are great. We will need to revitalize our worship experience on both personal and communal levels. We will need to embrace technology while sustaining the lives of those who are easily left behind in our communities. We will need to embark on revival missions both within and outside our building space. Now, having the freedom to focus on outreach ministry rather than self-sustaining work will challenge us in new and exciting ways. I believe the best way to say thanks to those who have provided us with a godly heritage is to take their investment and reinvest it to bear fruit for others and for our future.
Now is our time to rise up in the midst of the shadows and build something great and wonderful. That, which we are building, is part of the Holy City of God and demands Holy hands, heart and minds. The work before us is great and not for the faint hearted, but the Spirit of God who led the people out of Egypt and slavery, who freed African Americans from slavery and who granted us spaces of worship in the past will continue to be with us wherever we go!
The goal now is for us to re-equip ourselves for service and mission!
Hopefully by now you would have received the updates on the possibility of moving from our present location to a new one. It has been quite a struggle to get to this point. However, we believe any change is a leap of faith. I wish to share some pastoral thoughts as we seek a way forward in this process. I write to you in the shadow of the news regarding a number of mainline stores are standing on the brink of bankruptcy as a result of the COVID -19 pandemic. Popular stores, such as Neiman Marcus, J.C Penny, Macy’s and Nordstrom, are all preparing to file for bankruptcy. Additionally, the news regarding urban communities, especially those of black people, are sickened by this horrible virus and have higher rates of death. The virus has wreaked havoc within our aged population. All of these will have a direct effect on our church in varied ways.
As a trained chaplain and your priest, I am providing daily spiritual and emotional support to our health care workers on the frontline of this war. Know, I speak to you as a husband whose wife is venturing out to work on this very same dangerous frontline on a daily basis. I speak as a father coming to terms with a recent scare of having an ill child. This shadow, this scare rocked my wife’s and my own faith to its very core. Shadows can cause a tremendous amount of fear!
My friends, in 1858 a group of Episcopalians, in search of a worship experience to reflect their need, struggles and experiences, formed a new church in our City which was eventually named Christ Church. Six years later in 1859, another group with similar desires formed a different church named Trinity Church and was built on the farmlands in the northern section of the City. A little over fifty years later, in an effort to meet the spiritual needs of the influx of immigrants from the south and the Caribbean, St Augustine’s Church (1913) was formed. All of these churches were being formed under the shadows of social, economic and financial turmoil; these shadows of Jim Crowism, the Great Depression, World Wars I &11,the Civil Rights Movement, and on and on.
All of these people of faith acted boldly and with tremendous sacrifice while under some of the darkest shadows our society has ever experienced. There is no need for me to share how we have now become the product of the merger of those three great entities. It is a story with which we are quite familiar. What we carry is their indomitable spirit of hope and faith! What lay before us, my friends, are both the tremendous possibilities and the fear of risks in either standing still or acting boldly. The looming economic crisis is projected to have a debilitating effect upon our communities and we are well aware historically black people are the last to recover from any financial crisis.
As your priest and your friend, I have been tasked with the joyful and tremendous responsibility to lead St Elizabeth’s through this crisis and through those to come. This difficult task is shared with the hard-working members of the vestry.
To make this move, we are partnering with our Diocese in new and innovative ways. One is well aware of the past tumult that has marked our relationship with the Diocese. Thanks to new leadership and our steadfast approach, we believe we have been able to reset the relationship to one of mutuality. This has led to us receiving a grant of $50,000.00 to support our work during this period of crisis. Additionally, today the Diocese stands on the brink of making the largest single investment to any church by its willingness to provide a bridge loan to support the downsizing of our building space.
My friends, to leave our present building is not going to be an easy task. For the last thirty-two years this has been the home of St. Elizabeth’s. This location has represented an Episcopal presence for over 150 years. Yet, the future calls us forward as it did to those upon whose shoulders we now stand. The challenges before us are great. We will need to revitalize our worship experience on both personal and communal levels. We will need to embrace technology while sustaining the lives of those who are easily left behind in our communities. We will need to embark on revival missions both within and outside our building space. Now, having the freedom to focus on outreach ministry rather than self-sustaining work will challenge us in new and exciting ways. I believe the best way to say thanks to those who have provided us with a godly heritage is to take their investment and reinvest it to bear fruit for others and for our future.
Now is our time to rise up in the midst of the shadows and build something great and wonderful. That, which we are building, is part of the Holy City of God and demands Holy hands, heart and minds. The work before us is great and not for the faint hearted, but the Spirit of God who led the people out of Egypt and slavery, who freed African Americans from slavery and who granted us spaces of worship in the past will continue to be with us wherever we go!
The goal now is for us to re-equip ourselves for service and mission!
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St Elizabeth’s
305 N. Broad Street Elizabeth, New Jersey 07207 Weekend Service Times Sunday: 8:00am, 10:00am Full Schedule |
