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Friday, 12 March 2010 11:19 |
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The Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County along with the Darlington Lions Club will sponsor the first "Diabetes Awareness Walk" on Saturday, April 3 at 10:00 am. The walk will start and finish at the Darlington Courthouse Square. All funds raised will benefit the programs of the Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County. Sponsorship Options include $100-Bronze Level, $250-Silver Level, $500-Gold Level, $1000-Platinum Level. Please mail sponsorship checks to The Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County, 203 Grove Street, Darlington 29532. |
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Mentors Needed for New Mothers |
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 12:13 |
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Faith Bible Worship Center Outreach Ministry is working with The Footsteps to the Future Program at The Darlington County School District. They are looking for mentors for the mothers in the program. These young mothers need motivation, guidance, love, and someone to say "I care about you." On Monday, March 29th at 6:00 pm, they will sponsor an informational session for new mentors. If you are interested in participating, please contact Marie Butler at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 843-861-4144. |
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Wednesday, 24 February 2010 09:38 |
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On Sunday, June 13, our bishop, The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, will make his annual visitation to St. Matthew’s. If you are an active participant in the life of the church and have not yet been confirmed, consider this a full-court-press in the guise of an invitation!
“Why,” you ask, “what’s the deal with confirmation?” Well, the Episcopal Church, like many other denominations (the Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics to name a few), baptizes infants. During that service, the parents, Godparent, and members of the church commit themselves to do “all in their power” to raise the child in the Christian faith. But at some point, that little guy or gal must decide for himself whether or not he is going to walk in the way his parents have shown him. He has to decide if he wants to follow Jesus. Don’t get me wrong: Jesus is calling – he’s not passively sitting on the sidelines of our lives, but in the end, a person must choose whether or not he wants to follow in the way Jesus leads, and in the Episcopal Church, confirmation is the service where he makes that decision known. Whereas at baptism, a person’s parents promise to do “all in their power” to raise their child in the knowledge and love of God, at confirmation, a person takes responsibility for his own spiritual growth.
Our Book of Common Prayer puts it this way on page 412:
In the course of their Christian development, those baptized at an early age are expected, when they are ready and have been duly prepared, to make a mature public affirmation of their faith and commitment to the responsibilities of their Baptism and to receive the laying on of hands by the bishop.
Those baptized as adults, unless baptized with laying on of hands by a bishop, are also expected to make a public affirmation of their faith and commitment to the responsibilities of their Baptism in the presence of a bishop and to receive the laying on of hands.
Now, I’m addressing this letter to the adults (the youth confirmation class will be held next year). Many of you are “Baby Boomers,” and if I’ve learned one thing about Boomers, it’s this: when someone in authority tells you to do something, you take it as your cue not to do it. So I’m not going to tell you to get confirmed. Instead, I’ll share four reasons why I hope you will be confirmed:
Spiritual
Confirmation is your opportunity to say to Jesus, in the presence of his body the church, “I want to follow you. I’ve learned what that means. I know that it is both simple and difficult, nevertheless I want in. Sign me up.” Confirmation is, first and foremost, a spiritual commitment between you and God. At your confirmation, our Bishop will lay his hands on you and pray for you, asking God’s Holy Spirit to continue his work in you. Confirmation is a proclamation of faith in Jesus and the making of a spiritual promise to God.
Social
Confirmation is your way of saying to the community: “I like what y’all are doing, and I want to be part of the action. You reached out to me in Baptism when I was an infant, and now I’m reaching back in Confirmation.” Confirmation is a promise you make to Jesus’ body, the Church. Through confirmation, you say to the community: “I choose you.”
Functional
Now, as most of you know, I’m not exactly a political whiz. Politics just doesn’t get my engine running. But I know my responsibility: I do my part to stay informed, and I vote. If you want to have a vote at St. Matthew’s, you have to be confirmed. Likewise, should God call you to leadership in this church or in the broader diocese, you can only do so if you’ve been confirmed. And this makes perfect sense: the Church needs leaders who are both committed to God and committed to his body.
Intellectual
Finally, Yours Truly will hold four evening classes beginning Wednesday, April 28 to prepare you for confirmation. What will you learn? Well, I don’t want to give away the whole recipe, but suffice it to say that the last parishioners to take the class were heard exclaiming as they left the building, “I laughed! I cried! Better than Cats!” I may not be Plato, but I promise to teach you something new. Better than that. I’ll teach you a few things to help you live more fully into the promises you’ll make when the Bishop confirms you in June.
So. Think it over. Talk amongst yourselves. And drop me a line so that I can save you a seat at the table in April.
Blessings!
Andrew |
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 13:50 |
Holy Week at St. Matthew's is a bit like a four act play. Each act plays a crucial role in bringing us to the climax of Easter. In fact, attending Easter morning services (Act IV) without participating in Acts I, II and III is like walking into a movie with only twenty minutes remaining in the film! So, make every effort to participate in all four Acts. You won't regret it.
Act I: Palm Sunday
The Sunday of the Passion
Sunday, March 28
The Palm Sunday service reenacts our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The service begins with The Liturgy of the Palms (Book of Common Prayer, page 270) during which we ask God's blessing on the palms used in the service. As the altar party processes in, we sing "All glory, laud, and honor" recalling Jesus' triumphal entry (Luke 19:29-40). Then, to prepare us for Holy Week, the congregation joins the priest in a dramatic reading of the Passion Story (Luke 22:39-23:56).
Act II: Maundy Thursday
Liturgy of the Lord's Supper and Stripping of the Altar
Thursday, April 1 at 6:00 p.m.
On Maundy Thursday, this service of Holy Communion reminds us of the Last Supper. We recall how Jesus spent his final hours with his disciples in the upper room. At the conclusion of the service, the altar is stripped, recalling the events leading up to Jesus' passion:
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. (Mark 15:20)
Act III: Good Friday
Friday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m.
This solemn service is a call to serious and devoted prayer as we spiritually stand by Christ at the time of His crucifixion -- waiting for Him as he descends to the dead. The liturgy consists of prayers and readings from the Psalms and Holy Scripture.
Act IV: Easter Day
Sunday, April 4
Both the 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services begin with songs of praise and the acclamation:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Having passed through the previous three Acts: the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper with the Stripping of the Altar and the hollowness of Good Friday, we can respond, in earnest:
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Let us come to God's house with hearts prepared for worship this Holy Week, that we might bless the Lord with heartfelt praise and He might bless us with a renewed sense of His love, poured out for each of us on Cross of Jesus Christ! |
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Friday, 26 February 2010 08:19 |
 As our mission team to the Dominican Republic prepares to depart on March 8, team member Joe Ervin has been hard at work constructing a Bishop's Chair for our companion parish Santiago Apóstol (St. James the Apostle), located in the barrio of Angelina. Click on the image for a larger view. |
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A Lenten Message from Bishop Lawrence |
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Thursday, 18 February 2010 08:17 |
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February 16, 2010
Self-Examination: Spiritual Stocktaking
Dear Friends in Christ,
If you have never lived in snow country where the roads are salted because of snow and ice, you may not know how salt can corrode the fenders and undergirding of your car. I remember seeing, one morning as I drove to work, an oncoming car lose its rear wheels and chassis. The trunk of the car hit the asphalt with sparks and scraping, while the rear axle and wheels went rolling off the road and into a vacant field. Since no one was hurt, I couldn’t help snickering to myself at the jocular scene, when I was suddenly arrested by the sobering thought: “Mark, when was the last time you examined the frame of your car?” Most of us, before we go on a cross-country trip, will check the oil, tires, brakes, and fill the gas tank. Yet surprisingly enough, many of us on the great journey of the Christian life, traveling over rough roads, in bad weather, icy passes and lonely barren deserts, demonstrate an all too lackadaisical attitude to the equipment of our spiritual lives.
Lent is a good season to do what Evelyn Underhill calls spiritual stocktaking. In the disciplines of the Christian life this is called “Self-Examination.” It is the first discipline mentioned in the Ash Wednesday invitation to a Holy Lent. The Prayer Book reads: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.” (BCP, p. 265)
Although Self-Examination, or “the examination of conscience” as it used to be called, is a long honored discipline of the Christian life, too often the average Christian not only doesn’t know how to do it, he doesn’t even know what it is. This of course is not his fault; it is the fault of us who are pastors and teachers in the Church. Ironically, 12 Step groups like A.A. and N.A. make important use of this discipline. The Fourth Step of A.A. reads: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” The Fifth Step follows up: “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” Sixth Step: “ Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.”
These steps are part of the process of self-examination and repentance. As St. Paul counsels in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves....” There are two fundamental sources of help for practicing self-examination. The first and most important help, which seems almost superfluous to mention, is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells us as believers. The Holy Spirit knows us thoroughly and searches the deep things of our lives. (Read for instance such passages as Psalm 139, John 7:37-39, John 14:16-26, Romans 8:26-27). To invite Him to search your heart is an invitation not merely to compile a list of sins to be gotten through; it is an opportunity for growth, learning, discovery, making new connections, receiving insight and to seek His help in putting things in order. The second help for self-examination is a written list to be worked through with self-honesty. Some people use the Seven Deadly Sins--(Pride, Envy/Jealousy, Anger, Sloth/Melancholy, Greed, Gluttony and Lust), others, the Ten Commandments, or the Litany of Penitence in the Ash Wednesday Liturgy (BCP, p. 267). One possibility that is often forgotten is to use not those lists that accentuate the negative dimensions of our lives but to ask the question about the place and pursuit of virtue. After all we have spent, as a culture and Church, far too much time with the clarification of values and given too little attention to the cultivation of virtue. So to take the Beatitudes, or the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:19-26, or even Seven Saving Virtues (Justice, Courage/Fortitude, Prudence/Wisdom, Temperance, Faith, Hope and Love) as the focus, after scrutinizing our sins of omission, can be a profitable exercise indeed. Such written forms might nudge us into areas we might be unconsciously avoiding and yet towards that which God would have us go.
Self-Examination of course is not a one-time thing; something done merely before the Ash Wednesday Liturgy. You might want to do it periodically during Lent. Find a quiet place where you’ll be alone and uninterrupted. Put aside the cell phone and computer. Allow twenty to thirty minutes. Bring along a pencil and paper. Once there ask God’s Spirit to help you in your search. It may lead you to repentance, which is of course not only the result of grace but the key which unlocks the wondrous treasures of grace.
With joyful embrace of the Lenten disciplines,
I remain faithfully yours,
+Mark Lawrence
South Carolina
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