Once Every Ten Years; St. Luke’s at This Decade’s Oberammergau Passion Play

By Cathe Rezendes

As a final celebration of the 175th anniversary of St. Luke’s in East Greenwich, this September nine parishioners and six friends attended the once-every-ten-years production of the Passion Play in the infamous Oberammergau, Germany.

In the early 1600’s when the Black Death was sweeping through Europe, the villagers of Oberammergau met in their church to make a vow: every ten years, they would hold a Passion Play if there were no more deaths in the village. In 1634, about 60 thankful players held their first Play in the church cemetery, and it has continued since. The community has kept the promise made 376 years ago. These days there is a theater to seat 4700 visitors from all over the world, and there are six performances a week from May until the first of October.

It was the unanimous highlight of a tour that took St. Luke’s to Switzerland and Austria as well as Oberammergau, Germany which is now a charming Bavarian town of 5,000.

The famous Passion Play is such a riveting portrayal of Jesus and his last days that the faithful sit in the afternoon for two and a half hours and then return for three more hours in the evening without even noticing the passage of time.

It was moving to experience firsthand how this community values the participation of their locals and welcomes their visitors sincerely. All the performers and musicians are either natives of Oberammergau or former residents who lived there at least twenty years. They start preparing a year ahead by growing long hair and beards.

The street scenes are impressive: young children waving palms, live animals, hundreds of villagers, priests in the temple, inspirational music, and all of it in German. The German is not a problem however – the story is visible with Old Testament tableaux interspersed in the realistic action, to remind us powerfully of the events of Jesus’ passion.

It was amazing to be part of it all, and many of those who attended the trip made a vow as well: to return for the next Passion Play, in 2020.

If you would like to hear more about Oberammergau or join St. Luke’s on their next trip contact Cathe Rezendes at 401-295-0798 or at catrez@cox.net.

The Latest eRISEN- November 19th 2010

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eRISEN November 19th 2010 issue

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Diocese of RI Resource Center is Giving Away Overstock. Want Some?

Greetings Friends,

As we approach the ending of this liturgical year and the beginning of a new one in Advent 2010, I will be cleaning and reorganizing the Diocesan Resource Center. I would like to bring several items up for grabs to your attention. You can email me to learn more!

We have a large number of VCR tapes which can no longer be housed at the Resource Center. Before looking into the possibility of recycling any of these, I would like to offer them to any parish first, or individuals second, who might be interested in taking them. These tapes will be available in the Annex during the first two weeks of December. If interested, please contact me for a list of available titles.

We also have several packets of Advent Table Cards published by Candle Press (These are suitable to distribute to families for daily Advent meditations and practices) which are available for no cost. Please contact me should you be interested in one for your family’s use or in a particular number of them for your parish.

Please remember the beautiful Companion Diocese of Ezo 2011 Calendars are available at Diocesan House or from Members of the Companion Diocese Committee. Suggested Donation is $15.00. Proceeds from the sale of calendars will go to fund projects planned in partnership with our friends in the Diocese of Ezo in the Southern Sudan. These make great Christmas gifts! It is a gift for you or your loved one that also gives a gift to our friends in Ezo as they try to rebuild and recover from the consistent violence and political upheaval in their county. Please remember to pray with and for our brothers and sisters in Ezo, as they assure us of their prayers for us.

Also available at Diocesan House are copies of the books of our guest preacher at Diocesan Convention, The Rev. Canon Andrew White. The books are Suffer the Children $15.00 and The Vicar of Baghdad $20.00. Canon White is President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East. He is the Anglican chaplain to Iraq, based at St. George’s Church, Baghdad and Anglican Episcopal chaplain to its International Zone. These books are recommended for personal reflection and study or for a small adult forum. Funds raised from the sale of these books will be used to support the ministries of St. George’s in Baghdad, Iraq.You can also watch a sermon preached by The Rev. Chris Epperson, inspired by Canon White’s stories and ministry here: http://theeternalpursuit.blogspot.com/.

One more reminder: The Diocese of Rhode Island has a Resource Center Subscription with Church Publishing Inc. One copy of each new publication is available at the Resource Center. The newest of these can be found on the shelves located in the Annex meeting room and may be borrowed for personal or parish use. If you are browsing the church publishing website and see something interesting, contact me if you'd rather borrow than buy!

May you be blessed this Advent season.
Mary Ann Kolakowski
Chrsitian Formation Director

Next Week (Sat. 11/20): Lay Theology Day w/ Ellen Charry of Princeton Theological Seminary

Saturday November 20th 2010, 9am – noon
Ticket Cost: FREE!
The Cathedral of St. John
271 North Main Street, Providence RI 02906
For more information and to RSVP visit the facebook event or contact Gloria Williams at 401-274-4500 Gloria@episcopalri.org

Dr. Ellen Charry comes to us from Princeton Theological Seminary where she is a professor of Historical and Systematic Theology. She visited RI to speak to our clergy last spring and left them raving, so we’re bringing her back to talk to the laity of RI too! Ellen will be speaking to us about her new book “God and the Art of Happiness”

Book Description:

Western Christian theology is skittish about happiness. We hope for future, eternal happiness, but we avoid considering happiness in this life as if we suspect such a thing is not allowed. “God and the Art of Happiness” offers a refreshing interpretation of happiness as a way of life grounded in scripture and the incarnate Christ.

Ellen Charry here reveals how the Bible encourages the happiness and joy that accompany obedience to the Creator, enhancing both our own life and the lives of those around us. This advances the well being of creation, which, in turn, causes God to delight with, in, and for us.

With this original theory of the Christian life, this book will encourage intelligent readers to take part in truly abundant life.

Studying Your Congregation: Free Tool Provides Info on Parish & Diocesan Trends

-The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

A free tool which charts 11-year trends called Studying Your Congregation and Community is now available to assist Episcopal congregations and dioceses in a myriad of applications, including stewardship, short- and long-term planning, and strategic development.

“Important congregational and diocesan tracking information is available on the Episcopal Church website allowing a look at an 11 year comparative profile,” explained C. Kirk Hadaway, Ph.D., Episcopal Church Officer for Congregational Research. “The 11-year congregational trend charts are an invaluable tool in understanding patterns and working towards a strategy for the future.”

Available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/research.htm  and by clicking Studying Your Congregation and Community, the data are easily accessed with pull-down menus for selecting dioceses and congregations.

The resulting info on membership, average Sunday attendance, and Plate & Pledge giving is available by diocese and congregation ranging from 1999 to the recently added 2009.

Newly included in these offerings from the Research Office for congregations is a community profile, which updates the former zip code report.

“We recently added this new feature to the site, which is a downloadable detailed demographic profile of the community surrounding each of our domestic congregations,” Hadaway explained. “Previously, we had a zip code profile, but the new profile is a 15-page, 1-mile radius portrait from MissionInsite. These two products are available to anyone and any congregation, again without cost or logging in.”

This valuable data, he noted, is available for free. “This is a $200 report that is available for no charge, and no need to log in,” he added.

For more information contact Christine Kandic at ckandic@episcopalchurch.org .

Research offerings

This congregational tool is among the many offered by the Episcopal Church Research Office. Others include the data that is derived from the annual Parochial Report. Hadaway noted that the 2010 Parochial Report process begins with the December mailing of forms, and concludes in 2011 with the diocesan deadline of March 1.

The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ in 109 dioceses and three regional areas in 16 nations. The Episcopal Church is a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Research pages: www.episcopalchurch.org/research  
The Episcopal Church: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/episcopalian
Twitter: http://twitter.com/iamepiscopalian
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/TECtube

The Latest eRISEN- November 5th 2010

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN November 5th 2010 issue

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Pumpkin Junction at St. John’s Becomes a People Junction

-Kerri Payne, St. John’s Church, Barrington  
 
Each year St. Johns’ Barrington receives a massive delivery of pumpkins from the diocese of Navajoland which carpets our long front hill in orange from late September to Halloween, turning it into a fun fall gathering place for the whole community. The pumpkin sale always opens with a Saturday family festival called “pumpkin junction” and then the pumpkin patch is open seven days a week, 8 hours a day until Oct. 31st.


What started out as a small fundraiser has grown into something that is now as much about outreach and fellowship as it is about raising money. As I stopped into various businesses in town hanging posters this year, I became more aware of just how famous our not-so-little pumpkin patch is becoming. I got comments like, “Oh, yes, it’s that time again isn’t it?” or “I hear the pumpkins are coming early this year!”

The entire community has now come to expect that delivery truck and that “sea of orange” each fall. We have had new families join or at least return to our parish as a result, and at the very same time this is our largest fundraiser, which allows us to grow so many of our vital ministries! Now that’s called icing on the pumpkin cake!

This year many hands of all ages and sizes came together to unload the 2,489 pumpkins and set up for Pumpkin Junction. Over the next month around 120 St. Johns’ parishioners will volunteer to work a one or two hour shift in the pumpkin patch. It’s a great way to meet other parish members, and to introduce community members to the people of our parish. It is truly amazing what we can do as a collective family.

How very fortunate we are that we are actually selling a product that people really want! We have been able to sell all of our pumpkins for the last 4 years running and last year, as Halloween neared, we had customers rummaging through the rotten pumpkin pile, willing to buy anything to use for carving. At last years’ parish Halloween party, I stepped outside (fully adorned in my best gypsy costume!) to run to my car at about 8pm and was approached by a woman desperately seeking a pumpkin, which I happily sold her! Indeed, we have found our niche!

On Saturday September 25th at our Pumpkin Junction opening event we had a record-breaking sale day in the patch. There were an abundance of smiling faces as people browsed our 50 plus vendors; rode Okie’s Old Fashioned rides; rode ponies from Stony Creek farm; pet Rupert the teacup pig; ate our delicious offerings from the café; or sang, danced and played instruments with our storyteller amongst the areas finest mums and pumpkins!