The New Convent of Saint Helena
Transcription
The New Convent of Saint Helena
Vol 36 No 2 Aug 2015 O God, I love the house in which you dwell and the place where your glory abides. Psalm 26:8 The New Convent of Saint Helena 414 Savannah Barony Drive North Augusta SC 29841-6096 Main Office 803 426 1616 Please join us on the 70th anniversary of the Founding of the Order of Saint Helena! Sunday, November 8 at 4:00 pm Holy Eucharist and dedication of the new chapel Reception follows RSVP to Sr Linda, Guest Registrar [email protected] 803 522 2196 (note new number) The Feast Day of Saint Helena, August 18 A Sermon from Sr Linda, OSH Our readings today are full of complimentary traits that we can attribute to the woman, Helena. In fact, one thing I did as I first read these lessons* was to check off in my Bible all descriptions that fit what I know of her. I’ve not before felt a personal connection with Helena, but the story about her that touches me most is that as Empress she would dress in plain clothes and slip into the crowds unnoticed to attend mass. As I journaled about Helena over the last week, hoping I could engage her in dialog, I began to wonder WHY she wanted to find the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion. The two standard answers we have are: Helena was an archaeologist, someone motivated by the excitement of the dig. She was even dubbed the “first archaeologist.” So it would stand to reason that while she built churches where Jesus walked, she may have wanted to uncover what could easily be called the archaeological find of all archaeological finds: the cross on which Jesus died. Secondly, there is a story which indicates that finding the cross was the unique mission which God gave Helena through a vision, and she definitely was of a mind that God has a unique call for every person. So maybe God set Helena about searching for the true cross, and she obediently and readily set out to complete that holy task. And if God truly laid this on Helena’s heart, then I imagine what she found WAS Jesus’ cross. But the whole time I worked with these two possibilities, I kept feeling like something was missing from my exploration. It was not until a few days ago that spiritual teacher Adyashanti put his finger on it for me. I watched his DVD entitled “The Undivided Self.” He made the statement that finding our true nature is not the same thing as realizing our true nature. That was my aha! moment about Helena, answering the WHY of her searching for the cross. I think long before she began the physical “seek and ye shall find” part of this mission, that as a person of deep prayer, she had realized the cross, which is to say the truth of it. This realization changed Helena, transformed her, and I’ll bet became the catalyst for all the amazing things she accomplished in a world in which typically only men took part. I can’t pass up at least a few conjectures of what this realization of the cross may have meant to Helena. Perhaps she consciously experienced herself as living at the center-point of this quintessential sign of Christianity, living out the opposites of the temporal world and the transcendent worlds of her experience. For the truth is that we all “hang” on the cross between these realities, suspended between opposites, and in attempting to live them out in such a way that they do not fly apart but are held together in the reality of our personal lives, we experience pain. Perhaps Helena knew that when she failed love or was so stretched between extremes that she was not able to bridge them, that this was a kind of death, a suffering, and in fact a necessary alchemy pushing her toward a new life form, a form we call resurrection. In every sacred tradition, a fully realized human being cannot be “made” except through the alchemical process of dying and rising – and so this contradictory sign stands as witness to the passageway we all must take if we are to awaken into fullness of being. Some people imagine that death closes the doorway on the Divine’s persistent pursuit of us as valued and beloved beings. I think Helena knew that NO, Divine Presence slips through the doorway of death itself and descends even to the realm of the dead in relentless questing for our souls. One of the most surprising turns in my own spiritual journey is that Jesus’ “harrowing of hell” has become for me his most important, most reverent work – which continues to this day. I think Helena knew that what makes the cross the supreme sign of Divine Compassion is that the cross is that “crack in the door” through which Presence passes, and ultimately seeks us even as we ourselves slip out of time walking further into eternity. I think she knew that absolutely nothing escapes the Divine Compassion because It knows that death is the way to resurrection, that suffering is a gate, a cross-point of agony sprinkled with moments of ecstasy. Like Helena, we are each called into this mystery, to walk toward this gateway as an aperture, the doorway to transformation. If Helena is dialoging with us today, I imagine she is saying to us women who have chosen to emulate Helena’s devotion to the cross (and dared greatly to build a new convent): “My Sisters, make your own way and take your own place at the center of this mystery. You, like me, are to carry the sign of the cross within yourselves. It is a perilous path, the path of true prayer, the path of true surrender. It is your promise to the Creator to be and become and live and grow and enter the Realm of Heaven, with this seal, the cross, pressed into your own hearts, that you may ‘rise in the darkness as a Light’ to the world.” I don’t think I’d ever noticed the line that ends the reading today from Paul’s first letter to Timothy, but it’s perfect for Helena and it’s perfect for us on our first patronal feast day in this new chapel that the Order of Saint Helena has built, with God’s help: “Take hold of the life that really is life,” which to me, is to realize Jesus. Amen. *I Kings 19:5-8, Psalm 112, I Tim 6:12-19, Luke 11:1-10 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS Note New Guest Registrar Phone: 803 522 2196 [email protected] http://www.osh.org/events.html New Guest House – We are eagerly awaiting the completion of the new guest house. Email [email protected] if you’d like us to inform you once we know the opening date. Join us for services! We’ve felt very pleased that new neighbors are joining us for chapel. If light and beauty speak to you, the new chapel will knock your socks off! The current schedule for primary services is: Matins (morning prayer) 8:00 am Holy Eucharist 8:30 am Vespers (evening prayer) 5:00 pm There are no services on Monday. eBreviary and ePsalter: We are offering a CD of The Saint Helena Breviary: Monastic Edition and The Saint Helena Psalter as a gift in appreciation for your donation of $25 or more. Go to our web link printed below and check the box indicating you would like to receive the CD. These files are in PDF (Portable Document Format) and readable on a PC or Mac with Adobe Acrobat Reader or other electronic readers (such as iBook). See http://www.osh.org/contributions.html. Above: We’ve been welcomed to South Carolina by a surprising number of thunderstorms. The trees all around are a blue bird and warbler paradise. Contribute online to OSH: We appreciate and prayerfully steward your contributions to the Order, which are used to help support our guest and outreach ministries, chaplaincy work, spiritual direction, parish involvement, and care of our buildings and grounds. You can donate easily: go to our web link printed below, press the “Donate for Good” button and follow the directions. If you wish, you may designate your gift for a specific purpose. See http://www.osh.org/contributions.html. Right: Sr Rosina arrived home just in time to help with the chaos of unpacking. What a joy to have her easy-going spirit among us.. She will return to Ghana in October to fulfill one more year of teaching. “Like us” on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OrderofSaintHelena. Sr Linda got lost in a box of dishes early on in the unpacking. On June 18, the Order of Saint Helena received Gaelyn Evangreene as an Associate. Gaelyn, a third-grade teacher from NC, is shown above with Sr Ann Prentice, Sister for the Associates. For information about the Associates Program, see http://www.osh.org/associates.html. 3 A MINISTRY RENEWED which is when the group stops trying to control and “fix” their way into true community. Scotty invited me to be part of the first wave of facilitators for his organization, and I remained one for as long as FCE, The Foundation for Community Encouragement, was functioning. I was also on its Board of Directors for nine years. When FCE disbanded not long after Scotty’s death in 2005, the basic work continued in some places in different ways. However, Community Building in the Scott Peck model is being revitalized. I was contacted recently by Tim Dempsey who works with Ed Groody, the head of one organization in this new movement. I knew Ed as one of the first facilitators who trained with me in Scotty’s CB work. Tim wanted me to do a teaching via Skype to one of the first groups to be trained as new CB facilitators. I spoke on the stage of “Emptiness.” I have done that for two new groups of prospective facilitators in different cities, and it has been a rich and encouraging experience. I have in person co-facilitated a very successful Community Building workshop for public safety officials, and am now looking forward to a second one in September. Sr Ellen Stephen, OSH Beginning in the 1980’s when I was living in our convent at Vails Gate NY, I was involved in a ministry called Community Building (CB). I can honestly say that it changed my life, and I heard the same response from many other people who experienced the work. That model of building community was developed by M Scott Peck, MD, author of The Road Less Traveled. It is a two- or three-day workshop by which a group of people who desire to experience more authentic human connection can move from socially learned politeness to chosen intimacy. In the late 1970’s, as Scott Peck was just evolving his Community Building model, he became first an advisor and then a friend of OSH. He encouraged us to call him “Scotty,” and later he was baptized in our chapel and became an OSH Associate. Scotty drew from several sources for his Community Building model: the Quaker custom of speaking out of the silence, the AA practice of telling your story, and wisdom from group dynamics and organization theory. Perhaps Scotty’s most original contribution was the concept of the stage of “Emptiness,” GENERAL CONVENTION 2015: Historic and Hopeful the deepening relationship with the Episcopal Church in Cuba. And of course, there were all of the connections we made with others for missions, retreats and deepening of relationships across the Church. All of this, and so much more, is proof that The Episcopal Church, in the words of the Rt Rev Jefferts Schori, “is not dead yet! So, ‘talitha cum!’ Get up girl! Get up and dance!”* We sisters are glad and grateful to be partners in the dance. Sr Miriam Elizabeth, OSH There are many things I will remember about General Convention 2015. There was the excitement of the next Presiding Bishop’s election, the Prayers of the People in digital format, the “Homeless Jesus” sculpture, the march against gun violence, and the Supreme Court’s decision about same-sex marriage that occurred during convention’s timing. There were important conversations and decisions about a variety of topics including racism, marriage and addiction. And certainly, there was the greeting of old friends, remembering and reminiscing; and the beginnings of many new friendships born out of shared experiences and interests and hope for the Church’s future. Sisters Faith Anthony, Ellen Stephen, Ann Prentice and I were glad to show off our new convent and chapel with a photo slide show, to testify for the inclusion of Saint Helena in an upcoming revision of the liturgical calendar and to continue to witness to the presence and value of the monastic vocation in the Church and the world. But what really excited me was the mission and ministry of the Church – 125 years of United Thank Offering grants for ministries across the world; 75 years of Episcopal Relief and Development work; the widespread support for the work of Thistle Farms and Magdalene; the ministry of Little Roses Orphanage in Honduras; the continued work and development of the Hooghan Learning Circle in Navajoland; the care of refugees and immigrants by churches in South Texas; the rebuilding of schools in Haiti; the work of peace-making in the Middle East; * http://www.episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/78th-general-convention-episcopal-church-june-28-sermon-presiding-bishop 4 Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there; they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of your temple. Psalm 65:4 Row 1: Sisters Linda and Faith Anthony Row 2: Sisters Ann Prentice, Barbara Lee, June Thomas, Ruth, Ellen Stephen, Benedicta Row 3: Sisters Miriam Elizabeth, Carol Andrew, Mary Lois, Ellen Francis, Rosina CONVENT OF ST HELENA 414 Savannah Barony Dr, North Augusta SC 29841 Phone 803 426 1616 Fax 803 426 1208 [email protected] http://www.osh.org Thank you for your prayerful responses and financial support of our ministries. And thank you for an annual contribution in support of the newsletter’s publication. Please mail checks made to “OSH” c/o Sr Linda Elston. If you would like to begin receiving the newsletter or if your contact information changes, please write to the convent or email us at [email protected]. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Convent of St Helena, 414 Savannah Barony Dr, North Augusta SC 29841-6096. saint helena (USPS 487-590) is published four times a year by the Order of St Helena, 414 Savannah Barony Dr, North Augusta SC 29841-6096. Periodical postage is paid at Newburgh NY. 5 PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT NEWBURGH NY AND OTHER OFFICES The mission of the Order of Saint Helena (Episcopal) is to show forth Christ through a life of monastic prayer, hospitality and service. Vol 36 No 2 Aug 2015 With God’s help, we have crossed the Savannah River! Did you know? We belong to the whole Church, not to a diocese. IT’S A JUBILEE! On August 29, Sister Ruth, OSH, celebrated her 50th anniversary of Life Profession with the Order of Saint Helena. Her convent sisters, family members, and local friends were present as Ruth signed her reaffirmation of the Vow during the Eucharist. Pictured left, niece Diana Juchter Berry is seated with Ruth. Standing are nephew Tim Juchter, Dave Berry, nephew Bryan Juchter, great niece Erica Juchter Balfour, and nephew, The Rev Mark Juchter. Thanks to all of you who contributed cards and notes for Ruth’s memory book. Ruth is still running strong on the energy of the weekend! 6
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