From Bishop Scarfe

55 years ago today, I was invited to an evening service by a school friend at his local church. Sunday nights were dedicated to offering an evangelical message, and inviting people to enter into a relationship with God. That night I heard the preacher recite Revelation chapter three, verse twenty in which Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into you, and eat with you and you with me.”

“Ask Jesus into your heart,” was the preacher’s invitation, as he knocked on the side of the pulpit; and so, I did. It was a prayer not dissimilar to one many of us are repeating each Sunday as we worship online.

“In union, O Lord, with your faithful people, at every altar of your Church, where the Holy Eucharist is now being celebrated, I desire to offer you praise and thanksgiving. I remember your death, Lord Christ; I proclaim your resurrection; I await your coming in glory. And since I cannot receive you today in the Sacrament of your Body and Blood, I beseech you to come spiritually into my heart. Cleanse and strengthen me with your grace, Lord Jesus, and let me never be separated from you. May I live in you and you in me, in this life and in the life to come. Amen” (A Prayer Book for the Armed Services).

At that time, I knew very little, if anything, about the Holy Eucharist. I had little familiarity with altars or bishops for that matter. I was offered a simple prayer of surrender, and I followed it and today, 55 years later, I celebrate that moment with you all. God is faithful, and we are who we are by God’s unconditional love, unearned and undeserved. In the foreword of his book, Living Prayer, Archbishop Anthony Bloom, a one-time militant atheist converted by the very Gospels he read in an effort to counter them in promoting anti-religious propaganda, writes, “I used not to be a believer, then one day I discovered God and immediately He appeared to be the supreme value and the total meaning of life, but at the same time a person.” Jesus once told the Pharisees that they were right to search the Scriptures to find eternal life, but, he added, “it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (Jn 5:39-40).

While our buildings remain closed to us, or even as we begin to put our toe back into the possibility of in-person gatherings as faith communities, this is an opportunity to hear again, or for the first time, the invitation of the knocking of Jesus at the door of our lives. “You cannot teach worship to someone,” Archbishop Bloom continues, “who has not got a sense of the living God; you can teach him to act as if he believed, but it will not be the spontaneous attitude which is real worship. Therefore, as a foreword to this book on prayer, what I would like to convey is my certitude in the personal reality of a God with whom a relationship can be established. Then I would ask my reader to treat God as a neighbor, as someone, and value this knowledge in the same terms in which one values a relationship with a sibling or a friend. This I think is essential.”

As a Russian Orthodox prelate, Archbishop Bloom was steeped in liturgy and ceremony and tradition. Yet all of it only made sense when seen through the prism of his knowing God as person and in his person. It is my prayer for all of us that we heed Jesus’s approach and invitation to be with Him as He take us where He will into this unknown future that flows from our time of self-isolating. The Presiding Bishop wondered aloud whether this is not our moment of a Macedonian call (Acts 16: 6-10). Through the virus we have been stopped in our tracks, and been forced to engage the virtual world where so many live disconnected from faith or faith institutions. We have found that we can connect in a digital way. And these are discoveries and connections not to be dropped when we can once more enter our Church buildings, and engage in our Church routines. Will there linger that awareness that the Christ to whom we have prayed these several weeks to “come spiritually into our hearts” has been answering our prayers? And appeared in our kitchens and living rooms and dens?

I do not want to forget what I am learning during this time. Much of it has been painful. It includes loss of loved ones; it involves self-examination of my life including that enthusiastic young man decades ago who found what his baptism was all about, though couldn’t put it that way until much later in this Church tradition. It encompasses the suffering that has erupted with the impact of the pandemic itself, and most specifically in the challenge of the call for racial justice. You will have other noticings, and points of self-reflection. But above all, I pray that it is a time to know Christ, the fellowship of His suffering, and the power of His resurrection; to be able to be as grateful as was the Archbishop to learn that God is person, and really wants a relationship with us.

I am grateful for your prayers and expressed love and sympathy on the death of my mother, my aunt and a close friend—all within three days of last week. I intend to take a break for a few weeks, and encourage you to do the same, as you are able. The Way of Love includes the exhortation to “Rest.” That too is an important part of our growing relationship with God. It is a vital part of the life of prayer.

I love the following description of such a prayerful relationship as articulated again by Archbishop Bloom: “once the Cure d’Ars, a French saint of the eighteenth century, asked an old peasant what he was doing sitting for hours in the church, seemingly not even praying; the peasant replied: “I look at Him, He looks at me and we are happy together.” May we be God’s happy ones, as we make time to find our rest in God, and may we each be strengthened and nourished for our life and work in God.

In the peace and love of Christ,

+Alan

The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa

Diocesan Online Worship Continues

This Sunday, worship will be offered by Grace Church in Boone and Good Shepherd Church in Webster City at 10:00am and will be found online on the diocesan Facebook page, the diocesan Youtube channel, and will be available on the diocesan website. Call-in option for members who only have access to phones (participants on the phone will NOT be able to be heard but will be able to hear the service): 312 626 6799 and enter the Meeting ID as prompted: 365 765 527#

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EPIC Online July 27-31, 2020

We are trying to make camp-at-home as much like camp-in-real-life as possible. Video lessons will be sent to your inbox each morning at 9am or you can access them through our private Facebook (EPIC - Iowa Episcopal Camp) page. We will also have live meet-ups every evening at 7pm via Zoom.

Here is our plan:

Monday: 9am - Program Time - A short video lesson, a craft or an activity; 7pm - Welcome from staff
Tuesday: 8:15am - Early Morning Option - Yoga with Suzy; 9am - Program Time - A short video lesson, a craft or an activity; 7pm Zoom check-in with age groups
Wednesday: 9am - Program Time - A short video lesson, a craft or an activity; 7pm - Campfire Sing-A-Long
Thursday: 8:15am - Early Morning Option - Dancing; 9am - Program Time - A short video lesson, a craft or an activity; 7pm - Zoom check-in with age groups
Friday: 9am - Program Time - A short video lesson, a craft or an activity; 7pm - Talent Show

The cost is $25 and children and youth of all ages and religious backgrounds are welcome!

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First Fridays - Young Adults Zoom Check In

Friday July 10, 7pm

You’re invited to join with other young adults as we engage with the monthly dismantling racism resources offered in the "2020 Vision for Becoming Beloved Community". The 2020 Vision, from the Beloved Community Initiative for Racial Justice, Healing, and Reconciliation in Iowa, was created for action centered on learning as a way to address racism in ourselves and our communities. We’ll meet via Zoom the first Friday of each month (unless it’s a holiday, then we’ll plan for the following Friday) to discuss what we learned and engaged with from the previous month’s resources.

The month of June is focused on Intersectionality. During June, commit to and do one or more of the items listed under each of the headings - Learn, Notice, Engage - on the 2020 Vision June page. At this (our July) meeting, we’ll share what we did and reflect on our learnings and actions.

For Zoom login information, contact Traci Ruhland Petty tpetty@iowaepiscopal.org

GILEAD Grant Applications Open Until July 15

Thinking about applying?

Set up a time to meet with the GILEAD Grant Review Committee to discuss your project/idea by contacting Traci Ruhland Petty.

Learn more

Resources

Resources from Beloved Community Initiative:

2020 Vision (for individuals and groups)
Online resources
Liturgical resources
Christian formation for all ages
Advocacy
COVID-19 and Race
Lending library

The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost