Friends,
We hope you will join us on Saturday, October 15 at 10 am for our Visioning Day (more accurately, Visioning Morning!) which will be held upstairs at the Bakery in the old Savory Thyme Building at 220 Mt Hope Ave. Help us dream what this community might be. Please let me know if you are coming!
I have loved our first year as a church. Our church seems to me a beautiful, tiny jewel. Being tiny seems at this time to be part of our charism. One of the questions for our visioning day is, do we leave it like that, or shall we try to grow? Another question is whether it is time to begin the process of becoming a 501 (c )3, which some folks would like to see us do as they believe it will bring in more donations. Others think it would be better to keep flying low to the ground, with small numbers and no money to speak of. (We do have some. Donations have come in for the Migrant Ministry, in particular, which are mostly going towards gas money and other small expenses.) Once about six months ago we tried to decide together how to use our tithing money – where to give 10% of what we have been given. We couldn’t come to an agreement. One person thought we should give everything we get away. Another thought we should wait to tithe until we had a substantial amount to give (at the time, it would have been $12). It became apparent that we had a number of different opinions around the table. It also became apparent that we can’t decide things like that over breakfast.
One thing that is clear to me is that these decisions are not for me to make, alone. They need to be shared by those who consider themselves a part of this community --- whether you come once a week or once a year, if you care about this community and want to be part of dreaming about its direction, you are welcome.
We will have another opportunity for empowerment of the community this Sunday, as I will be away at a Catholic Worker National Gathering, and there is no one to cover for me. So, those who come will share the readings, talk about them together, share the Our Father and any other prayers they care to offer, and celebrate communion with some already consecrated hosts… and then have breakfast, as always. You are welcome, as ever!
Please do keep the members of Iglesia de San Romero, our migrant ministry, in your prayers. We won’t be meeting this week because I will be away, but next week two of our number have to go to Buffalo to meet with their detention officers. We are praying that this meeting will not mean that they have to wear the ankle bracelet that people have to wear sometimes for tracking. Besides the indignity of it, it means being plugged into the wall for three hours a day for charging. Please pray for their detention officers, for open hearts and minds, for listening. I will go with them, and hope by doing so to send a message that these men are not alone.
Here’s a link to a piece in the NYTimes about what’s been going on in Alabama, which is trying to turn itself into the most hostile state in the union for undocumented people:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/opinion/alabamas-shame.html?_r=1
Sending you love and prayers, wherever you may be. Our church may be tiny, but our circle of support is huge!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
“The migrants have no lobby. Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do.”
-Edward R. Murrow, “Harvest of Shame,” 1960
Two upcoming events:
On October 6, Paul Finkelman will speak on Constitutional rights and immigration, first at St John Fisher at 3 pm, later at MCC at 7:30 pm. This looks like an excellent talk!
On Wednesday, October 12, Fr Anthony Ruff will speak at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School at 7 pm, on the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal: “What do we do NOW?”
This bulletin is being written on the Feast of St Francis, October 4, and it is Jim Callan’s 37th anniversary of ordination. So if you see Fr Jim, wish him a happy anniversary!
And many thanks to Rev Denise Donato, who helped me figure out what to do when I realized there was no one to cover for me this week!
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620