MAMA Church at Bethany House: November 2016

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

A New Season Is Upon Us...

Dear friends,

A new season of the Church's year is upon us: Advent. Advent means "coming" and is intended to help us focus our attention (in the midst of commercialism and many other "isms") on the coming of Jesus.

We look backward to his first coming as a Baby in Bethlehem, but we also look forward to his coming (his return) as our glorious and victorious King who will bring human history to its appointed end.

I hope these pictures of the Chapel of Saints Mary and Martha at Bethany House will help us to focus our hearts on the coming of our Savior and King! (Of course, the Chapel is much more beautiful to behold in the context of worship...in person!)

May our awesome God bless your Advent with spiritual insight and growth!

Father Todd

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Worship at Bethany House on Sunday, November 13...

Hello, friends!

I’m excited to share that Deacon Emily will lead Morning Prayer and preach at Bethany House on Sunday, November 13! I am still in Michigan (with my mother in hospital in ICU - thank you for your prayers!) and won't be coming home until Monday at the earliest.

Please bring your “Our Life Together” from last Sunday (it has the liturgy for Morning Prayer for this Sunday). There are also extra copies of last week’s “Our Life Together” for visitors in the narthex.

May our awesome God bless your time of worship (you’re in for a treat to hear Deacon Emily preach)!

Father Todd

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Bethany House FAQ’s...

Q – What is Bethany House? Is it a Church or is it some kind of monastery?

A – Bethany House is both a regular Church (Saints Mary and Martha Anglican Church - lovingly known as MAMA Church) and the home of the Companions of Mary and Martha (a group of Jesus-followers who are using the ancient “Rule of St. Benedict” to help them draw closer to Jesus and share him with the world).

Q – To attend worship or evening prayer at Bethany House, do I have to join the Companions of Mary and Martha?

A – No, you do not. Anyone who is seeking God is VERY welcome to join us for worship and prayer (and potlucks and other gatherings and activities, too)! We welcome you to join us anytime! Some who worship and pray with us are members of other Churches. In order to receive Holy Communion during worship, you do have to be a Baptized Christian and in good standing with your home Church.

Q – Is MAMA Church at Bethany House Catholic or Protestant?

A – It’s both! As Anglicans, we hold to “Catholic order and Evangelical faith”. Our form or style of worship looks very much like Roman Catholic Mass, but the hymns and songs we sing are very “Protestant” (many of them, like “Amazing Grace”, written by Anglicans).

Q – Is MAMA Church at Bethany House part of a particular Christian denomination?

A – Yes, it is. MAMA (Saints Mary and Martha Anglican) Church at Bethany House is part of The Anglican Church in North America. (You can learn more about the ACNA at www.anglicanchurch.net) But, you do not need to be an Anglican to join us for worship and prayer. Likewise, you do not need to be an Anglican to join the Companions of Mary and Martha – you only need to be a Baptized Christian who is in good standing with your home Church and who is willing to undertake the commitments that go with being a Companion.

Q – What does worship at Bethany House look like?

A – It’s both ancient and welcoming. We sing hymns, chant the Psalms, hear three brief readings from sacred Scripture (one from the Old Testament, one from the Epistles, and one from the Gospels), hear a sermon, pray, confess our sins, and receive Holy Communion. The pattern of our worship is called a Liturgy (Latin for “the work of the people”). We call our time of worship the Mass or the Holy Eucharist. On most Sundays, the hymns we sing and the Scripture we read and the sermon we hear all focus on the same topic.

Times, Seasons and Colors...

Dear friends,

I used to have a favorite place I liked to visit at lunchtime. It’s a beautiful little Churchyard in which stands a stately, old sycamore tree. I first discovered this Churchyard and tree in 2009, and was able to spend many of my lunch hours there.

I was drawn to that beautiful, little place because I felt the need for peace and quiet. I relished hearing the leaves rustle in the breeze, the coolness of being sheltered in the shade, and the knowledge that it is a place set aside for worshiping our Lord.

That first year, as the seasons changed and the leaves disappeared, I was able to reflect on how “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands for ever.” (Isaiah 40:8 NLT) The green growth of summertime had given way to the harvest and gathering of autumn and, finally, to the bareness of the “bleak midwinter.”

Yet, somehow, the bare sycamore tree didn’t make sense to me until I placed it in the context of Advent (the season of the Church year in which we focus our hearts and minds on the first coming of Jesus in Bethlehem, as well as his promised return in glory). With the dawn of each new day, we, as Christians, anticipate any sign of life, any hint that would tell us to continue hoping in Jesus. We look for these signs in Scripture and in the “fingerprints” of God in creation.

I suspect that if I were to look at that sycamore tree in the purplish-blue light of the pre-dawn hours, I would be forced to squint, to bend my neck, and to strain my eyes. That’s how we should be looking for Jesus – especially in these days of Advent, as we anticipate the signs of Christmas and any signs of our Lord’s return in glory!

May this season of the pre-dawn’s purplish-blue (the color of Advent) cause us to grow in anticipation of and love for our Lord Jesus Christ!

Father Todd

A Few Things that Describe Us...

1. We’re a community of faith – we passionately believe that Jesus gave us the Church and calls us, as believers, to be a part of his Church. According to Scripture, we can’t possibly be who we’re called to be as individuals without participating in the life of our Church community.

2. We believe that pure, unadulterated, self-giving, outreaching love covers a multitude of sins – the grace of God offered to us in the sacrificial love of Jesus through the Presence of the Holy Spirit means that divine love is closer to us than our sins will ever be, all we need to do is reach out and ask for it.

3. We worship God because we want to offer him something – our first and greatest work in this life is not found in the career we’ve chosen, in our hobbies, or even in our families; it’s found in how we respond to God’s gift of salvation. Our most important work is the worship we offer to God. Only then can our families, our careers, and our pastimes make any sense and receive the attention they deserve.

4. We’ve chosen Saints Mary and Martha as our ‘patrons’ – in looking for a name for our parish, we wanted to make sure that we were listening to the Lord. The name of a parish should always match its unique mission – ours is to listen to the Lord like Saint Mary of Bethany and to work for the Lord like her sister, Saint Martha of Bethany (see Luke 10:38-42).

5. We are radically non-conformist – when the world prods us to relinquish our unique identity or mission in Christ, we lovingly explain that we’ve found something we’ll never give up.

6. We are Christians in the Anglican way – we’re not Anglicans because of some special or unique belief system. Anglicans simply believe the Bible to be the Word of God and affirm that belief through the Apostles and Nicene Creeds – that’s it.

7. We use the Book of Common Prayer as our guide in worship – the BCP allows us to pray God’s Word as worship. Because nearly 85% of the BCP is either direct quotation of Scripture or a paraphrase of Scripture – while the rest of points to Scriptural concepts – we don’t have to continually re-invent our way of worship.

COVID-19 Precautions...

As we continue to cope with COVID-19, these are some things we’re doing at Bethany House to keep everyone safe while worshiping Jesus…

1. We require that everyone who attends worship wears a face mask – we have a number of people in our midst with health issues that put them at high risk should they contract the virus.

2. We are practicing physical distancing – the pews in the Chapel are marked out for a seating pattern that ensures we keep physical distance from one another.

3. We are not singing during Mass – the latest research shows that the aerosols (which carry the virus) released when we sing do linger in the air for an extended period of time and that more of the aerosols are released when we sing rather than just speak.

4. We are distributing Holy Communion in one kind only (the precious Body of Jesus) – Father Todd brings the consecrated Host (the precious Body) to each worshiper. It’s just too dangerous at this point to receive the precious Blood of Jesus in the chalice – whether by the common cup method or by the intinction method.

So put on your favorite mask, bring some hand sanitizer, and join us as we worship Jesus!!

MAMA Church at Bethany House

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Tuesday, November 29, 2016

A New Season Is Upon Us...

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Worship at Bethany House on Sunday, November 13...

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Times, Seasons and Colors...

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