Dear People of God,

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Hospitality. We keep having new people visit us virtually every Sunday and we welcome them in a variety of ways some obvious and some not so obvious. 

We all know that if you walk thru the front door Norm and Ann Baker are going to offer you a big smile and welcome. I hope everyone is aware of the ministry of the welcoming/evangelism group, they greet visitors after church invite them to coffee hour, and give them a bag which contains information about St. Mark’s, the Episcopal Church, and a loaf of homemade bread! I try to remember to welcome people every Sunday at the announcements with the words, “please come and join us that we may get to know you and serve our Lord with you”. 

These are some but not all the very obvious ways in which we try to be hospitable. I know that many of you look around to see if there are visitors and go to introduce yourselves. And of course there is the refreshments served at coffee hour. I am one who is guilty of taking that ministry for granted.  I walk in food and drinks are there.  I leave and when I return the parish hall and kitchen are miraculously clean. Who are the angels who do all this behind closed doors? And while that might seem an obvious ministry of hospitality the point I want to make is that those who offer this hospitality to us are often in the background almost invisible to us. 

Now I’m not saying that to make anyone feel guilty, this is the EASTER season no guilt allowed!! No the point I’m trying to make is that true hospitality is true servant ministry; it is ministry in the Name of Christ. Those who serve put the rest of us at ease; they support our being sociable to each other and our guest. Their ministry goes far beyond simply providing food and drink, it creates an atmosphere that not only welcomes us it encourages us to be the community called the Body of Christ. So I want to say a special thank you to all of you who offer and support this ministry. And I want to encourage the rest of us to be aware and value this ministry for the ways in which it supports our efforts to be hospitable to one another and our guest. 

“For some have entertained Angels”.  

God’s Peace Battle+

This place where you are right now

God circled on a map for you.

Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move

Against the earth and sky,

The Beloved has bowed there—

Our Beloved has bowed there knowing

You were coming.

I could tell you a priceless secret about

Your real worth, dear pilgrim,

But any unkindness to yourself,

Any confusion about others,

Will keep one

From accepting the grace, the love,

The sublime freedom

Divine knowledge always offers to you.

Never mind, Hafiz, about

The great requirements this path demands

Of the wayfarers,

For your soul is too full of wine tonight

To withhold the wondrous Truth from this world.

But because I am so clever and generous,

I have already clearly woven a resplendent lock

Of His tresses

As a remarkable truth and gift,

In this poem for you.

from The Subject Tonight is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz, versions by Daniel Ladinsky, Penguin USA, copyright 1996.

Walking with the World's Refugees: 

Shalem's 7th Annual Slow Walk for Peace

A Matter of Life and Death

Members of the community here at St. Mark's are not strangers to discussions regarding the death penalty. As many of you know, my dad supports capital punishment. Having been the victim of a violent crime, my body would agree with them, but my spirit cannot. As a result, I fear I will always sit the fence on this issue. However, I refuse to allow any law to be unjustly executed. In 1972, the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, as it was being administered arbitrarily and therefore constituted cruel and unusual punishment. After many legislative changes, it was again reinstated in 1976. Unfortunately, we have once again arrived in a place where as a society we have recognized that capital punishment is being administered in a socioeconomically discriminating way. Only those who can afford high-priced defense attorney are afforded the opportunity of a fair trial and escape from death row.
What can you do about it, you ask? The American Bar Association is calling for a temporary moratorium on the death penalty until specific steps are taken to make administration of capital punishment fair. I will be preparing a petition to send to our state executive and legislative branches requesting their support of the ABA's efforts. I will have it available to St. Mark's along with additional information on May 19th. I would ask that you consider signing this petition in support of this very important effort.

Pentecost picnic with Odyssey Hospice

May 19th

Make plans to eat and play all morning and into a good lunch picnic. To celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and the ministry of Odyssey Hospice we are going to have what they call in the mountains “an all day meetin’ and dinner on the grounds”, only ours will be half as long! Joining us will be members of the staff of Odyssey Hospice, volunteers, families who are or have been clients of Odyssey. We are inviting Odyssey to share the day with us for a number of reasons. Twice a year the Odyssey family holds their Memorial Celebration service here at St.Mark’s. [The next one will be June 9th at 3 p.m.] So we are in a real sense their “church home”. We also have chosen Odyssey as one of our volunteer outreach ministries and this Sunday will give us some “face” time with staff who can answer our questions. And of course we want opportunities to practice our ministry of Hospitality and this is a splendid time to indeed Be the Body of Christ in community.

      We will need help on this day to set up, cook, play games with children of all ages, cleanup, in short to insure a good time is had by all and all have the opportunity to minister. The people you need to contact are; Liz Gilliam, for pot luck food; Jay Borman for grilled Cajun sausage and hot dogs: Candy Burger for games& activities: Battle or senior warden Debbie Colvin for overall planning. Please make plans to join in making this a wondrously fun event.

by James Solheim

(ENS) The Episcopal Church set another place at its table of inclusivity April 6 when it ordained Carol Joy Gallagher as suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Southern Virginia---the first indigenous woman to join the episcopate in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The consecration service was held on a brisk spring day at St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Virginia, one of the three historically black colleges supported by the Episcopal Church.

A procession of nearly 200 participants moved across campus and up the hill and into the gymnasium, welcomed by drums played by representatives of Virginia's tribes and with a "smudging" of smoke from

sweet grass used in Native American ceremonies for blessing and purification. The congregation of about 1,400 greeted the procession with a roof-raising rendition of "Lift every voice and sing."

In his sermon, former presiding bishop Edmond L. Browning said that the "divine pairing of love for the great and the small, for everything and for one thing, is strongly felt in the traditional spirituality of the Cherokee people." But he added that, even though it is family-centered, "Cherokee spirituality does not suspect diversity." He quoted from a recent interview in The Witness magazine where Gallagher said that Cherokee spirituality "assumes that difference is a gift, not a threat."

Browning, who is credited with giving Native American ministry a much higher visibility during his tenure, continued, "It's not just unjust to refuse to honor those who differ from us. It's not just rude. It's not just un-Christian. It's fatal. People are dying from it, right now, even as I speak."

As evidence he pointed out that "the settlement of Israel by European Jews was not conducted with full participation of the Palestinian people." And he said that we know "from the witness and struggle of our own native population, almost destroyed by our westward expansion," that "there was little heroism in seizing land and breaking treaties… As in the Holy Land today, the struggle was between unequally matched opponents." He called for an end to the endless cycle of violence that is destroying the lives of people all over the world.

"Carol knows how to preach reconciliation without sweeping things under the rug. She knows that the choice between justice and peace is a false choice. There can be no real peace without justice--and that is the kind of leadership needed by the nation," Browning said. "I see no reason why the church cannot point to it by speaking eloquently of God's love and justice to the world." In his direct charge to Gallagher, Browning implored her to "never let go" of her passion for the truth.

After an examination in which she was asked to affirm her call to the office of bishop and her role as "a chief priest and pastor," the 22 participating bishops gathered around to lay their hands on her head. In that solemn moment she joined other bishops in the historic succession stretching back to the earliest days of the church--and became the 977th bishop in the American succession.

Bishop Robert D. Rowley, Jr. of Northwestern Pennsylvania and president of Province III was chief consecrator, representing Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. He was joined by Bishops David Bane, Barbara Harris, Edmond Browning, Donald Hart, Mark MacDonald and Wayne Wright.

During the vesting and presentation of gifts, Gallagher's mother presented her daughter with a bishop's cope or cloak, beaded with traditional Cherokee designs. Gallagher's uncle, Charles M. WalkingStick of Oklahoma, presented the crozier or staff, carved from a single piece of wood and embedded with turquoise and emblazoned with Cherokee symbols. Her cross is Celtic in design, inscribed with the seal of the Cherokee Nation. The miter was made of bleached doeskin and beaded by Cree artists from Canada.

Gallagher is a graduate of Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts and working on a doctorate in urban affairs and public policy at the University of Delaware. She was rector of St. Anne's in Middletown, Delaware, at the time of her election. She and her husband Mark are parents to three girls.

Although she recognizes the historical nature of her election, Gallagher doesn't want the symbolism to interfere with who she is and what she has been called to do as a bishop of the church--a bishop who happens to be a woman and a Cherokee. She told the New York Times in an interview that she does see her election as a reminder of the enduring presence of Native people. She said in an interview that her election was about encouraging and challenging people to do ministry together--and "provide a place at the table for everybody."

Gallagher has been active on the national level, as a member of the Episcopal Council on Indigenous Ministry and the Anti-Racism Committee. She was also instrumental in creating a ceremony in 1997 to commemorate the 390^th anniversary of the first agreement between the colonists in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, and the local tribes. That service of "remembrance and reconciliation," honoring the tradition of Anglicanism's roots in America, also declared that the church must regard its Indian members as "equal partners" in its work.

Bishop Frank Vest, who was bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia at the time of the Jamestown service, said that the election of Gallagher was "highly symbolic," demonstrating that "after 400 years the

church has come full circle" by honoring its own traditions as well as the traditions of the original inhabitants.

--James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service.

Contemplative Outreach of Middle Tennessee is offering a Morning of Silence at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 3100 Murfreesboro Road, Antioch TN (one mile south of Bell Road) the first Saturday of every month beginning June 1.  The hours are from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.  The schedule includes three 30-minute Centering Prayer sits as well as individual silent time.  There will be a lending library and on-site resources to enhance your day.

Our mission is to offer group leaders support and companionship, including all group participants who are serious about deepening their contemplative lifestyle. We hope to see you there.