The
Gryphon’s Roar
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The
Gryphon’s Roar
"St. Mark's Newsletter"
The Reverend Battle Beasley
Dear People of God,
“All good things come to those who stand and wait”
I thought about that scripture a lot as I waited for the ground to be dry enough to plow for our St. Mark’s garden.
Waiting on God seems to be a large part of our spiritual journey.
We say our prayers and we wait to see or hear an answer.
We take up a spiritual discipline and we wait to see the results.
We begin to work for justice issues and we wait to celebrate a wrong made right.
I suspect that most of us, at least on occasion, have become tired of waiting and moved on to something else. Probably our frustration grows in direct proportion to the level of expectation we have placed on experiencing the results of our efforts. Therein lies a part of our problem; our attention has shifted from being on God and God’s activity in our life to the results of our activity. When we get caught up in the results of our activity we have made the focus of our life ourselves and not God. It may well be that in the long run God is much less concerned about our furious activities, our furious attempts to get results and much more concerned about our paying attention to God, our noticing God’s ever-present Love in our lives.
May this summer be a time of our growing ever more watchful for God’s presence in our lives and may we have the patience in our work to remain focused on God working in us for the Glory of God’s Name.
Peace, Battle+
I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me
Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.
from The Gift, versions by Daniel Ladinsky, Penguin USA, copyright 1994.
EVELYN UNDERHILL
THEOLOGIAN AND MYSTIC (15 JUNE 1941)
To go up alone into the mountains and come back as an ambassador to the world, has ever been the method of humanity's best friends.
The windows of Christ's Mysteries split the [Light] up into many-coloured loveliness, disclose all of its hidden richness...make its beauty more accessible to us...And within this place we too are bathed in the light transmitted by the windows, a light which is yet the very radiance of Eternity.
Evelyn Underhill was born in 1850 and grew up in London. Her friends included Laurence Housman (poet and brother of the poet A E Housman) and Sarah Bernhardt (actress), and Baron Friedrich von Huegel, a writer on theology and mysticism. Largely under his guidance, she embarked on a life of reading, writing, meditation, and prayer. From her studies and experience she produced a series of books on contemplative prayer. The list includes the following (I have starred the ones that seem to be most widely read or highly regarded):
1902 The Bar-lamb's Ballad (poetry)
1911 Mysticism **
1913 The Mystic Way *
1913 Immanence (poetry)
1927 Man and the Supernatural
1936 Worship ***
1938 The Mystery of Sacrifice
Miss Underhill (Mrs. Hubert Stuart Moore) taught that the life of contemplative prayer is not just for monks and nuns, but can be the life of any Christian who is willing to undertake it. She also taught that modern psychological theory, far from being a threat to contemplation, can fruitfully be used to enhance it. In her later years, she spent a great deal of time as a lecturer and retreat director. She died on June 15, 1941.
by James Kiefer
Some other books of hers include:
Practical Mysticism
The Spiritual Life
Cloud of Unknowing
Three from St. Mark' to make Pilgrimage
to Ecuador
Holly Granger (St. Mark's Ecuador committee chair), Frank Brannon,and George Kurz will leave for Ecuador on 13 July 2002. Holly will primarily be involved in the first week of the two - week long series of medical clinics sponsored by the Diocese of Tennessee. These clinics will be conducted daily at various churches in and around the port city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Since most of the people who need these type services come by walking, this means that a wider part of the community may be served by having dispersed treatment locations. The recent "pill-packing" party (to break down the bulk containers of pills into typical doses) sponsored by Cary Stephenson is one of the ways that St. Mark's supports the clinics. Another way is the collection of vitamins, aspirin, other drugs, and eyeglasses contributed by the congregation.
Simultaneously with the clinics, George and
Frank with Sarena Pettit (translator - St. Joseph of Arimathea), and several
other people will be visiting the church of Santiago Apostle in La Pila. That
town is near the north west boundary of the Diocese of Litoral - about 3 hours
travel from
Guayaquil.
Pictures of our Companion Church are on the display board in the hallway between the sanctuary and Reynolds Hall. Their visit will include a clinic that congregation and people in that community. During his visit to Tennessee this January, Padre Cristobal Leon invited us to stay with his family in nearby Manta during this visit. Regretfully, that will not be possible during this trip. However, we hope to plan a special trip in late '02 or early 2003 for St. Mark's members to especially focus on Santiago Apostle and our relationship with that congregation and Padre Leon. More details about the July trip and information about the church and Ecuadorian life will be presented at the dinner (see the announcement in this issue of the Gryphon).
We ask for your prayers while we are gone, and a continuation of the caring support that people of St. Mark's have always shown for this important outreach relationship.
Enjoy the Cuisine of Ecuador at St. Mark's
June 29, 2002
The purpose of the dinner will be to communicate information about Santiago Apostle -our companion church in La Pila, and to raise money for the medical clinic, travel expenses, and improvements needed at the church. The clinic will be conducted as part of the visit to La Pila, by Frank Brannon and George Kurz. Their team will include a translator, a nurse, and a pharmacy student - all from the Diocese of Tennessee. They will assist Dr. Alfonso Morante from Guayaquil.
The dinner will be based on a typical Ecuadorian menu staple of chicken and rice. (Significant amounts of rice are grown in this region.) People who have visited Ecuador report that they really enjoy the food, so the committee has pledged its best effort to live up to a good culinary tradition.
Code of Fair Practices
- Episcopal News Service
The following Code of Fair Practices was developed during a conference called "Megaphones and Muffled Voices" on what constitutes full and fair media coverage of Israeli-Palestinian issues. The conference, held in New York City, April 17-18, 2002, was sponsored by the World Association for Christian Communication, its North American Regional Association, and the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches, U.S.A.
Conference participants included public and religious communicators and professors from several noted journalism schools. The participants included media professionals from Israel, Palestine and Jordan as well as from Europe, the U.S. and Canada. They developed the Code of Fair Practices under the leadership of John Zakarian, editor of the editorial page of The Hartford Courant. In the statement that follows, the term journalist refers to any non-government person engaged in the gathering and dissemination of information and opinion through electronic or print media. This includes reporters, opinion writers, editors, publishers, general managers and producers. The primary mission of journalists is to offer readers, viewers and listeners a rough first draft of history as it is being made. By definition, this draft is not always complete, often presenting facts without adequate context, filing reports in a hurry and sending pictures that emphasize immediate action and consequences. Still, there is more to informing the public than merely relaying raw data quickly.
To prepare coherent accounts of events, reporters and editors routinely filter and condense the vast amount of available information into a coherent package. They attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff. Information gatherers and gatekeepers fulfill their responsibilities best when they observe the following guidelines:
1. The best of journalists do not only report what they see, hear or are told by official sources. They dig beneath the surface. They strive to get the other side or sides of the story and rely on diverse sources.
2. Balance of coverage is not achieved only in providing equal space or time to each side. There is no balance when an articulate, moderate and charismatic person is asked to represent one side and an uncompromising, militant, fiery and inarticulate ideologist is offered as a representative of the other side.
3. Headlines should reflect the content of the story. Photographs should give a fair and accurate image of an event and not exaggerate an incident simply because the photograph is exceptionally dramatic.
4. As much as possible, journalists should understand the language, the history and the culture of the people they cover. They should not totally rely on interpreters provided by particular causes or governments.
5. Covering such a sensitive, nuance-ridden subject as the Arab-Israeli conflict, journalists should be careful in using such loaded words and cliches as "terrorists" "gunmen," "Islamic bombers" and "fatalistic" Muslims.
6. In presenting stories, there should be a clear distinction between news reports and expressions of opinion. News should be free of bias. Columnists should stake their positions by verifiable facts rather than secondary sources or reports. Op-ed articles by advocacy groups should be clearly labeled as such.
7. As a marketplace for ideas, the news media, particularly newspapers, magazines and periodicals, have a responsibility to publish all sides of controversial issues by inviting "op-ed" contributions and letters to the editor.
8. Journalists should have the courage of well-founded convictions and a healthy sense of fair play. They should never write anything that goes against their conscience.
9. Although pledges of confidentiality should be honored, they should be made sparingly - and only when the journalist deems it to serve the public's need for information.
10. Journalists are more self-critical about their work than their readers or viewers frequently give them credit. Journalists should also encourage thoughtful public input about their work.
11. Journalists should expect access from governments at all levels, especially from those that profess to honor democracy. So-called closed military zones and blanket orders prohibiting coverage in combat zones ill serve democracy.
12. Editorial criticism of a government's policy should not be equated as criticism or derision of an entire nation or class of people.
Daughters of the King, Who We Are, and What Is Our mission
As Daughters of the King we are women of courage who have made a commitment to serve God our King. We wear crosses as an outward and visible sign that we cannot live a day without Christ in our lives. We see our order as a community of nurturing women, accepting all people, bridging differences and cherishing tradition.
A Daughter pledges herself to a life-long program of prayer, service and evangelism, dedicated to the spread of Christ’s kingdom and the strengthening of the spiritual life of her parish. If you are interested in becoming a Daughter, please make your desire known to a member: Debbie Colvin, Carey Hardison, Betty McKee, Pan Carr-Brannon, Mickey Sturm, Maria Christensen, Pauline Hall.
We will be delighted to begin an instructional class early in the fall.
Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-8:1
New Revised Standard Version
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
Although she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.
She is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail.
She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other,
and she orders all things well.
Thank You , Thank You , Thank You
The Daughters of the King express our appreciation to the men of the church for serving that delicious breakfast on Mothers’ Day. Thank you, thank you.
Pentecost Picnic
Great time at the Pentecost picnic and many thanks to one and all that helped put it together. Special thanks go to Liz Gilliam and Jay Borman for coordinating and cooking food. And to those who played with thechildren especially Rebecca McEwewn, Candy Burger and Gretchen Miller.
Work and Play
Workday, bring your lawnmowers, weed eaters, arms, legs, senses of humor and sense of stewardship for our land Saturday June 8th, 8 a.m. until noonish. We will be trying to chip up a lot dead wood into mulch and generally doing major landscaping catch up. This is a serious call to everyone in the church to come and do some work that a few folks have been doing for all of us over the past several years. Refreshments will be provided by our Rector, Father Battle and that you do not want to miss.
Bishop Herlong’s Annual Visit
The Bishop is coming for his annual visitation Sunday June 16th. This year we will be celebrating a number of confirmations. In addition to preaching and Celebrating the Eucharist at the 10:30 service, Bishop Herlong will be with us for our spiritual formation time beginning at 9:15. Please come and join in welcoming him to St. Mark’s. Rumor has it the garden might be blessed as well that day!
Congratulations Graduates!
Eric Tucker, BMus, MTSU
Greg Noren, EFM
