Get to Work

When I arrived here some seven weeks ago I was very warmly greeted.  A number of you I have known since my first time here 11 years ago in 2013.  Since my arrival this time, many of you have said how glad you are that I am here.  How good it is to have me here.  And similar lovely comments.  Thank you.  I am humbled, honored, and very much appreciate those sentiments.  And, a number of you have followed that with asking me, ‘Are you happy here? Do you like being here?’ The answer is YES!  I love being here at St. Paul’s Within the Walls.  But it is important at this juncture to make something very clear.  I am NOT your next rector. St. Paul’s is in an interim period, a period of transition and I am your interim priest, your interim rector. I am the Transition Guy! As such it is my job to lead you through this transition, to provide stability and allay anxieties, to make some needed changes, and mostly to walk with you through this interim period prayerfully listening together for God’s call to St. Paul’s at this time. Much like Samuel in our first reading listening to the call of God to anoint David as king.

So let’s go back to the query made to me. I love being here at St. Paul’s Within the Walls  And let me tell you why… Mostly because of you! The wonderful people here, lovely, warm, caring, talented, committed.  But there is more. This is a great place. You are doing God’s work. There is very good liturgy here.  Accompanied, or better said enhanced, by wonderful music. In a gorgeous building, fantastically restored and maintained. What more could you ask? Look around. Listen. To the liturgy, to the music.

But there is more.  Your spirit of hospitality and caring is infectious, exemplary. I have spoken with many visitors, including close friends of mine visiting the parish, who told me they were welcomed extremely warmly. Made to feel welcomed and loved when they were here.

And, there is great ministry going on here. Not only do we have a liturgy in English and Italian, we also have a vibrant and thriving Hispanic community with a service in Spanish. With much care rendered to and among the Latino community. How many churches are trilingual? And then there are the other ministries.  he Refugee Center nourishing body, mind, and soul of 200 people daily, from all walks of life and all the ends of the earth. There are the various support groups, AA, Al-Anon, etc.  There was a strong representation in the Pride Celebration and march yesterday touting our message that God loves all God’s people. Dio ama a tutti. Punto e basta! the banner we carried said.  So many people came up and read it. Smiled. And gave us a thumbs up. Then there are the daily concerts feeding the aesthetic needs of another 200 people. This place is doing ministry. Touching the world. The building is being used as a church, reaching out to God’s people, almost to the max.

I travel a great deal and have for a long time. A few years ago  in a sermon I counted up and made reference to the fact that I had worshiped in somewhere between 150 and 200 Episcopal churches in the US, Europe, Central America, South America, Asia, and Australia. And that’s not just because I am a priest. I have only been a priest for the last 20 years. It was during my many travels throughout life.  I can’t think of a church that is used, as a church, to such a full degree. And doing God’s work so well. Caring for and loving God’s people. It brings to mind the passage from Matthew 25: ‘Well done good and faithful servant.’

But it is important to emphasize that this didn’t all just happen. The cornerstone of St. Paul’s was laid in 1873 and the new church was opened in 1876. The first rector, Dr. Robert Jenkins Nevin was a Union artillery officer in the US Cvil War who brought the American convictions of liberty and equality here.  He worked tirelessly with the renowned English architect George Edmund Street to envision and erect this building.  Indeed his memorial plaque over the doorway proclaims him, “a soldier for union and freedom” and records that “this temple is his monument.” The second rector, Walter Lowrie likewise was instrumental in finishing the decoration of the church and rectory. The blue ceiling and stars are attributed to him, he, the rector having done a good bit of the painting himself! Climbing up and down the scaffolding. Dr. Nevin served as rector 37 for years, Dr. Lowrie for 24. Powerful, driven, inspiring and faithful leaders. 

And then there are the architects and artists. The Sir Edmund Coley Burnes-Jones mosaics. The George Breck Mosaics.

This didn’t all just happen. Dr. Nevin, that first rector, made seven ‘arduous transatlantic fund-raising trips’ and raised support from people who had traveled to Rome in that era and loved the place. People like William Herriman, Junius Spencer Morgan, father of the famous tycoon J.P. Morgan, the Astors and many others.

That tradition has been carried on by 16 rectors, notably and more recently Michael Vono for 18 years and Austin Rios for 12 years. Also great portions of the work here, especially the care and restoration of the building, have been supported by “Trustees of St. Paul’s American Protestant Episcopal Church” affectionately known as The Board, in New York. In our era and for many years led by the deeply committed and generous Marnie Dawson Carr, and spearheaded by the architect David Yager. Who was here, with his wife Kathy, last week continuing the restoration and upkeep here. All of them live in the United States but support this place.

This place doesn’t just happen.

In his Foreword to the very enlightening book St. Paul’s Within-the Walls, Rome by Judith Rice Millon, Father Michael Vono calls this place, “a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-national and multi-ethnic community, working in harmony with each part offering some priceless and unique element of spiritual insight.”  He also writes of the changing social milieu and mission of the Episcopal church in the 1980’s, “…the beginning of great changes in the mission of St. Paul’s and in the composition of its parish membership.  He [Wilbur Woodhams, the rector before Vono] noted these and pointed to a more cosmopolitan, all-embracing and open faith, still rooted in the Anglican tradition but without the exclusiveness that had once characterized its work and its role in Rome.”

What a legacy! What work is being done here. What wonderful ministry flows forth from this place, all day every day. And touches countless lives. And more recently the rear doors of the church, the Doors for Christian Unity, dedicated in 1977 and commemorating Pope John XXIII’s words of unity — that we all may be one — are opened on Sundays showing the world what we do and inviting the world in.  And people come in!

But this doesn’t just all happen. It requires commitment and faith and prayer, and leadership. I want the Vestry to stand up. These are your Vestry members. They are the leaders of the church. They are your leaders. If you don’t know them, get to know them. If you don’t talk with them or communicate much with them, it’s time to do so. It is their job to lead you. Now I want the rest of you, as comfortably able, to stand up. It’s also your job here to lead this place and make it continue to flourish. Look at each other.  Look all around. It’s time to take up the mantle. Go ahead and be seated.

In our reading from Samuel today the Lord tells Samuel that he has rejected Saul from being king over Israel and has provided for a new king. And he goes on to tell Samuel that he is to lead that effort in identifying the next king. The rest of the story is great — Samuel going to Jesse who parades his sons out without success. It is only when the Lord intervenes and says to Samuel that none of these are right, that Jesse is prompted to call the youngest son in from tending sheep. Dirty, smelly, not dressed for the occasion, but “ruddy..with beautiful eyes…and handsome” David comes in. “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one,” the Lord says.

We are in an interim period here. And have just begun the search process for the next rector. God is leading us as he did Samuel. Like the grain of mustard seed growing into ‘the greatest of all shrubs’ mentioned in the gospel parable today, St. Paul’s has flourished from a parish without building to being the first non-Catholic church within the walls of Rome with the ministries we outlined above.  Father Michael Vono quotes Father Woodhams, “each generation has made the building a growing, living thing.”

Indeed. That’s why I love being here at St. Paul’s as do so many others. But it is time to move forward and continue the history. So get to work. You all have got what it takes. Now go and live into it! We are in this together. And Godspeed.

Amen.