Marcus Garvey Park
"Holy and life giving God, sustain us and all people we hold in prayer, by Christ's presence; help us to know the healing power of Christ's love. Empty us of all things which keep us from experiencing your healing. From pain and burdens too great to bear, from guilt and shame, from fearful memories and fear of the future, from addictions, from pride, greed, resentment and bitterness, from lying and pretence, and from the depths of despair..healing spirit set us free. .."
Ecclesia Ministries : Liturgy of the Word
New York City: April 23rd 2012
Today I went to three different church services, although one was attended only in my imagination.
Before I was fully awake this morning I was thinking about St James The Less in Bethnal Green, the church where I have been Vicar for five years.
After ten years in parish ministry my brain is sectioned, Homer Simpson like, into well separated areas.
Like most parish clergy I have a whole section called 'Sunday'' which scans the air every morning as I wake up and tells me whether it's today. This section of my brain knows perfectly well what day it is, but has no concept of where I am ( Geography never was my strong point!). So three thousand miles from home I am wondering if the readers and sides people have turned up, whether Brendan will appear with rude words and biscuits, if Jake the dog is safely under the piano, woofing and rattling his lead, and whether Wendy is glad to be back. It takes me a while to realise that by the time I am having this internal conversation from under the duvet they have all praised God and confessed their sins, eaten Brendan's biscuits, stroked the dog.. and gone home. because I am five hours behind them and they did it all while I was asleep. I am a bit disappointed that I missed it.
My second church service of the day was Solemn Mass at St Ignatius of Antioch on the Upper West Side. Holy Communion celebrated facing east; minimum clergy chit chat with the congregation and few instructions; big chunks of liturgy sung by a stunningly good choir. Needless to say the presence of God was tangible and wonderful and it left the congregation free to 'do business' with him in a pleasingly adult fashion, the clergy blending into the background.The congregation are an 'Upper West Side' crowd ( well dressed and well behaved) and bring with them all the issues to be found in every congregation I have ever known: Illness ,old age and bereavement, friendship, community and hospitiality. John, an English member of the congregation who serves at the altar, told me yesterday that the church has never felt the need to 'update' the liturgy but focuses on a community ministry which is radically open to all and which seeks to include all who want to come..
And then, to The Marcus Garvey Park Congregation.
The park is bleak. Dripping with rain, tucked behind a main road and utterly deserted on a bleak Sunday afternoon. Its a shock after the colours and incense of an hour ago. Except of course for the gathered community of Christ's body who come into view around a corner: Homeless, soaked with rain, gathering to break bread together under the watchful eye of Revd Clyde Kuemmerley, ordained priest only yesterday, and celebrating his first Sunday morning Holy Communion under an umbrella with some crazily fermenting grape juice *, and wafers which blow off the table every time there is a gust of wind. I am reminded of Debbie Little's words about why she started this ministry in Boston, she said, " We want people to come, to be celebrated wholeheartedly, and to go whenever they wish.. for there are no outcasts in a kingdom born in a manger".
This church is outside because there are people outside, and they too need community and to know the love of God, and to share their faith with others. It never fails to stop me in my tracks or to turn upside down that gurning place in my middle which begs me to be 'doing' rather than just 'being'. To have the opportunity to meet others in the wilderness and scare away our demons together, to 'walk a level plain' with other human beings, is a joy beyond belief.
*The grape juice has no alcohol in it,but left to its own devices and with a bit of warmth, starts to ferment gently and become ' a bit funky', according to Clyde.
