January 2010 Archives

The immediate response from the Christ Church Vestry was to encourage our parishioners to provide initial monetary response to Episcopal Relief & Development (ER&D), which has agents and channels already in Haiti. Checks made payable to Christ Church with the memo "Haiti - ER&D" will go to ER&D and 100% will go to the short-term needs in Haiti. In response to this first appeal, Christ Church Outreach Ministries (CCOM) has approved the immediate disbursement of $4,521 in disaster relief funds to ER&D for immediate assistance to the people of Haiti.   

 In addition to this initial action, CCOM has begun working with agencies with which we have existing relationships to provide financial and other aid to the people of Haiti. In the past Christ Church has worked with Stop Hunger Now, which sent many of the meals we packed last November to Haiti. We have sent missionaries to Haiti through the Haiti Fund and its CODEP group that primarily focuses on Haitian development. We also have worked with the Water Ministries in Charleston, SC, to produce and distribute water purification units to Haiti and other locations. We believe that there will be a long-term need in Haiti, and these organizations will give our parish a direct way to assist the Haitian people in the months ahead.

Financial support will be needed for these Christ Church relief efforts to Haiti, and we ask for your support. Checks should be sent to Christ Church with the memo "Haiti - CCOM."  Checks can be placed in the alms basin during services, or mailed or brought to the church.  

As plans develop, we also will seek your direct participation in these relief efforts. Needs are being assessed on the ground, and we will identify the ways that our parish can reach out to the victims of this disaster. Your direct and personal support to Christ Church relief efforts may be through activities such as;

      - packing additional meals through Stop Hunger Now
      - preparing health and other aid packages
      - assembling additional water purification units
      - and for some, participating in mission trips to Haiti.  

For more information contact:
Andy Givens, Chair of the CCOM
Marshall Lamb, Haiti relief coordinator, CCOM
Cassie Struthers, church staff support for CCOM
 

    For three years in the late 60s and early 70s I taught in the Virginia State Penitentiary. The electric chair was still "hot" (in use), as they said.  Anyone jailed in that special section also heard the phrase whenever they were going down a corridor, "Dead man walking."  They were "marked" men. They knew it. Everyone knew it.             
    
    Up Route 17 in Gloucester County, VA, sits a perfectly restored Episcopal Church, "Abingdon" (c. 1650), surrounded by the traditional low brick-walled cemetery on both sides. To historians, the Flemish-bond brick work and the true Greek-cross symmetry of the building is exquisite. That's the "church," as some would say. But every day the real "church" moves about that building inside and out with the living saints who come and go for spiritual sustenance and provide response to each other and the world beyond. Then there are the previous "saints" whose names are on weather-worn "tombstones" and not-so-worn brass grave markers. My sixth great-grandfather (Hughes) was the rector there, but I never knew the man and can't find his grave!  Members of Christ Church in this time of transition: you know... rectors!... they come and go just like the parishioners do.

    One area in that cemetery is marked "Hogg" and a section of that, with its own bronze plaque, already has the names of my mother, father, son and will embrace my name and my wife's. Whoever in our family also wants to snuggle in beside us in the future will decide that in the years to come - we've got a plenty  'a "plots!" But...

             ... but my heart's connection to that place is not in my blood lines past, present and future, but rather in the words that my wife and I chose for our (immediate) family bronze plaque for (up to) eight spots. The words are simply:  Marked As Christ's Own Forever.  Those words from the Book of Common Prayer's baptismal service (see note below) say it all.  We'll use them again at the 9:00 and 11:00 this coming Sunday, Jan. 10th, as we baptize another eight infants and one 10 year-old, and then sign their foreheads with the sign of the cross and proclaim them to be Marked As Christ's Own Forever.

    Somehow I've never felt the tug at the actual pouring of the water, be that right or wrong. But when I or another person says on behalf of all the faithful gathered, "You are marked as Christ's own forever," my heart strings just soar.  Why?

    Because it is was at my physical birth that I was certainly born into this world and its crazy, wonderful "ride" of both good and bad surprises.  But it is at my baptism that I was told, "You now are an integral part of the family of God and you will be loved, accepted, cared for... and, well, marked by Christ's embrace and beloved far beyond the date on any bronze cemetery plot.

    The only thing left for me is to feel that cross branded onto my forehead and march boldly into every new day as if I had the "father and mother God" holding me on each arm and the one power, the Christ, who lived and died as I do and will walk before me and beckon me to the new life of new days - for always.

    Yes I am a marked man. In one way I am marked for the "time's up" call just like those at the penitentiary, but I don't know how or when that will be -  for the moment.

    But in the most wonderful of ways I am also marked - marked as Christ's own forever; and you and I are one with each other in the this world and the next ride full of surprises far beyond the walled area of any Abingdon Church.

    My Epiphany - every year, every baptism, everyday, if I can remember it, is:  I am marked - as Christ's own forever.

    Are you?  Of course you are!  You're a marked [wo]man walking! 


                                    Peter Hogg


NOTE:
BCP page 308:  "N., you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own forever."

EYC supplements the Sunday School program by providing fellowship and outreach activities to create a peer-based community, featuring open dialogue about faith and spirituality and opportunities for ministry in the church as well as the broader Raleigh community. EYC takes place on Sunday nights and allows for the different grades to join together.

Jr. EYC grades 6-8 - 5:30-6:30pm
Dinner - 6:30-7:00pm all grades
Sr. EYC grades 9-12 - 7:00-8:00pm

EYC meetings will resume in the fall.

Videos of the 2009 pageant will be available for $10. Please contact Anna Smith (asmith@christchurchraleigh.org or 834-6259 x119) to order your copy.