Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson

Come home!

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Easter 6C, May 25, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Acts 16:9-15. Come and stay at my home.
  • Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God.
  • John 14:23-29. We will come to them and make our home with them.

O God of love, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Many of you know that early on Tuesday mornings, every other month, a group gathers on Zoom to ponder together the Gospel passage coming up on the following Sunday; and when the vestry meets, we do the same thing. This past Tuesday, we discussed our Gospel lesson for today.  If you’re anything like these early-morning or evening skeptics, and if they are representative of the parish (my guess is that they are), some of you just heard that Gospel reading as comforting: loving words about a deeper peace than the world can ever give. Even though Jesus was leaving (in fact, about to be arrested and crucified), he promised that the spirit of his words (The Word) would be with them; his peace would be with them.  They did not need to be afraid; they were going to be cared for and defended by the spirit of God, Who is Love.  Continue reading →

We are all one.

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Proper 5C, May 18, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 11:1-18. The spirit told me…not to make a distinction between them and us.
Revelation 21:1-6. I am making all things new…to the thirsty I will give water as a gift.
John 13:31-35. I give you a new commandment, [in order] that you love one another.

O God of all, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

We are celebrating the baptism of Bodie Richard Coulon this morning, so we’ll all be invited to review what our Church teaches about baptism and we’ll be invited to renew our own baptismal vows. Today is a great day for a baptism because our scripture lessons describe beautiful visions of well-being.  Continue reading →

Wake up! Rise up!

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Easter 4C, May 11, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 9:36-43. He gave her his hand and helped her up.
Revelation 7:9-17. He will guide them to springs of the water of life.
John 10:22-30. It was winter.

O God of life, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

During Eastertide, our lectionary offers no lessons from the First Testament. The effect, I think, is to overemphasize a break between Jesus’ followers and Jesus’ religious heritage. Instead, we have passages from the Acts of the Apostles’ romantic accounts of the beginnings of Christianity, written toward the end of the first century about “the good old days.” Today it’s Peter raising Dorcas from the dead with a line that is almost exactly the same as what Jesus said to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead: arise or wake up, come alive! In other words, Peter was ministering just like Jesus. I love line, “he gave her his hand and helped her up.” Continue reading →

Behave as if it were true!

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Easter 3C, May 4, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 9:1-6(7-20). “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen.”
Revelation 5:11-14. And the four living creatures said, “Amen!”
John 21:1-19 . Come and have breakfast.

O God of resurrection, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

We are well on our way into the Great Fifty Days of Easter, the extended Feast of the Resurrection. I love that the Church calendar gives 40 days for Lent, but 50 days for Easter because Easter is harder. Lent is easier for many of us – we know our need for increased focus on penitence, discipline, prayer, study, and our need for mercy. Many of you tell me that Lent is your favorite church season. On the other hand, a season of increased focus on resurrection (on rising from the dead) trips people up, especially when the news of what’s going on in the world is so bad. (I’ll tell you something; it was bad for the earliest Jesus followers, too.) Continue reading →

Risen

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Easter 2C, April 27, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 5:27-32. Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.
Revelation 1:4-8. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood.
John 20:19-31. Peace to you…peace to you…peace to you.

O God of love, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Blessed are you who come to church on the Sunday after Easter, in spite of a trifecta of truly terrible theological ideas that get repeated every single year on this day, no matter what.  The first is from Luke the Evangelist in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter accuses the high priests of having Jesus executed.  The second is from John the Divine in Revelation, the idea that Jesus’ death was a blood sacrifice required for atonement with God.  The third is the disparagement of doubt from John the Evangelist. We will hear some good and comforting news today from the prophet Isaiah, but you’ll have to wait to hear it until after communion. These four texts (the first three from the New or Second Testament, and then the text from Isaiah in the Old or First Testament) do not support the fallacious idea that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and the God of the New Testament is a God of love. I cannot say often enough that the God of Jesus is the God of Israel. There is plenty of love from God in the First Testament and plenty of wrath in the Second Testament, but Christians tend not to hear or read scriptures in a way that facilitates our comprehension. Continue reading →

Appreciating Superpowers

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Another common art production in the books: the Easter Play was a huge success. I am so proud of all my cast members for their hard work. I think the most gratifying part was not the performance itself, but the process:  getting to see everyone become more comfortable being expressive and dramatic, and seeing the unique ways in which they each related to their characters. I did a “talkback” after the play, where I asked each cast member to share something they had learned from the experience.  It was beautiful to hear everyone’s unique take-aways. Whether it was about sharing a message of stopping violence, appreciating small joys, embracing skepticism, making oneself heard, or having faith, it seems as if everyone got what they needed out of it.  That’s the whole point of drama therapy: that people will project the healing experience they need into the dramatic work. Continue reading →

Happy Easter!

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This week is our Easter Play! Woohoo! It has been such an honor to lead its rehearsal sessions and watch these cast members bloom into dedicated actors. I am sure the performance will be a hit; but regardless of the outcome, I am immensely proud of all of them for showing up, investing their beautiful creative energy, and humoring my weird, drama-therapy, acting exercises. Continue reading →

Rehearsing Our Easter Play

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Over the past couple weeks, our Easter Play rehearsals have taken on a new rhythm.  It’s been such a joy to watch the group grow more connected—to each other and to the characters they’re embodying.

We’ve been starting each session with playful physical warm-ups to get everyone moving and loosened up. Prompts like “walk as if you’re being chased by bees” or “walk in slow motion” usually get a few laughs, but they also help folks get out of their heads and into their bodies. From there, we transition into “walk as your character,” which invites people to begin stepping into their roles in a physical, intuitive way. Continue reading →

2025

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March 30.  We continued our annual meeting, which had begun in February via Zoom due to a snowstorm, with a celebration of the 15th anniversary of our rector’s installation. Actually Pam came to us as priest-in-charge 17 years ago and preached her first sermon on March 2, 2008.

Wardens Pat Krol & Rebekah Shore were joined by Jill Silverstein of Central Reform Temple in congratulating our rector Pam Werntz.

May 4.  Our rector presided at a memorial service in Lindsey Chapel for benefactor James Theodore Bartlett (2/13/1937 – 11/7/2024).  A beloved member of our congregation, Jim served for years as chair of our Finance Commission.

May 11.We dedicated our third pulpit statue to the Rev. Dr. Suzanne Radley Hiatt: theologian, prophet, priest, professor, and advocate.

Ordained as one of the Philadelphia 11 on July 29, 1974, this “bishop to the women” served as an inspirational mentor to many, including our rector, whose dedicatory sermon can be watched about 28 minutes into our recorded service.   For Dr. Hiatt’s connection to Pauli Murray, please see We’ve Come This Far by Faith.  We thank Ted Southwick and the friends of the late Dr. Hiatt for supporting this project.

Sculptor Ted Southwick smiled while our rector asperged his figure of the Rev. Dr. Suzanne Hiatt. Photo: JG Bullitt

Marianne Iaucco, vestry member (2007-08), Clerk of Vestry (2009-10); Mary Blocher, Treasurer (1995), vestry member (2007-11); Anna Pauline Zeusler, vestry member (1990-93)

Dec 21.  We bade farewell to Mary Blocher and Marianne Iauco as they joined our diaspora in order to be closer to family after their four decades of service on our vestry and Worship Commission. Pauli Zeusler, who had known them when she served on our troubled vestry in the early 1990s, came to the luncheon they gave the parish before their departure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dec. 22.   The Rt. Rev. J. Clark Grew II, Bishop of Ohio (1994-2004) and our Associate Priest for many years, died in Boston. Born 20 Dec. 1939, he was the namesake of his great uncle J.C. Grew, US Envoy to Denmark & Switzerland, Ambassador to Turkey & Japan, then Undersecretary of State during WWII. The Grew family held Pew 62 from the foundation of Emmanuel, and Annie Clark (Mrs. Henry) Grew held the deed for Pew 51 from 1897-1925. 

Feast of Love

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Lent 4C, March 30, 2025.  The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Joshua 5:9-12. The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his [sic] appeal through us.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32. Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling.

O God of mercy, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but I wonder how many of you ever complained about someone else’s bad behavior? (I have, too.)  I wonder when you complained, did you want an answer? (I have, too.) I think it’s important to know that Jesus tells this story of the man who had two sons in response to the complaint that Jesus welcomes sinners. The story is part of Jesus’ answer to others complaining about his habit (or practice) of hanging out with people who behave badly. The complainers, according to Luke, were some of Jesus’ colleagues. And the complaint was that Jesus welcomed sinners, people who were dangerously out of step with the well-being of the community, people who were unclean, unethical, unlawful, just plain gross.  Not only did Jesus welcome them, he even ate with them. Simply put, the complaint was, that’s foolish, that’s not right, and, for those who were jealous, that’s not fair. Continue reading →