If you open one of the cabinets in the vesting sacristy, push aside cassocks and surplices hanging there, you will see a rectangular block with 1893 etched into it. This is the cornerstone of the church building. Sadly, when I first arrived at Good Shepherd, that cabinet had mold growing on the wooden door, which we eventually washed down with bleach and cleaned. Perhaps it was something of a metaphor: in decades of parish life, ups and downs, the church’s very cornerstone was forgotten in the busyness of other things. I occasionally like to open that sacristy cabinet and look at the cornerstone and imagine what the day was like in 1893 when it was laid. The cornerstone reminds me of the solid foundation of the parish.
That cornerstone is also a metaphor for the countless generations of those who have come before us at Good Shepherd. It is always interesting to me that those who are visiting the church for the first time often comment to me that the church building has a good feeling. I don’t believe this is new age thinking. I think there really is something to the power of prayer that permeates the walls and corners of a building. Haven’t you ever noticed this in an ancient church? Have you been able to feel the prayer that has taken place over hundreds of years? I am always overjoyed when someone tells me they feel that goodness (and joy?) when they walk into the Church of the Good Shepherd. It is encouraging to think that no matter how many difficulties a parish might suffer, the goodness of rightly ordered prayer triumphs. When I say rightly ordered, I mean that prayer itself can be distorted by human sin; we don’t always know how to ask for the right things (for more on this, see a wonderful book The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin by Lauren F. Winner, New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2018). But it seems that even though I’m sure prayer has been disordered at times in the past at Good Shepherd, there has been enough rightly intentioned prayer to carry the parish through troubled times. Christ has won the victory over sin and death.
We, after all, as Christians in this little corner of God’s kingdom, have been brought to the present day by generations who have come before us. They are a cloud of witnesses who, since the founding of the parish in 1869, have been committed to a catholic expression of Anglicanism within the Episcopal Church, to serving the poor and needy, and to bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth (read more here). To some extent, the commitment to regularized, structured prayer rooted in the Book of Common Prayer protects us from our tendency to offer warped prayers. And I’m grateful for that.
At Good Shepherd, we are, in many ways, a community that is rebuilding. And the only way we can do that is, of course, with God’s gracious help. But God is also working through the prayerful and financial support of those who have come before us and those who are now with us, whether living geographically close to the church or afar. This is why our parish Advancement Committee has now formed an official Friends of Good Shepherd society. You can read more about this Friends society, but suffice it to say that those of us on the ground here in Rosemont can’t rebuild this parish alone. We need God first and foremost, but we also need the prayers and financial support of our friends, near and far.
Perhaps the greatest piece of good news in being a Christian is that we are never alone in what we do. We often forget this, but it’s true. On difficult days in the parish, I remind myself of this. I am deeply grateful for those of you who have already befriended this parish. Last week, emails were sent to a group of people who are connected with the parish but do not worship regularly with us. Some of them are charter members of the Friends of Good Shepherd because they already contribute financially to the parish. Others we hope will make an annual donation of at least $50 to be an official Friend. We in the parish commit to praying regularly for these Friends, and we intend to keep them connected in various ways, especially in a digital age. Each year, we will have a Friends gathering on the weekend of Good Shepherd Sunday, our Feast of Title.
Please note the celebrations planned for this year’s Feast of Title on April 30, when former rector Father Andrew Mead will return to the parish to preach at the morning Masses. We will also hold a celebratory luncheon after Sung Mass (register here), and we will pray Choral Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at 3 p.m. If you know of people who might like to become official Friends of Good Shepherd, would you please invite them to visit our website and learn more about Friends?
We are currently a small parish, even though we are growing, but we face enormous potential as well as enormous challenges. We are not too proud to ask for help. We routinely pray for God’s help. If you love this parish but live afar, will you consider becoming a Friend? And above all, will you pray for us? I believe this parish is a gift to the local community and wider Church. We are still discerning the specific ways in which God is calling us to serve that community and Church. And we would love your prayerful and financial support as we seek to become a light to the world for the sake of the Gospel.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle