Bible Study Class, led by Ruth Woodend and Jim Dunn, meets every Sunday morning at 9:15 a.m. in the Tower Room.

The Lectionary Study Group, led by Fr. Raasch, meets on Thursdays at 10:30 a.m.

Have you ever wondered if The Choir School is right for you and yourchild? Bring your child (age 7 – 11) and experience a rehearsal and learn more about The Choir School on Tuesday, May 22 at 6:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall. Please reserve your spot by contacting The Choir School office (704-749-6146).

Augustine Project for Literacy , an outreach program of St. Peter’s since 2004, has as its mission to improve the literacy skills of low income children and teens. Many of our tutors and board members are parishioners of St. Peter’s. Become an Augustine tutor by completing our two week training workshop. Contribute financially. Join us by helping with hospitality, newsletter mailings, and other support activities. To sign up or learn more or contact Candace Armstrong, Director (704-332-7746, or carmstrong@augustine.st-peters.org).

Mecklenburg Ministries’ 25^th Anniversary Celebration: “From Common Ground to Higher Ground”, Tuesday, June 5, 7:30 p.m. at the Belk Theater at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. A special evening of live performances, video pictorials and dynamic speakers reflecting the diverse religious faiths in the local community and highlights of the rich history of Mecklenburg Ministries.  Contemporary and traditional music and dance will leave toes tapping and voices raised in song for this special anniversary celebration!    Tickets are free, but required for admission.   Visit www.meckmin.org to reserve and print your free tickets and find directions and parking information.

Greater Charlotte Ultreya for NC Episcopal Cursillo, Sunday, May 20, 2012, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 3601 Central Ave. Pot Luck Supper 5:30pm. Ultreya 6:30 pm.  Next Ultreya – Sunday June 17, 2012 at All Saints Episcopal, Concord. For more information contact: Fran and Manning Huske  (704)362-4107 Home (704)277-4366 Cell or E-mail: fph@bellsouth.net.

There are many kinds of sacraments. Whether approved by the Church or experienced in everyday life, these life-changing and transfiguring encounters with the Holy are experienced through fluid and visible signs bringing to consciousness ineffable and invisible mysteries.

Today, through the sacrament of Baptism, we welcome a new child into the world and the Body of Christ. Two years old and full of life, she reminds us of the most wonderful miracle of all—birth, the gift of life, creation revealed as an act of love and compassion.

And then, in a ceremony resembling Confirmation, we launch young people on a journey of emerging manhood and womanhood as they learn how to express and live the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical realities of adulthood within a framework of dignity, respect, responsibility, joy, and service.

And last Sunday, we experienced another kind of sacrament. The Parish Picnic, with at least 100 parishioners attending, was a joyful gathering of the clan. We give thanks to Mary Ann Danchess, Logan Smith, Kevin Nunnery, Robin Masten, and many more who made it happen. As all moments of life are opportunities for insight, I learned that barbecue in this part of the South does not refer to ribs but various kinds of pork, with visible condiments to bring out zesty flavors invisibly present in the meat. And what a spread of desserts that we could enjoy without guilt as we are in Easter Season and not Lent!

As I left the picnic I noticed all the other people at the park that day. Individuals, couples, families and groups were outdoors on a beautiful Southern afternoon, enjoying the heavenly lightshow of changing cloud and shining sun, feeling alternating currents of cool and warming air blowing across bare legs and arms, playing and walking and bicycling in this Garden of Eden we call the earth. We weren’t alone at the park, our gathering shaped by life all around. And each person at the park, church member or not, had a story, shared or quietly carried within—of lifelong dreams and private sorrows, satisfaction after a lifetime of work and anxiety while looking for a new job.

Life may not be a picnic, but life and reality are signs that God’s love abounds as far as and further than the eye can see. God is love, more than sentimental feeling reserved only for family and friends. Love is action and intention whether the emotions are there or not, invisible love made manifest in creation and compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation. We are a part of mystery. Look around and within and witness creation unfolding and unveiling. We never left the Garden, only chose darkness over light, and as we return to conscious love and visible light, there is the garden of life, more beautiful and sublime than ever.

–The Reverend Timothy D. Raasch, Interim Rector

It’s a true Southern shrimp boil (with red potatoes, corn, sausage), plus French bread, slaw, and beer and peach pie and ice cream for dessert. Tickets are all inclusive: $28 per person, in advance. We are limited to 100 – don’t delay! Babysitting will be available at no extra charge – a fun night out for young parents!
Contact Lyn Holt to reserve your tickets!

Jesus’ parables often speak of nature—of mustard seeds growing into large shrubs, of the Spirit moving like the wind and who knows when and where it comes and goes? Religion may have begun as a way of understanding the wonders, mysteries, and terrors of the natural world, rooted in a sense that there is something behind the curtain that explains the movement of stars and planets, and the paradoxical shift between deadly drought and raging storm.

William James, the great American philosopher, describes those experiences of a larger reality as “oceanic.” We are taken out of our ordinary routine and thrust into the presence of ineffable Creation that washes over us, engulfs us, takes us down deep into the depths, and when we finally struggle back to the surface, gasping for air, we realize that we are truly in over our heads with a Living God we so often shrink down to manageable size and need. In the Hebrew Scriptures, YAHWEH is the best name for this one God, a God of creation and destruction, presence and absence, a God knowable and unknowable.

But we also experience this larger reality through small, ordinary things we may take for granted. I grew up in California suburbia with streets looking the same almost every way you turned, and street names that curiously came from another part of the world with no historical relation to where we lived. Our subdivision of Eichler homes, classic Mid-Century Modern in style, was carved however out of a sprawling apricot orchard.

And so every summer I would climb up rickety ladders in search of glowing orange orbs of fruit that my mother would then turn into delicious pies. Time and again, while up there on the final rung of the ladder, or gently stepping out onto curving barky branch, I would experience time slipping away and mystery descending. Suddenly, I was no longer a suburban boy but an ancient keeper of orchards, and all you had to do to remember the glories of God’s abundant creation was to pluck a ripe fruit, wash it off on your shirt, take a bite and let the juices roll down your face and arm.

Jesus is the true vine, and God the Father is the vinegrower. We are the workers in the field, an indispensable part of the weave and fabric of life. Fruits of new life are all around us, and within, and all we need do is reach out and let them wash over us. And, while we’re at it, share those fruits with others. There is plenty to go around. God’s creation is abundant as long as we walk the journey together.

–The Reverend Timothy D. Raasch, Interim Rector

The vestry and the interim rector met on May 8^th and agreed that Fr. Tim’s last Sunday at St. Peter’s will be July 15^th. We give thanks for our time together this year as we celebrated the rich history of St. Peter’s, gave thanks for the ongoing vitality of a lively parish church and explored new ideas that will open us up to the future with the arrival of a new rector and a new vision of parish life. 

We have reviewed applications, had discussions with certain candidates over Skype, and are preparing to bring a narrowed field of candidates to Charlotte for more in-depth conversations. These visits will also give the candidates a chance to see Charlotte and St Peter’s.  These visits will be with the Search Committee only. We know everyone understands and respects that we have to maintain confidentiality. The next step after these visits will be for Search Committee members to visit candidates at their parishes. The Search Committee is excited about the wonderfully gifted candidates in our discernment process. Please pray for our committee, for St. Peter’s, and for our candidates as we continue to discern God’s call for all of us.

Read more on the Search Committe website, including an updated timeline.

Quite a shift takes place in today’s readings. We move from uncanny resurrection appearances behind the doors of locked rooms to the bright sunlight of green, verdant meadows where sheep safely graze under the watchful eye of an attentive shepherd. While it sounds like we’re playing with genres here—locked room mysteries and pastoral tone poems worthy of Wordsworth—part of what is going on here are the many, multiple, and infinite ways in which we can experience God, the Holy, the Ineffable mystery of being.

The good shepherd is one of the first representations of Jesus to appear in early Christian art. Controversial at the time because it defied traditional teachings about graven images of the Sacred, the picture of shepherds safeguarding vulnerable sheep provided to be irresistible in the early Christian imagination, an example of deeply moving art working backwards and shaping theology from the grassroots.

The Holy can be experienced in both places, of course. Mystery is palpably present when we gather in small groups for prayer, study, and healing, and then starkly absent, leaving a glowing echo in the room reminding us that we are in the presence of something that can never be fully named or contained.

And yet that something knows us and calls us by name, even comes running after us if we stray too far away from the flock. What brilliantly lit memories we have of hearing our name called in childhood—by parent, teacher, or best friend—and knowing that we are recognized, loved, and accepted for who we are.

We’re on the way to Galilee, my friends, searching for signs of holy presence in towering temple and fertile fields of everyday life. Faith is learning how to practice the presence of God—to love God and love all living things—in and beyond the glittering, ceremonial courts of religion. Soon, with Pentecost approaching, we will gather in an ordinary room, pray and experience something so transformative, earth-shaking and soul-deepening that people are still talking about it 2000 years later. Galilee is coming closer and are we ready for that next fiery flash of Spirit to take us wherever the wind might blow?

–The Reverend Timothy D. Raasch, Interim Rector

May 13: Mr. Thakor Topiwala of the Hindu Center of Charlotte will speak on: 
1) What his religion means to him and how he can help us understand it better.
2) The important religious and spiritual practices that help Hindu people grow in their faith and cope with their daily problems and how these practices are important to him.
3) What concerns he has about Christian/Hindu relations in Charlotte. What he sees happening between our religious groups that is positive. What we can do to become
better neighbors.

May 20 – General Convention report (Led by Josephine Hicks)

Astonishment indeed! The teaching and healing work of God incarnated by Jesus has now been passed to us through the ecstatic arrival of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, using one of Mark’s favorite words, we are in the presence of a new understanding of belief and the journey of faith. Beliefs comfort and provide structure, often leaving us who we were yesterday. Faith is a journey of awakening and transformation. And now it is up to us in Easter Season and beyond to turn the page to a very different notion of discipleship. Each one of us is called not only to be hearers of the Word, but doers. And not only doers and followers, but Christlike—Sons and Daughters of God one and all. We are called to “be Christ”—God becoming human in Jesus and all of us not just in words and behavior but the very ground of our being.

I love the story of the lame man early in Acts. The story takes place at the gate of the temple called Beautiful, probably located on the east side of the temple. Something is “beautiful,” according to standard dictionary definitions, if it is “pleasing to the senses, possessing certain qualities of harmony and balance, truthfulness and originality.” This juxtaposition of beautiful with healing opens up new ways of thinking and feeling.

God’s sacred creation is in need of repair and reconciliation. To heal something is not merely to treat symptoms but to go into the depths of being out of which illness and dis-ease emerge. Healing is an aesthetic act of creation as well as existential and therapeutic.

And it begins with us. Lingering still in the human heart is the assumption that if only others would change, then all would be right with us. The healing of creation begins within, in the interior work that we may not want to do because it will change us. The question for all of us: do we want to feel better for an hour—or a lifetime? Distracting ourselves from the true soul and spiritual work of the inner life is easy—change the radio station, pour another drink, return to a safe place of anger or hurt that provides structure and meaning for our life. As Thomas tells us in his gospel, the kingdom is within you. An inner life of beauty, compassion and dignity shapes our outer world and all of our relationships. Whatever we forgive will be forgiven; whatever retained will be retained.

Peter is discovering that it is one thing to worship Jesus, another thing to follow and become messiah just like him. It is a wonderfully new journey of faith that awaits him and us. Repent and let go of that old journey of faith we’ve carried since childhood and open the door to the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, the real and forgotten center of the Church Year, is on the way. Step aboard the ship and spread the sails. The invitation to the great feast has already been given. The healing, harmony and joy we need is already within us. Go wherever the Spirit calls and all will be well.

–The Reverend Timothy D. Raasch, Interim Rector

Silence is the heart of contemplative prayer. Learning how to sit, slow down, and be present with and in our bodies, with and in our life, comes naturally to some and learned by the rest of us. By paying attention to one’s breathing, focusing on an image or icon, or emptying out and making room for a place beyond rational thought, we learn how thoughts and feelings may have nothing to do with reality. Through silence we become aware of a deeper and larger reality beyond fear, anger and anxiety. Another way emerges, one of harmony and balance, thanksgiving and celebration, all practiced through ancient ways of awareness, calmness, and mindfulness.

Thanksgiving is one of the principal forms of prayer listed in the Prayer Book, but have you noticed when we invite prayers on Sunday morning, how few of us speak out loud what we are thankful for, favoring intercessions and petitions only? Thanksgiving is related to confession and forgiveness in our preference for gratitude for the gift of life. How much spiritual energy is lost when the “inner critic” is busy looking around for something to be disappointed in! Thanksgiving for the precious gift of life given in creation is the hallmark of faith and the journey of discipleship.

And silence and thanksgiving lead naturally to compassion. Our Baptismal call is to love God and neighbor through active mission and ministry, love and reconciliation. Whenever we find ourselves eagerly listing and rehearsing the faults of others, it is helpful to return to these two commandments and practice and practice them (like learning scales of music until they are second nature) until a spirit of grace and forbearance enter our life. Compassion and service to others is the heart of religion according to English scholar Karen Armstrong. From anthropological evidence, it appears to be central to being human as well.

I give thanks for our Lenten journey this year, and good attendance and wonderful energy during Holy Week, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday morning. As we journey towards Galilee in this Easter Season, may we begin to practice the presence of God taught us by Jesus of Nazareth. As beliefs give way to faith, and faith becomes daily practice, discipline and joy, the presence of God becomes a way of living and being. It is truly transformative. Something shifts in our body, a click goes off in our brain and a new light enters our life. As we search for the Risen Lord, may God find us and make of us a new creation.

–The Reverend Timothy D. Raasch, Interim Rector