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- 1. The Waiting Room I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. – TS Eliot, “The Four Quarters” A few weeks ago I heard a student from Yale Divinity School offer a sermon about Christmas. She explained that she grew up in a Christian home where much was made of the “wonderful surprise” of the baby Jesus. The season of Advent, that busy stretch of weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, was meant to be a time of waiting and wondering and preparing for the birth of Christ. This was all well and good, the student explained, but somehow along the way she developed the idea that she needed to be freshly surprised by Jesus every Christmas. Somehow it seemed like her duty as a faithful Christian to “forget” about Jesus so that she could experience the wonder of Christmas Eve anew. “Very early on,” she said, “I started to get the idea that faith is about pretending to forget things that you know and pretending to believe things that you don’t.” Ouch. The poet TS Eliot offers a different way to wait. “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope,” he says. Does this mean we are to allow ourselves to sink into despair? Does it mean that we should become cynical and detached from the tragedies of everyday life? Does it mean that we should “forget” Jesus until a magical Christmas Eve moment? I think not. Instead, Eliot says, “Wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing.” For Mary and Joseph, the arrival of Jesus was impossibly good news they never could have expected. That’s not an experience that we will ever share on this side of Christendom. We know about Jesus, and every twelve months we arrive at this familiar liturgical moment. But there is something to be said for the discipline of opening yourself up to the possibility of unexpected good news. The more tightly we grip particular narratives, goals, or conceptions of what Good News will look like this year, the less available we are when the Christ Child finally arrives. Maybe part of Advent is simply the discipline of loosening our grip on our expectations, clearing enough space for the holy mystery of Incarnation – God-With-Us. Clearing the space can feel like negation, but in fact it is an act of deep faithfulness. We are once again in the waiting room. We do not pretend that we have never been here before. But nonetheless we strive to open our hands and be watchful and available to what God may do this year, in her own sweet time. Pastor’s Reflections. .1 Music Notes..............2 To Our Readers........2 Meditation Circle.....2 B.U.I.L.D.ING Up the Vote....................3 A Note of Thanks. .....4 Festive Brass Concert on December 7............5 Face Hunt Fall 2014...5 Massanetta Springs – Just Do It..................6 December Birthdays..7 Gifts of Stock...........7 Responsibility Schedule Box............7 December 2014 at BMPA...................8 In this Issue The Tidings December 2014 Good news from Pastor’s Reflections By Rev. Timothy Hughes, Associate Pastor for Youth tim@browndowntown.org
- 2. Page 2 The Tidings December 2014 “At the River” – Aaron Copland (1900-1990) In 1950, the composer Benjamin Britten asked Aaron Copland to arrange a set of American Folk tunes for his Music and Art Festival in Aldeburgh, England. The first set of songs was premiered by the famous tenor Peter Pears, with Britten at the piano. The songs were met with such success that Copland composed a second set which included an arrangement of the hymn, “Shall We Gather at the River”. This second set was premiered in 1953 with baritone William Warfield and Aaron Copland at the piano. Many of these songs have since been arranged for chorus and orchestra. The tune that is used, “Hanson Place”, is a reference to the original Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn where Robert Lowry, the composer, served as minister. “O Nata Lux” – Morten Lauridsen (1943 -) American composer, Morten Johannes Lauridsen is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts (2007). He was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994–2001) and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout (on an isolated tower near Mt. St. Helens) and attended Whitman College before traveling south to study composition at the University of Southern California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen. He began teaching at USC in 1967 and has been on their faculty ever since. In 2006, Lauridsen was named an ‘American Choral Master’ by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.” Magnificat Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) As a child Pergolesi studied with Francesco Santini; at sixteen he was sent to Naples where he studied with Durante and Feo. Pergolesi had a remarkable ability for improvising on the violin. In his brief lifetime Pergolesi produced many operas, oratorios, cantatas, shorter sacred music, and some instrumental works. He is best known for “La Serva Padrona” (Rome, 1735), a splendid example of early opera buffa. Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” (ca. 1730) was commissioned by the fraternity of S. Luigi di Palazzo to replace Alessandro Scarlatti’s composition which the Neapolitans performed traditionally on Good Friday. Bach is known to have adapted and performed this work. In spite of suffering from tuberculosis, Pergolesi maintained an optimistic outlook and continued to compose until his death. By Michael T. Britt, Minister of Music michael@browndowntown.org Music Notes As we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus, let us look backward to 10 years ago when the congregation of Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church received the gift of leadership and fellowship from Team Foster Connors – Andrew, Kate, Anna, and Aidan. What a glorious gift to the larger community, to the congregation, and to each individual! Thank you to all who submitted articles, pictures, reflections, and music notes chronicling the activities, the current events, and the past history of this community. I especially appreciate those persons who allowed themselves to be the subjects of profiles and the contributions of the Associate Pastor Tim Hughes, the Minister of Music Michael Britt, and the graphic artist extraordinaire, Laura McConnell. Our efforts would be worthless if Sharon Holley and Carol Graves did not handle the copying, the mailing, and the online posting of this newsletter. If I left a name out, please forgive me. 2015 will arrive soon. We do not know what it will bring, but we know that whatever happens, God is with us. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! – Ellen Carter Cooper To Our Readers Meditation Circle Please join us for a time of silence and community every Sunday, 9:00-9:30 in the Church House. All are welcome. Using a few words or an image to bring us to a place of stillness, we sit together in a circle of meditative quiet, ending with prayer. Through stilling our minds and opening our hearts, we find community with one another and with God. For more information or to be added to an email list for the Meditation Circle, please contact June Fletcher-Hill at fletcherhill@ msn.com or 410-367-0995. Plan to arrive a few minutes before 9:00 as we begin our time together right at 9:00.
- 3. December 2014 The Tidings Page 3 B.U.I.L.D.ING Up the Vote Approximately 300 volunteers assembled through Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) to get out the vote for this year’s Election Day. They focused on going door-to-door in North Baltimore’s Ward 27, which has a large proportion of registered voters, to ask residents if they planned to vote and needed any assistance to make it to the polls. Almost 7,000 people were reached. Through this get out the vote push, BUILD sought to send a signal to City Hall that by exercising their right to vote, the voters are paying attention to their elected officials. The following are short reflections from a few volunteers affiliated with Brown Memorial. When I was there Tuesday evening, one of the phone bank volunteers called an elderly woman at 7 p.m. who was very upset because her ride wasn’t working out to the polls, and she had never missed an election. Jake Cohen was dispatched immediately to take her to the polls, and they made it on time! She was thrilled! – Cheryl Finney On our last run of the night at 7 p.m., Jermaine, Libby, Jake, and I met a gentleman who lived in the apartment complex across from St. Matthews who had no way to get to the polls, and he told us he appreciated getting a ride; otherwise, he would not have voted. For me, that one gentleman made the whole day worth it. – Sherrell Savage, Brown’s BUILD liaison It’s uncomfortable to ring the doorbell of someone unknown, and for me, the idea of asking whoever answered the door whether he or she planned to vote was an even more uncomfortable prospect. But after ringing a couple doorbells and encountering some initially skeptical faces at the door, I discovered an instant bond when those faces smiled and said they’d already voted or planned to vote the next day. To those faces on the other side of the doorway, my presence became a thank you for voting, an unexpected moment of recognition that made us both smile. – David Nyweide I met two young women who stopped by our headquarters who were voting for the first time and were excited to share that with us. – Cheryl Finney Sporting our blue BUILD T-shirts, Beth and I were with Jake and another woman named Joyce at Belvedere Square Market, encouraging people to vote and offering rides to voters’ polling places if needed. Our team was wrapping up, and as Jake and I were heading back to the van, we saw a young (late teens/early twenties) man wearing headphones walking down Belvedere Avenue. We flagged him down and introduced ourselves – his name was Stefan – and asked him if he’d like to vote. When he said yes, Jake said, “We’ve got a van. We can take you there right now.” So Stefan went with us to the polling place. As we were walking to the van, he called someone on his phone and said, “I’m doing something I should have done already – I’m going to vote.” It turned out his mother had encouraged him to vote earlier that morning, so we caught him at the right time. We got to the polling place, which was right down the street from where he lived. I accompanied Stefan inside and told the poll workers (mostly older ladies) that I was with BUILD and that we’d brought Stefan in to vote – except that it wasn’t his polling place! The van left to pick up another voter, and I waited at the polling place while Stefan straightened out his paperwork and proceeded to fill out a paper ballot. As I waited, one of the poll workers walked by with a plate of food fit for Thanksgiving. I asked if it’s the kind of spread that poll workers get in Baltimore – when I worked an election in Northern Virginia, we got pizza and soda! They told me they did a potluck system there, so they had collard greens, sweet potatoes, turkey legs, cornbread, etc. They generously offered to fix me a plate “since you’re doing such good work getting continued on page 4 Photo by J. Brough Schamp From left, Rev. Glenna Huber, pastor of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church and Clergy Co-chair of BUILD; Rev. Andrew Foster Connors, pastor of Brown and clergy co-chair of BUILD; and Rev. William C. Calhoun, pastor of the Trinity Baptist Church
- 4. people out to the polls.” I declined, saying that if I got a big plate of food and my wife didn’t, I’d never hear the end of it, so of course they offered to make Beth a plate as well! By this time, the van had returned. I went out and told Beth everything, and she said, “You know, I’m REALLY looking forward to going out to lunch with you later – have the ladies give that plate to Stefan instead.” And that’s how Stefan not only cast his ballot but walked out of the polling place with a ton of encouragement and a plate piled (very) high with food. – Adam Allen I had two to three really great, long conversations with people in the door-to-door campaigning. These conversations centered on feelings of being overwhelmed by all the problems in their community and that they felt helpless to change them. We discussed issues that matter to them such as one woman’s efforts to write to U.S. Representative Cummings around redlining and its deleterious effect on her car insurance rate and how she felt powerless to do anything about it since she only got a form letter back. We had a great conversation about potential next steps, including what would it look like if she found 10 other people in her neighborhood who felt strongly about this issue and started a campaign that included a visit together to Rep. Cummings’s office. We discussed ways BUILD could work with her on this issue. While such conversations were not the intent of getting out the vote, I was amazed at how sometimes once a conversation began, the closed door opened slightly, then wider, and soon the individual was on the porch with me openly speaking. These interactions can spark great engagement with people in the community and a deeper sense of how people feel about their ability to effect changes in their neighborhoods. – Cheryl Finney Page 4 The Tidings December 2014 B.U.I.L.D.ING Up the Vote continued from page 3 Photo by J. Brough Schamp Brown member Cheryl Finney with another BUILD volunteer greeting someone at a doorstep to get out the vote. A Note of Thanks Chair Peggy M. Obrecht and the Committee to coordinate the 10th anniversary celebration of Andrew’s becoming the Pastor of Brown Memorial would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make it such a joyous occasion. It was a community effort and brought pleasure to all who were fortunate enough to be able to share in that day.
- 5. December 2014 The Tidings Page 5 Festive Brass Concert on December 7 For the first time ever, the popular Peabody Brass Bash, featuring 40 of “the best and the brightest” brass players from the Peabody Conservatory, will be performed at Brown Memorial! This concert, an annual holiday favorite, will be presented by the Tiffany Series at 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 7, 2014. Parking and shuttle service will be available. The Peabody Brass Ensemble will perform a varied program that includes seasonal works “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Gustav Holst and “the Wexford Carol,“ as well as familiar pieces like “Pie Jesu” from Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. Organist Michael Britt will join the brass on several selections, including “Pie Jesu” and Bruckner’s “Psalm 150.” Two other brass groups will also participate in the Bash: The Peabody Trumpet Ensemble and the Trompody Peabones, a trombone ensemble. Conducting it all will be David Fedder, Peabody Conservatory trombone faculty member and former member of both the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. Tickets to this family-friendly event are $15 (students $5) and are available in advance at www.browndowntown.org and in the Assembly Room after worship. They can also be purchased at the door. Face Hunt Fall 2014 Can you guess which Brown adults played Face Hunt with the youth at the Towson Town Center Mall?
- 6. Christmas is my least favorite holiday season. The first decoration required in our house on December 1st is my “Bah Humbug” ornament. The concomitant public cheer does little to lift my grumpy mood brought on by cold dark days, dry skin, and static. Now summer – summer is my favorite. The steamier the days, the better. So it was with the happy thought of summer that I agreed when Tim asked in late January of 2014 for help chaperoning kids to the Massanetta Springs Middle School Conference. Even though our family had plans for a two-week trip to England ending on July 5, I told Tim I would be happy to go with him from July 15-18 to the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. Fast forward – really, like the blink of an eye – to registration time. The theme? Beyond the Manger. CHRISTMAS. Christmas? In my favorite of seasons, summer??? The phrase “Man plans, God laughs” ran through my head more than once, along with many other colorful thoughts inappropriate to share in a church newsletter. But I had committed, and it was a few months away, and I was sure I could muster enough summer lightness of being to get through it. After all, this was not all about me – as my husband pointed out a bit too merrily. A series of events then transpired to create the perfect storm of preparation – I call it my own personal Advent… At the end of the England trip I contracted what must truly have been the last of The Plague. I had foolishly accepted a temporary job offer to travel to the West coast to run some focus groups and interviews – from the day after we arrived home from England until three days before what I had taken to calling “Jesus Camp.” So I coughed and sneezed my way through the week of travel, rested for three days (this is sounding positively prophetic) and braced myself for the coming “season.” By the time we arrived at Massanetta, I was still coughing and exhausted. The exuberant teenage counselors who met us at the driveway made Buddy the Elf look like Scrooge. One mixed up room assignment and a broken air conditioner later I was joining in an opening service of Christmas carols, skits with presents and tree decorating, more cheerful high-fiving and a fairly conservative sermon. Our small groups purposefully comprised complete strangers, two adults and about ten teenagers. More icebreakers, a workshop to create our own Christmas carol… I struggled to find the spirit and to let go. Then a shift occurred. I noticed that our small group counselor and my fellow participants were the best teenage girls and guys I could have imagined. (A boy from a Virginia church in our group who may have been autistic was not only not teased, but embraced and included by his peers.) The days were beautifully hot and just cool enough at night – without air conditioning even – to sleep. The fresh air, great food and sweet tea at every meal healed the remnants of my illness. The goofy dance moves at every gathering and the slip ‘n slide (yes, I did it, undoubtedly the oldest contender…) and times debriefing with Tim and our BMPA called to mind past youth group and summer camp experiences. I still have the strip of cloth from the “face your fears” workshop on which all of our fears were written on a sheet, torn into strips and taken away by each participant as reminders that we have each other’s backs. Not the least of my transformation was that what started with bad sweaters and decorations and carols was literally stripped away piece by piece until the “real Christmas” I wish for every year was all that was left – God’s hope sent to the world in the form of an infant born to a poor carpenter and his very young wife in a manger filled with livestock. It sticks with me still – two weeks ago at the beginning of November, I bought a Christmas decoration, which prompted my children to ask questions designed to uncover the alien that had surely possessed their mom. Likely, you will hesitate when Tim puts out the call for chaperones. Likely, your children will shake their heads and say “no way” when you encourage them to go. Consider this though: that a jaded Christmas-season hater with a bad attitude and a horrible cold coming off nine time zone changes got the spirit and connections she will always remember and cherish. I dare you – go just once – you may surprise yourself! Page 6 The Tidings December 2014 Massanetta Springs – Just Do It By Patti Flowers-Coulson
- 7. The giving of Stocks or other Securities, which have appreciated in value, may provide a tax advantage to you, the donor. If you would like to make a gift to the church in this manner, please provide the following information to your broker. DTC #0235 RBC Wealth Management A/C #313-81881 Account Name – Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church Contact: Geoffrey Brent or Lisa Vetter Phone Number: 410-316-5319 Please also inform Sharon Lucas, our Financial Administrator: slucas@browndowntown.org If you would like to participate in one of the areas of responsibility, please contact Sharon Holley at (410) 523-1542 or via email at sharon@browndowntown.org. December Responsibility Schedules Sunday Worship Service For an itemized list of Responsibility schedules at BMPA, please click on this link: http://www.browndowntown.org/index. php?s=backstage Good news from Published monthly for members and friends of Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church. 1316 Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21217. 410.523.1542. www.browndowntown.org. Andrew Foster Connors, Senior Pastor. Timothy Hughes, Associate Pastor for Youth. Ellen Carter Cooper, Editor. Laura McConnell, Graphic Designer. Send contributions by the 15th of each month to edccooper58@hotmail.com. The Tidings 12/01 Lynda Burton 12/01 Nicholas Imparato 12/02 Evangeline B. Lozada 12/03 Cheryl Finney 12/03 Tony Saudek 12/04 Michaela Murphy Buc 12/04 Adam Steel Neblo McNabney 12/05 Eloise Jennings Crew 12/05 Alexandra Mihalski 12/05 Jenny Williams 12/07 J. Courtland Robinson 12/07 Brough Schamp 12/08 Nancyellen Brennan 12/10 Viviane B. Thorpe 12/11 Cal Buikema 12/11 Katie Rhodes 12/11 Sally S. Robinson 12/11 Samuel Todd 12/11 Andy Zabel 12/12 Rick Satterlee 12/13 Audrey M. Brown 12/13 Stewart Finney 12/13 Barbara Veldhuizen 12/15 Auggie Brown 12/16 Nate Hubler 12/16 Chip Riegel Morgan 12/16 Henry Taylor 12/17 Harry Hinkle 12/18 Nicki Artes 12/18 Caroline Cross 12/18 Stephanie Shapiro 12/19 Jair Williams 12/20 Gillian Babb 12/21 Sam J. Kelly, III 12/22 Judith Armold 12/22 Michelle Logan 12/22 Narka K. Ryan 12/23 June Carr 12/25 Robert Gorham 12/25 Kelsie Riegel Morgan 12/25 Matthew-Daniel Stremba 12/27 Juliette Goodwin 12/29 Macy Branch 12/29 Rachel Cunningham 12/30 Teresa Blythe 12/30 Ruth Brennan Taylor 12/31 Phyllis McIntosh Note: If you wish to have your birthday listed in The Tidings, please contact Sharon Holley, church secretary, at 410-523-1542, or via e-mail at Sharon@browndowntown.org. December Birthdays December 2014 The Tidings Page 7