In the News: "Preserving Saint Matthew’s Chapel: Community comes together to preserve a chapel filled with memories"

As reported in the Union Leader: If you’ve ever driven Route 117 up and over and through Sugar Hill — to see the lupines in June, perhaps, or the bright colors of fall — you’ve passed St. Matthew’s Chapel. Maybe you pulled to the side of the road to snap a picture of the lovely white chapel with the yellow door and pretty stained glass windows, the mountains rising in the distant background…

Bishop Rob's Fall 2019 Letter

I am not a politician. For this I thank God daily. Rather, I am a theologian and a pastor. My job, the one I took a vow to perform when I became your bishop, is to guide our conversations about what it means to follow Jesus. Who and what is God calling us to be and do, and how is God equipping us as citizens of God’s Realm in times such as these?

Clearly, we are in a political crisis in our nation. Some of the most basic, indeed founding, statements of what it means to be a citizen are questioned. Do we hold self-evident that all men, all persons, are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, that lofty claim extended only to white males, excluding women, peoples who lived for millennia on these shores, and blacks who had been forced into slavery, first arriving in the ironically named Point Comfort, in the colony of Virginia on August 20, 1619. The written noble aspirations of our Founders and the inconsistency of the society they actually formed and benefited from (and by extension many of us, including me) has provided the fuel for our struggles for justice, freedom, and dignity ever since. The term used to define that perennial struggle is “politics.” And everywhere I go, every parish coffee hour I share, I hear the lament of how painfully fraught and hateful, and even violent, our politics are at present.

I believe we are in as much a religious and spiritual crisis as we are a political one. We are facing a stark spiritual choice.  Do we believe in a God whose power is manifest in anger, revenge, retribution, force, control, and violence? In other words, do we believe our God to be no different than the Greco-Roman gods like Zeus (known to the Romans as Jupiter), who required absolute obedience or else destruction would follow? To read Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey is to be introduced to the fickle and emotional insecurity of such gods, who considered human beings almost as children’s dolls. That’s one pattern for “godly” living.

I believe Christianity holds a radically different shape of faithful living. The God who Jesus embodies is proclaimed in a hymn that St. Paul quotes in this letter to the church in Philippi. To share “the mind of Christ” is to pattern one’s life on a God

who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8)

For the ordinary Roman citizen, to hear that God would be willing to die rather than get his own way, or even to protect himself against evil, sounded not only utterly absurd but offensive.  And yet, that’s precisely the God who the early Church proclaimed, preached, and practiced. More than weapons and crusades, or the alluring attraction of its basilicas, cathedrals and chapels, when the church follows the self-emptying way of love, it spreads and grows like a healthy life-bearing vine. Even, perhaps especially, when it is pruned or persecuted.

So, I am called to ask the Church and all who claim to walk in the way of the Cross, who is the Lord that we seek to follow? If it’s Jesus, the one who risked and lost everything so that he, and all humanity, can share the resurrected life right now, then how might that change the way we talk about the great “political” issues of our day? How might taking on the mind of this self-emptying God change the tenor of how we talk about immigration, guns, the health of our planet, and the inequitable state of our public schools?

Yours in the crucified and risen Savior Jesus,

Bishop Rob
The Rt. Rev. Robert Hirschfeld 

In the News: "God Knows We’re Messy, and That’s OK"

As reported by The Living Church: Something extraordinary is happening at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Newport, N.H. (pop. 6,500). Once a month like clockwork, since early this year, worship attendance jumps from 20 to nearly 40. Swelling the crowd are people who have no church background. They sidle up next to folks who quit going to church long ago. Approximately half of these once-a-month worshippers are children.

Bishop Rob: My Prayer for America

 “America, love it or leave it.” — seen on a church sign in New Hampshire.

 Some six centuries before the birth of Jesus, a prophet burst on the scene in Jerusalem. Jeremiah was disgusted with the state of his nation which he saw was threatened, not so much by outside empires poised to invade and conquer, but by the loss of its soul. Even more repulsive to this lonely and passionate spokesperson for God was how the people of Judah, from its priests to its king, engaged in religious language to defend immorality, injustice, and cruelty. 

 The mistreatment of immigrants, refugees, and strangers, the neglect of orphans and widows, and pledging fidelity to material idols were rampant in Jeremiah’s day. He saw the injustice and brutality of his time as a betrayal of God. He paid dearly to be a prophet in his time, suffering all sorts of humiliation. He went into exile and was likely killed at the hands of his exasperated fellow Judeans who had escaped the catastrophe in Judah by becoming refugees themselves in Egypt.

 Jeremiah loved his country, though its betrayal of the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor caused a burning within him that would not allow him to be silent. Kings, priests, and people all urged him to shut up. They claimed that God would never abandon them or leave them vulnerable to societal and national collapse. And to them he cried:

 Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” (Jeremiah 7) as though the temple or national pride will save you from a disaster which is coming. 

 Jeremiah would have had a special word of rebuke to any church that felt its loyalty to our nation was more important that to God’s Realm, and a special word of criticism to the words and chants, “send them back.”

 We have heard, and will no doubt hear more in the coming months leading up to the 2020 elections, of the “Greatness of America.” If the witness of Jeremiah has relevance for us today — and I am convinced it certainly does now —  then we recognize that the greatness of any society lies not in its material gross domestic product, or the performance of its stock markets, or even in the might of its military. Greatness lies in a nation’s soul: that resilient self-understanding that it has been placed here to extend justice, compassion, prosperity, and opportunity for all, and that all humankind, in all of its rich diversity, is made in God’s image.

 A great nation is one that blends its courage with ample humility to admit its imperfections, that its greatness lies in its striving to become more perfect. Racist speech that dehumanizes persons of other races and that perpetuates the empty and cowardly ideology of white supremacy violates and damages the moral core of any nation. Prophets from Amos to Zechariah — and yes, even the prophet Jesus of Nazareth — tell us unequivocally that when a nation loses its soul, that nation risks God’s judgment. And that judgment may be catastrophic. The Bible tells me so.

 Am I saying we need open borders? Am I saying we need to impeach or censor the president for his reckless and hate-filled speech? Please don’t put words in my mouth. What I am saying is that if we believe in a God of justice and peace, the current brutal and callous state of affairs in this nation must be grievous unto us, its burden intolerable. For God’s sake, this is a time for collective confession and repentance. As my colleagues at the Washington National Cathedral so powerfully stated, “the question is less about the president’s sense of decency [than] of ours.”

 Last summer, it may have felt to us good and righteous when scores of us shouted, “Te vemos!” — “We see you!” — to the detained mothers who were separated from their children in a Texas “family residential center” at the southern border. To be honest, I could not imagine that those mothers would still be wondering where their young children are a year later. So now, this summer, I wonder about how God sees us, this torn, angry nation, and its soul that longs to be restored. This is why my prayer these days is not so much “God bless America,” but “May God have mercy on us, and show us anew the paths of justice, peace, and righteousness.”

A.Robert Hirschfeld

Bearing Witness at the Border in El Paso

By The Rev. Canon Gail Avery, Canon for Transition and Community Engagement

THREE MASS SHOOTINGS IN A WEEK — Gilroy California, El Paso Texas, and Dayton Ohio.  In our culture of hate and violence, how does one follow Jesus?   

Less than one week before the August 3 killing spree at Walmart in El Paso, I participated in a “Moral Monday” vigil at the border, coordinated by Rev. Dr. William Barber and several local organizations.

I arrived in El Paso on Sunday, July 28, answering a clarion call to witness at the border. My sense of urgency to visit the border between the US and Mexico had been growing since being waved through a Border Patrol checkpoint in North Woodstock, NH two years ago. A white woman driving alone, I was literally waved through the checkpoint, with no stopping. I couldn’t help but wonder, what if I had been traveling with my daughter-in-law (who is Salvadoran) or my two beautiful biracial grandchildren? I suspect that if I had been, we would have been noticed. We would have been stopped and asked to answer many questions.

VIGIL AT THE BORDER

At a mass gathering the night before the vigil, we heard from a number of faith leaders. The message of Inman Omar Sulelman was particularly powerful. He said we need to be listening to our holy texts. The Quran says “We are called to welcome those who migrate to us.” In the Hebrew Bible there are 36 passages that speak of welcoming the alien in our midst. “Our faiths are on trial,” he said. “So is our nation and our humanity.”

Who do we want to be as a country? And how can we get there, together? Inman Sulelman concluded by saying that we need to SHOW UP, STAND UP, and VOTE UP.

Monday morning, over 500 people from across the United States, including Steve Ekerberg, a parishioner of St. Steven’s Pittsfield and Candidate for Holy Orders to the Diaconate, and I took part in the vigil.   

Approaching a US detention center and speaking through a small call box, clergy asked permission to enter the detention center to offer pastoral care to our people. Clergy’s request to visit with those detained was denied. Anticipating this, the organizers of the vigil had crossed the border into Juarez, Mexico earlier to visit migrant families living in a nearby refugee camp. What they saw and heard was horrific as well as illuminating.  

In our US detention centers, children as young as four years old are cutting themselves (often understood as a coping mechanism for people under extreme emotional distress) and shoe laces are being removed from people’s sneakers to prevent strangulation. Men in the El Paso detention center are participating in a hunger strike to protest human rights violations and the poor living conditions. 

A congressman later told me that while conditions aren’t great in Mexico, they are far better than what’s being provided in the United States. When asked why the difference, a Mexican authority said, ‘In your country you fear immigrants.  We don’t.  We’re happy to have them.” I also learned that the US Government is not providing any aid or support. We are depositing the people we’re deporting into Mexico and expecting Mexico to care for them. Independent shelters and faith communities are an integral part of that care since immigrants in Mexico are not looked upon as criminals.  

Ready to do my part, I also attended a non-violent civil disobedience training offered by the vigil organizers. I was willing to show up and stand up — not necessarily to be arrested, but to arrest the injustices that our nation is committing. Arm bands were handed out — green for those who chose to witness and yellow for those prepared to participate in civil disobedience. Using a black sharpie, I even wrote the number for jail support on my arm.

At the last moment, before embarking on our vigil, we were instructed to take off our armbands. The shooting in Gilroy had happened the night before and there were concerns about counter-protestors. Fear was even building that our civil disobedience would be looked upon as possible treason, carrying a 5-year minimum jail sentence.   

But in taking off the armband, I could feel something change in the room…it felt like we were unified — truly and finally one. One against the injustice and inhumane treatment of God’s creation. This is not a question of political right or left, but of following Jesus on the path of right versus wrong.

MURDER IN EL PASO

I returned safely to New Hampshire four days before the mass shooting. The Custom Border Patrol detention center where Steve Ekerberg and I gathered with hundreds of others was just 2.3 miles from the Walmart where Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white male, had openly fired upon “Hispanics,” citing genocide as a pathway to sustainability. Our hotel was only 2.2 miles away.

After the President’s speech declaring that hatred has no place in America, I noticed words cascading down the right side of my computer screen. The black ribbons of words were chats coming from the YouTube feed I was watching. I was appalled and saddened by the hate that the chats were spewing. Most were blaming the “democRats” for the violence and hate in our country.  

The vitriolic rhetoric was uncannily similar to the anti-immigrant manifesto that the mass-shooter in El Paso had posted minutes before firing into the crowds at a Walmart, killing 22 people and wounding 26 others. The 4-page document said that politicians from both parties were to blame for the United States “rotting from the inside out” and that “the heavy Hispanic population will make us a democratic strong hold.” He concluded, “If we can get rid of enough people [the Hispanics] then our way of life can be more sustainable.”

Clearly, this attack was a response to what the shooter called “The Hispanic Invasion of Texas.” If carried out fully, my son, his wife, and their two biracial children — an Air Force family stationed in San Antonio, two hours away from the shooter’s home — would have been targeted. My daughter-in-law’s entire family lives in Houston, fleeing El Salvador in the 1980s after being targeted there. They are now US citizens, but would have been a target as well — again. Today, if they approached our border seeking political asylum, our nation would tell them — GO HOME.   

BACK HOME: PRAYER AND ACTION

A week later, back home, I attended another vigil: the Interfaith Prayer Vigil and Jericho Walk for Immigrant Justice.

This is a regular vigil that occurs bi-monthly at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office located at the Norris Cotton Building in Manchester. We gather on days that immigration cases are being heard. We begin in prayer and song, and then walk seven times around the building praying for the walls of injustice to come tumbling down.

That day, the vigil was attended by more people than usual. I believe each of us is seeking hope and justice — hope and justice that I’m convinced more than ever can only be found together, which our closing song expresses so well:     

Rise as One
by Aaron Fowler

We will march as one
We will stand as one
We will rise as one (repeat)

REFRAIN

We will rise as one. We will rise as one
Working hand in hand, we will rise as one.

1. We will dance…sing…, REFRAIN

2. We will laugh….cry…., REFRAIN

3. We will fight…..win…, REFRAIN

May our country find inner strength to be one, and work hand-in-hand in taking care of each other, including those who migrate to us.

In the News: “New Hampshire prison softball league connects Episcopalians and inmates in ministry of presence”

As reported by the Episcopal News Service: Episcopalians may be familiar with Jesus’ assurance that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Members of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Goffstown, New Hampshire, also know this: Two or three, however devout, are not enough to field a softball team. Whether they bring two, three or a full squad of nine or more players, the Episcopal softball team led by St. Matthew’s parishioner Benge Ambrogi gathers several times each summer in Jesus’ name to play against inmates at the state’s prison for women in Concord.

Bishop Rob's Summer 2019 Letter: "...Things Which Were Cast Down are Being Raised Up..."

“...let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which have grown old are being made new...”

Someone once told me that faith is simply a way of seeing. Arguably, persons of faith... any faith... are generally those constantly looking for a deeper or more compelling truth — truth that may not be obvious at first glance. The eyes of faith are trained to see the hand of God, the movement of the Spirit, and the face of Jesus in circumstances that may otherwise tell us that what we initially perceive is all there is.

For many years now, we in mainline Christian denominations have been persuaded to see things through a lens of decline — that our Church is dying, crucified on the crosses of our society’s rise in materialism, secularism, political extremism,and growing mistrust, often warranted, in institutions of any kind. We’ve all seen these trends. They can easily lead us to despair.

I also see things that are equally true and heralds of resurrection. Today, for instance, a church in Franklin that has been shuttered for 17 years has now opened its doors for prayer. Mr. Joe Rose of Grace Church, East Concord, took up my invitation to “just go up there and pray with folk and see what happens.” Within a month a small congregation has formed, the local paper showed up with a reporter and photographer, and suddenly, what was cast down seems to be rising.

Living with a strict budget and limited clergy support, St. Stephen’s in Pittsfield is exploring lay worship leadership and sharing the Real Presence of Christ in a new provision I am exploring called “Communion by Extension.”

In another sign of God’s mission of renewal, we are enjoying the benefit of welcoming a number of priests and deacons in their 20s and 30s — young people asking wonderfully disruptive and energizing questions. “Things which have grown old are being made new.” Many churches are actually growing in attendance, maybe not on Sunday morning, but during the week as we adapt to the economic reality that over one third of the our workforce now works on weekends. Despite that, souls still search for signs of new life, holy purpose, Jesus Community. We enjoyed two vibrant and successful events recently: Revival: Reimagined and Spring Renewal. These events look to the eyes of my faith as signs of just that — revival, renewal, even resurrection. As we prepare for our annual Convention in November, you will see bold new initiatives that build on the work the Holy Spirit seems to be already doing. A new school for mission leadership. A network of new clergy to serve as “curates,” to learn from seasoned pastors and multiply area Christian communities. A system of coaching to support newly assigned priests. All these things you will hear about as we seek to strengthen the church as it pursues God’s mission of loving, liberating, and giving life to all God’s people.

If we are truly the Body of Jesus Christ, we will always be giving up ourselves to the death of the cross. It’s what Jesus said would happen. But the eyes of faith always look beyond, to the glory of Resurrection. I pray you see signs of that renewal wherever you are. Look for them. They are there, just as surely as the Risen Jesus is walking with us along the Way. 

Bishop Rob
The Rt. Rev. Robert Hirschfeld 

In the News: “Closed for 17 years, St. Jude’s in Franklin opens for prayer”

As reported in the Concord Monitor: When Barbara Burns plays the organ at St. Jude’s Church in Franklin, she thinks about her mother singing with the church’s choir 60 years ago.

“You can almost see your family up here, in the choir, teaching Sunday school,” said Burns, 81, sitting near the pulpit on her familiar cushioned seat at the organ during a recent Thursday service.

Bishop Rob Speaks at NHCF: The Weavers Among Us

Bishop Rob delivered an inspiring address at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation's recent annual meeting. Carrying forward his message of spiritual weaving in our community, he set the tone for a moving and uplifting evening. Please watch, reflect, and share Bishop Rob's words. https://youtu.be/icuCcMfLvv8

In the News: The Rev. Stephen Blackmer and Church of the Woods

Please check out these wonderful articles featuring the Rev. Stephen Blackmer and Church of the Woods. The Dartmouth cover story details Steve's spiritual journey and the creation of the Church of the Woods and Kairos Earth. In addition, Steve has also written a marvelous, thoughtful piece in Yale Divinity School's Reflections Magazine: "A Sacred Assembly of Pines, Plants, and People Too."

"Every time we interact
with the creation
is a sacred act.”

200+ Attend Inspiring and Informative Spring Renewal Event

Over 200 people from across the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire (and beyond) gathered at Manchester Community College for a day filled with personal spiritual growth, ministry development, connecting, and renewal.

“It always renews my faith and strength in the Lord to be around people who are there for the same reasons,” said one of the attendees. “It is wonderful to think out-of-the-box, and the sessions I attended certainly helped me to do that. I have already been talking to people about ways to involve our mission in our community.”

Bishop Rob led everyone in worship, gave thanks, and rejoiced for a "loving, gracious, renewing, restoring, recreating God to be at work in the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire.” He prayed, "May we find our rising today."

30 presenters conducted a wide-range of workshops throughout the day, and Spring Renewal’s Keynote speaker, the Rev. Jay Sidebotham, Director of RenewalWorks, a ministry of Forward Movement, energized us with insights from his stories about the initial development and subsequent growth of RenewalWorks. He urged everyone to ask themselves “in what areas might you benefit from renewal in your lives and the lives of your congregations.”

“The quality of the offerings was very good” noted an attendee. “The keynote was thought-provoking and humorous.”

Workshops included The Way of Love, Green Guidance for Your Spiritual Home, Supporting Your Marriage and Family Life with the Five Love Languages, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Holding Courageous Community Conversations Across Difference, Parishes Welcoming Recovery, RenewalWorks, Vital Conversations, Crossing Boundaries as a Way to Encounter Christ, The Upside Down Week: Reclaiming Sabbath, Stories of Humble Chutzpah, Reflections on Spiritual Authority, and more.

“What a great day. I only wish I had been able to attend more of the workshops!”

Feedback about the event has been very positive. ”Overall over 81% of attendees said they were “very satisfied” with Spring Renewal, and over 93% said they were “very or somewhat satisfied.” When asked how likely they would be to attend Spring Renewal next year and recommend it to friends, 90% said “likely” or “most likely.”

“This was a great opportunity to get together and meet people from other parishes and to do something interesting and informative!” Most agreed that Spring Renewal strengthened their relationships with others in the Diocese, and almost half said that the workshops gave them “a lot” of practical spiritual growth tools they can implement now.

Spring Renewal created a wonderful sense of community and offered insightful tools for transformation. Stay tuned for Spring Renewal 2020!

Revival: Reimagined. Sharing Faith and Fun

“Insightful, playful, a real celebration,” Revival: Reimagined drew over 110 people in early May, 2019, for a day of spiritual exploration, discussion, and worship in a festive, music-filled setting. 

Organized by St. Christopher’s in Hampstead and St. Peter’s in Londonderry, Revival: Reimagined featured
a Celebration Eucharist, six different presentations covering a diverse range of spiritual topics... and a jazz band, a bluegrass band, and an ice cream truck! 

Presentations included the Intergenerational Church, Experiencing God in the World of Pop Culture, Becoming Beloved Community Through the Way of Love, Losing Faith and Finding It, Where the People are: Unexpected Christian Formation, On the Way of Love, and a conversation with Bishop Rob. 

Revival: Reimagined featured special guest, the Rev. Dr. Tricia Lyons. She lives and teaches evangelism at Virginia Theological Seminary, and is finishing her latest book, “What is Evangelism?” (to be published in late 2020). “People raved about our guest speaker,” said the Rev. Colin Chapman, St. Peter’s, Londonderry. “She had an amazing ability to speak uncomfortable truths about sharing faith and evangelism in a way that was straightforward and genuine.” 

People had fun and learned a lot about how to share their faith, share their stories, engage their communities, and work to find deeper peace and meaning in their lives. Many attendees commented on learning about the importance of “listening for the voice of God in their lives” and “meeting, talking, and listening to people where they are to establish a true, loving connection.”

Energizing and celebratory music was provided by the WildVine Jazz Sanctuary House Band and the New Revival Bluegrass Band. 

Bishop Rob's 2019 Easter Letter: A Community of Weavers

Much has been written about our torn social fabric. So many in our society wake up feeling cut off from any sense of family, community or neighborhood. Belonging is on the wane. Isolation is on the rise. In such a fragmented culture as ours, it is no wonder that there are nearly 50,000 suicides every year in America and over 70,000 deaths to drug addiction, almost double the number of casualties during the whole of the Vietnam War. 

Recently I read a powerfully truthful and hopeful piece by columnist David Brooks who reported on attending a conference called “Weave: The Social Fabric Project.” Its first core idea is “that social isolation is the problem underlying a lot of our other problems. The second core idea is that this problem is being solved by people around the country at the local level who are building community and weaving the social fabric.” 

The Church has benefited society because Jesus calls each of us to a holy weaving. Every time we see a person as a bearer of God’s image, we weave. Every time we pigeonhole someone into the isolating labels of gender, ethnicity, nationality, race, sexual orientation, or even political party, we are rippers. To seek to fulfill our Baptismal Vow to “uphold the dignity of every human being” is to weave. 

This weaving is done in so many of our churches. When we welcome the homeless into our spaces through Family Promise, volunteer to be mentors or tutors at local public schools or for at-risk children, when we simply have lunch at the local soup kitchen, or visit those in prison or in hospice or the homebound, we are weavers. We weave when we faithfully keep vigil with one who struggles to recover from addiction. We weave when we participate in book groups or discussions across differences of opinion. We weave when we pick up the trash by the side of the road or from our river banks and are cautious about our carbon footprint. 

When I say this is holy work, I speak from the depths of our Christian tradition. The theological word that describes the love and adoration that moves among the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity is perichoresis, meaning, an interweaving, a dancing flow, among three distinct identities. More simply, God is a weaver. God’s love is known not in isolation, but in community. As he washes his disciples’ feet, Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) Being created in God’s image means sharing in this eternal identity and mission wherever and among whomever we find ourselves. 

The torn body of Jesus is mended by God in the Resurrection. May it be so with us in the Risen Body of Christ this Easter! 

Bishop Rob
The Rt. Rev. Robert Hirschfeld