Homily July 8th 2012 – St. Peter’s Episcopal
Church Purcellville, VA
When Tom mentioned
that the Liberia mission team was giving the homily today, it made me
stop and think about our mission in terms of today’s Gospel reading. In my mental and spiritual preparations for
this trip, I have been contemplating, praying and asking God about the other
St. Peter’s church.. the one in Liberia.
Now my prayers and hopes turn to this St. Peter’s congregation and what
this mission trip means to us as a church family.
Pictured above:
Pictured above:
Judy Hall
Member, Liberia Mission Team
Paul, Laurraine, Jim, Jaqueline, Tim and I represent this
church community as we go out to Liberia.
We take with us the spiritual nourishment, prayers, and blessings of St.
Peter’s Purcellville. Every mission
starts with where we come from, where we are spiritually, physically, and
emotionally, and where we are in relationship with God and with those we go to
serve.
So often in Liberia it is very hard not to compare what we
have in wealth, liberties, government structure, legal system, and social norms
of justice to those of our fellow Christians in Liberia. We are truly blessed to be in the United
States of America in more ways that we can understand. It is amazing the challenges other Christians
face to accomplish the same goals all Christians have: to raise Christian
families, to spread Christ’s word to others in our community, and to grow the
culture of God-centered living in our country.
St. Peter’s Caldwell
So let me tell you a little bit about the other St. Peter’s
in Caldwell, Liberia. Liberia is on the
west coast of Africa where the continent
juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Monrovia is Liberia’s national capital. It is a port city and near the
spot where the first American born Africans landed to settle the country. The St. Paul River flows into the Atlantic at
this spot. The river’s delta has formed
several islands and some swampy areas which now make up the city and its
suburbs. To get to Caldwell from the
port of Monrovia you need to cross the St. Paul River to the south. Caldwell is a suburb to its nation’s
capital. It is a community made up of
shanties and small cinderblock houses with no electricity or running
water. The homes, shops, and markets
stretch out along deeply rutted dirt roads.
The land is flat in the river plain.
The church is a cinderblock building situated in an open
space (I would not call it a field) next to the St. Paul River. The rail road track runs along the river at
this point. From the river’s edge you
can see a small break in the trees up river on the north side that is the
Bromley School.
Inside the church the walls and ceiling are white. There are wooden pews. Above the alter is a
stained glass window of Jesus ascending while Peter watches from below. Jesus looks very much like he does in the
window at Good Shepherd, Bluemont. The
white Jesus with light brown hair and beard. There is only one main room and
that is the sanctuary about the same size of ours. The altar area is raised with the communion
rail running straight across the front.
From the pews, the pulpit is high and on the left. The choir is on the right in pews that face
inward. We sit in my favorite spot. In
the left front pews. There are a few
American Episcopal Books of Common Prayer (1979) and 1982 Hymnals.
Here I need to say something about Christianity in
Liberia. All the Christian churches,
Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, and Baptist are seeds of American
Christianity. Yes folks this is a
country where Americans planted churches and church communities. The Episcopal Church in Liberia is an off
spring of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The first American Black
Episcopal Bishop was the Bishop of Liberia Samuel Ferguson at the beginning of the 20th
century.
This church is stark compared to our church. They do not have many of the trappings of
worship that we take for granted. No
colorful vestments and hangings. Not
many books and no fliers or “weekly bulletins”. But the church is packed. There is no mirror in the Sacristy so it is
the job of the acolytes to dress the priest Father Gbe. They have to be his mirror and make sure his
is properly prepared to lead the worship service. He is mild mannered man, but
like many Liberians when they start to preach they become very animated.
The trappings may be minimal but the church is high church.
Everyone is very reverent and respectful during the service. No running in and out of the sanctuary, no
whispering or drawing or chatting. Communion
is taken very seriously. Women
are required to wear a head piece or hat if they want to take communion. No one had told us – so I pulled out my
trusty bandana and looked like aunt Jermima.
(put on head piece). It was hard
not to be awed by these people as they worshiped God with such passion and
conviction.
During the offertory they had an ingathering for the one
room school house they were building on the property. Like St Peter’s Purcellville, St Peter’s
Caldwell is reaching out to the community around it. The hope was to have an
elementary school for 30 community children, now we understand it serves 90
children and has to turn many away.
After Church we toured the one room cinder block building
and meet with the vestry under an open air pavilion. They were very eager to tell us their plans
for rebuilding their church community after it was almost destroyed during the
civil war which waged off and on from 1989 to 1997.
One of the most notorious warlords named Prince Johnson had
his head quarters on the church property.
The old church building was bombed because he was using the area as an
ammunitions dump. Basically this church
and it’s people were a battle ground for many cruel and gruesome war lords and
the unruly bands of thugs they spawned.
When the vestry members were pointing out where there had been battles
and bombings and war camps, it was so overwhelming that in classic Virginia
tradition I blurted out. “You guys need
to put up some historical markers.”
The people of St. Peter’s Caldwell are in many ways that
same as the people of St. Peter’s Purcellville.
They are Christians who want to strengthen and grow the community of
Christ. We have the same spiritual
traditions and share the same sacraments and creeds. But they sit in two totally different
cultures with very different resources.
The war has left the fabric of Liberian society torn. There is a whole generation that knows
nothing but war. Families have been ripped apart. There is a generation who has been raised by
the morals of war lords. Corruption and
graft are everywhere.
This is a country where the Christians are trying to bring
the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ to a broken community. They are trying to heal their country by
raising up Christian communities and bringing the love of Jesus Christ to the
children around them. The task is so
daunting it can only be accomplished with the Grace of God. There is obviously no other option.
What is our role as fellow Christians? We have been sent out by Jesus Christ, to
bring encouragement and help to the people of Liberia. We take nothing with us but our flawed
selves, our few gifts for their many needs, and our knowledge that God will
prevail. For it is the love of God that
passes all understanding that provides hope for the poor, strength for the
weak, and healing for the broken.
When do we go? We go
NOW. We do not wait until we are “ready”
or trained. What do we take? We take ourselves. We take who we are with all our flaws and
weaknesses. We go with our handkerchiefs
for church hats and historical markers for healing battle scars. We go out as Jesus Christ sends us, with
nothing more than the knowledge of the love and power of God our Father, God
the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
Commissioning of the Liberian Team
Pictured from left to right: Jim Whalen, Jaqueline Whalen, Tim Hall, Judy Hall, Fr. Tom Simmons, Colleen Duffy (Team sponsor and stateside liason), Paul Miller, and Laurraine Landolt
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