December 2022




The Rev.
Jill Flynn

Pastor serves
St. Anskar's &  Gloria Dei

     Pastor Jill Flynn serves as Pastor in Charge at St. Anskar Episcopal Church and at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.

     Pastor Jill has more than 18 years of experience as a pastor of Lutheran churches and more than a year under her belt here at St. Anskar. She also spent time earlier in her career as a pastor of two churches at the same time, which made her an excellent candidate to lead our congregations here in Rockford.

     Over the past five years, Pastor Jill has come to know our congregation through Partners For Faith, and we have gotten to know her.  Partners for Faith was formed in 2010 to strengthen the ministries and ties between the two churches and other members, Temple Bethel and Spring Creek UCC.

     The new arrangement will provide more opportunities for our congregations to work together and grow in faith. Both congregations have programs and strengths to share with each other.  

      Going forward, Sunday services at St. Anskar usually will start at 10:15 a.m. and at 8:45 a.m. at Gloria Dei. On a regular basis there will be combined services with Gloria Dei and St. Anskar which will alternate between the two churches and begin at 9:30 a.m.

Ten Essential Steps
for a Godly Life

  1. Confess often, get rid of your sins: use the formal BCP confession, prayers from the prayer book or make up your own. Don’t feel you always have to be right.
  2. Get in the habit of using the name of Jesus often: think in his name and use it in prayer.
  3. Don’t blame others when you are sinning: when you know you are sinning stop it as quickly as possible.
  4. If you are unhappy more than you are happy, find out why and change your life-it is inside you. We are responsible for our own peace, our own happiness. No one else can make us happy and we can’t make others happy.
  5. Spend more time in prayer: the more you pray, the easier things come. Talk to yourself-Jesus is in you.
  6. Don’t hold a grudge; you will be the one who ends up sick: give it up. Let God given music flow through you instead of the grudge.
  7. Do not agree with criticism: this is the pivotal point in our spiritual growth. When someone is criticizing, especially the church, bow your head and silently pray for the person.
  8. Stay loyal to worship. When you stay away from church you stop praying and you are open to Satan: it is not possible to be lukewarm.
  9. Don’t complain because things end-let’s rejoice because they happened.

From an article by The Rev. Lewis O. Tanno,
St. Clement Episcopal Church, Tampa, FL

 

 

Christmas: the biggest and best mystery ... ever
..
Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
.
     When I was a student at Loyola taking my first complicated classes in religion and philosophy, sometimes the students would wrestle with something difficult and ask the priest difficult questions. Often the Jesuits would give us a few ideas and then sum up with the words, “But it’s a mystery.”
     Oh, I didn’t  like that answer at all. Before I decided to become a pastor I thought about becoming a detective because I want answers. So instead I became a theologian where, guess what? There are no answers. At least not hard and fast ones.
     As followers of Christ we are asked to suspend disbelief, to question the unquestionable, to accept that somethings will never be understood by us. Perhaps the incarnation is the biggest mystery of all.
     Writer Anna Killinger asked these questions: Why did Joseph and Mary have to go to Bethlehem at precisely that time to register and pay their taxes? Why was the Lord of the universe born in a stall? Why did the angels choose to serenade those particular shepherds and tell them about the birth of Christ? Why did the wisemen from the east go to see Herod before following the star to the birthplace?
Why was Herod so upset about the birth of Jesus? Why was it necessary for Joseph to take his family to Egypt? Couldn’t they have hidden as well in some more convenient location?
     Many things about Jesus' life remain a mystery. We know very little about his early years before he undertook his public ministry; only that he increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor according to Luke 2:52.
We know little of his personal life even after that. Was he married? Did he really work as a carpenter? What did he look like? Did he always know he would be crucified or did he imagined himself retiring by the seashore?
     Paul was right - in this life we only see things as if we were witnessing them in a dingy old mirror; dim, scratchy, remote, far from clear, and difficult to understand. We are fated to live with mystery until the time comes when we are with God and can see everything face-to-face.
     The gospel writers give us a few facts. Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, some shepherds came to see him and so did some wisemen. Wiseman from the east. What are magi, anyway?
     But after that it’s mostly conjecture and imagination - maybe that’s why we love Christmas so much. We’re free to interpret it and embellish it to our heart's content Perhaps the best and only answer to this mystery is from the gospel of St. John, “and the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father‘s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
     In the end that is the best and maybe the most that can be said, but still don’t we really love a mystery? I enjoy wondering about the mystery of Christ’s birth as I sit before a Christmas tree or look at the manger scene.
     Maybe it’s all too big and too important to resolve in a simple way. Maybe the mystery is important as a way of God hiding in plain sight what God was doing in Christ. Maybe we’re not supposed to understand it until we see God face-to-face.
      Until then, enjoy the mystery.

       Merry Christmas!
Pastor Jill

This page prepared by St. Anskar's, Rockford
     

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