15 January 2025
The Annual Meeting of St. Mark’s is this Sunday, January 19, at 12:30 noon in the Parish Hall. We will hold elections for the Vestry and Diocesan Convention delegates, ministry reports will be shared, and the vestry will serve lunch. The meeting usually runs under an hour. When you arrive please sign in, so that the vestry may establish that we have a quorum consisting of the membership.
If you read the Evangel every week, you will have a good grasp of the ministries of St. Mark’s, as well as our successes and challenges. I will present the required Rector’s Report at the meeting, and I hope to offer some new insights into where we have been, as well as where we are moving forward as a church.
The following Sunday, January 26, is Religious Life Sunday in the Episcopal Church, when we honor the monastic communities among us. St. Mark’s is blessed by the ministry of Brother Michael Ida, Oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich, and he will be our preacher on Religious Life Sunday. Monastic orders in the Episcopal Church are showing new life as more Christians discover these intentional communities of prayer, service, and worship.
Two weeks from this Sunday we have the good fortune of Candlemas (February 2) being on a Sunday, and at high mass we will have the customary Candlemas ceremonies. Also named the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, Candlemas is the fortieth day after Christmas, when Mary and Joseph presented the infant Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple as required by the Law of Moses. This feast is a day of contrasts, concluding the Christmas festivities, while orienting us to Lent which begins with Ash Wednesday on March 5. As Simeon and Anna greet the Christ Child, we too give thanks for his birth, but we also know the sorrow of the cross that is on the horizon. Just as Mary’s heart was overjoyed with the birth of the Messiah, as well as pierced by his crucifixion, we too share these bittersweet emotions.
Candlemas always ushers in delightful memories for me. I was ordained a priest in Jerusalem twenty years ago, a few days after Candlemas, on the Feast of Saint Paul Miki and the Martyrs of Japan. It was around Candlemas that friends and family started arriving for the ordination at St. George’s Cathedral. It is hard to believe that twenty years have gone by!
Life is often a contrast of the mundane and the sublime - annual meetings and candle blessings - ordination anniversaries and parish budgets - monastic life and vestry elections. All of these things are necessary when building God’s kingdom. Come to our annual meeting and learn how we are celebrating God’s reign on Kapahulu Avenue, both in daily practicalities and future dreams. +
Father Paul Lillie +
