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From the Clergy Uncategorized

Episco101

Episco101: What you need to know about the Episcopal Church (but maybe didn’t know where to ask)

This Lent, you are invited to bring your questions about being an Episcopalian, and the clergy are going to do their best to answer. Perhaps you have questions like…

  • Why do some people make the sign of the cross during the service and others don’t?
  • What is that motion Deacon David used to make when he announced the Gospel?
  • What is that light above the box on the wall beside the altar?
  • Does the Episcopal Church do a “First Communion” ceremony?

There will be a wooden box in the Narthex for you to place all your questions. Phillip and I will take them and offer answers either in a blog post or a short video each week during Lent. 

Then, on March 26, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, we will hold an open forum after the 10:30 service for any and all questions that have not yet been addressed or asked. 

— The Rev. Stephanie Allen

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Uncategorized Veterans

Why “Veterans@Nativity”

I have been a chaplain with the Veterans Health Administration (VA) for ten years. I’m not a veteran myself, but I have friends and family members who have served and are serving in various branches of the military. In my time at the VA — first as a trainee and now as a board certified chaplain and chaplain educator — I have cared for numerous veterans struggling to connect their faith with their service, military with civilian lives. 

Some people struggle with post-traumatic stress; others with moral injury. Some are part of a religious community; others stopped believing in God after what they’d seen or done. Still others would like to find a place to call their spiritual home — but they might have trouble with crowds. Or they’re tired of explaining why they have a service dog. Or they’ve been asked one too many times, “did you ever shoot anyone?” Or they’ve been told one too many times, “thank you for your service,” and felt that it was as sincere as a “God bless you” after a sneeze. 

Again, I’m not a veteran. I work in the VA, but I’m a civilian. I’ll always be a bit on-the-outside-looking-in — and that’s okay. I’ve also made some of those same conversational blunders I describe above. And that’s okay, too. What our veterans need — what each of us needs — is a space to have real conversations: about what hurts, about what healing looks like. Real talk about how we sometimes hurt each other as we’re healing or trying to be helpful. That’s real community, being part of the Body of Christ.

As a member of Nativity, I’m hoping our congregation can become the kind of community that is willing to have these real conversations together. I’d love it if veterans, service members, and family members could find a home for dialogue and engagement: even if they never attend a worship service. 

Will you help me explore what this might look like? If you feel led to explore this journey with me, I invite you to participate in one of the upcoming Veterans@Nativity coffee hours, or the four-part formation series we’ll be hosting later this Spring. All are welcome! In fact, that’s what it’s all about.

Grace and Peace, 
— Ryan Parker

—

For more information about Veterans@Nativity: Email Ryan Parker

Upcoming Veterans@Nativity Coffee Hours (after the 10:30 service in Corlett Hall):

  • February 12, 2023
  • June 11, 2023
  • September 10, 2023
  • November 12, 2023

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Uncategorized

Lent Book Discussion: Hearts Ablaze

Over the season of Lent, we will be exploring the parables through the experiences of those on the margins. On Monday evenings throughout Lent (February 27–April 3) we will be reading and discussing Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul by Rolf R. Nolasco Jr. You are invited to join us each week on Zoom from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.

Hearts Ablaze re-reads 10 parables through the lens of queer theology and through personal experiences of queer Christians. This book is described as “a new look at ten selected parables of Jesus, that expands the scope of interpretation of each story to highlight God’s extravagant welcome of all people. The perspective in the reflections is deeply personal and written to be used by both individuals and groups. Queer-affirming churches, seminaries, and retreat centers will benefit from this resource as they continue to champion the flourishing of their queer siblings in Christ.” As Christ has modeled for us, we are called to be in community with those on the margins. If you are interested in learning more about the experience of queer people and their experience with the church, as well as learning more about queer theology in general, we invite you to join us.  

If you have any questions about this book study, please contact Phillip.

Registration is required, and can be done online at this form.

Purchasing the book is not required, but if you would like to, you can find it at Amazon or Church Publishing.

— The Rev. Phillip Bass

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Outreach Social Justice Uncategorized

Building Beloved Community: Farm to Church CSA Update

In 2021, Nativity partnered with nine other Raleigh congregations in a program to support our local Black farmers. The program, called Farm to Church Community Supported Agriculture or CSA, was launched by the Rural Advancement Foundation International -USA (RAFI-USA).  CSAs have become a popular way for consumers (CSA members) to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer and to build a caring relationship with that farmer.  The members buy a share of a farmer’s production up-front which helps the farm’s cash flow and allows the farmer to plan their crop production in a way that limits food waste and farm expenses. The members benefit by receiving weekly fresh and nutritious farm products.   

The first delivery to Nativity for the spring CSA 2023 will be on Saturday, April 22. There will not be a delivery on May 27 (Memorial weekend). The last delivery will be on June 24. Shares can be purchased online beginning on February 15 (more details later) and run for one month. 

Free range eggs can be purchased now from LaKay Farms even though we are not currently in a CSA delivery season. Orders need to be placed online by 6 pm on Thursday. The eggs will be delivered directly to your home. 

All church members of congregations participating in the Farm to Church CSA are invited on February 11, 2023 at 10 am to a spring planting day at two farms. The farms are located at 1937 Lickskillet Road, Warrenton, NC (JAC Farm), or 273 Horace Perry Road, Warrenton, NC (Edwards Farm) . Lunch will be provided. If you plan to participate, please let Sanda know by using either email (edwardsfarm.nc@gmail.com) or the phone (252-314-1074).

If you would like to participate in the CSA or need more information, please contact me directly at cwsigel@aol.com.

— Carl Sigel

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Outreach Social Justice Uncategorized

Building Beloved Community with Habitat for Humanity

We have several opportunities through Habitat’s Faith Builder group to build a house, offer advocacy, and educate ourselves as we join with Habitat to help build the Beloved Community for racial equity.

EpiscoBuild Begins

Nativity will be joining the other Episcopal churches to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. We will start building our house on February 4 at 8:15 am at the warehouse on Jones Sausage Rd, and then travel out to Dedication Drive in Old Poole Place to start standing the walls. We will take a break at 11:15 am for the kickoff ceremony and wall blessing. We will finish for the day around 3:30 pm. 

If you would like to help on February 4 or any other Saturday, you must sign up through the Habitat Volunteer Hub.

There will be opportunities to help build on each Saturday after February 4. Nativity’s day for leading the build will be March 25 so be sure and save the date to come out and help that day or help provide lunch for the workers on that day. You must sign up using the Volunteer Hub any day you plan to help with the build. For more information, contact Joe Ward  or Dave McKinnon.

Advocacy Ambassador Training

If carpentry is not your strength, perhaps you would like to help Habitat by becoming an Advocacy Ambassador to represent the Church of the Nativity. Advocacy Ambassador Training is Monday, January 30 at 7pm at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church (1801 Hillsborough St | Raleigh, NC 2760).  This will be a 101 training on how to raise your voice for affordable housing.  You will need to register to attend. Wake County Habitat Faith Builders has set a goal of having an Advocacy Ambassador for each congregation. Soon it will be budget season and we need folks to advocate for including affordable housing in the city and municipal budgets; this training will prepare you to talk with elected officials. 

Join Bishop Sam to talk about Race & Housing

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and St. Matthew’s African Methodist Episcopal Church are hosting a Race & Housing dialogue on Tuesday, January 31 at 7 pm, at St. Michael’s. The group will watch Segregated By Design, a 17-minute documentary based on the book, The Color of Law. This documentary examines the often-forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every metropolitan area in America through law and policy and the lasting impact it has today. After the film there will be small group discussion and a discussion around advocating for new policies. Please register to attend.

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From the Clergy Uncategorized

Opening the Book of Common Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

When you are sitting in the pews of the Church of the Nativity, you might be asked to turn to a page of the Book of Common Prayer. And when you pull the book out of the book holder and open the book, you notice that the pages are yellow in a certain section of the book. As you move to open the book, the book pages automatically fall open to a certain page, most likely page 355: The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two. Generations of hands have been opening these books, and turning to that section so that the book knows where you need to go.

And chances are, after a while, you don’t need to open the book to page 355, because the rhythm of the opening of the service is inscribed in your brain:

Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever. Amen.

And now because you know it by heart, you have noticed the people around you saying “And blessed be GOD’S kingdom…” and so you start saying it too, because the idea of God being confined to one gender has opened up your ideas about God, and you are experiencing the Book of Common Prayer being just that – a book that the people of God use to express their prayers to a God they know in their own language.

And you do need to turn to the page with the Gloria (356) or if you are attending 10:30, you don’t need to because you are singing it and it turns out that singing helps you memorize texts and those tunes and those words get deep into your soul so that one day you find yourself singing it to yourself when your soul needed to feel the presence and reminder of God, “For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord…”

And after a season or two of turning to page 361, or page 367, for Eucharistic prayers A or B, you start to recognize which prayer, and again, your soul remembers those words, “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.” And you notice you don’t need to scramble for the book after communion and can join the rhythm of “Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members…” and later in the day in the grocery store line as you feel guilty for all that you didn’t accomplish during the week or weekend, those same words come into your mind and you remember what it feels like to be graciously accepted.

The words of the Book of Common Prayer are soulful words spoken by generation after generation. When we reach for the prayer book, we are joining with Episcopalians and Anglicans around the world who might not agree on every theological tenant, but we do agree that these words can still express our soul’s deep longing for a living experience of God.

And yes, we can read those words in a printed pamphlet just as well, and we will use the printed bulletin during certain seasons of the church year because our tradition holds a wealth of other prayers to say new things to our souls. But there is something important in opening the book, holding the weight in your hands, flipping through and noticing the abundance of other prayers found there, not just what we do on Sunday morning. When our children play with the books and read those prayers because the sermon is going on a bit too long, they are joining generations of children who have sat in pews in Episcopal churches doing the same, feeding those growing souls with the words they need, helping the language of the prayer book become their language too.

Is it confusing the first few times you use the book? Yep. Is it awkward to balance a prayer book, hymnal, and bulletin? Absolutely. Will it feel that way forever? No. These next few Sundays, I encourage you, when you hear, “Our service begins on page 355,” take a moment to feel the weight of the book in your hands, notice the yellowed pages, and allow the words to sink into your soul. Be grounded and present in that moment, and may you feel God there with you.

— Rev. Stephanie

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Children and Youth Uncategorized

Faith Formation in the Fall for YOUTH

Starting Sunday, September 11

Fixers – 5th & 6th graders

Our Fixers will start their journey in the youth program with a year of CONNECTION.

Connecting with community through fun and fellowship.

Connecting with others through service.

Connecting with our faith tradition through scripture.

Connecting with themselves as they move away from childhood towards adolescence.

The Fixers will meet on Sunday mornings at 9:15am. 

Sunday, June 12 at 12:00 pm (after church), Fixers and their parents are invited to join Rev. Stephanie for a meeting to talk about the fall and get oriented into the youth program. 

Rite Stuff – 7th & 8th Graders

These young people, our Luminaries, have got the right stuff to be ready for moving further into adolescence. EVERYTHING is changing for them – bodies, minds, souls, and faith. Drawing from the Episcopal Church’s curriculum “These Are Our Bodies” and the Lutheran curriculum, “Echo the Story,” these young people will begin the journey of placing themselves within the saving history of God as they grow and discover who they are as children of God. The Rite Stuff will meet on Sunday mornings at 9:15am.

We will have 3 or 4  “Rites of Passage” ceremonies for this group. That includes a special dinner where we celebrate them as “Luminaries” – lights in the world – and we honor their parents as well. Parents share memories and stories of the Luminary that night, and then the next morning during church, the Luminaries re-affirm their baptismal covenant and move liturgically from childhood towards adulthood. 

Finally, we will end the year with a special beach weekend retreat!

Sunday June 12 at 1 pm, Luminaries and parents, please join Rev. Stephanie for a meeting to talk about the Fall and to set the dates for the Rites of Passage ceremonies. We will also have a re-orientation to the youth program.

Rite 2 – 9th, 10th, & 11th Graders

We’ve got a great year planned for the Rite 2 group. First, we have the remaining Rites of Passage ceremony so that all our Rite 2-ers have been fully celebrated. Then we will spend the year focusing on:

  1. How do EPISCOPALIANS read the bible? Why would an Episcopal bible study be different then Young Life? What does the bible actually say about the issues that are out in the world right now? Why is the Episcopal way of reading scripture even important?
  2. Why do Episcopalians talk so much about justice? What does the bible say about it? What do we do to make things right in our world?

These two areas of focus will prepare us for an Urban Mission at the end of the school year in 2023, and getting ready for a pilgrimage at the end of the school year in 2024.

Since this group is in high school, they will be responsible for helping Rev. Stephanie with some key decisions about their year, including, when do they want to meet, what fun and fellowship events would they like to do, and what would they like their urban mission to look like? Sunday, June 12 at 3 pm, parents and Rite 2-ers are invited to join Stephanie to answer these questions, talk more about the year, and re-orient into the youth program.

Seniors – 12th grade

Our theme for our seniors is REST and GO! Rather than meeting weekly, we will schedule monthly dinners, weekend retreats, a Fall program on spiritual wellness, and even a weekend at Busch Gardens (with Jeremy!). We will have our congregation blessing and celebration of our seniors at the end of the school year. Rev. Stephanie and Jeremy will arrange a time to meet with the seniors to set dates for these events, and get their feedback. 

Confirmation

The Rite of Confirmation is open to any young person 12 and older. Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple will be with us on Sunday, December 4 for confirmation. Class will be held on Sunday afternoon or evenings for six weeks mid-October though November. Dates and specifics coming soon.

If you aren’t able to attend the meetings on June 12, Rev. Stephanie will host a zoom meeting for parents on Wednesday, June 22 at 7 pm.

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Uncategorized

Navigating the Peace Library Online

The Nativity Peace Library Team, through the Social Justice Committee, has created a
children and youth library of books that focus on Nativity’s core values of welcome and inclusion and to celebrate diversity among God’s people. It is our hope to provide our young people and their families with tools to help them better appreciate the fullness of our history.


To review our collection of books in the Peace Library, click here. (You may want to
bookmark this page for future use.)


There are several ways to find a book. You may type a book title into the search bar.


If you don’t have a specific book title in mind, you may search categories listed in blue
below the search bar. Once you select a category and click on it, you will be taken to
our LibraryThing page with all the books that are associated with that category.

Or you may click on one of the book jacket photos scrolling beneath the categories.


If at any time you want to go to a list of all the books in the Peace Library, click on the tab Books on the same row with NativityPeaceLibrary.


On the second Thursday of each month in Glad Tidings, the Nativity Peace Library
Team will write up a review and suggested activities for one of our books. All the reviews will be kept on Nativity website at Nativity Peace Library Book Review.


Please contact Beth Crow at nativitypeacelibrary@gmail.com if you have any questions.

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Help Build the Beloved Community by Participating in the Farm to Church CSA Program

Carl Sigel

Since Nativity’s earliest days, one of the cornerstones of our mission has been to explore how we grow, eat, and share food.

In 2021, Nativity partnered with nine other Raleigh congregations in a program to support our local Black farmers. The program, called Farm to Church Community Supported Agriculture or CSA, was launched by the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA).  CSAs have become a popular way for consumers (CSA members) to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer and to build a caring relationship with that farmer.  The members buy a share of a farmer’s production up-front which helps the farm’s cash flow and allows the farmer to plan their crop production in a way that limits food waste and farm expenses. The members benefit by receiving weekly fresh and nutritious farm products.    

Last year the CSA began with the participation of 4 Black farmers.  Produce was delivered by the farmers weekly for 8 week periods during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Members purchased either full-shares (about 6 servings of veggies for 4 people) or half-shares (about 6 servings of veggies for 2 people).

Following a very successful launch, in 2022 the Wake County CSA is adding more farmers and congregations. Nativity plans to participate in the program again in 2022. Our time to commit for the spring harvest will be from February 7 to March 7, 2022. Share prices will be the same as for last year.  Tentatively, the first produce delivery will be on Saturday, April 22. I might add that individuals or families do not need to be Nativity members to join – they just need to be willing to pick up their shares at Nativity.

If you would like more details or are ready to commit to the spring CSA , please let me know if you would like a half- or full-share by February 2, 2022 (cwsigel@aol.com). Thanks.

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Outreach Uncategorized

Encouraging Notes for Haiti Reforestation Partnership

Want to Make Someone Smile in 2022?  Drop a card of encouragement for those in Haiti!

Our sisters and brothers in Haiti are going through a really hard time right now.  Our friends at Haiti Reforestation Partnership have communicated with us that not only are things challenging on the ground, but many feel “forgotten” by the outside world, especially as travel has become essentially non-existent.

Michael Anello, the Executive Director of Haiti Reforestation Partnership, will be in the United States mid-January through mid-February.  Let’s flood Michael with as many encouraging cards as possible to take back with him to distribute.  (You can even include a family picture so they can see our faces, if you’d like.)  With the hard work of 750 Haitian women and men, Haiti Reforestation Partnership plants roughly 500,000 trees per year – no matter what. They are investing in their future (our future) and are holding on to hope.  Let’s let them know that they are not alone.  We are thinking of them.  We are praying for them.  We are thankful for them.

Please use Google Translate to translate your simple message from English to Haitian Creole and then bring your cards to the church by January 20.

If you are unable to drop the cards or letters off at the church, please Email Becky Showalterfor pickup.

If you’d like to know more about Haiti Reforestation Partnership, check out this video – 30 Years of Reforestation Success – YouTube – or visit www.haitireforest.org.