Dear Friends,
Easter Day at St. Bart’s is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced anywhere else. It has been my privilege to serve several grand parishes around the country over the course of my ministry, but Easter at St. Bart’s is simply like no other Easter celebration anywhere! There is something unique about our extraordinary, holy space, located in the heart of a great city, awash in the most beautiful music, and filled with people who come in the hope of hearing a word of hope. In a time which dances on the edge of despair, we know they can find hope here.
John Buchanan, former pastor of 4th Presbyterian Church in Chicago, once said in an Easter Day sermon, “It is conventional practice for the preacher to lecture the congregation on Easter morning on the merits of regular church attendance: to say something rude like, 'I want to wish you a pleasant Memorial Day and Fourth of July, a Happy Labor Day and Thanksgiving, because I won’t be seeing many of you until Christmas.' Not this preacher. I’m glad you’re here. I’m grateful. I say every Easter, and I mean it, that if you only come to church once a year, this is the Sunday to do it. Not only because the music is great and the flowers are beautiful, but because what is happening here today is literally a matter of life and death, and what is being said and proclaimed and sung and prayed in this church and every church on Easter Sunday morning is the most startling, most world-shattering, most important piece of news imaginable. Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed.”
What is happening is a matter of life and death and I, too, am glad for every single person who walks through the doors of St. Bart’s on Easter. I am grateful for the thousands of people who will find us online. I am grateful for all the folks, who have seen how other churches embarrass and shame, who will still come in the hopes of experiencing something fresh and life-giving. I am grateful for people who come to the altar with hungry souls and I am grateful for the world-shattering news of the Resurrection that can bear all our doubts on its wings.
If you haven’t been to church in a very long time, this really is the Sunday to do it. We will be here for you at Easter. You will be welcomed. If you cannot be here in person, please join us online. We will be waiting for you. You can dress up or you can dress down. You can bring all your great doubts and your deep skepticism and you won’t be alone. St. Bart’s is full of people with great doubts and deep skepticism. And God is bigger than all of it... and all of us.
So, come and be a part of something bigger than all of us.
Come and experience the hope we are all so anxious to find.
In the Name of the Risen Christ,
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe
Rector