“Ah yes, St. Bart’s — the church that we love!”
Those were my dad's words when I shared about my call to St. Bart’s. It was a surprising sentiment from someone completely foreign to Episcopal culture.
For whatever reason, my father, Tun, a Buddhist from Myanmar, alongside my stepmother, a lapsed Pentecostal from Germany, felt drawn to St. Bart’s while on holiday in New York a decade or so ago. They stumbled into a Christmas Eve service, and the impression left by the glorious liturgy and warm hospitality has remained with them ever since.
Their story calls to mind the magi, who on that first Epiphany experienced the radical welcome of the holy family as they cared for the infant Christ. In a moment of profound encounter and new revelation — one that defies lines of religion, culture, status, and race — the mysterious visitors’ gifts are received and curiosities honored. There is no biblical evidence at all to suggest the magi abandoned their religious traditions or converted to the Judaism of Jesus. But they did, after worshiping, return by another road, surely in some way transformed.
I feel incredibly privileged to be joining the holy family that is St. Bart’s, and I am finding more reasons everyday to call St. Bart’s the church that I love, too. Through your radical welcome, your commitment to faith in action, your excellence in worship, and the warmth of your care for one another, St. Bart’s is radiant with the limitless light of Christ.
Two confessions as I begin my ministry among you:
- I had to Google Bartholomew; he’s just not that memorable. Yet each time I return to his Wikipedia page, I’m struck by a new dimension of his rich identity as martyr, saint, and apostle, but perhaps most importantly, simply a friend of the disciple Philip who becomes a friend of Jesus, too.
- I am longtime friends with the Reverend Peter Thompson, your Vicar. We met at Yale Divinity School. He was a groomsman at my wedding to Michael and delivered a most memorable toast, declaring, “Zack may be the priest, but Michael is the saint!” (It’s true!)
We all need friends who tell us the truth, who bear witness to our humanity at our best and at our worst, and who love us still. I’m so glad to have a friend in Peter, a friend in Christ. And I look forward to growing in sacred friendship with all of you as we share life together. Through our laughter, tears, love, and lament may we be ever transformed into Christ’s likeness, and may St. Bart’s be a people eager to befriend our hurting world with the radical welcome and love we have known in this place.
Michael and I look forward to getting to know you and hope you will come to our meet and greet on Zoom this Sunday.
Ah yes, St. Bart’s — the church that we love!
Ah yes, St. Bart’s — the church that loves.
May it be so.
Please join us this Sunday, January, 23 as we welcome the Reverend Zack Nyein on his first Sunday as Senior Associate Rector at St. Bart's. Join our Virtual Meet and greet on Zoom this Sunday at 12:30 pm.