Bethesda Episcopal Church

This issue includes a note from the Interim Rector, updates from the Vestry, and the calendar for May events.

Click here to read the May Newsletter 

[View the complete Bethesda Holy Week Schedule]

My Dear People and Friends of Bethesda:

Holy Week begins and ends with a fanfare of joy and triumph: the entrance of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his eradication of sin and death at his Resurrection. Reflecting with our mind’s eye upon those who inaugurate this most sacred time in the Church Year is an exercise worthy of every effort. For there we see ourselves in varieties of expression. Curiosity seekers. Those in a hurry to be the first to see what people are saying. Doubters, tag-alongs.. Worshipers, frequent and infrequent alike, seeking a sign. Visitors, tourists. Do you see yourself?

Between March 24 and March 31, we, at Bethesda, will make together five processions, each with unique distinction:

• bearing blessed branches of palm, Hosanna;
• accompanying Our Lord on his way to Calvary;
• witnessing the transfer of his Body to a place of repose to pray and watch with him;
• coming one by one to kiss the feet of the Crucified;
• and announcing to the community of Saratoga Springs and the world that Christ is risen.

These are more than simply liturgical niceties. They unite us with the saints in heaven. In his reflections, Saint Bernard once expressed, The holy living creatures will drop feathers from their wings, and the four and twenty elders will cast their crowns before the throne of the Lamb; and all the angelic powers will ascribe and attribute to him wholly, whatsoever they possess of honor and glory.

Holy Week is no time for passivity or nonchalance. Approach it with a commitment of dedication and renewal for the battle won for you and for me by the Lamb that was slain. Psalm 42 is helpful:

As the deer longs for the water-brooks,
          so longs my soul for you, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;
          when shall I appear before the presence of God?
My tears have been my food day nad night,
          while all day long they say to me,
          “Where now is your God?
I pour out my soul when I think on these things:
          how I went with the multitude and led them into the
         house of God.

With my blessing,
The Very Reverend Marshall J. Vang

The 39 Steps

A Hitchcock masterpiece mixed with a juicy spy novel creates a whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theater!

Half of all sales using the promotional code HELPBEC will benefit Bethesda.

Purchase your tickets on January 29, 30, and 31 in one of these ways:

• Call the HMT box office between 12-5pm at 518-587-4427 and mention the code
• Go to http://www.homemadetheater.org, click the Buy Tickets Now and enter the coupon code: HELPBEC
• Stop in at HMT’s box office between 12-5pm and mention the code

The February Newsletter is available online.  This issue includes the Dean’s Doings, updates from the January Vestry meeting, and a number of activities through Lent.

Click here to read the February Newsletter

Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

We treasure the visitation of the star-gazers on the Feast of Our Lord’s Epiphany, the mystical gifts they bring toBethlehem, and the adoration they render to the Infant King. Their time with the Holy Family was brief, and then they departed “by another way.” What is the Church, what are we meant to make of this solemnity?

Someone once remarked that Epiphany is a feast of humility, for when the Church sees the bright light of the star, she is forced to ask herself whether she is constantly journeying to adore Christ, whether that is her central and ultimate concern, and whether every Christian sees it as his or her essential purpose to surrender everything, in a spirit of faith, so that we may set out to adore and make oblation to the Lord. We ought to begin with the Sacraments of the New Covenant. Every Sacrament is an epiphany, a star, a sign of the one mystery, the light of the revelation of Jesus. And so we render adoration and praise to the Redeemer of us all. Where might such humility take us?

The Very Reverend Marshall J. Vang
Interim Rector

The Christmas Altars of Bethesda welcome you and all of your loved ones.

Bethesda Christmas 2012 - a printable version

Christmas Eve

Monday, December 24 

4:00pm  Family Eucharist with the Blessing of the Creche

10:00pm Music of the Nativity

10:30pm Solemn Eucharist with The Great Procession

Music by J.S. Bach, Harold Darke, J. Haydn, Brian Hoffman, Battista Pergolesi, John Rutter

Christmas Day

Tuesday December 25

9:00am Sung Eucharist

Baruch 5:1-9
The Song of Zechariah [Luke 1:68-79]
Philippians 1:1-11
Luke 3:1-6

The Second Sunday of Advent introduces us to the last of the Prophets, John the Baptist. In his own person, John sums up the whole salvation history of the Old Covenant. He stands at its head, pointing, like the prophets before him, to the coming of Christ. But the son of Zechariah’s preaching reveals Jesus’ arrival as impending. So we stand up and be attentive. We expect God to act. We turn to the East.

At this holy time it is important for each of us to come to grips with the reality that we cannot be the architects of our own salvation. The resources for our salvation do not lie within the possibilities of human history. They can only come from outside. Neither the enfleshment of Christ nor his coming at the end of the ages can be perceived as products of human evolution. They are gifts from the Author of all being. So are we.

The Very Reverend Marshall J. Vang
Interim Rector

For the Week of  December 2-8

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Sunday, December second, is the First Sunday of Advent and, hence, the beginning of a new year of grace. We gather as frail children of the Light, who, as T. S. Eliot once expressed, hold the little lights of our lives toward the great mystery of God’s light. We mark in Sacred Scripture the truth of our frailty and the still greater truth of God’s light revealed in human flesh and blood. We join our voices in hymn and acclamation to sing of the Light whose presence we experience in shadow and glimmer and dappled flame.

The Gospel for Advent Sunday provides an opportunity to ask ourselves what place the “last day” and the meeting of the whole people of God with its Lord has in our real lives. We are challenged not to forget our personal meeting with the Lord and the need of making ready for it, but rather to broaden our vision so as to embrace the entire world, and to set our sights on the rebuilding, the re-creation of that world against the day of the Lord’s coming. This requires hope, a faith-inspired hope, which will become far more vast than the paltry expectations we once cherished, thinking merely upon our own narrow life.

Let each of us become intentional  This is Advent’s call.

The Very Reverend Marshall J. Vang
Interim Rector

The December/January Newsletter is now available.  it include Dean’s Doings, an update from the Vestry, and a number of Christmas activities.  Click here to read the December/January Newsletter

The November Newsletter is available online.  This issue includes the Dean’s Doings, updates from the October Vestry meeting, and a number of activities coming this fall.

Click here to read the November Newsletter