From the Dean

Wasting Time Gracefully
One of the quotes I am most fond of is Hartford’s own Mark Twain quipping that the game of golf is a “good walk spoiled.” When hacking my way through a bi-annual round of tortured pain and humiliation, I am apt to agree.

Then I came across this wisdom by Thomas H. Green. “The art of praying, as we grow, is really the art of learning to waste time gracefully—to be simply the clay in the hands of the potter. This may sound easy—too easy to be true—but it is really the most difficult thing we ever learn to do.... This is the real reason why so few of us ever come, in this life, to the full experience of God’s love for us.” (From When the Well Runs Dry)

I do not waste time well. Yet, I would like to do it better. I would like to become a better time-waster. If Thomas H. Green is right, I could also grow closer to God. What a deal! But, what’s the hitch?

I have recently become accustomed – and tired to be quite honest – to describing my life in my mid-40’s as being full. I imagine that some of you who read this may also describe your life as such. My roles as a husband, father, son, priest, dog-walker, bill-payer, appointed driver, keep me on-the-go and leave me precious little time to unwind and goof-off. The fullness is partly due to the pace and load of my daily schedule and duties, but at the same time, I admit that it is also partly my fault. I have to work very hard at not staying busy. A nap in the middle of a Saturday afternoon sounds so…wasteful. Doing nothing when I could be doing some-thing seems downright wrong. Dare I say un-American?

How can we become more clay-like and let the potter shape our lives and the things we do with our time? Can one find a way to pray by just being who we are and remembering whose we are?

Yet what Green may be getting at is that the harder we try to search for something, the quicker it falls beyond our grasp. Easing up, breathing, resting, and celebrating each day as a gift rather than a chore may bring us closer to what God has in mind for us and the world.

So my goal over these next two months is to learn to waste time gracefully.
Will you join me?

Blessings,
Mark B. Pendleton+

The Very Rev.
Mark B. Pendleton
Dean

Looking for Golfers for the Hastings Open
The Cathedral is a $1000 sponsor of the Camp Washington-Hastings Open to be played Thursday, June 19, at Tunxis Plantation Country Club in Farmington to benefit the Camp Washington Scholarship Fund. Help us send kids to summer camp. Contact June Aziz at 860-563-4028 for information, or speak with Dean Pendleton.

Walk Against Hunger
Help us to end hunger by Walking the Walk Against Hunger for Hands on Hartford’s MANNA basic needs program on Sunday, May 4. Form a team and join the fun. The funds you raise will feed hungry children; help families struggling to make ends meet; assist low-income seniors whose health is frail; and provide meals for home-less men and women.

The buying power of every dollar raised is multiplied many times over because food is acquired through Foodshare, a member of Second Harvest, a regional/nationwide food bank. Call Hands on Hartford at 860-728-3201 ext. 2002 for more information.

Cathedral Spring Art Exhibit and Silent Auction Spring is here again and we have a wonderful group of talented artists who will be presenting an interesting and diverse selection of fine art including paintings, calligraphy and a few quilts. The artists are Jerry Barry, Beverly Berger, Miyoko Burr, Lisa Bell, Donald Boudreaux, Jane Bradley, Jean Dalton, Dolores Howard, Ursula Korzenik, Joan St. Clair Roof, Denise Slaughter, Jean Slaughter and Wendy West. Remember, this art show is not only for Christ Church Cathedral members but is also another way for us to

"Lilacs" © Dolores Howard

The art committee and the artists are grateful to the Cathedral for its continued support and loyalty. We thank all who have visited and have contributed to our ministry.

We look forward to seeing you.

May 1-11
Art Exhibition & Silent Auction

Thursday, May 1
5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Opening reception (refreshments)

Saturdays – May 3 & May 10
11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Sundays - May 4 & May 11
11:30a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Weekdays – Mondays & Fridays
12:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Final Choral Evensong of the Season
The last Choral Evensong of the season will take place on Sunday, May 4, at 5:00 p.m. The Cathedral Choir with guest organist Erik Eickhoff will present the “St. Paul’s” Canticles by Herbert Howells, Preces and Responses by Thomas Morley, and “O Clap Your Hands” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. As part of the centenary of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, they will also perform his Easter cantata Five Mystical Songs with resurrection poetry by the English mystic George Herbert. A reception in the Cathedral House Auditorium will follow.

Baptisms
We will be offering the sacrament of baptism on Pentecost Sunday, May 11, at the 10:00 a.m. service. Please contact Debby in the Cathe-dral Office at 527-7231 or by e-mail at dvancamp@cccathedral.org for applications. There will be a pre-baptism gathering for parents and godparents on Saturday, May 10 at 10:00 a.m. Please direct any questions to one of the clergy.

Bishop’s 5K Race
Let’s win the BIG trophy again this year and help our community’s most vulnerable citizens, the chil-dren!

The Bishop’s 5K for Kids Run/Walk benefits the Bishop’s Fund for Children. This fund not only enhances awareness about the plight of children at risk throughout Connecticut, it also helps to underwrite social service programs that aid children in our urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods.

This fun-family event will be held on Saturday, May 17, at Webster Hill School in West Hartford at 9:30 a.m. The church that raises the most money will win the BIG trophy. Prizes will be awarded in all age groups.

Free t-shirts will be given to everyone who registers. To register, please see Jennifer Johnson after a 10:00 a.m. service, or call her at (860) 508-3823 for more information.

May Lunch Plus
Lunch…Plus! finishes its 13th season with a concert by mezzo-soprano Cynthia Mellon and pianist Kevin Jones on Thursday, May 1, at 12:05 p.m. The concert will comprise Spanish language songs in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Music of de Falla, Montsalvage and Rodrigo will be featured.

Cynthia Mellon, mezzo-soprano, received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Michigan State University, and her musical training at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Connecticut. While in Ohio, she performed with the Cleveland Orchestra and was a member of the Robert Page Singers. Here in Connecticut she has appeared with Connecticut Opera, and has sung principal roles with New Britain Opera, Opera Theatre of Connecticut, CONCORA and Simsbury Light Opera. Cynthia has been a soloist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and several other regional symphony orchestras. She is a member of CONCORA, and sings in that organization’s Consort of Voices, a select a capella chamber ensemble. She is well-known to the Cathedral community as one of our very talented staff singers in the Cathedral Choir.

Thanks to the Lunch…Plus! Volunteers who worked tirelessly all year to serve lunch to the concert-goers and generally present that professional touch. To Norma Wassell for coordinating and lead-ing these volunteers, we say a hearty thank you! Her assistants included Connie Bain, Dru Conway, Rose Fichera-Eagen, Claire Fonseca, Marnie Mueller, Helen Ross, Tina Thomson, and Tom Wassell. Many thanks also belong to Debby Van Camp for preparing and printing the programs; and to Gilbeean Scott for organizing, preparing and planning food and decorations for all of these events. Of course, thanks also belong to the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral for their kind sponsorship of this program.

Choir Season Ends
The Cathedral Choir ends its season on Trinity Sunday, May 18. We thank them for their constant musical presence and leadership at our liturgies throughout the past year. They are great examples of stewardship of time and talent, and give so much back to this place along with the many other liturgical servers that the Cathedral is so fortunate to have.

Summer Choir
As the regular Cathedral Choir takes its summer recess, a volunteer Summer Choir will help lead Sunday liturgies for the five Sundays of June. If you are interested in singing with the Summer Choir, you are warmly invited to come at 9:15 a.m. to the Choir Room on each of those Sunday mornings to gather, rehearse the hymns for the day, prepare a very simple anthem, and then sing from the choir during the 10:00 a.m. service. No experience is necessary, and there is no audition. If you’ve ever been curious about the Choir, but don’t have the time during the year to make the commitment – here’s your chance!

Choir Camp
The annual Choir Camp for choristers will be held at Camp Washington August 17-21. Registration forms will be available by mid-May from the Cathedral Office, and will be due by June 30. If you know a young person in grades 4-12 who might be interested in joining the Cathedral Choir, Choir Camp is a great way to be introduced to the Choir. Please contact Kevin Jones at 527-7231, x112 or kjones@cccathedral.org for more information.

Congratulations and Welcome
At the Easter Vigil we celebrated by welcoming James Romanik who was confirmed, and Michael Sacharko who was received. Please continue to keep them in your prayers and rejoice with them in their refreshed and renewed commitments.

Faith Chests and the Paschal Mystery

Amy and I are members of The Order of Saint Luke. I am also in an online chapter of the Order that we call the Cyber Chapter – lots of discussion, sharing of prayers, and much more. The Prior of the Cyber Chapter just asked a question: If Lent is a time of preparation for entering into the Paschal Mystery, how, he wanted to know, are we in our various churches observing Eastertide as a time for mystagogy (teaching the Mystery), entering more deeply into the Paschal Mystery? How is this Eastertide more than just one resurrection remem-brance after another – how is mystagogy happening both on Sundays and especially in other ways where you are?

Here is my response to his question. My wife, Amy, has discovered something called "Faith Chests" from a Lutheran source. It's a small wooden chest that's given when a child or adult is baptized. Into it go things associated with the baptism – certificate; service bulletin from the day; pictures; candle, if used – and so on. There can also be letters from pastor, godparents, parents to child ... the possibilities go on and on. Godparents and others might be encouraged to write a note on the anniversary of the baptism, year after year.

At Christ Church Cathedral, we now give these chests to the newly baptized. One of the priests asked Amy to come and talk to the Youth Group about this and show one of the chests. The upshot was that the young people decided they all wanted their own Faith Chests. Though I wasn't there for that discussion, this is a church where children and youth are regularly present for sacramental worship every Sunday. Knowing that, I think it safe to assume that what led to that expressed desire was an ongoing mystagogical conversation and experi-ence.

We currently have 17 unfinished wooden chests in our basement workshop. A letter just went to the youth and their parents asking them to gather things that can to into their Faith Chests. The hope, of course, is that this will stimulate some conversation within families about baptism. Home-based mystagogy, if you will.

On two Saturdays in April, the young people will come to our house to sand the chests and apply a primer coat of paint the first day, and to apply a finish coat the second day. (Up to now, we've used stain and polyurethane but the drying times would take too long for the two workshop sessions. Latex paint dries faster and will look quite nice.)

The final step will be for the youth and their families to join us in dedicating these Faith Chests on Pentecost. I am confident that this will be a mystagogical experience for the entire congregation that day.

The Rev. Dr. Tom Beveridge
Ecumenical Associate

COME

AT THE NOW FAMOUS

Sunday, May 25
4:00 to 7:00 p.m.
(Torrential rain date is Monday, noon-3:00 p.m.)

The Deanery
118 Westerly Terrace, Hartford

Ice for beverages will be provided
BYOB lanket
or
BYOC hair

This is not an Open House, so it is necessary to respond by May 18
RSVP: 231-8509
or LGPen@comcast.net LGPen@comcast.net

Save the Date: Parish-Wide Picnic
We will be returning to Winding Trails Park in Farmington this summer on Sunday, August 3, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Entrance to the park is free. Look for more details in upcoming Sunday bulletins.

The Grapevine
Published by Christ Church Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.
The Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith
Bishop of Connecticut
The Very Rev. Mark B. Pendleton, Dean
The Rev. Canon J. Allison St. Louis, Vicar