From the Pastor December 13/14

Nicaea: Still Relevant

Does a Church meeting held centuries ago still influence us today? Yes, is the resounding answer! Over our Thanksgiving weekend Pope Leo was on his first overseas trip since being elected Pope. He traveled to Turkey and then Lebanon. In Turkey, he joined leaders of other Christian denominations at a meeting and prayer service hosted by Bartholow, Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, to commemorate the 1700th Anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea. This council was the first Ecumenical Council held in the Christian Church and probably the most impactful one.

The best known result of the Council was the formulation of the Nicaean Creed. It is the long prayer Catholics say right after the homily and is a basic statement of Christian beliefs. If someone doesn’t agree with something stated in the creed, well they can’t claim to be a Christian.

 The council fathers developed the creed in response to a number of issues and heresies confronting the Church. The year 325AD was a decisive one. After centuries or persecution, the Emperor Constantine had just legalized Christianity. While by then most persecution was over, there were significant divisions in the Church. The Council of Nicaea addressed those conflicts, set a uniform date for Easter, and set norms for reconciling sinners in the Church

.One of the several issues the council addressed was the heresy of Arianism. Arianism rejected the belief that Jesus was co-equal with God and that Jesus had existed for all eternity. It argued that Jesus was a created being and subordinate to God the Father. While the council condemned Arianism it would still be a prevalent heresy for years to come and almost dominated among believers for several centuries before finally being stamped out. Even today people who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ are really Arians.

 A second heresy the council tackled was called Monarchianism. This one tried to collapse the three persons of the Trinity into one. They might say that God the Father creates; God the Son redeems; God the Holy Spirit sanctifies. They denied the three persons of the Trinity and claimed its all God; Monarchians claim we just see different aspects of God and give God different names when we observe God acting in different ways.

 Two other controversies addressed by the First Council of Nicaea were the settling of the date for Easter and the question of the status of Christians who had fallen into public sin. When Nicaea met persecution was still a fresh memory for Christians. During the persecution, some Christians had apostatized or gone back to worshipping pagan gods to prevent punishment. Could they and others who had committed public sin be allowed to return? The council determined they could after public penance. It determined that even grave sin can be forgiven by God and through God’s Church. This decision played an important role in the development of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

 The great contribution of Nicaea was toward the unity of Christians. Despite it taking time to completely unify all Christians, the council set the process in motion. Today unfortunately, Christianity is divided, but hopefully, last week’s meeting will spur more dialogue that addresses the issues that divide the churches. Pope Francis had hoped this meeting would facilitate an agreement between the churches of east and west to again set a unified date for Easter. The Orthodox churches declined and have said since the original date was set at an Ecumenical Council in 325, the issue has to be addressed by a Council again. Maybe that will come about before 2033, the two thousandth anniversary of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 The Financial Time

There is some good news to report regarding parish financial matters. The 2025 Capital Campaign has surpassed the 2/3 mark towards our goal of $750,000. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the campaign. Its purpose is to fund capital improvements to parish facilities. A parish couple has chosen to pay the $50,000 cost of replacement windows for the Rectory. With luck the windows will be installed before winter gets too entrenched. We have also raised enough for the biggest ticket item on our wish list, replacing the siding on Holy Redeemer Church. Hopefully, that project will begin in the spring. 

sAs we enter the final weeks of the year many people must take distributions from IRAs and other accounts or are looking to make year-end charitable contributions. Please prayerfully reflect on making a truly sacrificial gift to the 2025 “Unless God Builds the House” Capital Campaign.

 A couple of weekends ago we conducted Stewardship Weekend. Parishioners were asked to prayerfully reflect on their budget contribution to the parish. We have a wonderful parish and want to reach out and see it continue to grow. Fr. Sullivan asked parishioners to consider contributing a percentage of income as their gift to the parish. What would a gift of even 1% of your income be?

 It’s only an antidote, but a parishioner called Deacon Art because they were having a problem adjusting their automatic gift using WeShare on our website. Deacon Art was happy to help and the parishionerdoubled their current weekly gift to the parish. Hopefully, there are more stories like that in the parish. Why not consider making your weekly offertory to the parish automatic? You can just set it and forget it! To begin making your automatic gift to the parish go to our website www.holyredeemerchatham.org. Click on the “Donate” button on the right at the middle of the page and follow the instructions. 

Finally, two last smaller, but no less important, money matters. November’s All Souls Envelopes raised $1,600. This money was donated to the Chatham Children’s Fund for their Christmas gift projects. We also had a collection for the family of one of the housekeepers who clean the Rectory and Church who are lost their home in the recent hurricane in Jamacia. That collection raised $4,000. Thank you to all who contributed to either collection.

 Advent Reconciliatio

Holy Redeemer is a great parish but I feel it has one serious fault. It has poor participation of the use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I’m in the Reconciliation Room every Saturday afternoon from 3-3:45 pm and many times I have no one come to receive the Sacrament. We’ve had seasonal Reconciliation Services and few people attend.

nI’m going to try something different this Advent. The new Order of Penance instituted in 2023 allows for the Reconciliation of Several Penitents with General Confession and Absolution. That means the parish can have a Reconciliation Service where parishioners come, confessVenial Sins and receive the priest absolution from them without going to individual confession. This is not general absolution for all sins, only venial ones. If a penitent becomes aware of committing grave or mortal sin, they still must seek absolution for that sin in a confession made directly to a priest. 

We’ll be doing this in a hope to reach out to people who have not celebrated the Sacrament for years. I hope that by coming and examining their conscience they might recognize where they have fallen into sin, overcome any fears they have about confronting their sins, and receive a sense of being unburdened of any guilt they feel

.The Reconciliation Service will be held next Sunday, December 14, at 3 pm. The service should last about a half hour. Come and be open to receiving God’s mercy and compassion.