Worship
Join us for our Holy Week experiments!
The Episcopal Mission in Sunnyside will have a big public launch this fall: you’re invited! We’ll start weekly services, and a regular schedule of other opportunities to learn, and gather, and grow.
But for right now, we’re grooving in an era of low-stakes experimentation: How do we want to be “church” in this time? Join us for the stuff we try this Holy Week. All are welcome!
Our Holy Week of experiments will begin with Palm Sunday. We'll wave palms around the garden together, and process into the church together singing "Hosanna in the highest!"
After an opening hymn and prayers, folks can choose their own adventure. Kids especially are encouraged to return to the garden where our wonderful teaching artists Cristina Ferrigno (she/her) and Spence Moore (she/her) will be doing cyanotype crafts. (Objects placed on this special paper will create a negative image when exposed to the sun. Will be great to use our palms for this!)
Those who stay in the sanctuary will hear the story as it takes a tragic turn after the crowds acclaim Jesus as the Messiah. He is betrayed; he is tortured; he is killed as a proclamation of oppressive state power.
The two groups will then come together for Holy Communion—the ritual in which we can meet Jesus no matter where in the story our hearts are: in triumph and joy, in pain and despair.
Help us plan by RSVPing HERE! We will gather at 7pm for song and shared reflection on what it means to love one another. ("Maundy" is an old word for "mandate," and the mandate we remember on this night is Jesus' commandment to his disciples to love one another.)
We'll also wash one another's hands, or feet: a simple and moving ritual of care for one another's vulnerable bodies.Then we'll gather around a table for potluck supper, sharing in fellowship just as Jesus did with his disciples.
We join Jesus in his humanity, in his hunger, in his humble service to others. RSVP HERE!—but show up anyway even if you haven't!
This Good Friday in Sunnyside we will be led into the story of Christ's last hours by Dzieci Theatre.
Dzieci comes highly recommended by friends and partners in the city. This immersive performance promises to be a powerful and provocative occasion to be drawn into this ancient story, told afresh. In seeking the essence of this liturgy, Dzieci Theatre refined the text of the Passion from the earliest translations, relying heavily on the Aramaic Peshitta. They have integrated Hebraic song and chant, and ritual elements of Jesus' Jewish world, and set that revision in the shadow of the Warsaw Ghetto.
All are welcome, and all are encouraged to stay afterwards for a discussion with the members of Dzieci.
Looking for a creative, progressive, and open-hearted place to mark the feast of Easter? You are welcome here!
We'll be continuing in our spirit of experimentation, aiming to capture the wonder and the weirdness of these stories about Jesus, risen from the dead.
We'll sing in praise, we'll wonder in silence; we'll celebrate that this mysterious power of Resurrection is present among us—gathered together around a simple table, sharing bread and wine.
This is a family-friendly service: kids and elders belong here, together!
Holy Eucharist
Monthly - watch the newsletter for dates!
“Eucharist” is the ancient Greek word for “thanksgiving,” and we will be experimenting for quite some time with different ways this ancient ritual might unfold in this new community of practice. But our gathering always follows this basic pattern:
We center ourselves in our bodies and root ourselves in the presence of a loving, liberating and life-giving God; we listen to the words of scripture and wonder together how its wisdom speaks to us today—and how it orients us to the horizon of justice, grace and healing that we long for. We open our hearts together in prayer. Trusting in the mercy and compassion of God, we can tell the truth about what we want and how we so often get in our own way, hurting others and ourselves; God’s forgiveness frees us from shame and guilt to start again: to keep on practicing being the people we are called to be.
The center of this service is when we gather around a table where we offer ourselves and our gifts to God—and God offers Godself to us as food. In this holy communion, mysterious things can happen, if we allow it. We who are so different are joined together into one. The boundary between this world and the kingdom of God becomes porous: we sense that those who have gone before us are not gone, but surround us, and we join their song. The bread and wine we share is somehow more than matter; it is nourishment offered from God’s own body for the parts of our souls that are starving.
Open Space, Quiet Space
Sundays, 7:00 PM
The sanctuary is open for as a space of rest and stillness. There is no program, nothing you need to do, or say, or achieve. It is a space to just be present: to grieve, catch up, practice gratitude, listen to our hearts, etc., etc., etc. Nothing more, and nothing less.
There will be candles lit in the center of the room, and you are invited to do whatever your body needs to find ease in the candlelight. You might: lie down on the floor, sit on a meditation cushion or bench, find a chair along the walls, find enough light to read or journal, daydream…
Compline
Monthly (On Hiatus)
In early 2024 we experimented with a chanted service of Compline: the prayers that monastics have said before bedtime for centuries. We blended the chanting of these ancient prayers with other pieces of devotional music, including some playful reinterpretations of pop melodies to accompany a chanted psalm (Billie Eilish, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, the Magnetic Fields, Neil Young). Mostly we worked with a choral quartet, but also did a very special compline with guitarist Jay Sorce—and we may do more down the road! For now this Compline is on hiatus as we put our creative energy elsewhere.
This Little Light
Upcoming—we dream about this…
We are dreaming about a 30 minute service for kids 7 and under (and their families). We will sing songs, we will tell stories; we will wiggle and wonder together while following the big arc of the Episcopal liturgy, where we gather to break bread together in the presence of God. This is a body-positive, gender-inclusive, no-judgment space for any kid to learn about a God who is Love, and a supportive space for parents who are wondering how to help their kids develop a healthy spiritual life based on curiosity and wonder.
We’re thinking this will be at 9am on Sunday mornings—but if you think that time is ridiculous, reach out to Fr. Carl and vote for our other option: 4pm!