The New Convent of Saint Helena

Vol 36 No 2 Aug 2015
O God, I love the house in which you dwell
and the place where your glory abides.
Psalm 26:8
The New Convent of Saint Helena
414 Savannah Barony Drive
North Augusta SC 29841-6096
Main Office 803 426 1616
Please join us on the 70th anniversary
of the Founding of the Order of Saint Helena!
Sunday, November 8 at 4:00 pm
Holy Eucharist
and dedication of the new chapel
Reception follows
RSVP to Sr Linda, Guest Registrar
augustaconvent@comcast.net
803 522 2196 (note new number)
The Feast Day of Saint Helena, August 18
A Sermon from Sr Linda, OSH
Our readings today are full of complimentary traits
that we can attribute to the woman, Helena. In fact, one
thing I did as I first read these lessons* was to check off
in my Bible all descriptions that fit what I know of her.
I’ve not before felt a personal connection with Helena,
but the story about her that touches me most is that as
Empress she would dress in plain clothes and slip into
the crowds unnoticed to attend mass. As I journaled
about Helena over the last week, hoping I could engage
her in dialog, I began to wonder WHY she wanted to
find the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion. The two standard
answers we have are:
Helena was an archaeologist, someone motivated
by the excitement of the dig. She was even dubbed the
“first archaeologist.” So it would stand to reason that
while she built churches where Jesus walked, she may
have wanted to uncover what could easily be called the
archaeological find of all archaeological finds: the cross
on which Jesus died. Secondly, there is a story which
indicates that finding the cross was the unique mission
which God gave Helena through a vision, and she definitely was of a mind that God has a unique call for every
person.
So maybe God set Helena about searching for the
true cross, and she obediently and readily set out to
complete that holy task. And if God truly laid this on
Helena’s heart, then I imagine what she found WAS
Jesus’ cross.
But the whole time I worked with these two possibilities, I kept feeling like something was missing from
my exploration. It was not until a few days ago that
spiritual teacher Adyashanti put his finger on it for me. I
watched his DVD entitled “The Undivided Self.” He
made the statement that finding our true nature is not
the same thing as realizing our true nature. That was my
aha! moment about Helena, answering the WHY of her
searching for the cross. I think long before she began
the physical “seek and ye shall find” part of this mission,
that as a person of deep prayer, she had realized the
cross, which is to say the truth of it. This realization
changed Helena, transformed her, and I’ll bet became
the catalyst for all the amazing things she accomplished
in a world in which typically only men took part.
I can’t pass up at least a few conjectures of what
this realization of the cross may have meant to Helena.
Perhaps she consciously experienced herself as
living at the center-point of this quintessential sign of
Christianity, living out the opposites of the temporal
world and the transcendent worlds of her experience.
For the truth is that we all “hang” on the cross between
these realities, suspended between opposites, and in
attempting to live them out in such a way that they do
not fly apart but are held together in the reality of our
personal lives, we experience pain.
Perhaps Helena knew that when she failed love or
was so stretched between extremes that she was not
able to bridge them, that this was a kind of death, a
suffering, and in fact a necessary alchemy pushing her
toward a new life form, a form we call resurrection. In
every sacred tradition, a fully realized human being cannot be “made” except through the alchemical process of
dying and rising – and so this contradictory sign stands
as witness to the passageway we all must take if we are
to awaken into fullness of being.
Some people imagine that death closes the doorway
on the Divine’s persistent pursuit of us as valued and
beloved beings. I think Helena knew that NO, Divine
Presence slips through the doorway of death itself and
descends even to the realm of the dead in relentless
questing for our souls. One of the most surprising turns
in my own spiritual journey is that Jesus’ “harrowing of
hell” has become for me his most important, most
reverent work – which continues to this day.
I think Helena knew that what makes the cross the
supreme sign of Divine Compassion is that the cross is
that “crack in the door” through which Presence passes,
and ultimately seeks us even as we ourselves slip out of
time walking further into eternity. I think she knew that
absolutely nothing escapes the Divine Compassion because It knows that death is the way to resurrection,
that suffering is a gate, a cross-point of agony sprinkled
with moments of ecstasy. Like Helena, we are each
called into this mystery, to walk toward this gateway as
an aperture, the doorway to transformation.
If Helena is dialoging with us today, I imagine she is
saying to us women who have chosen to emulate
Helena’s devotion to the cross (and dared greatly to
build a new convent):
“My Sisters, make your own way and take your own
place at the center of this mystery. You, like me, are to
carry the sign of the cross within yourselves. It is a perilous path, the path of true prayer, the path of true surrender. It is your promise to the Creator to be and
become and live and grow and enter the Realm of
Heaven, with this seal, the cross, pressed into your own
hearts, that you may ‘rise in the darkness as a Light’ to
the world.”
I don’t think I’d ever noticed the line that ends the
reading today from Paul’s first letter to Timothy, but it’s
perfect for Helena and it’s perfect for us on our first
patronal feast day in this new chapel that the Order of
Saint Helena has built, with God’s help: “Take hold of
the life that really is life,” which to me, is to realize
Jesus. Amen.
*I Kings 19:5-8, Psalm 112, I Tim 6:12-19, Luke 11:1-10
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Note New Guest Registrar Phone: 803 522 2196
augustaconvent@comcast.net
http://www.osh.org/events.html
New Guest House – We are eagerly awaiting the completion of the new
guest house. Email augustaconvent@comcast.net if you’d like us to
inform you once we know the opening date.
Join us for services! We’ve felt very pleased that new neighbors are
joining us for chapel. If light and beauty speak to you, the new chapel will
knock your socks off! The current schedule for primary services is:
Matins (morning prayer)
8:00 am
Holy Eucharist
8:30 am
Vespers (evening prayer)
5:00 pm
There are no services on Monday.
eBreviary and ePsalter: We are offering a CD of The Saint Helena Breviary: Monastic Edition and The Saint Helena Psalter as a gift in appreciation for your donation of $25 or more. Go to our web link printed below
and check the box indicating you would like to receive the CD. These files
are in PDF (Portable Document Format) and readable on a PC or Mac
with Adobe Acrobat Reader or other electronic readers (such as iBook).
See http://www.osh.org/contributions.html.
Above: We’ve been
welcomed to South
Carolina by a surprising number of
thunderstorms. The
trees all around are
a blue bird and
warbler paradise.
Contribute online to OSH: We appreciate and prayerfully steward your
contributions to the Order, which are used to help support our guest and
outreach ministries, chaplaincy work, spiritual direction, parish involvement, and care of our buildings and grounds. You can donate easily: go
to our web link printed below, press the “Donate for Good” button and
follow the directions. If you wish, you may designate your gift for a
specific purpose. See http://www.osh.org/contributions.html.
Right: Sr Rosina
arrived home just in
time to help with the
chaos of unpacking.
What a joy to have
her easy-going spirit
among us.. She will
return to Ghana in
October to fulfill one
more year of
teaching.
“Like us” on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OrderofSaintHelena.
Sr Linda got lost in
a box of dishes
early on in the
unpacking.
On June 18, the Order of Saint Helena received Gaelyn
Evangreene as an Associate. Gaelyn, a third-grade teacher from
NC, is shown above with Sr Ann Prentice, Sister for the Associates.
For information about the Associates Program,
see http://www.osh.org/associates.html.
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A MINISTRY RENEWED
which is when the group stops trying to control and “fix”
their way into true community.
Scotty invited me to be part of the first wave of facilitators for his organization, and I remained one for as long as
FCE, The Foundation for Community Encouragement, was
functioning. I was also on its Board of Directors for nine
years. When FCE disbanded not long after Scotty’s death in
2005, the basic work continued in some places in different
ways.
However, Community Building in the Scott Peck model is
being revitalized. I was contacted recently by Tim Dempsey
who works with Ed Groody, the head of one organization in
this new movement. I knew Ed as one of the first facilitators
who trained with me in Scotty’s CB work. Tim wanted me to
do a teaching via Skype to one of the first groups to be
trained as new CB facilitators. I spoke on the stage of
“Emptiness.” I have done that for two new groups of prospective facilitators in different cities, and it has been a rich
and encouraging experience. I have in person co-facilitated a
very successful Community Building workshop for public
safety officials, and am now looking forward to a second one
in September.
Sr Ellen Stephen, OSH
Beginning in the 1980’s when I was living in our convent at
Vails Gate NY, I was involved in a ministry called Community
Building (CB). I can honestly say that it changed my life, and I
heard the same response from many other people who experienced the work. That model of building community was developed by M Scott Peck, MD, author of The Road Less Traveled.
It is a two- or three-day workshop by which a group of people
who desire to experience more authentic human connection
can move from socially learned politeness to chosen intimacy.
In the late 1970’s, as Scott Peck was just evolving his Community Building model, he became first an advisor and then a
friend of OSH. He encouraged us to call him “Scotty,” and later
he was baptized in our chapel and became an OSH Associate.
Scotty drew from several sources for his Community Building
model: the Quaker custom of speaking out of the silence, the
AA practice of telling your story, and wisdom from group dynamics and organization theory. Perhaps Scotty’s most original
contribution was the concept of the stage of “Emptiness,”
GENERAL CONVENTION 2015:
Historic and Hopeful
the deepening relationship with the Episcopal Church in
Cuba.
And of course, there were all of the connections we
made with others for missions, retreats and deepening of
relationships across the Church. All of this, and so much
more, is proof that The Episcopal Church, in the words of the
Rt Rev Jefferts Schori, “is not dead yet! So, ‘talitha cum!’ Get
up girl! Get up and dance!”* We sisters are glad and grateful
to be partners in the dance.
Sr Miriam Elizabeth, OSH
There are many things I will remember about General
Convention 2015. There was the excitement of the next Presiding Bishop’s election, the Prayers of the People in digital
format, the “Homeless Jesus” sculpture, the march against gun
violence, and the Supreme Court’s decision about same-sex
marriage that occurred during convention’s timing. There were
important conversations and decisions about a variety of
topics including racism, marriage and addiction. And certainly,
there was the greeting of old friends, remembering and reminiscing; and the beginnings of many new friendships born out
of shared experiences and interests and hope for the Church’s
future.
Sisters Faith Anthony, Ellen Stephen, Ann Prentice and I
were glad to show off our new convent and chapel with a photo
slide show, to testify for the inclusion of Saint Helena in an upcoming revision of the liturgical calendar and to continue to
witness to the presence and value of the monastic vocation in
the Church and the world.
But what really excited me was the mission and ministry of
the Church – 125 years of United Thank Offering grants for
ministries across the world; 75 years of Episcopal Relief and
Development work; the widespread support for the work of
Thistle Farms and Magdalene; the ministry of Little Roses Orphanage in Honduras; the continued work and development of
the Hooghan Learning Circle in Navajoland; the care of refugees
and immigrants by churches in South Texas; the rebuilding of
schools in Haiti; the work of peace-making in the Middle East;
*
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/78th-general-convention-episcopal-church-june-28-sermon-presiding-bishop
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Happy are they whom you choose
and draw to your courts to dwell there;
they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house,
by the holiness of your temple.
Psalm 65:4
Row 1: Sisters Linda and Faith Anthony
Row 2: Sisters Ann Prentice, Barbara Lee, June Thomas, Ruth, Ellen Stephen, Benedicta
Row 3: Sisters Miriam Elizabeth, Carol Andrew, Mary Lois, Ellen Francis, Rosina
CONVENT OF ST HELENA
414 Savannah Barony Dr, North Augusta SC 29841
Phone 803 426 1616 Fax 803 426 1208
augustaconvent@comcast.net
http://www.osh.org
Thank you for your prayerful responses and financial support of our ministries.
And thank you for an annual contribution in support of the newsletter’s publication. Please mail checks made to “OSH” c/o Sr Linda Elston. If you would like to
begin receiving the newsletter or if your contact information changes, please
write to the convent or email us at augofficemgr@comcast.net.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Convent of St Helena, 414 Savannah Barony Dr, North Augusta SC 29841-6096. saint helena (USPS 487-590)
is published four times a year by the Order of St Helena, 414 Savannah Barony Dr, North Augusta SC 29841-6096. Periodical postage is paid at Newburgh NY.
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PERIODICAL POSTAGE
PAID AT
NEWBURGH NY
AND OTHER OFFICES
The mission of the
Order of Saint Helena (Episcopal)
is to show forth Christ through a life of
monastic prayer, hospitality and service.
Vol 36 No 2 Aug 2015
With God’s
help,
we have
crossed the
Savannah
River!
Did you
know?
We belong
to the whole
Church, not
to a
diocese.
IT’S A JUBILEE!
On August 29, Sister Ruth, OSH, celebrated her
50th anniversary of Life Profession with the Order of
Saint Helena. Her convent sisters, family members,
and local friends were present as Ruth signed her
reaffirmation of the Vow during the Eucharist.
Pictured left, niece Diana Juchter Berry is seated
with Ruth. Standing are nephew Tim Juchter, Dave
Berry, nephew Bryan Juchter, great niece Erica
Juchter Balfour, and nephew, The Rev Mark
Juchter. Thanks to all of you who contributed
cards and notes for Ruth’s memory book. Ruth is
still running strong on the energy of the weekend!
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