A Sacrament Called Stewardship

by Anthony Sousa

I am one of those people who are called “cradle Episcopalians”. I was born in Boston at the Fenway Hospital, which probably explains why I am such a Red Sox fan. A year later my family moved to Pennsylvania. My formal Sunday School training started in Grace Episcopal Church in Allentown with my first Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Leibig. I remember her well because, about 12 years later, her son was one of my professors at Lehigh University.

When I was in the second grade, my family moved to West Catasauqua, a small town north of Allentown, and my brother and I attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church from then until we went off to college. Mr. Briesch was our Sunday School Superintendent. Sunday School always started with a short church service prior to going to our classes. During that service, we always said portions of the Catechism until we knew it by heart.

I had this part of the “28” prayer book in my mind and I recall very well the definition of a Sacrament. “A Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” We celebrate these sacraments in this Church on a regular basis: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, and Holy Matrimony. The others are Ordination, Confession and Unction. The “new” 1979 prayer book spells this out in more detail, called “An Outline of the Faith” on page 845. Incidentally, if you are interested in renewing these basic Christian beliefs, the Cursillo three-day weekend is a great place to start. The Church has listed those seven sacraments. However, the Catechism states, “God does not limit himself to these rites; they are patterns of countless ways by which God uses material things to reach out to us.”

I’d like to suggest another Sacrament - a Sacrament called Stewardship. Stewardship certainly meets the definition: an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Here in this Church our outward and visible sign of stewardship is the total love we all have for one another and for our neighbors on our island home. The inward and spiritual grace is the Holy Spirit filling this place and overwhelming us in so many wonderful and unexpected encounters.

Over the past few years, several of us have attended the Stewardship workshops, presented by Province I of the Episcopal Church in Westborough, Massachusetts. We have all heard the definition of stewardship, quoted by Dick Salisbury several years ago and most recently restated by Lisa Meeder Turnbull during her August visit. “Stewardship is all that we do, with all that we have, after we say, I believe.”

Recently, Jim Kitler told me that he considered the Down East Fair a wonderful example of Stewardship. I certainly agree with Jim and would like to explore some of the aspects of Fair Stewardship. All of us give of our Time, Talent, and Treasure to make the fair work. While we are giving in so many ways, others are receiving blessings. For example, Joan and Tom Tukey’s ministry, “27 Books”, gave away 114 New Testaments, spreading the Gospel. Dorothy and Paul Lacy’s “China Ethnic Crafts” sells their wares to support their mission work of spreading the Gospel and giving work to the people of mainland China. The Hancock County Medical Mission sells fine crafts from Ecuador to support their trips to Central America – all examples of missions.

We also reach out to the community for help, and the Biological Lab folks and others have come to our aid for many years, joining us in fellowship. This year Ed Libitzki donated hours of sand blasting and painting so that some lucky person could have “good as new” lawn furniture. Wayne Mayo, our auctioneer, has donated nineteen years of his time and talent to make our auctions fun and professional.

This year, as in other years, many people donated their treasures. Our beloved Donald Fricke left this church many of his household belongings in addition to his car. It was really special that Fran Raymond was the high bidder on the car, so “the car” stays in our congregation and reminds us of Donald. April Karan donated the contents of her Mother’s apartment. Sue Olson and her Island Connections co-workers guided the Klemas family of Northeast Harbor to our doors for the help they desperately needed and, in turn, gave us the contents of their home.

As for talent, Joanne’s organizational skill makes the Fair click; Robbie Bothen’s musical talent and friends afford us entertainment throughout the day. You know that I could go on and on, but all anyone has to do is to look around at each of us to see the Time, Talent and Treasure that we donate and spread throughout this community.

In the last month or so, Elaine Theriault and David Hawkes used the same expression in relation to outreach, “What goes around, comes around.” I don’t know where that expression can be found in the Bible, but it seems to apply to our church life… just like the seasons of the year or of our church calendar: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, etc. The natural progression from the Church Fair Stewardship is to our outreach ministry.

In the fall of each year, the Outreach Committee meets to discuss how our outreach funds should be used. Part of these funds comes from a “Tithe” of church fair monies. Jane Adams has chaired that committee for several years and will do so again this year. We meet to choose our outreach recipients and also the 12 organizations that we sponsor during the year. Our meeting this year is the evening of Wednesday, October 4, and I urge all of us to be a part of that discussion and decision. This is what I meant by “what goes around comes around”. Each of us plays a key role using our Time, Talent and Treasure during the Fair and pledging to Church of Our Father. Now it is our responsibility to continue this next phase of our stewardship.

During Wendy’s stewardship talk in June, she said, “God’s gifts are fluid, coming into our hands to bless us. We must pass them on to bless others.” As we prepare for the next phase of our stewardship life, let us all pray that we may discern God’s will in all that we do and say. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us forever more. Amen.