To Bless As We Are Blessed: Living Our Baptismal Vocation

A Lenten Workshop for all interested clergy and laity of the Diocese

Saturday, March 7, 2009, 9:30 – 1:00 pm at  Church of the Redeemer, Squirrel Hill

Presenter: The Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy
Rector, Grace Episcopal Church, Allentown, Pa.

9:30 a.m. — Gathering and Coffee

10:00 a.m. – Morning Prayer

10:30 a.m. – Dr. Malloy’s presentation

11:30 a.m. – Small group discussion on the workshop theme

12:00 noon – Reconvene in large group and final reflections

12:15 p.m. – A simple soup lunch

Please contact the Church for more information and to RSVP: 412.422.7100

Patrick Malloy has been the rector of Grace Church, Allentown, Pa. since 2001. Before that he was a member and Pastoral Associate of the Church of the Redeemer, Squirrel Hill.

The author of Celebrating the Eucharist (Church Publishing, 2007), he has been commissioned to write two additional volumes: on the Daily Office and the pastoral rites (2009) and the liturgies linked to the liturgical year, especially the rites of Holy Week (2010).

He taught at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, St. John’s University, Collegeville MN, and the University of Santa Clara. While he was at Redeemer, he was an instructor in the diocesan school for deacons, and is currently is part of his own Diocese’ formation team for locally-licensed priests. He is a former member of the General Convention’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and serves on his Diocese’ Commission on Ministry.

Grace Church, Allentown, is a blue-collar parish in a troubled downtown neighborhood. The congregation sponsors the largest food pantry in Northeast PA, a Montessori school founded expressively for the children of the food bank clients, and a neighborhood employment and job-counseling agency. Grace provides space and support services to legal aid programs for food bank clients, rehab initiatives for juvenile offenders, marriage and family conflict resolution groups, and GED classes every day, all day. The parish has intentionally worked to create a liturgy that reflects this extensive mission to the poor, which it understands as its baptismal vocation.

“When we baptize, we are more or less conscious and explicit about marking this person as Christ’s territory. We are baptizing into the baptism Jesus received, and I most firmly believe that the newly baptized is invited and encouraged to hear what Jesus heard at his baptism, “you are my beloved, and in you I am well pleased.” The blessing of water, chrism, and hands in community is meant to convey a sense of that belovedness. Our task as community is to help that belovedness grow and flourish in a way that extends the blessing. It is the root of our baptismal vocation – to bless the world as we are blessed.”

-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

[print_link]