[CV Block Leaders] (no subject)

[Katie Beltz]

The rector of Saint John's Church asked me to forward this message.  It is
for a service that recognizes the Police, Fire Department, and Paramedics of
Baltimore City.  Please send it on as you see fit.  

 

The Annual Baltimore

 

'BLUE MASS'

A Community-wide Service of Prayer

 for the Police, Fire-fighters, and Paramedic Teams of Baltimore City

 


Tuesday, 24 April, 6.30 PM


 

SAINT JOHN'S CHURCH


3009 GREENMOUNT AVENUE


Greenmount Avenue at Thirtieth Street

 

A Reception follows the Service

to thank our Fire-fighters, Police, and Paramedic Teams for all their good
work on our behalf.

 

 

 

N.B.  This is a sacred Service of Prayer to help meet the Pastoral needs of
the men and women of the Police and Fire Departments, sponsored by Saint
John's Church as an act of gratitude for the many acts of courage and
sacrifice made on our behalf.  This sacred time and place of reconciliation
is NOT the forum for complaints or politics!

Could you do it??

 

 

 

Could you do what they do?  Could you rush into raging flames for a
stranger?  Could you put yourself between a gun and someone you've never
met?  Could you chase down and tackle someone twice you size?  Could you
carry out a dead child to its parents?  Could you put in the IV drip?  Could
you close a gaping, bleeding wound?  They can, and do- your fire-fighters,
police and paramedics.  They do it on a weekly basis.

 

Why have a service of prayer for our Police, Fire-fighters, and Paramedic
Teams?  Because these individuals do for our city and its communities what
we ourselves are not able to do, or choose not to do, but know needs to be
done; because they engage in work which is both physically and spiritually
dangerous on our behalf and in our place; because for us these individuals
routinely expose themselves to an underground society and the underside of
ordinary life that most of us can scarcely imagine.  A public service of
prayer is a gift to them which makes us mindful of their particular need for
spiritual support, and of our responsibility to help them to bear what we
ask of them.

 

There is a long tradition in Baltimore of a religious service for the Legal
Profession, commonly called the "Red Mass" because of the colour of the
vestments of the clergy for the patron saint of the Profession.  In this
case, because Fire-fighters, Police, and Paramedics all have different
patron saints, a common date was chosen: the feast of Saint George, a
martyred Christian soldier (ca.304 AD) who was devoted to the ideals of his
faith, the duty of his office, and who gave his life in the course of
service.  He is honoured for his courage and devotion to his companions, for
his fearless willingness to put himself in danger for others, and above all
for the zeal of his faith.  The special colour of his day would customarily
be the red of a martyr, or white, which can always be used for any saint.
It is a happy coincidence that in the English customs followed at Saint
John's Church, blue is an equivalent substitute for white, and so our
offering of a "Blue Mass", is especially appropriate for "our men and women
in blue".

 

The Service takes the form of a Christian rite and uses Christian language,
but it is prayer to the God of us all, the God of every language, people and
nation.  Everyone is invited to enter into the prayer, the Spirit, and the
meaning of this Service as deeply as possible.  If the forms seem somewhat
traditional, it is because Christian worship is very ancient, and because
its language deliberately recalls the eternal presence of those who have
gone before us in life, faith, and hope.  The forms are Christian, but the
prayer is universal, embracing the living with the dead and soaring through
God's eternity which we experience as our present.

 

The form of prayer for this Service is our most sacred ritual, in which
Christians believe Holy Communion may be made with God himself, and with
those who have loved Him.  In this rite we offer to God our praise, our
prayers for ourselves and on behalf of others, our sorrow for wrong-doing,
our promise of renewal, and all our very being.  We join these to the
supreme offering of the Son of God who gave his own life as a ransom for
many.  On this occasion, baptised Christians who are communicant members in
good standing in their own church are encouraged to receive the Holy
Communion.  Those whose faith does not permit the reception of Holy
Communion in other Churches, non-Christians, or those who for any reason
whatsoever are  unable to join in receiving the Holy Sacrament, are invited
to come forward with others at the time of Holy Communion to receive instead
a personal blessing by the priest.  We hope that everyone will engage in all
aspects of the Service and in the Holy Spirit in which it is offered.  

 

We encourage you to come to this celebration with a heart full of gratitude,
and full of prayer for those who serve, protect, and preserve us as our
Police, Fire-fighters, and Paramedic Teams.

 

 ...The People, Rector, Churchwardens and Vestry of Saint John's in the
Village

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