Diapers for Baby Jesus

In my last year of seminary I took a two quarter course at the Franciscan School in Berkeley, California, called "Church and Sacraments." This was a basic class for Roman Catholic students preparing for the priesthood. I took it to fill in a gap in my education in the realm of what used to be called "pastoral theology." That is a course on thinking theologically about the everyday activities of a local church. Up to that time I had taken wonderful courses in Systematic Theology, with an emphasis on Process Theology. I enjoyed the class.

When we were talking about Eucharist, or Communion, one of the Roman Catholic students remarked about preparing children for First Communion. "I have no trouble convincing them that it (little white wafer) is the body of Christ," he remarked. "I do have trouble convincing them that it is bread." This remark has stuck with me. In an adult world we may have difficulty in the theological interpretation of things while in a child's world this is not the issue.

I have taken this as a guide to emphasize the human qualities of baby Jesus as we talk about Christmas in the church. Diapers for Baby Jesus is a way to emphasize the incarnation in a concrete way.

One way we do this at the Church of Peace is by collecting disposable diapers for low income persons from our neighborhood who come to the church seeking emergency assistance. We have a food pantry. We know that disposable diapers are often an expensive item, and we keep a supply of the various sizes around to tide a family over. We have fun talking about the "bottom line," as we seek donations. We can collect almost enough diapers at Christmas to have a supply on hand for the whole year long.

We ask that families and children bring packages of disposable diapers for baby Jesus and place them under the Christmas trees in the front of the sanctuary. This year, in addition to collecting diapers we also collected cel phones for Abused Women, buckets and mops for refugee families, new children's books for the Book Nook at our neighborhood school, and personal items for seniors in a local nursing home. We get a pretty strong dose of the incarnation and the needs of the poor and often forgotten.

What I find marvelous is the great collection of trees, poinsettias, candles, diapers, buckets, mops, Mary, Joseph, lamb, angels, Jesus, children's books and cel phones that festoon the chancel area of the sanctuary. I think it makes a strong positive statement about the nature of our faith and spirituality.

Christmas Eve

Well, Merry Christmas everyone! This is our home this morning as I left to deal with last minute details at church as we prepare for our two Christmas Eve Services. We have had snow and ice on the ground for some time, and today we were getting a new topping of fresh soft snow. I am especially thinking of the California members of our family as I post this. You fortunate ones.

Taylor drove home from Minnesota on Monday evening. She had planned to come on Tuesday, but the forecast was that there would be severe weather. She made a good choice.

Becca came home from Cornell College last Friday. She has completed her classes for the first semester.

Nancy is off for two weeks, now that she works on a school based schedule again. This is great for everyone.

We are happy and blessed and pleased to be together again.

Hold Sacred God's Good Earth

The mission statement of the Church of Peace includes the goal that we will "hold sacred the good earth" which guides the members and staff to do what we can to be environmentally conscious.

With a church building which is in parts almost 100 years old this is sometimes a challenge. Here are some things we have done:
+ we have added a great deal of insulation, especially above the dome of the church sanctuary. (We were here motivated by our utility bill as well as our mission statement.)
+ we have replaced most of the steel framed windows with modern double paned windows that hold in more heat and cooling.
+ we use paper with recycled content for our church documents.
+ we recycle used paper products.
+ we participate in the Rock Island curb-side recycle program, which helps us and helps the city too.
+ we recycle aluminum cans. For many years we had a church member who would take the cans and sell them to gain money for the church. Recently that member has been unable to do that task so we have another member, Mr. Norris, who recycles for us. Mr. Norris is a model of going green - he rides a bike at all times of the year rather than drive a car. Here he is with a bag of cans he is recycling.

Our church is enriched by having many people each doing a small part to help us accomplish our part of God's mission in the world.

Guadalupe Day - December 12

My mother was born on December 12, and when I realized that mom's birthday was the same day as Our Lady of Guadalupe Day in Mexico and around the world, I have been able to remember Guadalupe Day.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is a darker-skinned image of the Virgin Mary who is reported to have appeared to an Aztec peasant, Juan Diego, in 1531, on December 12. She spoke to him in his own indigenous language, Nahuatl. Her image is said to have appeared miraculously on his tilma, or cloak. And that garment is hung behind bullet proof glass in a basilica built near the spot where she spoke to Juan Diego. This spot is some six miles from the very downtown of Mexico City. The photo above is one I snapped inside the basilica.


In 1810 a banner with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was carried by revolutionary hero Miguel Hidalgo, as he and his followers fought for independence from Colonial Spain.


In many Guadalupe has become a symbol for the mixed race Mestizos in Mexico, and for the indigenous, as over against the European born Spanish. With her darker skin she is sometimes known as La Morenita, the little brown one. For the pure bloods the patroness of Mexico City was Our Lady of Remedies; for the others the patroness for the Americas is Our Lady of Guadalupe.


If there is a Catholic Church in an American city where recent immigrants from Mexico worship, it is probably named Our Lady of Guadalupe. I think that it is important to know a little bit about the tradition of this image of the Virgin Mary as we want to know more about our neighbors who trace their ancestry to Mexico.

Skeptics point out that the spot where she appeared to Juan Diego, and asked him to build a church is about the same place where the Aztec goddess Tonantzin, Mother God, was venerated.

Here is our family at the new (1975) Basilica, where we visited in July 2006. Just over my head is the rostrum where Pope John Paul II celebrated mass for the assembled crowds when he visited the site. In the background are some golden words on a dark brown background, which are those spoken to Juan Diego by the Virgin Mary, "Am I not your mother?"

Many have read this to mean that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were recognized as worthy of respect, having human dignity, and dear to God. That is not a bad reminder for us, even today.

Echo Organ Chamber

Back on October 27 there was a blog about the Anniversary Sunday of the Church of Peace and the dedication of the rebuilt echo organ. Here are two photos of the echo organ chamber, empty, while the rebuilding was being done.

This first photo is of our music director and organist, Mary Kae Waytenick inside the echo organ chamber. The pink wall behind her is the west wall of the back of the sanctuary. This wall, facing west, gets lots of heat in the late in the afternoon, especially in summer. The company which rebuilt the organ suggested that we put insulation on that wall to moderate the temperature variations in the room. So the pink material is Styrofoam, which should help do the job.

Aaron Waytenick was the person who repainted the interior of the chamber and installed the insulation on the west wall in preparation for the installation of the rebuilt organ.


This second photo is looking east, through the louvers which by opening make the sound louder, and by closing make the sound softer. This is looking into the sanctuary area and the curved contours behind the louvers are the filigreed arches above the chancel.

If you look back at the photo of the interior of the sanctuary published on September 22 the arches are clearly visible. If the arches were the top of a clock, this area would be between 9 and 10 o'clock.

Maybe in a few weeks there will also be some photos of this chamber filled with boxes and organ pipes.