New rector's prayer

O Lord my God, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; yet you have called your servant to stand in your house, and to serve at your altar.  To you and to your service I devote myself, body, soul, and spirit.  Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do.  Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and grant that I may faithfully administer your holy Sacraments, and by my life and teaching set forth your true and living Word.  Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my ministry.  In prayer, quicken my devotion; in praises, heighten my love and gratitude; in preaching, give me readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn into your blessed kingdom.  All this I ask for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Book of Common Prayer pages 562-63

The Rev. Peter M. Carey Called to be Rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church ~ Philadelphia

The Rev. Peter M. Carey called to be Rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia in the Diocese of Pennsylvania

The Reverend Peter M. Carey

Appointed Rector of St. Mary’s

It is with great joy that we announce the appointment of the Reverend Peter Michael Carey as Rector of St. Mary’s Church.

Peter comes to us from Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, FL where he served as Chaplain, Rector and Pastor at the coeducational Episcopal School of 1,300 students for the past three years.

 

Peter is a native of Middlebury, Vermont and earned a B.A. degree from Bates College, an M.Ed. from George Washington University, and a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. Peter is no stranger to the Philadelphia area; from 2000-2004 he was a religion and history teacher at Episcopal Academy.  During his time here he served occasionally as liturgist and preacher at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Chestnut Hill.  Peter was sponsored for seminary by the Diocese of Pennsylvania and was ordained to the diaconate at the Philadelphia Cathedral.  

After seminary at Virginia Theological Seminary, he served as Head Chaplain at St. Catherine’s Episcopal School in Richmond, VA, then as Associate Rector at Emmanuel Episcopal Church and as Senior Associate Rector at St. Paul’s Memorial Church, both in Charlottesville, VA.   In these roles he collaborated with the rectors to lead the parishes, taught a variety of Christian formation classes, served as preacher on a regular basis, and assisted in church finance and administration.

He will be joined at St. Mary’s by his wife, Lisa, a career independent school educator.  Their children, Zach (14), Sam (11) and Lily (9) are excited to join the St. Mary’s family this summer. In his leisure time, Peter enjoys reading, cycling, and hiking with family.

Peter’s appointment is the result of more than a year of hard work and dedication by our Discernment Committee:  Joanne Ey (co-chair), Elizabeth Lowther (co-chair), Valerie James, Pat Sirianni, Christine Snyder, Emily Starr, Virginia Trimble, Olivia Van Osten, and Abby York. We offer our sincere thanks to them for their tireless efforts.

Peter brings rich and varied liturgical, pastoral, and academic experience and an upbeat, engaging personality to St. Mary’s.  We eagerly look forward to him joining us on Trinity Sunday.

Yours in faith,

The Vestry of St. Mary’s

Ordination to the diaconate at Philadelphia Cathedral ~ 9 June 2007

Nine Years Ago:

Ordination to the diaconate at Philadelphia Cathedral ~ 9 June 2007

The farmer is the harvester - sermon from 17 July 2011 - The Rev. Peter M. Carey

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Sermon – 17 July 2011

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, VA

“The farmer is the harvester”

“The farmer is the harvester”… the good farmer, planting the good seed, and then the weeds, or tares, or thistles come up…and the workers wonder what is going on…didn’t the farmer plant only good seed?  And then the farmer says to let the weeds, tares, or thistles come up alongside the wheat.  If not, the wheat may get pulled up alongside the weeds…the implication being that the worker would not have the ability, the gift of discernment, to see what was good and what wasn’t.

This passage has particular relevance for me, for I have a pretty good green thumb, but when it comes to trying to figure out what is a weed and what is a flower, or what is a thistle and what is not, I have no real clue.  Beyond that, I have a kind of a radical nature when I see some weeds, because some weeds look to this untrained eye, more beautiful and more interesting and of more “value” than the so-called flowers. I have very little ablilty when it comes to this department.  However, one plant I have a keen keen eye when it comes to poison ivy.  I can spot poison ivy a mile away.  Even among the huge patches of pakisandra in our yard, I can spy out the invasive and evil poison ivy amidst the “good” plants.  I must say I’m a bit arrogant about my abilities when it comes to poison ivy, and am often amazed that people allow the poison ivy to grow so near their hammocks or pools or flower gardens.

I think many of us look out at folks and feel that we are quite skilled at discerning the “good” from the “not good” the one with “high ability” from the one who has “low ability.” As a long-time teacher and coach, I must say that I fell into this kind of thing all too often. Especially as a coach, I would see young athletes at 8, 10 or 12 years old and I might make some predictions about their trajectory.  Of course, when a young athlete is amazingly quick or strong, it is only natural to imagine them playing sports at a big-time college, or beyond.  Think about a young Michael Phelps in the pool, or a young Serena Williams on the tennis court.  Also, if someone is hampered by slowness or lack of strength, many coaches might assume that this person would not even make a varsity team in high school.  And, it goes beyond sports to ability in school, and work, and life.  However, the reality is, that I have been wrong far more often than I’ve been correct.  One of the joys of Facebook is that I have been able to reconnect with former students who could barely sit still in 7^th grade who are now pediatric surgeons at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, or and awkward and tentative young soccer player who now wins ultramarathons and Ironman triathlons.

You see, I am not the sower. I am not the farmer.  I am, on a good day, one of those workers.  I am one of those workers who asks the farmer – what shall we do with these wheat and weeds.  What shall we do with these “good ones” and the “not good ones.”  And the farmer answers, let them all grow together, and at harvest time, I will separate them – and take in the good wheat into the barn, and to the fire I will send the weeds.  The farmer takes the long view.  God is the farmer who plants the good seeds, and the farmer is the harvester.  We are the workers who have a limited view.  God is the farmer and the harvester. 

God plants only good seeds, but that there are thistles, weeds, and tares which do come in.  We can’t deny that there is brokenness, darkness, and evil.  We live and move and have our being alongside thorns and weeds and thistles, but also among good wheat.  The good and the not good are intermingled.  But God plants, and cares for, the good seeds.

Another implication is that we should pray for patience, for what we might perceive (in the short term) as something that is a weed, may, in God’s time be wheat that offers bread for the journey.  Like the child who might develop far beyond the predictions of her teacher, what we may perceive as thorny and weedy, may not be.  God is the farmer, and also the harvester.

The kingdom of God is like a farmer, who plants good seed, and though the weeds come in, God will not give up on any strand of wheat, and does not want to risk losing any wheat. God will bring in the harvest, God created us, loves us, cares for us, and though we often feel intertwined with weeds, God will sort it out and bring us home.

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

petermcarey

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Trinity Sunday Sermon - The Rev. Peter M. Carey - 3 June 2012

Trinity Sunday Sermon

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

3 June 2012

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Greenwood, VA

For with your co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit, you are one
God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being;
and we celebrate the one and equal glory of you, O Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Awe can cause us to experience God in tangible ways. 

Have you ever camped out while a thunderstorm roared?  Have you ever climbed a snowy mountain when a blizzard kicks up?  Have you ever hunkered down during a hurricane?  Have you ever battened down the hatches when a storm arises and you are at sea?

Perhaps you have not had these experiences, but I remember all too well one time when my brother and I were out with my dad on our wooden 12 foot sailboat and a storm came up.  I was about 8 and Paul was about 6.  My dad had us go forward under the small covered area in the bow of the boat and he covered us with raincoats and ponchos.  The storm roared, the boat was pushed this way and that, and we were terrified, but my dad had a calming presence nonetheless.  He probably was nervous as well, but he was highly functional and quite “matter-of-fact” about the storm and the rain and the fact that we were out on the water during it all. 

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters

The God of glory thunders

the Lord is upon the mighty waters

The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice

The voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.

While I don’t think that it was in God’s interest to make the storm upon the waters for us in our little yellow wooden boat, I can imagine something of the power of God through my memory of the power of that storm.  I can also remember something of the care and compassion of God through the care and ability of my Dad through that stormy and worrisome time. 

The Lord sits enthroned above the flood

The Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore.

The Lord shall give strength to his people;

The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.

Encountering the awe of a tremendous storm is perhaps just a bit of what it must be like to encounter God in all His majesty.  Whenever I read the passage today of the calling of Isaiah from the 6^th chapter of Isaiah, I can only begin to imagine this tremendous scene.  The Lord sitting on a throne, the hem of his robe filled the temple, Seraphs in attendance with 6 wings and smoke and all the rest.  It is tremendously hard for me to imagine this scene, but the glory of God is surely, probably, something as incredible as this.  When I was huddled in the bow of the yellow wooden sailboat, I was hoping that my father would steer us to the solid shore, and that the storm would abate.  When encountering the living God, awe is the only appropriate response.  This is an awe however that evokes fear, but also the sense that God is steering the boat, that the same God who appears in the storm appears compassionately as we are steered to safe shore.  The God who judges us is the God who loves us, afterall.  The God who created us also became one of us through Jesus the Christ, and we are His forever. 

And so, on this Trinity Sunday, we can affirm the way that God is one in three and three in one, though we don’t totally understand this assertion.  We know that the glory of God fills us with awe, but also that the love and compassion of God wraps us up in his arms like a mother hen cares for her children.  The God who created us, and who sent His son to redeem us is also the God who lives and breathes among us as the Holy Spirit.

In Revelation, we read the words, “hear what the Spirit is saying to the people,” and we are privileged to receive the many gifts of the Spirit even in this place and this time.  Just as we know that God is ever-present with us as Father & Creator, and just as we know that we are ever being redeemed and saved through the Son, the Christ, we are also constantly being revived and strengthened through the gifts of the fire and breath of the Holy Spirit.

Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:

Set up your kingdom in our midst.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:

Renew me and all the world.

~N.T. Wright

The Rev. Peter Carey