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DiggThe Death and Resurrection of St. Paul's, Yonkers
By Matthew Moretz
What exactly does Christ’s victory over the powers of death mean in my life? A healthy portion of my Christian faith journey has grappled with the meaning of the Resurrection: the mysterious, God-given transformation from death to life. When I was baptized, I was united with Christ both in a death like his and in a resurrection like his. What will my own resurrection look like? This train of thought usually conjures up fantastical images of ethereal light, cloudy landscapes, and glorified bodies. Yet since embarking on my peculiar ministry as curate at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Yonkers, NY, my searching question has shifted from the individual future to the corporate present. Today I ask: What is our resurrection looking like? For St. Paul’s, the Resurrection is this very day.
St. Paul’s died. Some prefer the term “closed,” but that word doesn’t represent the visceral reality of our history. It’s a heart-wrenching story of a vibrant parish in a beautiful building whittled away over decades to less than five members. The healthy ecology that every parish requires was slowly poisoned by a toxic mixture of migration, insularity, and conflict. St. Paul’s truly perished.
But St. Paul’s died in the hope of the Resurrection. Our closing service in April 2005 was not the final chapter in the life of our parish. The service stood as the inauguration of the “Ezra Project,” a bold initiative to resurrect the parish. Regular worship ceased, ministry did not.
Inspired by the commitment of the post-exilic Jewish people, who in the book of Ezra returned to Jerusalem and announced: “Let the House of God be rebuilt on this site” (5:11), the “Ezra Project” marshaled a variety of resources to rebuild the parish. St. Paul’s went on an Easter journey, seeking the ultimate transformation of parish life out of parish death.
This vision for St. Paul’s was supported by our diocese and then by generous grantors, especially the Trinity Grants program. A deacon and a curate (yours truly) were enlisted. St. Paul’s partnered with several missionary volunteers from other thriving churches in the diocese in 2006, dubbing them the “Ezra Team.” The team made several evangelism projects possible, including advertising and door-knocking campaigns, children’s festivals and summer camp, spirituality lectures and hospitality dinners. Some projects flourished, others were instructive mistakes. And, slowly, an embryonic parish community appeared. St. Paul’s reinstated weekly Sunday evening services in September 2006.
I am experiencing resurrection life on the parish level at St. Paul’s. I see the body of Christ raised in our new corporate life. A community of worship is springing up out of our broken past. Our growth is slow and the scale is small, for now. Yet our transformation is positive and real. There is a healthy stability that has been lacking for years. We are now poised as a parish to be hospitable and responsive to the work of God in our neighborhood.
Out of the valley of the shadow of death, St. Paul’s lives day to day in the hope that the parish will thrive again. St. Paul’s has emerged from that undiscovered country to become a new church for a new people. I have seen disappointment acknowledged and hope given flesh. As my history meshes with that of St. Paul’s, I have witnessed the reality of the Resurrection in my world. It may be a corporate vision, but it is also intimate and personal. I can proclaim that we have been united with Christ in a resurrection like Christ’s. For there is a light at St. Paul’s and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Rev. Matthew Moretz is curate of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Yonkers, NY and creator of the YouTube video series Father Matthew Presents .Father Matthew Presents.
This article appears in the Transformation issue of Trinity News.
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