The Church of the Redeemer Stewardship video … Take Your Place!
When people give for the work of the kingdom of God, they often think in grand terms. And yet, the greatest mission that the Church of the Redeemer has is what happens on a day-to-day basis at Palm and Ringling. That is our mission and if it weren’t for what goes on here every day, we wouldn’t be able to have mission work in Africa, in China, and the Dominican Republic. We wouldn’t be giving to Resurrection House or to Caritas. When a dollar is given to Redeemer and it is used for something like paying a utility bill to keep on the lights — that’s essential stewardship, and it’s what enables Redeemer to accomplish vital mission work in our own community and all over the world. Take Your Place in Stewardship today.
Baritone Jason Stearns Brings the Magic of the Metropolitan Opera to Sarasota’s Church of the Redeemer
Celebrated baritone singer Jason Stearns will bring the talent and the magic of the Metropolitan Opera to Sarasota at the Church of the Redeemer on Sunday, February 12 at 5 p.m. The concert will feature Stearns performing many of the same arias he has previously performed at the Met and around the world.
Stearns has recently been selected by Maestro Zubin Mehta, one of the world’s most renowned conductors, to play the primary baritone role (Alverich) in an upcoming production of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung.
In a Baltimore Sun newspaper performance review, acclaimed soprano Evelyn Lear remarked, “Jason has it all, the superb voice, expressive feeling, versatility and charm beyond any other baritone singing today. No one can touch him.”
Some of the works and roles Stearns has performed with the Met include Barnaba in La Gioconda; Scarpia in Tosca; the title role in Der fliegende Holländer and Stankar in Stiffelio. He has also appeared as Monterone in Rigoletto and covered Donner in Das Rheingold, both at the Met.
“Sarasota music lovers are in for a rare treat when they come to hear Jason,” said Ann Stephenson-Moe, Redeemer’s Choirmaster. “He’ll bring the talent and the magic of the Metropolitan Opera to Sarasota.”
Ticket prices are $25 adults; student tickets $15. Click on the PayPal button below to purchase, or visit or call the Parish Office 941.955.4263. Tickets may also be purchased at the door the day of the event, subject to availability.
If you were to define what makes a person a Christian, what would you say? It is interesting for us today that the Old Testament reading from Jonah and the Gospel reading both offer us contemporary views of what people think of what Christianity is.
In the first we have a situation where, as you remember, Jonah did not want to go preach to those guys in Nineveh. That was after all the capital city of Israel’s primary enemy, Assyria. Assyria was an incredibly cruel nation. We could tell they were cruel from the accounts written in the Bible, but we also have now the archeologist’s reports. What the archeologists have discovered is that even the art with which they decorated their walls was of cruelty to others, savagery and death, mounds of heads and people being flayed, that sort of thing. That art was a depiction of their real life. No, Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. He wanted them to all die. He wanted them to be judged and condemned. But he is finally convinced by God that he ought to obey. So he goes and preaches. Notice in his short sermon he doesn’t give them any options, he simply tells them they are going down. But what happens? Continue reading ‘Sermon – Sunday 22 January, 2012/The Rev. Lance Wallace’ »
A small Texas town was having a big problem with pesky squirrels. The three churches in town, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal, were especially affected with these squirrels, so much so that it was an item of business in all three church councils.
The Presbyterians decided the problem was predestined and that they shouldn’t interfere with the squirrels, so of course the problem didn’t getter any better for them. The Methodists decided the squirrels were a part of nature and should be returned to the woods. But the squirrels came back.
The Episcopalians had the most creative solution. They said, “Let’s baptize them. That way we’ll only have to deal with them on Christmas and Easter!”
That’s kind of a cynical view of what happens at baptism, don’t you think? Our hope, of course, is that those who are baptized today will be fully immersed in their life in Christ, which begins today with their baptism.
Baptism is important in the life of a Christian. In fact, it’s what makes a Christian a Christian. Before you’re baptized, you’re not a Christian; after you’re baptized, you’re a Christian. Francis Hall, in The Church and the Sacramental System, in speaking of baptismal regeneration, says this: “Regeneration has often been confused with conversion. Conversion is a change of disposition and aim, and is moral; whereas regeneration is a change in level of being and capacity by the involution of a supernatural vital principle, flowing from the Body of Christ. Described by physical analogies it is a biological change. For this reason, it can be, and frequently is, accomplished once for all by the Spirit in unconscious infants, before they are able to make any moral response…It means that they come to the task of working out their salvation as having the vital capacity and status as members of Christ’s Body and children of God by adoption and grace.” Continue reading ‘Sermon – Sunday 8 January, 2012/The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson’ »
There is a famous painting that I have seen in various places and books relating to the Civil War. It depicts a Union general, Philip Sheridan, mounted on his great black horse, Rienzi, in the midst of the chaos of battle.
The horse is literally airborne – charging ahead at full speed, legs outstretched. The general has his sword out pointing skyward toward the enemy, but he is looking back over his left shoulder at a soldier who seems to be a bit confused as to just what direction he will be moving; ahead or to the rear!
This painting commemorates the events of the battle of Cedar Creek on October 19 1864, when the Union army in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was surprised by a sudden, unexpected and violent morning attack by a Confederate army under the command of General Jubal Early.
The Church of the Redeemer invites the community to attend Solemn Evensong on Sunday, 15 January at 5:15 p.m. The Anthem will be Beatus Vir by Claudio Monteverdi; Service is Pelham Humphrey’s Service in e minor.
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