From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

At 7:00pm on Sunday, March 27, Saint Philip’s will offer its first community compline service at the Annex event space in the Mercado district. The service is called, “NightSong: A Compline Experience.”

Staff member Chris Campbell has done amazing, hard work to organize this, and Saint Philip’s has developed partnerships in the community that will make this a wonderful offering for Tucson. The support of Princeton Seminary and a grant it awarded us to launch this service have been invaluable.

Along the way Mtr Taylor, Alex Swain, Fr Peter, Fr Mark, parishioners Kristin Tovar and Landon Swanson, and others have helped develop and refine the concept and shape the liturgy. 

This will be a unique offering. Other churches offer sung compline but the combination of the venue, community partners like Flam Chen (which organizes the Tucson All Souls Parade), and the intentional integration of sacred tradition in the midst of the city will make this a one-of-a-kind spiritual offering.

Below is a reflection from one of our young adult community members in New Haven who describes what compline means to her. She wrote this as part of a chapter in my book on young adult ministry.

“When I first arrived at Christ Church New Haven, I was struck by the gothic architecture and the amazing stained glass windows in the church. The elaborately carved wooden rood screen with an athletic Jesus on the cross is not only eye catching, but also beautifully terrifying in its intricacy. Walking around the nave it is clear that every inch of the building was lovingly planned and shaped by master craftsmen. People who with wood, metal, and glass created a unique space that generations of families and individuals would call ‘home.’

As an outsider to Christ Church it can at first seem cold and distant. The vacant stares of statues and icons, the ceiling that soars to the heavens…it is not the setting of a cozy house mass. But when the lights come down and the candles are lit, as is customary for the evening compline service, then the entire space is transformed to a warm breathtaking loveliness that is as mysterious as it is alluring.

At my first compline service, the candles were ablaze all around the sanctuary, and I sat in nervous silence as the incense rose to the ceiling. Then voices of “angels” burst out into melodic harmonies and descants. Somewhere between the ancient hymns, the flickering candles at the altar, and the smoke from the frankincense dancing around the flames, I found a deep peace. Tears began to roll down my cheeks as I realized that this space for meditation and reflection was missing in my life. I reflected on the fact that most people do not have the privilege to take time out of their busy week for such beauty and wonder.

So I cried not only out of an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude, but out of sadness for the people of New Haven who are unaware that in the midst of all the sirens and cacophony of the city, available to all, are a few minutes of ethereal ecstasy. Instead of standing up and sitting down, and anticipating sacred invocations, I was actively engaged in another type of worship. I was a vessel being filled by song, by darkness, and by the still quiet voice of God found in smoke, in fire, in music, and in silence.”

In anxious, hurting times there may be no greater way for us to pastor to the wider community than to offer this sacred time, in the midst of it all, for people to hear again the still, quiet voice of God. Saint Philip’s will reach a new community, in changing times, with the ancient message of God’s unchanging love.

If you’re able to make it—I hope you will. The service will also be live-streamed on Saint Philip’s website and at nightsongtucson.org.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert