St. Nicholas Church Rector to preach in NY

Sep. 10—The Rev. Amy Haynie, rector of St. Nicholas' Episcopal Church in Midland, will be heading to Garden City, N.Y., Sept. 17 to preach at the historic Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation Church.

Haynie is a trustee of the Church Pension Group of the Episcopal Church, which meets in New York City Sept. 13 through Sept. 15.

The Rev. Canon Eddie Alleyne, Canon for Cathedral Life, facilitated the invitation of Haynie to preach at the cathedral while she's in the area. The Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation opened in 1885 and is a Gothic architectural masterpiece on the National Register of Historic Places.

Like St. Nicholas' Episcopal Church in Midland, the cathedral, "is intentional in welcoming all people, irrespective of race, gender, lifestyle, etc.," according to Haynie. "Racial justice is a priority."

Haynie has not been to Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation Church previously.

Canon Alleyne was in Midland to perform a wedding for some friends. Alleyne asked a mutual friend of him and Haynie's where he should go to church that weekend and she highly recommended St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas is located at 4000 N. Loop 250 W. in Midland and worships each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Learn more at stnicksmt.dionwt.org

"He and his wife Kay came to St. Nicholas that morning and sat through the Sunday service. Afterward, he and I got to talking," Haynie said in a phone interview. "He was fascinated by the architecture of St. Nicholas because it is 180 degrees different from a Gothic cathedral. We were talking through some of the really church nerdy stuff of church architecture. I was showing him the sacristy because we have such a fantastic facility here. It's so contemporary compared to what you work in when you work in a Gothic cathedral," Haynie said.

The organ at St. Nicholas also isn't built into the wall, which is different from Gothic cathedrals.

"The architecture does play into what you do, how you move around the space and how you inhabit the space," Haynie said.

She added that she wasn't sure the formal invitation to New York would actually happen.

"But he contacted me again in early August and made sure I had it on my schedule," Haynie said.

She added that she's a little bit nervous, but not too much.

Haynie said she's choosing to go in with a "great sense of joy and curiosity. What is God up to in his putting me here?"

The Episcopal Church uses a lectionary system.

"There's the revised common lectionary that we all use which keeps us honest. It makes us preach on the entire Bible; not just the parts we like the best," Haynie said.

Her lesson is part of Matthew where Jesus is talking about how many times we should forgive.

"Peter says how many should I forgive someone? As many as seven times; and Jesus says not 7 times but 77 times, so that's the text for the day. I haven't written the sermon yet. After I get Sunday's sermon written, I will probably start on this because that's my usual pattern," Haynie said.

Before becoming a member of the clergy, Haynie was a nurse. She took some time off or worked part-time while her children were growing up and graduated from seminary in 2009.

She still worked as a nurse until 2011 because she wasn't ordained yet.

"I was working in a church part time, then working PRN (as needed) for a surgery center in the operating room even in those two years," Haynie said.

When she's preaching, Haynie doesn't stay in the pulpit, so that will be one of her questions when she gets to the New York church.

"I tend I memorize my sermons. I think of them as a story board, so I memorize them and speak through them as I'm preaching. I don't use notes, so I don't need a pulpit. ... I'm kind of kinetic, so I like wander back and forth in front the altar, even down the aisle so I'll be curious to see if I can do that in that space ... During the pandemic at Trinity when we were live-streaming, and even when we weren't live-streaming, we put up a spit screen," so people who needed to read lips could, she said.

"That was a real spiritual discipline for me because I'm not used to having to stand still and preach," Haynie added.