Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
For more features from the life of our diocese, check Diocesanlife....ONLINE; and Bethlehem
News.
Get Ready for Share the Bread 2000
We will take the next step - May 7, 2000
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, May 1999
Peace and joy to you in the Risen Lord. It is my joy to announce
that Share the Bread 2000, our next great festival, is planned
for May 7, 2000, in Kingston. [This date
has now been set for October 14, 2000. bcc]
This festival will take us to the next step in our diocesan mission.
Our first festival was an opportunity for us to become aware of
ourselves as a diocese, as God's people in Northeast Pennsylvania.
We became aware of our treasures, our diversity, and our great
common mission as followers of Jesus Christ. To do this, our first
festival was "family only," aimed within. Now we are ready to share
our treasures.
Share the Bread 2000 will be our opportunity to invite friends
and neighbors to see and experience the heritage of the Episcopal
Church.
This festival will be a kind of Open House for the Gospel. We
hope that the discovery centers (the most popular last time was
the Dream Workshop) will provide more opportunity to explore aspects
of the Faith. There will be more programs and events for young
people, and we plan to have a wide variety of guest speakers and
entertainers.
To accommodate what we hope will be a much greater crowd, we plan
to use the Armory and the adjoining park, with tents for food and
events.
As many of you know, the overwhelming majority of people who join
the Episcopal Church do so because they were invited by a friend.
This first-level evangelism goes back to the apostle who simply
said to his brother, "Come see." Many people who might have difficulty
expressing their faith in detail to a friend can simply say, "Come
see" to a friend or neighbor. Together we can share who we are
-- and the treasures God has given us -- with all who come to see
and hear.
As I write this, genocide continues in the Balkans, and the Ku
Klux Klan is preparing a major rally in our diocese for the second
year in a row. In general, our nation has lost its spiritual and
ethical moorings, a fact nobody takes the trouble to dispute anymore.
The world needs to know the news of the Kingdom of God more than
ever. We have many opportunities as individuals and parishes to
address this need of our time. Share the Bread 2000 gives us the
opportunity to make a joint statement, to provide a joint demonstration,
of life with God in Jesus Christ.
Many, many people understand life with God as repressive, anti-intellectual,
and not very much fun. The fact is that in each case, the opposite
is true: we know freedom, wisdom, and delight in God. We can get
the word out as we share the Bread.
DIOCESAN HYMN FESTIVAL There
is an opportunity for us to warm up for Share the Bread 2000. In
a few weeks, on Saturday, May 15, we will have our first Diocesan
Hymn Festival.
The event has no liturgy, sermon, or prayers. It is just a time
to enjoy singing our faith. There will be presentations by children,
guest musicians, and of course, there will be food and drink.
This hymn festival comes to us for several reasons. The first
is that it really is fun to sing and hear favorite hymns, and to
sing them in a large group. The second is that we want to keep
the idea of an annual get-together of some sort alive in our diocesan
consciousness. I am looking forward to being with you as we celebrate
in song.
Words convey ideas and images. Music conveys or evokes feeling.
Singing allows us to feel and think at the same time, this is its
power and its delight. It is no wonder then, that the Bible over
and over encourages us to sing our faith, our joy in the Lord.
Plan to treat yourself to a healthy taste of that joy at St. Stephen's
on May 15.
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