.......online
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News from The Episcopal Diocese
of Bethlehem, Bill Lewellis,
Editor
|
House of Bread Prepares to Share the Bread
Connie Fegley and Dane Bragg Represent Diocese
of Bethlehem in Africa
Getting to know Dr.Maggie Macubu
The Impact of Christian Education in the History of Africa
God Bless Africa ... Guard Her Children ... Guide Her Leaders
... Give Her Peace
Chistophany Is Also A Verb
Mission Of Month Program Increases Easton Outreach
House of Bread Prepares
to Share the Bread
By Bill Lewellis
Diocesan Life, June 2000
Two years ago at our Sharing the Bread Festival at
the Armory in Kingston we came together to celebrate God's love and
to discover, value and celebrate ourselves as a community of God's
people. On Saturday, October 14, from 9 to 4:30, at the new Arena
in Wilkes-Barre, we will praise God and celebrate community once again
-- but with one big difference. Many of us will invite persons not
now members of the Episcopal Church.
Our October Share the Bread Festival is still a work
in progress. You can share your own creative ideas for the Festival
with a member of the steering committee (see below) so that all of
us as well as those we invite will "come and see" a presentation of
the Episcopal Church at its best.
Those who participated in the 1998 Festival will
recognize many common elements with some differences.
Location
We will gather at the new First Union Arena
in Wilkes-Barre, within easy access from the new Exit 46 on Route
81. Picture a hockey arena that can accommodate 5,000 to 8,000 people.
Our altar and main stage as well as seating for some 1,000 will be
set up on the arena floor. Seats for many more form an ascending oval
around the arena floor. Four smaller stages with directional sound
systems will be set up on the arena floor along the quadrants of the
oval.
Presenters
Bishop Cathy Roskam and Father Jim Friedrich have
accepted our invitation to be our main presenters. Over the summer,
the steering committee for the Festival will be in discussion with
both about the shape of their presentations. One will present in the
morning; the other, in the early afternoon.
Bishop Cathy Roskam Many
of us remember Bishop Roskam's wonderful sermon at Bishop Paul's
consecration (June 29, 1996) wherein she challenged us to claim
our identity as House of Bread (Bethlehem means House of Bread).
"May the bakerwoman God bake, break and remake you," she said
to the bishop-elect, her former homiletics professor, just before
his consecration.
And to all of us, she said: "God as bakerwoman
works with us, pummels us and pulls at us, kneads us into shape
... Then God puts us in a defining and refining fire that also gives
heat and energy to our call ... When we put ourselves in God's hands
to be bread, God keeps messing around in our lives .. It's not easy
being bread."
Ordained a priest in 1984, she served as program
director of Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, Manhattan, coordinator of
pastoral ministries at that parish, and as diocesan missioner for
the Diocese of California. Now regional bishop in the Diocese of
New York, she became the fourth female bishop in America in January
1966.
Jim Friderich
Priest, author, liturgist, artist, media producer, storyteller,
musician, and religious imagineer, Jim Friedrich (pronounced "Frederick")
has spent 32 years helping Episcopal churches encounter the
gospel in creative ways.
Episcopal parishes across the country have called
upon him to teach and tell the biblical story. He creates through
prayer, skillful storytelling and a gifted religious imagination
learning experiences that speak to hearts.
President of Cathedral Films and Video, Friedrich
produced two video series that have been used in many parishes:
The Story of the Episcopal Church and The Story of Anglicanism.
In 1998 he produced, photographed and edited A
Thin Place: Iona and the Celtic Way which was shot on the island
of Iona where St. Columba established one of the great centers of
faith in 563.
Some 50 years ago, Friedrich's father, also a filmmaker
and an Episcopal priest, filmed a life of Jesus, Day of Triumph,
on a Hollywood lot.
Parish Booths
Parishes will once again be invited to create booths
for the Festival that share stories of their life and ministry. Items,
except food, may be sold at the booths. Arena regulations prohibit
the selling of food by anyone other than the Arena's authorized concessions
which have paid handsomely for that privilege. Foods sealed and marked
in a way that makes it clear the contents are not meant for consumption
in the Arena may be permissible. The steering committee will clarify
this matter on booth registration forms that will be sent to Share
the Bread parish coordinators in June.
Hospitality
Hospitality will include breakfast drinks and snacks
and a free lunch prepared by Arena concessions and paid for by funds
available to Bishop Paul.
Eucharist
The high point of our 1998 gathering was our festive
celebration of the Eucharist. Share the Bread 2000 will conclude
with another memorable celebration. The steering committee is hoping
Bishop Paul will
accept its encouragement to be the preacher.
Whom to Invite?
You don't have to invite a friend in order to enjoy
the Festival yourself. But do begin to think about whom you might
invite. They won't be disappointed. They may be thrilled. Who knows
what might happen when we share the bread, when we allow the bakerwoman
God to mess around in our lives, when we put ourselves in God's hand
to be bread?
The Episcopal view of evangelism accepts the reality
that people can't be argued into faith. We simply invite people, as
did Jesus, to come and see, to share the bread, to share what we believe
God has given us.
Youth Activities associated with the Festival
will include
The Youth Ball (the night before, 8 to 11
pm, at Good Shepherd Church, Scranton)
A Lock In (also at Good Shepherd, starting at 11 pm, immediately
after the Youth Ball, a "must" for choir participants)
The Youth Chorus (Saturday, at the Festival).
Share the Bread Steering Committee
The Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall, Bishop
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett, Archdeacon
The Rev. Canon Ginny Rex Day, Festival Co-Chair
Mr. Jim Saba, Festival Co-Chair
The Rev. Eric Bergman, Northeast Regional Coordinator
Mrs. Janice Blair, Coordinator, Children's Program
The Rev. Dane Bragg, Youth Program Representative
Mrs. Donna Bragg, Hospitality & Logistics, Southern Tier
The Rev. Graham Cliff, Follow-up Planning Representative
Mrs. Betty Connor, Southwest Regional Coordinator
The Rev. Jerry Doublisky, Evangelism Focus Representative
The Rev. Sally Dover, Southeast Regional Coordinator
The Rev. Ed Erb, Acolyte Program Coordinator
Mrs. Dolores Evans, Southwest Regional Coordinator
Mrs. Sara Fogg, Hospitality & Logistics, Northern Tier
Mrs. Cindy Geschwindt, Coordinator, Children's Program
Mrs. Marcia Hinkle, Small Stage Programs, Southern Tier
Mrs. Truly Hollywood, Northwest Regional Coordinator
The Rev. Carol Horton, Liaison, Liturgy & Music Commission
Mrs. Sue Jacobson, Southeast Regional Coordinator
Mrs. Peg Jolly, Northwest Regional Coordinator
Mr. Mark Laubach, Liaison, Liturgy & Music Commission
The Rev. George C. Loeffler, Bishop's Chaplain
The Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis, Communication Representative
The Rev. Canon Donald Muller, Chaplain to the Steering Committee
The Rev. Robert Nagy, Small State Programs, Northern Tier
The Rev. Jane Teter, Coordinator for Evangelism and Small Stages
Mrs. Meg VanVelsor, Coordinator, Display Vendors
The Rev. Jane Williams, Small Group Programs
Mrs. Maggie Watkins, Diocesan Staff Liaison
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News
Connie Fegley and Dane
Bragg Represent Diocese of Bethlehem in Africa
By Bill Lewellis
Two representatives of the Diocese of Bethlehem left
for Africa on Thursday, March 23, to meet in Swaziland with three
other Bethlehem Episcopalians who have been doing AIDS-related missionary
work and to speak with people from the Episcopal Church of the Sudan
about possible future relationships between a southern Sudanese diocese
and the Diocese of Bethlehem.
Connie Fegley of Reading and the Rev. Dane C. Bragg
of Bethlehem will spend three days with Maggie and Dan Land and Dr.
Edwin (Ned) Wallace in the tiny southern Africa country of Swaziland.
All three are parishioners at Trinity Episcopal Church, Bethlehem.
They will then proceed to Kampala and Adjumani in
Uganda where they will visit refugee settlement camps for exiled Christians
from southern Sudan and speak with Bishop Manasseh Dawidi, exiled
Bishop of the southern Sudanese Diocese of Kajo-Keji, and others from
the Episcopal Church of Sudan as well as with pastors and elders of
the Diocese of Kajo-Keji about possible future relationships between
the Church of Sudan and the Diocese of Bethlehem.
Fegley, a parishioner at Christ Church, Reading,
chairs the World Mission Committee for the Diocese of Bethlehem. Bragg
serves on the staff of Bethlehem Bishop Paul V. Marshall as social
missioner and youth missioner.
Wallace, a 73-year-old semiretired physician, has
spent four months a year since 1991 coordinating a medical education
work and service program in a Swaziland mission hospital. He has been
there since January. His wife, Emily, recently returned to Bethlehem
after a two-month stay.
After Wallace decided late in 1999 to make AIDS-related
activities his main focus, Bishop Marshall designated him as Diocese
of Bethlehem Medical Missioner to Swaziland. The World Health Organization
reports that some 33.6 million persons globally have AIDS. Some 23.3
million of these live in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 920,000
in the U.S.
About the size of New Jersey with a population of
980,000, Swaziland borders South Africa and Mozambique. One-quarter
of all Swazis live with HIV/AIDS. Some 22% of all children under 15
(112,000 children) have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. Another
25-30% of children under 15 (125,000 to 165,000) are living in families
with HIV/AIDS. This situation will become critical in the next two
to four years.
The Lands have been working in Swaziland with Dr.
Wallace and fostering a parish partnership relationship between Trinity
Church, Bethlehem, and All Saints Cathedral in Mbabane, Swaziland.
They have been there since for one month, and plan to return soon.
Bishop Paul recently spent a week with them at "a place where the
Holy Spirit can work... to seek the face of Christ among the suffering
and those who care for them."
Pictures and information sent from Swaziland by the
Lands are available at the Trinity
Church web site.
Last summer, Sudanese Anglican priest Michael Kiju
Paul, at the annual convention of the Diocese of Bethlehem and during
a whirlwind tour through congregations of the 14-county northeastern
PA diocese, told Spirit-filled and compelling stories about "how God
is working in my life and in the Sudan."
He spoke also of the atrocities his people have undergone
during the lengthy civil war in the Southern Sudan which continues
unabated with more than two million dead and four million displaced
wince 1983.
The Sudan is Africa's largest country, roughly the
size of Europe, about the size of the United States east of the Mississippi.
The Nile River makes the south fertile, while the northern part of
Sudan is very dry. Some people in Sudan are considered Arab; others,
African. Some are Muslim; some are Christian; some hold traditional
beliefs.
Because the government wants all Sudanese to convert
to Islam, Christians and others suffer persecution. Some have been
sold into slavery. Many are refugees, separated from family.
The Episcopal Church of Sudan and others are working
for peace, especially in the south.
With enthusiastic encouragement from Bishop Paul,
the diocesan World Mission Committee has focused the attention of
the diocesan community on conditions in developing countries. "Our
deeper attachment to brothers and sisters in the Third World can only
mean good things," the bishop said. "I'd like to see the day when
people from our diocese go to Third World countries to do various
kinds of ministry."
"It is one of the paradoxes of the modern world,"
ABC News Nightline correspondent Dave Marash said recently, "that
we can and are made aware of far more serious problems than we can
solve. Measuring up to this challenge, finding room in our hearts
and our wallets for simultaneous catastrophes, like those occurring
in Kosovo, East Timor, and sub-Saharan Africa, is the challenge of
the 21st century."
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Getting to know Dr.Maggie Macubu
She Rose Above the Given Context
By Maggie Land
Diocesan Life, April 2000
To be a woman in Swaziland, even today, is difficult.
Women cannot own property and are still treated like second class
citizens in many work and home situations. Swaziland is one of southern
Africa's three kingdoms. The king, 32, has five wives. In that context,
this profile says a little about what one Maggie Macubu, a young girl
from the rural countryside in the 1930's, attained in her life. (photo)
Dr. Maggie Macubu -- PhD in Public Health Education
-- is a soft spoken, knowledgeable and dedicated health educator.
She was born in Swaziland in 1935 and spent her early childhood at
the Usuthu Mission area, east of Mbabane, beautiful and still isolated
farm country where the Anglican-owned Usuthu Farm is located.
Maggie emphasized that she was brought up in the
Christian tradition on land that the King of Swaziland had given to
the Anglicans, with hopes that the future king might be educated there.
She moved frequently after only two years at her
local mission school. She lived with relatives in South Africa off
and on, attending school near the border of Swaziland. Some schools
were Anglican. Her parents had been married "in a Christian way" and,
when the Anglicans came to Swaziland in the 1980's, her grandparents
also were converted to Christianity.
Maggie finished high school at St. Augustine's Mission
Boarding School in Zululand, now part of the Union of South Africa.
She attended the Training College of Nursing at the Raleigh Fitkin
Memorial Hospital in Manzini, spending four years there in medical/surgical
nursing plus one more year specializing in midwifery.
She joined the government in the 1970's and was assigned
to the Mbabane Government Hospital for two years, practicing general
nursing and midwifery. She was assigned to a Swaziland Nutritional
Survey Team to determine the nutritional status of the Swazi people
in all areas of the country. This required 1 1/2 years of work. Dr.
Macubu said the study helped the people in years to follow via the
Ministry of Agriculture here in Mbabane.
Because the government decided where nurses were
assigned, Maggie was transferred to a small rural hospital in Mankanyeni
for six months and then to a rural clinic near the South African border.
Dan and I asked her if she was the director of the clinic. She said
she was the only nurse there, seeing 20-30 people per day.
This was a colder region, so malaria was not a health
the issue it is in other areas in Swaziland. After three years alone
at this clinic, Maggie related, "On a Sunday, an ambulance driver
arrived and claimed that he was there to pick me up as I was given
a scholarship to attend school, to study Public Health Nursing."
She and one other woman took their first plane trip
to Calcutta India to study in the All India Institute of Public Health
and Hygiene for ten months.
When she returned to Swaziland, Public Health Nursing
had begun in rural areas as a result of the nutritional survey she
had helped to complete. She practiced in Mbabane for 1 1/2 years,
then went to Manzini for three years to inaugurate the public health
nursing program in that city.
Maggie applied for funding and returned to school
at the University of Ibaban, Nigeria, obtaining her BA in Nursing
in three years, with an extra year there, two years later, obtaining
her MA in Public Health. Her dissertation centered on midwives, health
education and family planning.
It was planned that Maggie would set up the Department
of Health Education in Mbabane. When she returned from Nigeria, however,
the Institute of Health Sciences had already begun. Maggie was made
the Director of the new Public Health Education Services, funded by
US AID . She praised and is proud of the level of nursing professionals
she had under her leadership, many of whom were trained in the USA,
Nigeria and South Africa.
Dr. Macubu was eventually transferred to the Ministry
of Health to become Head Nursing Officer of Swaziland, a post she
held for seven years. She spearheaded a project of converting the
nursing program from the Institute to the University of Swaziland
and, with the help of the Kellogg Foundation, several nurses studied
in the US and London for their PhD's in Nursing. While at the Ministry
of Health, Maggie had applied to the University of South Africa to
study for her PhD in an extension program. She worked full-time, and
used her annual leaves for school as well. Her dissertation was on
Community Involvement in Rural Healthcare. Dan and I have heard she
is the first PhD in the nursing profession in Swaziland.
Dr. Macubu served as President of the 300-member
Swaziland Nurses' Association. She represented nursing professionals
at the International Council of Nursing in Mexico in 1985, and in
Seoul Korea in 1989. She began the Common Examination Board for Nurses,
sharing testing procedures with Usuthu, Botswana and Swaziland. As
a board member for ten years, she attended annual meetings in Geneva
and Braziville. She praised the Kellogg Foundation for its help with
funding for nurse professionals and for sponsoring her attendance
at some of the meetings.
Dr. Macubu retired in 1990, but continued to teach
Community Nursing and Health Education until 1993, being paid by Project
Hope and by the Kellogg Foundation. Dan and I asked her about the
HIV-AIDS in Swaziland. "Awareness is good," she said, "but the fire
is now up to our door and we must take action."
Small in stature, Dr. Macubu has much to give to
her community from her broad experience and knowledge. She will surely
become involved in the AIDS initiatives here. Dan and I are richer
for having spent time with her.
Maggie's daughter, Joy, 34, lives in South Africa.
She has a BA in Commerce from the University Of Botswana, and studied
Financial Management at McGill University in Montreal. Dr. Macubu
has one grandchild, a girl, Nobantu, age 10, who visits her in Mbabane
often.
[A parishioner at Trinity Church, Bethlehem, Maggie
Land and her husband, Dan, recently spent a month in Swaziland working
with Dr. Ned Wallace and fostering a parish partnership relationship
between Trinity and All Saints Cathedral of the Diocese of Swaziland.]
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The Impact of Christian Education in the History
of Africa
An addendum by Ned Wallace
Maggie Macubu is a modest person. After retiring
from vocational health-related work she was selected to be a Senator
in the Swazi Parliament, one of only three women who have so served.
Her contributions during her five-year term were significant, both
within and beyond the health sector, especially as an advocate for
advancing the role of women in the Kingdom of Swaziland.
Maggie is high on the list of Swazis whom our medical
students visit - to learn about the culture and the history of the
country.
Reading her biography stimulated some recurring thoughts
about the importance and impact of education in the history of Africa.
In early colonial days, missionaries from many denominations
established schools as well as churches, and often hospitals and clinics.
These church- supported schools, from kindergarten through university,
have provided a special educational experience for students - in many
instances adding a meaningful Christian component to their learning
and maturation.
Christian-supported education has been - to some
extent still is - one of the most enduring, beneficial legacies of
the mission era in Africa. Reading the biographies of African leaders
such as Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, one is struck by the amount
of exposure they had to Christian influence during their formative
years: attending Christian schools, sometimes living in homes of teachers,
or being supported through contributions from churches in Britain
and elsewhere. The contributions of these leaders are well known,
their impact is immeasurable.
As support for education in the developing world
by Christians in the affluent world decreases, one wonders about the
coming generations - their sources of stimulation, motivation and
opportunities for preparation for leadership roles. Certainly the
need for inspired leadership is critical in the decades ahead, as
in decades past.
[Dr. Edwin (Ned) Wallace of Trinity Church, Bethlehem,
has spent four months a year since 1991 coordinating a medical education
work and service program in a mission in the tiny southern African
country of Swaziland. He has been there since January and plans to
return in May.]
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God Bless Africa ... Guard Her
Children ... Guide Her Leaders ... Give Her Peace
By Bill Lewellis
Diocesan Life, April 2000
The front covers of three consecutive editions of
Diocesan Life, four of the past seven, have featured some aspect
of diocesan community interest in Africa. There was no preconceived
plan for what now begins to look like a mission. You may wonder, with
me, about the hand of God.
Last summer, Sudanese Anglican priest Michael Kiju
Paul, at diocesan convention and during a whirlwind tour through congregations,
told Spirit-filled and compelling stories about "how God is working
in my life and in the Sudan."
He spoke of the atrocities his people have undergone
during the 15-year civil war in the Southern Sudan. With enthusiastic
encouragement from Bishop Paul, our diocesan World Mission Committee
has focused our attention on conditions in developing countries. "Our
deeper attachment to brothers and sisters in the third World can only
mean good things," the bishop said. "I'd like to see the day when
people from our diocese go to Third World countries to do various
kinds of ministry."
A 73-year-old semi-retired physician from Trinity
Church, Bethlehem, Dr. Ned Wallace, has spent four months a year since
1991 coordinating a medical education work and service program in
a mission in the tiny southern African country of Swaziland. He has
been there since January. His wife, Emily, recently returned to Bethlehem
after a two-month stay.
After Dr. Wallace decided a few months ago to make
AIDS-related activities his main focus, Bishop Paul designated him
as Diocese of Bethlehem Medical Missioner to Swaziland. The World
Health Organization reports that some 33.6 million globally have AIDS.
Some 23.3 million of these live in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with
920,000 in the U.S.
Dan and Maggie Land, also Trinity parishioners, are
working in Swaziland with Dr. Wallace and fostering a parish partnership
relationship between Trinity and All Saints Cathedral there. They
plan to spend a month there. Bishop Paul recently spent time there,
at "a place where the Holy Spirit can work to seek the face of Christ
among the suffering and those who care for them."
As Diocesan Life goes to press, World Mission
Committee chair Connie Fegley and diocesan social missioner Dane Bragg
are preparing to leave for Africa. After a few days with the Lands
and Dr. Wallace, they will go on to Kampala and Adjumani, where the
Bible College Kiju Paul helped start and the refugee camp for many
from Kiju's Sudanese Diocese of Kajo-Keji are located. In Uganda,
they will stay with exiled Bishop Manasseh Dawidi of Kajo-Keji and
his wife. Connie asks us to pray that their conversations go well
and that they "may lay productive groundwork for possible future relationships.
Do lift us up high in prayer - and all we hope to accomplish."
"It is one of the paradoxes of the modern world,"
ABC News Nightline correspondent Dave Marash said recently, "that
we can and are made aware of far more serious problems than we can
solve. Measuring up to this challenge, finding room in our hearts
and our wallets for simultaneous catastrophes, like those occurring
in Kosovo, East Timor, and sub-Saharan Africa, is the challenge of
the 21st century."
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Chistophany Is
Also A Verb
By Hillary Dowling
Diocesan Life, April 2000
[Christophany is an annual diocesan youth event hosted
by St. Stephen's, Wilkes-Barre. Participants are in 7th grade and
above. Adults and high-school students serve as staff. The weekend
combines fun and games with music, talks and worship to build a Christ-centered
community. Some 150 experienced Christophany 2000 at St. Stephen's,
March 3-5. --Bill]
Christophany: [noun] An appearance of Christ, as
to his disciples after the crucifixion.
That's dictionary.com's definition. To me, however,
Christophany is also a verb.
At this year's Christophany (like others I have attended)
I felt over-whelmed by the Holy Spirit. "This weekend, while I was
praying," a dear friend said to me, "it wasn't the way I normally
pray... knees bent, head bowed. This weekend praying to Jesus
meant turning to your neighbor and giving them a hug and telling them
you love them. And you meant it." The way God touched every person
in the church was an amazing thing to see.
A young girl gave me a hug and started to cry. She
whispered to me, "I'm shaking, and don't know why. I'm not cold at
all." I told her it was the Holy Sprit working within her and she
should not be afraid. She cried all the harder, while she smiled a
most genuine smile.
Yes, Christophany is a noun. We could all see God's
beautiful light shining through the hearts of the Christophanites
and the staff. All the staff did this year boggles the mind. They
were a wonderful example of how Jesus' love was able to be seen. Their
hard work and determination was the Lord working through them. They
really did do the work of the Lord, who could be seen it in the faces
of the Christophanites.
Every person I had the honor of meeting looked peaceful,
yet excited. When they arrived Friday night, they were nervous and
a bit apprehensive, as was I. But God took us by the hand and led
us through the weekend. When this had happened to me at my first Christophany,
God stopped being an untouchable King and became a best friend.
My year of planning was my gift to the Christophanites
and to God. That is why Christophany is also a noun because the work
that Dane and Donna Bragg, my staff, and I did was a tangible way
to show God's love.
Another reason Christophany is both noun and verb
is that we all heard the Lord. The Holy Spirit replaced our own words
with the words of the Lord whenever we sang or whenever a person gave
a talk.
I can't begin to explain the way the music came straight
from our hearts and souls. There is a certain song that was tough
for us for the first time on Friday. There was a part in it that the
females had to sing very high, and the males very low. We all achieved
the perfect pitch, but, as my sister put it, "I don't know how we
did it. I could never sing that high before." My best friend also
told me at a different time, "I have no idea how we could have gotten
that low, but we did. Every time we sang it, I couldn't stop myself
from saying wow when it was over."
You can't explain Christophany to anyone. They have
to experience it. You could try doing it the way the dictionary did,
but it would need the verb tied into it. I saw the Lord through the
people there, I heard the Lord through the incredible songs and talks,
and, most importantly, I felt the Lord through the Holy Spirit.
From the time we arrived on Friday to the time we
left on Sunday, we experienced Christophany as a new part of speech.
[A junior at Tunkhannock Area High School and a member
of St. Peter's, Hillary "Hill" Dowling has been active in diocesan
youth ministries for many years. She served as Youth Leader for this
year's Christophany.]
Take a look at some pictures from Christophany 2000:
Group Photo, Dancing
and Talks and Knots and Small
Groups.
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Mission Of Month Program
Increases Easton Outreach
By Jan Charney
Diocesan Life, April 2000
A few years ago, when our financial picture was tight
- when isn't it? - and we had a few obligations to complete, the Vestry
at Trinity, Easton, regretfully made a series of budget cuts. Included
among them was a 50% cut in the general outreach budget.
At the next meeting of the outreach committee the
questions were: "Where do we go from here? How can we increase our
budget for ministry outside our walls? How can we be good stewards
of what we have been given and increase our funds as well?
On of our members had heard of a program in use in
another parish called Mission of the Month. Simple to implement, it
works like this. On as many months as you can, select a mission, prepare
an envelope and article for distribution with your newsletter or to
put in the pews, and ask a speaker to come to make a brief (five to
ten minutes) presentation about the ministry.
We chose ten missions for the first year (excluding
the months when Christmas and Easter memorials are solicited) and
announced our new program to the congregation. We included the Presiding
Bishop's Fund, United Thank Offering, and eight local ministries:
local food bank, AIDS Outreach, women's shelter, our own Saturday
Soup Kitchen, and others.
We felt that if people heard first-hand reports of
these programs and knew that our funds would not stretch to cover
them they would be moved to "go the extra mile." And we were right!
In our first year, we raised $4,557 (nearly double our budget allocation).
The program has continued to touch peoples' hearts.
Last year, our total MOM offerings were just under $7,000. Actually
they were nearly $8,000 because the committee added funds from their
budget almost every month to bring the totals to even numbers.
Because of this extra generosity, our budget funds
can now be used to make smaller contributions to a variety of requests
that come to us. Isn't it funny -- the more we give away, the more
we receive, especially when our giving is for "the least of these."
One of our recent MOM speakers suggested that we
ought to share the idea for this program with other parishes in
the diocese, so here it is. If you need further information, please
contact Mike and Dottie Viglione (610-253-7046), Trinity's Mission/Outreach
chairs, or check our web site at http://www.trinityeaston.org/.
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