The Parked Chariot
Rainbows are God's Signature in the Sky
By Deacon George Loeffler
Diocesan Life, December 2000
God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that
I make between me and you and every living creature that is with
you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds,
and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
(Genesis 9:12-13)
Among the things I do, as my Dutch neighbors say,
"chust for dumb," is to be a Weather Watcher for WGAL-TV8.
Every now and then my data appears on the weather
map, and my village, Stony Run, rides again.
Included with the weather report before supper
is a little feature called Kidz Art for which children are invited
to submit drawings to be shown to the viewers.
Remembering how I felt the first time Stony Run
appeared over the state of Pennsylvania on the tube one evening,
I can well imagine the kick they get out of seeing their work displayed.
I gradually became conscious of a peculiar quirk
of these juvenile drawings. A disproportionate number included rainbows.
I wouldn't say rainbows are rare phenomena, but
one doesn't see them every day. Yet in child's picture after child's
picture, if there was a stretch of open sky, there was a rainbow
in it. Often there was no other hint of rain, and sometimes the
rainbow was drawn right next to a blazing sun.
That physical solecism provoked me to action.
Weather Watchers aren't issued a secret code ring,
but we do have the Storm Team e-mail address.
I wrote to Doug Allen and suggested he had here
a teaching opportunity: to explain that rainbows appear on the opposite
side of the sky to the sun, as a circle of fixed angular radius
about the shadow of the observer's head.
He said he had a video clip showing this, and would
try to work it in.
I then got a strange feeling that I was missing
something. Rainbows obviously speak to the souls of children.
I was standing in bright fall sunshine in our back
yard with a garden hose in hand; I turned to face my shadow, and
turned on the fine widespread spray. In the cloud of droplets, a
full circle of ethereal light appeared, each brilliant color at
its own distance from the center of all, the shadow of my own head
-- of my own eyes, actually.
Against the background of shrubbery, the circle
was small, apparently a few feet in diameter. I realized that this
was my rainbow, no one else could see it; they could only see their
own, centered on the shadow of their own head. And so it is with
all rainbows.
The ancient writer of Genesis - or one of them
- took the rainbow as a sign that God would not arbitrarily wipe
out his creation. The more we learn of that creation, the more we
suspect that our growing understanding will reveal the reality behind
the sign.
A later wit took pleasure in telling us that there
was a pot of gold at the "end" of the rainbow, thinking perhaps
to send the unwary on a fool's errand. But is there not a sense
in which this is correct?
So striking a phenomenon inspires our awe. It persuades
us to study, to seek understanding of the laws of nature. It is
sent as a circular letter to all humanity, but signed individually
for each of us with this beautiful thing we each see uniquely.
And so the child, when he has pictured his house,
his friends, his dog, and some trees in the sunshine, instinctively
thinks it right and proper to finish his picture by placing in a
clear bit of sky the signature of God.
[Chaplain to Bishop Paul, the Rev.
George Loeffler has served the Diocese of Bethlehem as a deacon
for more than 30 years. In 1997, he was recognized for exemplary
diaconal service by the North American Association for the Diaconate.
George's insight and wit occasionally grace the pages of Diocesan
Life in his Parked Chariot column, a reference to Acts 8: 29-31
where the Spirit said to the deacon, Philip, "Go over to this chariot
and join it."]
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News
Health Advocacy
Might You be a Parish Nurse?
By Kathy Burda
Diocesan Life, December 2000
[A core committee is exploring how
the diocesan community might provide health advocacy in our parishes.
The parish nurse may be an ideal person to do this or to direct
others who provide this valuable service. We are, therefore, interested
in developing as many parish nurse ministries as possible. Several
institutions within the diocese provide education for parish nurses.
We are investigating potential funding sources for these programs.
If you are a nurse who might consider serving your parish in this
way or would like more information in order to make that determination,
please email or call Diana
Marshall at 610-807-9281]
Is there an 80-year-old woman in your parish whose
eyesight and general health are failing? Her children, who live
away, may have talked her into selling her car, after she had been
driving for 60 years. She needs groceries and medications. She also
needs to get to her ophthalmologist; cardiologist; urologist and
podiatrist.
She doesn't cook anymore and her friends are either
with their children, in nursing homes or gone. Her days can be long
and lonely.
Who can help? Your parish might if it is one that
has a parish nurse ministry.
Parish nurses help to coordinate transportation
to doctor appointments, arrange for Meals on Wheels, explain what
those tests are that the doctor ordered, and teach people how to
speak with their doctors and navigate the very confusing labyrinth
of health insurance. Parish nurses also call, check on and visit
with people.
Usually a registered nurse, the parish nurse is
a health educator, health counselor, facilitator, advocate, resource
and referral person. The parish nurse can be a volunteer or an employee,
full time or part time, of one or several churches.
Many parish nurses offer programs to and are concerned
with the health and welfare of all parishioners. Programs are offered
to new moms. Other programs include Teddy bear clinics for young
children, smoking cessation programs, macular degeneration support
groups, safe driving programs for those over 50, safety and wellness
fairs for the elderly, and grief support groups.
A trust fund established by the late Marion C.
Price offers me the unique opportunity to care for and maintain
the dignity of elderly Episcopalians of Schuylkill County from an
office at Trinity Episcopal Church, Pottsville, so long as those
services do not duplicate services already available in the community.
A Lutheran minister, Granger Westburg, has been
the driving force behind parish nursing. He knew that the state
of our mind has an immediate and direct affect on our state of body.
He started a pilot program in 1984 that has spread to a wide variety
of churches and synagogues across the country.
With parish nurses, congregations can play an important
role in keeping people spiritually and physically healthy as well
as giving leadership in the field of preventative medicine.
By definition Parish Nursing is a health care ministry
providing physical, emotional, social and spiritual care for the
individual, family and the community associated with a church or
synagogue.
It is much more: it is sitting with a woman until
her mother comes out of surgery; speaking with someone about a living
will; finding personal care for a woman dying with cancer; helping
a widower pack to move into a nursing home; being there when someone
needs you.
[Kathy Burda, a Registered Nurse and the Parish
Nurse at Trinity Episcopal Church, Pottsville, is administrator
of the Marion C. Price Trust set up to care for and maintain the
dignity of elderly Episcopalians of Schuylkill County. She can be
reached toll free at 877-225-3848) as well as by email]
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News
Consumerism and Discipleship
I Was Trapped by What I Had Achieved
It is hard work to make choices to live outside the societal
norm
By Debra Schlosser
Diocesan Life, December 2000
[In this third of a series of columns,
Debra Schlosser continues to open a window into her spiritual journey
as it relates to breaking through a cultural prison. Subsequent
columns will continue to deal with how consumerism affects specific
relationships in our lives. A catechist in the Catechesis of the
Good Shepherd at St. Margaret's, Emmaus, Deb finished her fourth
year of Education For Ministry last May and has an active ministry
in Christian Education. She lives in Emmaus with her husband, Rick,
and their three children Jeremy, 10, Dylan, 8 and Kiley, 5, and
owns a graphic design studio where she works part time.]
Thirteen years ago, I founded an advertising agency
that quickly grew to provide economic comfort for my family and
allowed my husband to stay at home full time with our children.
The company captivated me in a way I would not understand until
10 years later when I tried to withdraw from it. Now, I recognize
that I defined who I was by what I achieved.
This trait carried into my spiritual life. I spent
years relating to God by achieving. It was how I showed my devotion.
While I was busy valuing the prestige and assets I was gathering
at work, I was also using money as a substitute for my presence
in areas of my life I had little time left to nurture. Running my
own company afforded me what I then labeled as freedom. Somewhere
along the line it grew into a prison. I was trapped by what I had
achieved.
A simple greeting card brought about this realization.
It said, "Rule #1. When raising your children, spend half as much
money and twice as much time."
The message identified a lack of balance I felt,
but could not name. Dealing with a shortage of time, I was glad
to spend money to try and recoup any bit of what I felt was missing.
I bought toys for my children to try to make up for time I missed
with them due to work.
My monthly dates with each child became quick shopping
expeditions instead of activities that took time to prepare and
take part in. Fast food dinners in the car on the way to school
and sports activities replaced family suppers that would have required
me to leave work early.
The issue was larger than how I related to my children.
Other relationships in my life were affected. I fell into a pattern
of giving only money to charity instead of offering my time too.
I bought my way out of several fund raiser car washes where I could
have been connected to a community of my peers.
Stewardship of both my money and the environment
suffered when I became dependent on take-out lunches and let my
children buy pre-packaged food for school so heavy in wrappings,
the weight of the packaging outweighed the food.
Feeling like I did not have time to honor all my
commitments, I wound up neglecting relationships while striving
for material success. Yet, for a long time I was too scared to look
at why I had no time or to evaluate if all my commitments were indeed
necessary. Instead, I remained comfortable by rationalizing that
what I was doing was necessary.
The words spoken by the prophet Haggai when he
told Judah they were being punished for their neglect of the temple
can also be a prophecy of our fate if we allow a quest for material
things to lead to the neglect of relationships.
"You have sown much, and harvested little; you
eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your
fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn
wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes." (Haggai 1.6)
In current times, the ramifications of this prophecy
have been demonstrated clearly by the statistic from The Index of
Social Health that in the last 21 years, our quality of life has
gone down by 52% while our per capita consumption has risen by 45%.
We keep earning and buying, but our bag has holes.
As quickly as we fill it up, we feel empty again.
As we spend more and more time in jobs to earn
the money to buy things, we spend less time building family and
community.
Social bonds are threatened as malls become the
primary gathering place and alarms are installed to replace watchful
neighbors.
Busy parents, like me, feeling guilty for missing
time with their children, buy them things to try to make up for
their absence, thereby modeling the mistaken ideal that happiness
is found in things and not in relationships.
Overprogrammed lives lead some families to let
Sunday serve as more than the Sabbath and church attendance suffers
as a growing percentage of the population uses the day for kids'
sports or to catch up on sleep, work or household projects.
The Word is heard less as attendance at weekday
church worship and bible study are cut to save time. Private devotions
are abbreviated and the chance to gain strength from God to resist
sin is diminished.
Our bodies suffer as much as our spirituality from
our lack of time. Stress, fast food, lack of sleep and lack of exercise
take their toll, as we act as if the bodies that God created are
less important than the "stuff" we strive for.
I do not write about this scenario to judge, but
rather to show how easy it is to slide into as I did. I doubt I
am alone in my struggle to balance the care of my relationships
with the time that is required to live the life our culture has
deemed ideal.
As I write this and ponder my ability to witness
to something I have not come close to mastering, the only thing
I am confident about is that I can speak to how hard it is to step
outside the cycle I have described. It is hard work to make choices
to live outside the societal norm.
Changing was, and is now, no easier for me than
when it began. Everyday I am called to leave who I am, as Abraham
was called to leave his home, without knowing specifically where
I'm going, but understanding what God has promised me and knowing
that the promise awaits me.
Sometimes I have trouble taking the steps to leave.
I make small steps in the right direction, then berate myself for
not jumping in head first.
I wonder. When God called Abraham, did it matter
how long it took him to leave even if he eventually did obey? I
keep asking God to tell me where I'm going and get frustrated at
not getting an answer.
Sometimes I work hard at making the answers. Other
times I tell myself I'm not listening close enough. Then I realize
the answer is in the journey.
I am not going anywhere specific. My life is to
be about the going itself.
Kosuke Koyama, in the Three Mile An Hour God, writes
of an understanding of God who, throughout history, has sought a
covenant relationship with us -- who sacrificed a son to establish
a new covenant -- and who can only be saddened when we do not understand
that everything must be rooted in human relationship, not in things.
The tension between the urge to fuel our cultural
possession obsession and the need to spend more time nurturing relationships
can only be resolved by tuning out the constant voice of consumerism
in daily life and tuning in to the one true Voice.
Tune in today. Feed a relationship.
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Consumerism and Discipleship
What we Want and What we Need
By Debra Schlosser
Diocesan Life, November 2000
[In this second of a series, Debra
Schlosser opens a window into her spiritual journey as it relates
to differentiating between wants and needs. Subsequent columns will
deal with how consumerism affects specific relationships in our
lives. A catechist in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at St.
Margaret's, Emmaus, Deb finished her fourth year of Education For
Ministry last May and has an active ministry in Christian Education.
She lives in Emmaus with her husband, Rick, and their three children
Jeremy, 10, Dylan, 8 and Kiley, 5, and owns a graphic design studio
where she works part time.]
Last spring, my daughter and I made a trip to Macy's.
In the shoe department we found tables and tables of shoes stretching
well into the distance. My first thought was that the huge selection
would make it hard to choose. My irritation was overcome by the
sheer beauty of the presentation. Color coordinated, it was a feast
for the eyes: blues and greens shimmering like an ocean on one table;
bright and bold reds on another; an area larger than my whole kitchen
with every shade of yellow. Every color of the rainbow, in not just
one style of each color, but a whole display full of choices.
Each pair was a work of art. As an artist, I appreciated
the designs, the color and contrasting patterns, and the artful
presentation. We wandered around for a long time, touching the glittery
sequins, fingering the silky straps and admiring the various shapes.
Then it hit me. They expected me to wear these
things.
I had to laugh. Straps no wider than a shoestring
were expected to hold my foot to a wafer thin base. Strips of sharp
sequins were meant to be wedged between my toes. Platforms thick
enough to cause a nosebleed promised height but not stability. Tiny
rows of beads delicately glued on couldn't possibly remain in place
any longer than the trip out to the car.
When I saw some of the price tags, I laughed harder.
But the laughter faded and the dazzle wore off
as I thought about the fact that somewhere in the world people went
hungry and cold, while manpower and money were spent developing
these unpractical pieces of overpriced footwear. Someone was likely
underpaid and taken advantage of to give me such an array of choices
designed to wear out quickly to bring me back to spend more, choices
created because our culture can't get enough and overconsumes by
not differentiating between what we want and what we need.
Why should we bother to differentiate between want
and need if we can afford to satisfy both?
There is good reason. For every want fulfilled,
there is a need elsewhere that goes unfulfilled.
Seeing the face attached to unfulfilled need might
bring about different choices.
But malls don't allow a glimpse of the faces of
hunger and oppression as you shop. In my shoe shopping experience,
I saw only what attracted my artist's eye. My daughter saw only
her desire to wear what her peers do. The buyer for that store saw
only dollar signs. Every store is designed to allow the satisfaction
of desires without the intrusion of reality, without seeing the
person in need or the person who paid the price to get the goods
there.
When we open our eyes to that person, the implications
of our consumption and buy-in to consumerism become clear. In order
to speak about those implications I need to define my use of the
word wealth.
Wealth is any resource I hold in excess of what
is required to fulfill my needs. Overconsumption is often a product
of wealth - affluence leads to the temptation to overconsume. Conversely,
wealth can be the product of overconsumption - when we hoard our
resources to become wealthy, we are overconsuming.
Overconsumption results in a lack of social and
economic justice for people throughout the world by unbalancing
the distribution of resources. The poor are forced to do without
or to exist by doing things that threaten their existence and block
them from right relationship with God.
The abuse of wealth is associated with the corruption
of the judicial process, the acquisition of political power and
unfair labor practices. When excess resources are used to buy power
and social status or to fulfill the desires of an individual instead
of fulfilling the needs of all, it creates the existence of a group
whose basic needs are unmet and who have no power to change the
system within which they live.
In early Jerusalem community, the wealthy did not
spend their time striving for more, but shared their possessions
in order to leave no one deprived. By sharing what has been given
to us, we can start to begin to right the wrongs of social and economic
injustice. Specifically, by resisting the cultural messages of materialism,
we can avoid striving to satisfy artificially created desires and
put our resources to better use.
I yearn to live in the world of Acts. "All who
believed were together and had all things in common; they would
sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to
all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together
in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with
glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of
all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those
who were being saved." (2:44-47)
I am saved day by day by a God who, in humor and
in wisdom, finds me in a shoe department to offer me a dose of grace
and to ensure that I will never look at my shoes the same way again.
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Consumerism and Discipleship
Called to Break Free from a Cultural Prison
By Debra Schlosser
Diocesan Life, October, 2000
[In this first of a series of columns,
Debra Schlosser opens a window into her spiritual journey as it
relates to breaking through a cultural prison. Subsequent columns
will deal with how consumerism affects specific relationships in
our lives. A catechist in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at
St. Margaret's, Emmaus, Deb finished her fourth year of Education
For Ministry last May and has an active ministry in Christian Education.
She lives in Emmaus with her husband, Rick, and their three children
Jeremy, 10, Dylan, 8 and Kiley, 5, and owns a graphic design studio
where she works part time.]
Halloween paraphernalia fills a catalog I recently
received. Substitute any holiday. Do we really need a catalog full
of multiple kinds of trick-or-treat containers? What's wrong with
a good old-fashioned paper bag? What price are we, or others in
the world who are in need, paying to have that kind of choice?
Because my career has been in advertising, it's
no surprise to me that those who advertise goods and services have
learned how to create desires, even if their product does not fulfill
a true need. I think what disturbed me most was realizing how successful
they are. My uneasiness came from touching on the bigger issues
of consumerism and materialism; two 'isms that are so ingrained
in our existence that it takes real effort not to allow them to
control our lives.
In the past few years, I have taken a hard look
at consumerism in my own life. I say that I value relationships
over possessions, yet my behavior often says the opposite. Being
intentional about trying to identify the worldviews that influence
me and to acknowledge and respond to my own participation in consumerism
has become a deep need for me. What I have found, is that there
is a clear connection between my wealth and the state of the relationships
in my life-a connection I began to examine by looking at the cultural
environment I was raised within.
I grew up in a relatively wealthy and privileged
family. My stable and loving background contributed positively in
many ways to who I am today, but a large part of who I am becoming
involves ripping away from many things that were an integral part
of my upbringing.
I feel called to break free from the concept taught
to most middle class children: that I am the most important thing
in the world. I must now learn to find fulfillment in places other
than the primary one of my peers-the enjoyment of having lots of
money and things, of celebration revolving around receiving something.
The goal of becoming a great success in business,
deeply instilled by what my father modeled, has been particularly
hard for me to shed, especially after chasing it for 12 years. As
a child, I idolized my father. I admired how the companies he ran
granted him power and authority.
I did not think his frequent absences meant I was
missing anything because his dedication to work was the norm among
all the families I knew.
We had vacations, a large house, an excess of toys,
food and clothes and an extended family in the church. Seemingly,
I had no need left unmet; certainly, no material need unfulfilled.
I had wonderful parents, but I am left feeling that I was somehow
misdirected in what I was taught mattered most.
In our suburban developments, our neighbors played
bridge and cooked meals or tended children for anyone in the neighborhood
who needed it. It was a good but incomplete model of community.
No one ventured beyond the development to extend such support to
others, and all of them were wealthy and privileged - a blessing
they took for granted.
They cared for others in need primarily by writing
checks and donating clothes that were no longer in style. They felt
their societal obligation was fulfilled. Maybe it was. Something
inside of me says that is not enough for me.
As a result of my background, I lack an understanding
of how the world beyond my peer group lives. I know little about
how it feels not to be able to satisfy a child's request for a toy,
let alone for a meal. Yet, I feel called to learn and to witness
to families, like the one I grew up in, about how the rest of the
world lives and about how God wants us to consider responding -
especially to the issue that triggered my awareness: consumerism.
I feel compelled to swim against the tide of a growing sea of overconsumption
and materialism that threatens to drown us all. I fear for those
who grow up the way I did, and then don't recognize the gift of
a wakeup call from God at some point in their lives. Because for
them, there is no reason to change.
I struggle daily to break free from the seduction
of acquiring more. God's grace has come to me as a growing sense
of dis-comfort surrounding my overconsumption.
While confronting consumerism I have found clues
to the transformation God is willing to grant me. I first tried
to block it, then grudging agreed to open up to it and eventually
embraced it.
God's patience and persistence while waiting for
me, and the subtle, and not-so-subtle, ways I have seen the Spirit
go about bringing me to this point leave me awash in gratitude to
the Creator God who has shown that the act of creating never ends.
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News
Not Appropriate
Bill Lewellis
Diocesan Life, October 2000
(winner, Award of Excellence, Editorials, 2001
Polly Bond Awards)
Kaitlyn 9, died during the early hours of a recent
Friday morning, sometime after she had fallen asleep in her mother's
arms. Her battle with cancer ended. The strife is o'er, the battle
done. . I was the first person to arrive at the funeral home in
Allentown on Sunday afternoon, some 90 minutes before the memorial
service was to begin. I wanted to think and pray about what had
happened. I asked the funeral director if I might sit in one of
the side rooms.
Though I had never met the little girl about whom
I was soon to hear stories of precocious compassion for God's persons
and living things, I knew her. I knew Kaitlyn through the face of
her father who works at New Bethany Ministries in Bethlehem, next
door to Diocesan House. Her affliction, suffering and questions
had been transparent in the face I saw several times a week.
Though we prayed for Kaitlyn every morning at Diocesan
House, there were times I looked away from her father's face. What
more could I say? I didn't know him well enough just to sit quietly
with him.
When Bob and Karen arrived, I followed them into
a large room. Some 200 empty chairs filled the room where the Lutheran
hospice chaplain would soon lead the memorial service. Kaitlyn had
been cremated earlier. We would soon hear the chaplain say she liked
people, animals, butterflies, teddy bears, beanie babies and the
Backstreet Boys. Bob and Karen were speaking with the funeral director.
I walked to the front of the room to look at a
Kaitlyn collage of photographs offering comforting and heartbreaking
memories. Speakers in the ceiling filled the room with a muted Backstreet
Boys song instead of funeral-paper music. Off to the right, amid
the flowers, was a blow up of a Rolling Stones magazine cover featuring
the Backstreet Boys. I walked toward the poster.
"Karen, this is Bill Lewellis," I heard Bob say.
We hugged.
She pointed to the poster and lifted her head toward
the music. "Some people will think this is not appropriate," she
said.
I was wearing my clerical collar, and wondered
if she meant me.
When she sequed into her next remark, "And it's
not appropriate that a nine-year-old girl should die!" I felt she
did.
"You got that right," I said. Then we walked back
toward the photographs. We said no more to each other.
Eventually, I took an aisle seat about ten rows
back to think and pray more. I kept hearing her virtual scream:
"It's not appropriate that a nine-year-old girl should die."
I saw the famous image from the 1970s movie, Network.
You know it. TV-anchor-gone-mad Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch)
rants on TV: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
He urges viewers to get up from their chairs, open their windows
and shout that they are "mad as hell." To change things, Beale says,
you've got to get really angry first.
That night a cry was heard throughout the land.
God heard the cry. "I have observed the misery
of my people ... I have heard their cry ... I know their sufferings,
and I have come down to deliver them." (Exodus 3: 7-8). I heard
God join in the cosmic rant: "I'm mad as hell ... It's not appropriate
that a nine-year-old girl should die."
So God ... sent Moses ... and then ... Jesus.
As I listened, during the memorial service, to
stories and words seemingly meant to comfort, to elicit smiles and
to veil anger, I wanted to stand up and shout, "Do you know that
God is mad as hell about what happened to Kaitlyn? God knows it's
not appropriate that a nine-year-old girl should die."
I sat on my hands because I thought it would not
have been appropriate.
I prayed before the gospel-made icon of Jesus tying
a towel around himself, pouring water into a basin, lifting Kaitlyn
onto a chair and kneeling before her: "You've had a hard journey
during the past year. I know. Now, let me wash your feet ... The
banquet is ready."
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News
Episcopal Appalachian Ministries
Small Church Conference September 30 at St. Peter's, Hazleton
Sharing Out Strengths is the theme of the Second
Annual Small Church Conference, Saturday, September 30 (9:30 to
3:30) at St. Peter's, Hazleton. The conference builds on the unique
character of small and rural churches and offers a special opportunity
to learn about successful models of small church ministry. This
year's focus is developing leadership in small and rural parishes
to carry on the vital work of the Church in their congregations
and in their communities.
The Rev. Ben Helmer of the National Office of Small
Church Development will be keynote speaker, focusing on the role
of mission in smaller churches and how your church can become better
known in your community through participation in faith-based community
groups. Helmer has 20 years experience as a pastor of small churches
in Northern Michigan and Western Kansas where, for 11 years, he
was also archdeacon for ministry development.
There will be seven 90-minute workshops on stewardship,
Christian formation, outreach, finance, music, communication and
leadership development. Each will be designed to provide concrete
help for developing leaders in small and rural parishes, and will
be repeated during the day to enable participants to attend any
two.
The Small Church Conference is sponsored jointly
by the Episcopal Appalachian Ministries Committees of the Diocese
of Central Pennsylvania and the Diocese of Bethlehem. The cost of
$10 per person or $25 per parish team includes lunch. For more information
contact: The Rev. Elaine Silverstrim at Trinity Church in Renovo,
570-923-2511.
Diocese of Bethlehem liaisons for the conference
are Eric and Jean Snyder:
570-889-3253.
Bill Lewellis will lead the workshop on communication.
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The Episcopal Church
in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Celebrates and Reconnects
By Bill Lewellis
Some 300 clergy and lay delegates and visitors
from 68 Episcopal churches in eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania
gathered at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity on June 9/10 to
worship together, to hear the address and sermon of Bethlehem Bishop
Paul V. Marshall, to set the 2001 agenda for mission, and to share
their common ministry and membership in the 14-county diocesan community.
Delegates to the 129th Convention of the Diocese
of Bethlehem unanimously adopted a recommendation of the diocesan
World Mission Committee to enter into a companion relationship with
the exiled Diocese of Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of Sudan,
approved a proposed $1.4 million diocesan community budget for 2001,
adopted changes recommended by a task force on diocesan structure,
and elected officers for the diocesan community and members to diocesan
committees, and received reports from some 30 committees, commissions
and diocesan staff persons.
"The most important thing about our Convention,"
Bishop Paul said, "is that we have it. We gather to worship as a
body, to connect and reconnect with one another, and to experience
ourselves as among God's people in northeastern Pennsylvania. That
matters in and of itself. It also provides the context in which
we handle the business part of our life. It is in the context of
our life as God's people at play and prayer that we take up our
tasks. I've tried to make that clear in planning our liturgies."
Partnership Relationship with Kajo-Keji in the
Sudan
Delegates adopted unanimously a recommendation
of the diocesan World Mission Committee to "establish a companion
relationship between the Diocese of Bethlehem and the Diocese of
Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, whose leaders and
many parishioners are now in exile in Uganda..."
"Each member church should gain a great deal while
experiencing the pleasure of giving," Bishop Paul said. To sit at
each other's feet and to learn together promises to be a truly life-giving
experience."
Earlier this year World Mission Committee chair
Connie Fegley and diocesan youth and social missioner Dane Bragg
visited refugee camps in northern Uganda with Kajo-Keji Bishop Manasseh
Dawidi where much of the southern Sudanese Diocese of Kajo-Keji
lives in exile. (related story)
Mission in Swaziland
Delegates heard from Dr. Ned Wallace of Bethlehem
who has spent four months of each of the past ten years in the tiny
southern Africa kingdom of Swaziland coordinating the Swaziland
International Elective, a learning and service program in community
medicine centered in an overcrowded rural hospital.
More than 135 students, residents and faculty have
joined Wallace for four to six week segments.
When he decided recently to focus on AIDS-related
activities and discussed this direction with Bishop Paul and with
Swaziland Bishop Lawrence Zulu, Bishop Paul named Wallace diocesan
medical missioner.
Earlier this year, Bishop Paul visited Wallace
in Swaziland.
The offering received during the Convention Eucharist
was designated for AIDS orphans in Africa.
Sitting at each other's feet "My visit to our missioners
in Swaziland this winter taught me much," Bishop Paul said, but
I have not yet gotten over the horror of seeing people ravaged by
disease curled up in the fetal position on the floors of hospitals...
"Between AIDS in Swaziland and the relentless persecution
of Christians in the Sudan, there is the real possibility that we
will think of Africa only in terms of what it needs from us. To
do so is to slide down a steep and slippery slope and to begin to
feel like Lord or Lady Bountiful, taking off a few moments to do
something 'for' helpless souls far away.
"While Africa has very real needs, and some of
them are desperate, it has immense resources, and Christianity in
Africa is powerfully alive. African Christians have sensibilities
about community, justice, evangelization and relationship that can
very much help us as we find ourselves working in an increasingly
fragmented and profane culture. Jesus Christ is very real in and
for the African Church. And I hope we can have that reality increased
among us as we begin working with Kajo-Keji, the diocese in exile
from Sudan.
"We have much to give Africa besides our greater
financial wealth, particularly in the areas of planning and prioritizing.
The partnership proposed to us is just that, a partnership from
which each member church should gain a great deal while experiencing
the pleasure of giving."
Diocesan Community Budget
Delegates, by unanimous voice vote, approved a
$1.4 million diocesan community budget for 2001. The budget represents
the proposed financial commitment of local congregations to the
mission and ministry of the diocesan community and to ministry beyond
the diocese and around the world. This corporate commitment does
not include significantly more expended for ministry through local
congregations.
Clergy Salary Schedule
Delegates adopted unanimously a 2001 clergy salary
schedule that represents a 3% wage increase over this year's schedule.
New Bethany Receives Grants
Carl and Laura Chegwidden, diocesan representatives
to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief announced that the
Fund has awarded a grant of $35,000 to New Bethany Ministries. Bishop
Paul announced that an additional $10,000 from a diocesan fund would
be given to New Bethany.
A large complex of servant ministries (Transitional
Housing, Single Room Occupancy Housing, Drop-In Center, Meal Center,
HUD-subsidized Apartments) born and incorporated as Episcopal Ministries
of the Diocese of Bethlehem, New Bethany Ministries curls around
the corner of Fourth and Wyandotte streets, next to Diocesan House,
in Bethlehem.
For the past 15 years, New Bethany has served people
who are poor, homeless or mentally ill, many persons whose lives
have often been just a helping hand away from despair. "In the last
few years," Bishop Paul said in his address, "New Bethany has learned
how to die in order to live, and is on a very good track again...
The Trustees of the diocese and Canon Robert Wilkins in particular
have stepped up to the plate for New Bethany in a way that we can
only admire and give thanks to God for."
Greater Return from DIT
The bishop announced that the Trustees of the Diocese
have adopted a seven per cent return for participants in the Diocesan
Investment Trust Fund (DIT) during 2000, retroactive to January
1. This is based on total return rather than on income only. In
most instances, this may double the return parishes received from
the DIT last year.
Structure Changes
Delegates unanimously adopted recommendations from
the diocesan task force on structure to amend several diocesan canons
so that: (1) Diocesan Convention will elect 18 rather than six persons
to Diocesan Council to represent diverse geographical areas, (2)
The Bishop will appoint a member of Diocesan Council from among
the Episcopal Churchwomen of the Diocese, (3) Districts will be
eliminated from the diocesan structure, and (4) At least one lay
delegate to Convention from parishes that have more than one lay
delegate will be a member of the Vestry.
Advocacy For Children
"In at least one of the cities of this diocese,"
Bishop Paul told delegates, "there are inner-city schools so under
funded that teachers must buy crayons, paper, and other supplies
themselves, and church groups have been pitching in for other basics,
including books.
"For generations in America, the principal tool
for escaping poverty has been education, and it is entirely unacceptable
that children who most need that tool of escape are denied it, and
have been denied it for so long that we may have to ask if educational
neglect is an institution in parts of the Commonwealth.
"That such a high number of children who are neglected
in inner-city schools are Hispanic and African-American forces us
to ask if what is institutionalized here is not also racism. Who
will speak for these neglected people?
"We have not found a successor to the Reverend
Hannah Anderson, who took up that part of Margaret Sipple's work
that concerned children's ministries," he continued, "and that has
troubled me deeply. It is hard to get excellent people to take a
part time job...
"I will be asking some of the beneficiaries [of
the DIT increase] to support a full time children's advocacy missioner
in the diocese to help us insure that every child in our schools
and in our churches is, indeed, received and treated like a blessing,
prepared to contribute to the work of society and share in its productivity."
Womelsdorf
Bishop Paul announced that the diocesan community
has the money, the building and the core group to start a parish
in Womelsdorf, but has not been able to secure the services of an
experienced "church planter" priest to guide the effort.
"I have really been giving God a hard time about
this," he said, "but I'm beginning to wonder. Is it possible that
after all the real wrestling with the seeming impossibility of getting
a priest, does God perhaps want us to trust the laity to start this
church? Quite a few of the churches in this diocese began just with
the gathering of a few lay people for prayer. We are seated in one
now. Perhaps that is how we are called to go into Womelsdorf."
300 Acres For A Camp
The bishop announced that the diocesan community,
"barring the truly unusual, will be receiving shortly about 300
acres for a camp and diocesan gathering place near Lilly Lake" located
between Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre.
1998 Lambeth Conference Report
Delegates adopted unanimously a resolution that
"acknowledges the report of the 1998 Lambeth Conference on Scripture
and Human Sexuality as a teaching worthy of study... affirms freedom
of expression which honors various and diverse thought and opinions,
and respect the integrity with which individuals hold convictions
on the subject of scripture and human sexuality..." and supports
"ongoing dialogue, in a respectful atmosphere, concerning these
significant issues of scripture, tradition and personal faith."
The resolution calls on Diocesan Council to "design the structure
and schedule whereby this may be accomplished and report back to
the 130th Diocesan Convention."
Partial Birth Abortions
Delegates, by just a few votes beyond simple majority,
adopted a resolution that "deplores partial birth abortions except
in the event of a life threat to the mother."
Two Graduate from the Leadership Program For
Musicians
Two parishioners from Grace Church, Allentown,
were awarded the Presiding Bishop's Certificate in Church Music.
Organist and choir director John Adamson and choir
member Elizabeth Carson were the first two persons from the diocesan
community to complete the requirements of the Leadership Program
for Musicians Serving Small Congregations, a two-year course designed
to train and enable church musicians to increase their liturgical,
pastoral and leadership skills and to give support and spiritual
formation for music ministry.
Recognized also during Evensong was the faculty
of the LPM: Carol Horton (Liturgy), Roy Horton (Hymnody), and Mark
Laubach (Organ)
General Convention
Speaking briefly about the General Convention of
the Episcopal Church USA in July, Bishop Paul said his "overall
concern is that the church not be divided. I will continue to work
as I have, for deepened unity with those whose views I do not necessarily
share. I think I made this clear last year in terms of hospitality
towards the right wing of the church; if you've read the General
Convention Blue Book for 2000, you know that I have tried to bring
precisely the same principles into play as we deal with those of
the left wing of the church...
"The issues before General Convention are very
serious, but none of them for me is more important than our maintaining
witness to the unity of those who confess with their lips that Jesus
Christ is Lord and who wish to live out his resurrection as they
walk in the way of their baptism...
"Unless our concern for all who suffer in the church
is real and unless that concern shapes how we talk to them and how
we behave towards each other, there is very little about the church
worth saving. On the other hand, I deeply believe that to the extent
that we are willing to address each other on the common ground of
our life in Jesus Christ, to the extent that we refuse to punish
each other, there can be great gifts for us."
Elections
Delegates elected the following officers and committee
members for the diocesan community:
Secretary: The Rev. George Loeffler, Diocesan
deacon
Treasurer: W. Richard Guyer, Cathedral, Church of the Nativity,
Bethlehem
Assistant Treasurer: Madeline T. Watkins, diocesan staff
Chancellor: Charles "Ty" Welles, Esq., St. Peter's, Tunkhannock
Registrar: Linda J. Shifter, diocesan staff
Standing Committee:
The Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis, Communication Minister/Editor, Diocese
of Bethlehem
Susan R. Jacobson, St. Anne's, Trexlertown
Diocesan Council:
The Rev. Robert A. Nagy, Prince of Peace Church, Dallas
John Feather, Jr., Esq., St. Luke's Church, Lebanon
Rick Kenney, St. Brigid's Church, Nazareth
The Incorporated Trustees:
James G. Harding, St. Anne's Church, Trexlertown
Anne C. Shire, Church of the Mediator, Allentown
Cidney B. Spillman, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
The Commission on Ministry:
The Rev. Edward K. Erb, St. John's Church, Hamlin
The Rev. Carol J. HortonM Susquehanna Country Ministries (New Milford
and Susquehanna)
Dorothy Shaw, St. Peter's Church, Tunkhannock
Dolores Evans, North Parish, Schuylkill County (Christ Church, Frackville)
The Ecclesiastical Court:
The Rev. Lawrence Holman, Church of the Redeemer, Sayre (Resident
of Towanda)
The Very Rev. William B. Lane, Dean and Rector, Cathedral Church
of the Nativity, Bethlehem
William L. Cauller, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
W. Marshall Dawsey, Esq., Christ Church, Towanda
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ECW Quilt
By Margot Bradbury
A celebration of the ministries of the Diocese
of Bethlehem came to pass with the completion of a vibrant and colorful
quilt, incorporating squares from every parish in the diocese, together
with one for the ECW, the UTO, the CPC and the star from the window
at Diocesan House.
The idea was born during a summer ECW board meeting;
by the following spring, squares had been crafted by women -- and
some men -- of the parishes. Squares were taken to "Quilt Headquarters"
at Prince of Peace Church in Dallas where board members and women
from parishes came to assemble them under the expert guidance of
Beth Chocallo of Prince of Peace into the shape of a stained glass
window. On many Saturdays, women from many parts of the diocese
laid out squares and supplied needed materials.
When the design was completed and Beth sewed the
square together, the quilt was put on the frame at Holy Cross. Again,
people traveled to Wilkes-Barre to sew, and the busy and expert
quilters of Holy Cross worked diligently to finish the work.
Bishop Paul led prayers at Diocesan Convention
dedicating the ECW Quilt to the memory of Marie Elizabeth Dyer.
James and Kay Snyder of St. Elizabeth's, Allentown, represented
the Dyer Family because Bishop Mark's schedule had to be changed
at the last minute in order to attend a meeting in Istanbul.
The quilt will be taken to Denver this summer where,
along with quilts from other dioceses, it will be on display at
the Triennial Meeting of the ECW. After that it will be available
for display in parishes of our diocese.
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News Release June 5, 2000
Episcopalians from 14 Counties
will Gather in Bethlehem
Annual Diocesan Convention meets Friday/Saturday, June 9/10
Some 300 Episcopalians from eastern and northeastern
Pennsylvania will gather at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity
(3rd and Wyandotte streets, Bethlehem) on Friday and Saturday, June
9/10, for the 129th annual Convention of the Diocese of Bethlehem.
(See schedule below.)
Clergy and lay delegates from 68 congregations
will celebrate Eucharist, hear an address and a sermon by Bethlehem
Bishop Paul V. Marshall, and discuss the vision and mission and
proposed budget of the diocesan community for the year 2001.
The public is invited to observe any sessions of
the convention and are especially welcome at the Convention Eucharist
on Saturday at 9:00 a.m.
Bishop Marshall will deliver his address to convention
during the Friday afternoon business session and preach at the Saturday
morning Eucharist. (Approximate time for the Friday afternoon address
is 2:15.) Many people beyond the Episcopal Church have quickly gotten
to know him through his monthly column published by six daily newspapers
in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The diocesan World Mission Committee will make
a presentation and conduct a hearing in the church on Friday at
3 pm on how the diocesan community might relate to the suffering
people in Africa, specifically in southern Sudan and in Swaziland.
The committee will present a resolution to "establish a companion
relationship between the Diocese of Bethlehem and the Diocese of
Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, whose leaders and
many parishioners are now in exile in Uganda..."
At Evensong on Friday, 5 pm, two persons from Grace
Church, Allentown, the first two to have completed the requirements
of the Leadership Program for Musicians Serving Small Congregations,
will be awarded the Presiding Bishop's Diploma in Church Music.
The program is a two-year course designed to train and enable church
musicians to increase their liturgical, pastoral and leadership
skills and to give support and spiritual formation for music ministry.
CONVENTION SCHEDULE
Friday, June 9
11:00 to 4:00 Registration
1:00 Business Session
2:15 Convention Address, Bishop Paul Marshall
3:00 Hearings
4:30 Preparation for Evensong
5:00 Evensong
6:30 Social Hour, Holiday Inn, Bethlehem
7:30 Dinner, Holiday Inn, Bethlehem
Saturday, June 10
9:00 Convention Eucharist, Sermon, Bishop Paul
Marshall
11:00 Business Session
12:00 Noonday Prayers
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Business Session
BACKGROUND The Diocese of Bethlehem includes some
18,000 communicants in 68 churches in a 14-county area of eastern
and northeastern PA. The diocesan community has been actively involved
in the development of ministries with children, with the poor, the
marginalized and the oppressed, and in enabling lay people to claim
the call to ministry that is theirs by reason of their baptism.
Bethlehem is one of 100 dioceses of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A.
The Episcopal Church, in turn, is one of 38 self-governing
(national) churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion of some
70 million people in 164 countries. Once commonly used as a synonym
for English, Anglican has come to mean a certain way of understanding
and living out the Christian Gospel. Anglican spirituality is driven
by the conviction that God has spoken uniquely through Jesus Christ
and continues to speak within a faith community through the interplay
and creative tension of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience
as lived out within cultures and faith communities.
The largest congregation of the Diocese of Bethlehem,
the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in the city of Bethlehem, includes
more than 1,000 baptized members. The smallest, Trinity/St. Phillip's,
Lansford, numbers 20. Fourteen congregations list more than 500
baptized members each. Another 23 congregations include between
200 and 500 members each. The remaining 31 congregations each list
fewer than 200.
The link among congregations as well as their link
with the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion is
symbolized in the ministry of the bishop who is also a historical
link with the first-century church of the Apostles.
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