| News from
The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, Bill
Lewellis, Editor |
Founder
of Montessori School at Grace, Allentown,
to Present Program at National Conference
Diocesan Life, April 2001
Cathy Constantin, founding director of the Montessori
School at Grace Church, Allentown, will attend the National Episcopal
Children's Advocacy Conference, April 20-22 in Washington, D.C.,
where she has been asked to give a presentation on the Catechesis
of the Good Shepherd and the Grace Montessori School as a model
for church-based outreach programs for young children.
The Montessori School at Grace Church will be entering
its tenth year of existence in September. Cathy and the Grace Church
community began the program with the intent that it might be made
available to inner city children who were coming to the Food Bank
with their parents and who might not otherwise have an opportunity
for a Montessori based experience. It has grown from serving six
to some 60 children. About one-third of the children have consistently
been on some kind of scholarship.
Constantin and Montessori board president Jessie
Bucchin will be the guests on Service Electric's 30-minute show,
Focus on Faith. They will tape the show at the TV-2 studio on Friday,
March 23, at noon. It will air on Monday, March 26, at 6 pm on Service
Electric's TV-2 in the Lehigh Valley. Some other Service Electric
systems play this on TV-13. And the Blue Ridge Cable also plays
it on their TV-13. Only Service Electric and Blue Ridge subscribers
are able to see this show.
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New Missioner for Children and Child
Advocacy
Diocesan Life, April 2001
The Rev. Debra J. Kissinger has been called to
serve as missioner for children and child advocacy, effective May
1. Funding for the creation of this new full-time diocesan staff
position has been provided by the Talbot
Hall Fund.
Roles and responsibilities of the new missioner
include coordinating diocesan support of Christian Education, programming
and advocacy for the well being of children, providing staff support
for and working with appropriate committees and consultants as staff
liaison, providing staff support for diocesan participation in provincial
and national networks, working with congregations, coalitions, agencies
and ecumenical partners in advocacy for and development of programs,
services and ministries related to The Children's Charter, and advancing
the identity and mission of the Talbot Hall Fund for ministry to
children.
A few years ago, the Diocese of Bethlehem was one
of a few dioceses asked by the Episcopal Church to develop a broad-based
children's ministry that might be recommended to all dioceses of
our church. The Children's Charter for the Church was one of the
fruits of that consultation.
Ordained a priest in 1992, Kissinger has served
in parish ministry in New York, Connecticut and Ohio, most recently
as rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Willoughby, Ohio. She has undergraduate
degrees in business administration (Penn State University, 1981)
and sociology (LaSalle University, Philadelphia, 1988), and a master
of divinity/certificate in Anglican studies (Yale, Berkeley Divinity
School, 1992).
She and her husband, The Rev. Edward L. Schultz,
an interim ministry specialist, and Emma-Li, their three-year-old
Chinese daughter, will live in the Egypt section of Whitehall Township.
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Congregations
and Clergy
Diocesan Life, April 2001
Allentown, Grace Church
Bishop Paul Marshall granted the request of the vestry of Grace
Church, Allentown, with the agreement of the diocesan Standing Committee,
that the pastoral relationship between Grace Church and its rector,
The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley, be dissolved, effective February 28.
Kingston, Grace Church
Grace Church, Kingston, has called The Rev. Cynthia Spencer
to serve as rector. Ordained a priest in 1991, she has served in
parish ministry at St. John's Church, Kane, PA, St. Joseph's Church,
Milpitas, CA, St. James Church, Paso Robles, CA, and St. Paul's
Church, Cambria, CA. She received a BA from the University of Minnesota
(1965), an MBA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco (1986)
and an MDiv from The General Theological Seminary in New York City.
Kutztown, St. Barnabas Church
The Rev. Daniel W. Hinkle has resigned as rector of St. Barnabas
Church, Kutztown. He currently serves a Lutheran congregation.
West Pittston, Trinity Church
Trinity Church, West Pittston, has called The Rev. John Major
to serve as rector. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1987, he
served congregations in Hazleton, Scranton and Pittston. He resigned
from RC ministry in 1996 and has been working at the United Neighborhood
Centers of Lackawanna County in program development, grant writing,
public relations and human resource relations. He received a BA
from Mansfield University and an MDiv from Christ the King Seminary,
East Aurora, NY. He served as a diocesan intern at St. Clement's/St.
Peter's, Wilkes-Barre, and was received into the Episcopal Church
as a priest in 1999. He and his wife, Sandra, live in West Pittston.
The Rev. Edward L. Schultz
The Rev. Edward L. Schultz, an interim ministry specialist,
will soon move into the Diocese of Bethlehem. Ordained in 1973,
he has served congregations in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut
and Ohio. He is the husband of The Rev. Debra Kissinger who has
been called to serve on diocesan staff as missioner for children
and child advocacy.
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Films and Videos
A Cloud of Witnesses at Eucharist
By R. Jane Williams
Diocesan Life, April 2001
After 40+ days of Lent, we find ourselves looking
forward to the end of grey and purple and ready to celebrate with
the Son's rising on Easter day. But we can't skip over the last
weeks before Easter without missing an essential part of the experience.
One way of keeping the impact of the Lenten journey and Holy Week
in perspective is via the use of film.
One of my favorite films, Places in the
Heart, readily available on video, tells a story of loss, suffering,
transformation, and triumph in a most moving way.
The film opens with shots of dinner tables surrounded
by a variety of families in a small southern town in the 1930's.
At one table is seated the young town sheriff, the sheriff's wife,
Edna, and their two young children, Frank and Possum.
The sheriff is called from his table to calm a
drunken black teenager who is creating some disruption down at the
town railroad station. We see the sheriff, obviously known and respected
by the teenager, appeal to him to put down his gun. We think he
is going to do that when the gun suddenly goes off, and the sheriff
falls, fatally shot. The teenager, horrified, is dragged by onlookers
to a tree to be hanged.
Then begins Edna's family's journey to their Jerusalem.
No insurance, no savings, only a mortgage. Can a widow with no resources
survive? The local banker, whom one would suppose would help in
such instances, sees only the possibility of foreclosure and profit.
Other passersby ogle the farm, trying to figure what it will be
sold for.
Only Edna believes she can save her children's
home.
We watch as one difficulty after another threatens
to drown her hopes, and then marvel as strangers who initially appear
to be liabilities are transformed into assets too precious to remain
strangers. We watch as those who were trusted, abuse that trust
and betray those closest to them.
We watch as hands used to washing dishes become
bloody and gashed from work. We watch as a blind man is able to
see into the hearts of those who care for him and trust that care.
We watch as a black man wins respect for an intelligence he was
never allowed to use - but with a brutal cost.
We travel with Edna through her journey and wonder,
really, if there will be an Easter for her. In a climactic final
scene, we find out.
Places in the Heart teaches us what it means
to see Christ within others, what it means to see Christ in the
breaking of bread together, and what it means to say that we are
surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
The meal and the Meal become vehicles for grace
in a way that will leave you breathless.
Watch Places in the Heart and as you await
your first Eucharist of Easter, remember other memorable experiences
you have had with Eucharist. How can each meal you eat connect with
your experiences of Eucharist? Who are among the "cloud of witnesses"
present at your table and at each Eucharist?
Wayne and Margaret find transformation of their
relationship in the Eucharist. Do you wait for and hope for transformation
in your life this Easter at the Eucharist table? Whom do you need
to forgive? Be forgiven by?
We often think of Easter as "the end of the story."
Places in the Heart will let you know that Easter is just
the beginning. May your Holy Week and Easter be blessed, and just
the beginning of your new life in Christ.
[A licensed psychologist in private practice, The
Rev. R. Jane Williams, M.Div., Ph.D., is priest associate at Christ
Church, Reading.]
[Set in 1935 Waxahatchee, Texas, Places in the
Heart tells a story, not unlike the familiar tale of It's
A Wonderful Life, of the delicate balance one life can exert
upon so many others. Sally Field won Best Actress Oscar for this
1984 film. Robert Benton won an Oscar for his original screenplay].
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Crooked Crosses
and Other Losses
By Bill Lewellis
Diocesan Life, April 2001
When Matthew, 18, and Stephen, 16, were still
in their preschool years - preachers' kids should get some kind
of hazard pay - they watched their first Olympic Games on television,
and ran a few of their own track and field events in the house.
Matthew always won. Crossing the finish line, he would raise his
arms, as did the Olympic athletes, in the victory sign and shout,
"I won. I won." Stephen thought celebrating was part of the ritual.
So, when he crossed the finish line behind Matthew, he too would
raise his arms and shout with joy, "I lost. I lost."
Nikos Kazantzakis tells a wonderful story about
the Orthodox priest, Father Makarios. "I hear you wrestle with the
devil," someone says to Makarios.
"No," he replies. "We've grown old together; we
know each other too well; I know all his tricks. Wrestling with
the devil has gotten too easy.
I wrestle with God."
"You wrestle with God, Father Makarios? And you
hope to win?"
"No," he replies, "I hope to lose."
During my early 30's, after I had celebrated Eucharist
in a convent with a small group of Roman Catholic nuns, one the
very old sisters, Sister Mara (the cook sister), proudly showed
me the beautifully designed altar hanging the sisters had made for
Lent.
Words had been sewn around the edges: "If we die
with the Lord, we shall live with the Lord."
Stylized crosses had been sewn into the center
of the cloth. Sister Mara didn't call them stylized crosses. She
called them crooked crosses.
She asked me if I knew why the crosses were crooked.
She was eager to tell me.
"They are crooked," she said with a heavy German
accent, "because our crosses don't always come out the way we want
them to."
If you need more details, I suppose you know people
you can ask. Read your local newspaper almost any day and you will
find someone to ask. Of course, you may not need to ask anyone.
You may know about crooked crosses.
Jesus knew about crooked crosses. When he heard
God's call at the River Jordan that he was "God's beloved," he knew
there was more here than the ear first hears. For a Jew who was
familiar with his scriptures, to hear those words was to hear much
more.
Jesus didn't miss the connection. Luke tells us
that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and
was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.
Jesus struggled with the undertone from the Book
of Isaiah that "God's beloved" would suffer. He struggled in his
human heart and mind and consciousness with the prospect of a crooked
cross.
In the wilderness, Jesus wrestled with God. Isn't
there an easier way? "Surely, J, there's a better way," the devil
said. "If you really are God's beloved, would God treat you this
way? May I suggest a miracle, some magic, some smoke and mirrors?"
In the wilderness, Jesus wrestled with God about
what it might mean to be God's beloved, God's suffering servant.
Jesus lost.
Do you remember the last line of Luke's story about
this struggle? "When the devil had finished every test, he departed
from him until an opportune time."
There would be another time. Another. Perhaps another.
The devil would again present a better plan that included no crooked
cross.
Once again, in the wilderness, Jesus would wrestle
with God.
Once upon a time, a seeker sought an authentic
religion. He found a people known for the goodness of their lives
and the singleness of their hearts.
"I see everything you do and I'm impressed," he
said. "Before I become your disciple, however, I have a question:
Does your God work miracles?"
"Well," the disciple said to the seeker, "it all
depends on what you mean by a miracle. Some people call it a miracle
when God does the will of people. We call it a miracle when people
do the will of God."
[The Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis has been communication
minister for the Diocese of Bethlehem since 1986.]
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St. Nicholas
Episcopal Church Welcomes You
The Rev. William S. Marshall, left, vicar
of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Womelsdorf, helps to hold the
sign being installed at the new church office at 40 North Front
Street. Because the office is a former shoe repair shop, people
still drop by occasionally to ask about repairing their soles, only
to find... St. Nicholas is the newest mission of our diocesan community.
Services are held in the chapel of Bethany Children’s Home. Womelsdorf
is situated midway between Reading and Lebanon. Dave Binner, right,
owner of Brown Sign Service, Richland, designed and installed the
sign. (Photo by the West Berks Crier)
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Trinity Institute
- May 3-4
Who are we? What does it mean to be human?
A first look from Bill Lewellis
This year's Trinity Institute, scheduled for Thursday/Friday,
May 3-4, will focus on questions such as what it means to be human,
how we are different from others creatures, and how we are unique.
For centuries we have been taught that our cognitive
capacities are our most distinctive feature. Now scientific inquiry
is revealing another side of human nature that is surprisingly similar
to the scriptural concept of imago dei. Recent research in neuroscience,
cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence and social construction
disclose a human creature, many of whose defining characteristics
are profoundly relational. Trinity Institute has assembled a team
of scholars who will analyze this fascinating new understanding
of human being and explore its implications for our individual spiritual
journeys.
Sayre Hall at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity,
Bethlehem, will be a
satellite downlink site. Please let me know, by e-mail,
if you intend to attend at the downlink site.
I intend to talk also with the folks at Service Electric Cable to
see if
they might catch the signal and broadcast the talks on one of their
local
cable channels. They've done this before for us, but that has usually
been
for two to three-hour teleconferences. A two-day event will test
both their
good will and my salesmanship.
THURSDAY, MAY 3
8:00 am - Network Testing
9:30 - 10:45 am
COLIN GUNTON, professor of Systematic Theology at Kings college,
London. He has written a ground breaking book on the Trinity called
"The One, The Three and The Many" and is soon to publish a sequel,
"From the Dust of the Earth," that explores the relational nature
of being, both divine and human.
10:45 - 11:15 am: Break
11:15 - 12:30
WARREN BROWN, director of the research Institute for Cognitive
Neuropsychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in California and
adjunct
professor at the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Brown has discovered
that
many of the cognitive faculties unique to human beings are relational
in
nature.
12:30 - 2:30: Lunch
2:30 - 3:45 pm
ANNE FOERST, a research scientist at MITs Artificial Intelligence
Lab and theological advisor to MITs Cog and Kismet robot projects.
Her research centers on questions of embodiment and social interaction
as central elements of personhood. She is working on a book entitled,
"On Robots, Humans and God."
FRIDAY, MAY 4
8:30 am - Network Testing
9:30 - 10:45 am
WILLIAM HURLBUT, a physician and lecturer for the Program in Human
Biology at Stanford University where he teaches a course on Changing
Images of Human Lives in The Biotechnical Age. Hurlbut's recent
publications focus on empathy as the relational attribute that distinguishes
human beings.
10:45 - 11:15 am - Break
11:15 am - 12:30 pm
KENNETH GERGEN, Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College.
He is best known for his widely acclaimed book, "The Saturated Self."
The proponent of a reform movement in psychology called social construction,
Gergen maintains that relationships shape human beings.
Visit http://www.ectn.org/
to see photos of the presenters and to discover how to
view the conference on the Internet.
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Parish Nursing
I Am Not a Nurse
By Linda Lobach Gallagher
[If you are a nurse who might consider serving
your parish or would like more information in order to make that
determination, please call Diana Marshall ast 610-807-9281 or email
her at dmarsh@fast.net. Workshop #10 at the Diocesan Training Day
will address parish nursing.]
Bishop Paul holds a vision that every congregation
have access to a Health Advocacy Team that will provide a wholistic
health ministry for all of us as well as other people in our neighborhoods.
I was invited to work with the Health Advocacy
Committee that has formed to explore the possibilities of this vision.
Through my ministry at AIDS Outreach, I have provided supportive
services for over 900 persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families.
I am familiar with health care issues and concerns. For the past
two years I have met with an inter-disciplinary group of professionals
to study the implications and impact of managed care on low-income
populations. I am also quick to say that I am not a nurse.
I found myself at the table surrounded by nurses.
Committee chair Diana Marshall, a nurse and attorney, placed several
books on the table and asked that we choose one to read and review.
I chose a book designed for lay people that is published by Augsburg
Fortress called The Parish Nurse: Providing a Minister of Health
for Your Congregation, by Granger E. Westberg with Jill Westberg
McNamara.
This 140-page paperback contains a wealth of information
I found helpful in understanding the role of a Parish Nurse. The
book explained:
Why a Parish Nurse Program?
1. Scientific medicine, aware of its limitations,
is looking for assistance in preventive medicine, in health education,
and in helping to motivate people to care for their own health.
2. There is a great interest in health and whole-person
theology. The media bombards us daily with stories of nutrition,
stress management, self-care, exercise, and preventive medicine.
3. Care for all God’s people is a part of the church’s
mission, of its understanding of the Christian gospel. We are talking
here about care for the whole person—body, mind, and spirit.
4. The church is sorely needed to help motivate
people to put body, mind, and spirit together, and to convince them
that the integration of all three can lead to true health and wholeness.
The Parish Nurse project is the creation of lay people and clergy
who are determined to follow Christ’s command to heal as well as
to teach and preach.
What Can A Parish Nurse Do?
1. Parish nurses can serve as health educators,
planning and organizing seminars, workshops, and classes on a wide
range of health and wellness topics.
2. Parish nurses can also be personal health counselors,
meeting with church members to talk over health problems and questions.
3. Parish nurses can be teachers of volunteers,
identifying and training lay people to serve as visitors, leaders
of programs, and volunteers in a variety of capacities.
4. Parish nurses can serve as liaisons with community
health organizations, acting as gatekeepers, opening doors to many
types of health care for those needing such care.
5. Most importantly, parish nurses can clarify
the close relationship between faith and health, talking with parishioners
about the deeper issues of life related to their health.
The book also explains that the steps to developing
a Parish Nurse Program include learning all you can, involving your
parish priest, congregation, forming a health advocacy team, selecting
a parish nurse, and providing continuing education for all.
This book tells us: “The health advocacy team is
vital to this project. In Western society our thinking is often
disease oriented, with health defined as the absence of disease.
This negative approach stresses fear and moving away from illness,
rather than a reaching out to good health. Even preventive medicine
is often accepted out of a sense of fear. Too often we take care
of ourselves more out of a wish to avoid illness than out of a desire
to maintain good health. Good health is not an end in itself, but
rather it is an enabler. It gives us the energy and vitality to
serve and love others, and thus good health is seen in the context
of purpose.”
The book concludes with a quote from theologian
Krister Stendahl: “God’s agenda is the mending of creation... Mending
is an expression for God’s total love toward suffering humanity,
of which healing is one aspect. We can say that God’s healing light,
which was revealed by Jesus Christ, has always been in the world,
an indication of God’s life-giving and sustaining concern.”
I am not a nurse; but I want to learn all I can
about Parish Nursing. I want to participate in all activities that
will bring health and wellness not only to me but to all those I
love. As Christians, let us help one another to reclaim our message
of healing.
[Junior Warden at Grace Church, Allentown, Linda
Lobach Gallagher is founding director of AIDS Outreach.]
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Movies Can Change Lives
By R. Jane Williams
Diocesan Life, March 2001
[Dramatic events in a small French town depict
the titanic struggle between moral authoritarianism and -- chocolate.
The arrival of a talented confectionery asrtist reawakens innocent
sensuality and stimulates a civil rebellion.]
Though it was a generation ago, I remember coming
out of a movie theatre at 14, feeling so different from when I had
entered. It was the time of race riots in Watts and Philadelphia.
I had gone to see West Side Story as a music class requirement.
At a time when racial and ethnic slurs were seen
as vulgar words but not necessarily untrue descriptions, West
Side Story transported me into an experience of the common humanity
I shared with those of another ethnic group. I became part of the
story as I watched.
That movie changed the way I felt and acted in
the world; consequently, it changed my life.
Movies have the power to change lives through the
medium of the stories they tell.
Human beings have always told stories... to remember,
to entertain, to instruct, to connect. Through stories — parables
— Jesus shared his message and insights more powerfully than was
possible with direct statements.
Today’s stories are told, more often than not,
on the movie screen. Films have become the common language of our
culture, with the capacity to bridge generations, genders, lifestyles,
and even languages by offering a common language of story and image.
Some films, of course, are like profanity — outbursts
of violence or inhumanity without meaning or purpose. But many provide
stories that take human concerns seriously and evoke divinity and
true humanity. It is these films that offer parishes opportunities
to create bridges between the sanctuary and the street, between
the usual Sunday message and the concerns of Monday morning.
Often, traditional attempts to make Christian faith
relevant to life in the 21st century fall flat, offering canned
answers to questions that many are not asking.
Films create a way for disparate groups to think,
listen, and dialogue together. Films have the power to help us listen
more closely to each other’s lives and experiences as we place ourselves
within the stories and experiences we are watching together.
How might you use film in your parish? This column
will offer a variety of resources and examples over the coming months,
of ways to use film as a lens to perceive God’s surprising presence
in the world and in our lives via story and image.
For this month, see Chocolat (PG-13).
The parable (the ads say, “fable”) helps us experience the difference
between being good and being pious. Set in a small French village
in the 1950’s, a free-spirited woman arrives during Lent and opens
a chocolate shop through which she brings life and vitality to a
repressive and stultifying town. The very religious head of the
village, the Comte de Reynoud, takes it as his duty to protect the
pious village folk from temptation and begins a battle to evict
the “sinful” shopkeeper, Viane, from town.
As you view this film, ask yourself how it portrays
the value of fasting? of pleasure? the life of the “religious” person?
of persons not overtly “religious?”
What value does the film place on relationships?
What are the attitudes of the Comte toward relationships? Viane?
Josephine?
In what different ways does healing occur?
How does the priest’s Easter sermon reflect (or
oppose) your understanding of Jesus’ message?
Chocolat may well change your way of observing
Lent. Like any good film, it may change your life.
[A licensed psychologist in private practice, The
Rev. R. Jane Williams, M.Div., Ph.D., is priest associate at Christ
Church, Reading.]
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Diocese of Bethlehem
Priest Named Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow
Diocesan Life, March 2001
The Rev. James Turrell has been named
an Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow. This is a prestigious award
whereby the Foundation encourages emerging scholars to offer their
talents and gifts to the whole church.
Fellowship awards of $10,000 are granted for one
year only but may be renewed for a second and third year upon evidence
of satisfactory progress. Normally, only four Fellows are named
in a given year.
Ordained in 1996, Turrell studied at Yale Divinity
School while Bishop Paul was a professor there and, for the past
few years, has been doing graduate studies in the History Department
of Vanderbilt University. He was a summa cum laude graduate at Yale.
Prior to ordination he had been a member at St.
Peter’s Church, Tunkhannock, and worked as a newspaper photographer.
The purpose of the Foundation’s fellowship program,
according to its web site, is "to build the learned leadership of
the church by providing doctoral fellowships to outstanding seminary
graduates planning teaching careers in theological education in
the Episcopal Church in the United States.
"Nominees are expected to demonstrate interest
and competence as a teacher, a clear vision of their vocational
objectives, competence in their field of study, and an ability to
offer these gifts to the church with a reasonable expectation that
they will be used, at a minimum, for twenty years.
"Becoming a Fellow of the Episcopal Church Foundation
entails more than just receiving vital financial support. It involves
becoming part of a community of scholars who assume responsibility
for promoting a rich and faithful intellectual life in the Episcopal
Church and who understand the pastoral dimension of the theological
enterprise."
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John Hus Award
Moravian Seminary Honors Robyn Szoke
Moravian Theological Seminary chose The
Rev. Robyn Szoke to receive its 2001 John Hus Award.
Ordained an Episcopal priest in 1989, Robyn currently
serves the Episcopal Church USA as staff officer for Children’s
Ministry and Christian Education from an office at the Episcopal
Church Center in New York City. She serves as a consultant and resource
person for Episcopal dioceses and congregations throughout the United
States.
She served in three congregations in the Diocese
of Bethlehem. At Trinity Church, Pottsville, she helped create a
Christian eduction outreach ministry to families that was profiled
in the video, Every Child Is a Blessing. She was also instrumental
in introducing the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, to several congregations
here.
In 1995 she was called to serve as Assistant to
the Bishop for Christian Formation and Director of the Christian
Education Resource Center in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Robyn grew up in the Lehigh Valley. She received
a Master of Divinity degree from Moravian Theological Seminary,
Bethlehem, and a Master of Sacred Theology degree from General Theological
Seminary in New York City.
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Beginning in May, 2001
St. Margaret's Offers Catechesis of the
Good Shepherd Training
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Emmaus is pleased
offer a training course for Level II (6-9) of the Catechesis of
the Good Shepherd program. Tentative dates for Part I of the training
are:
5-12-01 (Saturday 9-4:30)
5-26-01 (Saturday 9-4:30)
6-8-01 (Friday evening 7:00-9:30)
6-9-01 (Saturday 9-4:30)
7-9-01 (Monday 9-4:30)
7-10-01 (Tuesday 9-4:30)
7-11-01 (Wednesday 9-4:30)
Free daycare is available.
If you are interested in attending and find that
you have a conflict with one or two of these please contact us to
inquire further, as there is some flexibility in the dates.
Part II of the training will be held starting in
September, 2001 and will meet once a month on a Saturday for 5 or
6 more sessions. Dates will be chosen by group consensus so there
are no conflicts.
Individuals may take the course as either:
1. Participants preparing to become accredited catechists in an
atrium, or anyone interested in both the theory and practice of
the 6-9 atrium. The course is 90 hours of training. OR
2. Auditors--interested parents, pastors, teachers, or religious
education directors who will attend the lecture and presentation
of materials only. Auditing is 45 hours of training (auditors attend
half days of the training dates).
Cost for the full training is $475.00. The cost
for auditing is $275.00. If anyone is in need of financial assistance,
consider inquiring if your church has an budget to cover educational
training or call us to get information about limited scholarship
opportunities that are available.
To sign-up or to obtain further information, contact:
Debra Schlosser 610-966-2240 dschloss@ptdprolog.net
++++
Below is a description of the Catechesis program
written by The Rev. Robert J. Gaestel:
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a new way
of Christian education that presents the most important realities
of the Christian faith to the youngest members of the Church. This
manner of Christian education assumes that young children have religious
potential. That is, God having already made himself present to them
in their deepest being, they are capable of developing both a conscious
and intimate relationship with God. They only need the guidance
and vocabulary to enable them to become aware of their relationship
with God and give expression to it.
This is done by means of two things, a prepared
environment, and a trained catechist whose sources are Scripture
and Liturgy. The prepared environment contains materials that are
models of things used in the Church's worship such as altar, Eucharist,
baptism, liturgical colors, etc. The environment also contains materials
relating to the proclamation of the faith such as parables, prophecies,
geography of Israel, and the life of Christ. These are manipulatives
for use by both the catechist and the child. The trained catechist
makes presentations to the child using the materials. These presentations
are chosen to convey the essentials of the faith in a manner appropriate
to the child's development. The child is then invited to internalize
and respond to the presentation by working with the materials themselves.
The catechist does not give answers or impart information. The catechist
presents the reality, and asks questions. The catechist assists
in the child's own discovery of the meaning. The motto of CGS is
"Help me fall in love with God by myself."
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Eleven from St. Margaret's, Emmaus
Volunteers from Diocesan Community will
Build Homes in Honduras
A group of volunteers from our diocesan community
will travel to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to build homes with Honduran
families who lost their homes two years ago in Hurricane Mitch.
Eleven workers from St. Margaret’s, Emmaus will be joined by one
from the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem and one from
Trinity Church, Easton.
Please pray for Mike Allen, Tony Voros, Bill Roberts,
Shirley Roberts, Lexa Shallcross, Mac West, Sally West, Ross West,
Brookie Bunn and Harold Locke, Kelly Smith, Bob Wells and Ruth Wells.
The group will leave on March 4 and return on March
10. Please keep these people in your prayers.
Some 140 homes, a health center and a community
church have been constructed through this ongoing project sponsored
by Episcopal Relief and Development (ER-D) formerly the Presiding
Bishop’s Fund for World Relief. The project is called Faith, Hope
and Joy.
Parishes and individuals throughout our diocese
have generously supported the project. A contribution of $3,100
buys materials to construct a two-bedroom home.
The vestry, wardens and rector of St. Margaret’s
Church committed $3,100 to build one house in Honduras.
A feature article in USA Today, Nov. 7, saluted
the ERD project as a success in contrast to many unfulfilled promises
of relief. The head of Honduras’ federal disaster relief effort
described the ERD project as “one of the best.” A church social
worker said we are "constructing lives, not just constructing houses."
For information or questions on trips to Honduras
and other information about Episcopal Relief and Development, please
call Laura and Carl Chegwidden, ERD Diocesan Coordinators at (610)
398-1473.
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