I’ve been thinking about summer camp. My earliest memories of camp are as a toddler. My grandmother directed the local Girl Scout day camp; I recall being on the beach at Lake Quannapowitt as campers prepared for their swimming lessons and have brief images in my mind of the inside of the cabin at Camp Sanders as well as the road leading to the camp from a local park. My camping days continued as I progressed through day camp, overnight camp, and later served as camp counselor, swimming instructor, and eventually camp director.
Camp helped form me. To this day, I have strong affection for many of my camp friends (some of whom I am still in touch with) and also, strong affection for the many women who served as camp counselors. While I don’t remember many of their names, I do remember the skills they taught me and the way they made me feel: strong, confident, loved.
Continue reading...
I am writing from New Orleans where I am chaperoning a youth mission trip through the Beacon of Hope program founded by St. Paul’s, New Orleans. It is my fourth trip to the city to help rebuild after Katrina. Once again this incredible, tragic, brilliant city has captured the hearts of our young people.
There is no place on earth like New Orleans. Its people are more rooted in place than most anywhere else in America. That is yet one more reason this hellish storm that uprooted so many has left such painful scars.
On this trip we have heard the stories of Glenda, Pastor Kornen, and Sheila who each spent years away before returning home. All three are now back, Glenda and Sheila into their familiar neighborhoods and the pastor back to his hand-built church. But six years later their lives are not yet their own.
Continue reading...
Two Fridays ago, I found myself walking through the doors of an Episcopal Church to attend a Shabbat service with friends.
Let me clarify...
Two friends recently invited me to attend a Shabbat service at their synagogue
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST). CBST worships in at least two different locations in New York City, but their main Shabbat service takes place inside the same Episcopal Church where they first began gathering in 1973, in the
Church of the Holy Apostles.
In short, the service was stunningly beautiful. Coming off a particularly hectic workweek, I found myself deeply moved by Rabbi Kleinbaum’s prayer that we fully welcome the joys of the Sabbath into our lives. While there, I also observed two things which I hope will be of interest of ECF Vital Practices readers. The first has to do with Holy Apostles' use of space while the second touches on CBST's slow & steady work of finding a permanent place to worship.
Continue reading here...
Our vestry voted last night to accept Bishop Rickel’s offer to take over operations at the former St. George’s Episcopal Church in the Lake City neighborhood of Seattle. Here we go.
The mission is daunting. We start from zero in a neighborhood new to us in a fairly broken-down old building. Our assignment from the bishop is to maintain the former church’s heart for the poor and to engage young adults as ministry leaders in the new mission work.
I have done hunger and homelessness ministry for 30 years and it is never as easy as just feeding people. Neighborhood dynamics can be brutal when a church opens its doors to the poor. Naïve ministers can establish programs that exacerbate rather than address the problem. And no one already involved in a neighborhood’s response to poverty immediately trusts the new kid on the block, especially when the opening line is, “We are the Church and we are here to help.”
Continue reading...
If you're like most churches, then spending $2,000 for a new website can seem like a lot of money ... and it is.
But as you know, more and more consumers are researching online the products they buy offline before they ever head to a store.
"Church shopping" works the same way.
In fact, our research shows that potential newcomers are using your church’s website as a filter and that churches with old or “crummy” (their word – not mine!) sites are getting passed by.
Every once in a while, I come across a book that knocks the wind out of me. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn’s Half the Sky is one such book.
On the one hand, Half the Sky is a devastating account of global sex trafficking and forced prostitution, honor killings, and mass rape. On the other hand, it’s about hope: stories of individual women, communities, and organizations who are making a profound difference in the world. (I recommend it highly, though you should prepare to be changed.)
I read this book because an Episcopal congregation recommended it. While attending a Sunday service last summer, I noted that Half the Sky was listed in the parish announcements as the congregation’s book club selection for that month. Little do they know how deeply this book affected me, or that the stories continue to work on me many months later.
Continue reading here...
Do you remember the Pentecost story? I'll admit that at the beginning of this week, I had to look it up. If it wasn’t for Facebook and the various online theological resources I subscribe to, Pentecost wouldn’t make the list of things I would think about this week.
Checking Facebook this morning, I found a post by Tom Brackett, “Pentecost -- what we're really all about (or wish we were)!” with a link to "It's Pentecost."
Continue reading...
“Heaven, oh heaven….” I close my eyes and hear in my mind the smooth style and soul filled music of Duke Ellington.
My first encounter with Ellington’s “Sacred Concerts” songs came during Sunday worship, when Caroline, a parishioner with a stunning soprano voice, sang during communion with Janet, our music director, at the piano. Those couple of pieces, including “Heaven” and “Praise God and Dance” (based on Psalm 150) overwhelmed my senses. It was divine, really.
I tracked down copies of the recordings and sheet music of these unique concerts that Ellington created and performed from 1965 – 1973 at three of our Episcopal/Anglican landmarks: Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, St. John the Divine in New York City, and Westminster Abby in London. To this day I’m captivated by Ellington’s music and theological interpretations, often finding myself singing these tunes as I ride the train or walk the streets of New York.
One of the powerful realities of art: it sticks with us. It stirs us and can spur us to further imagination and creativity.
A few weeks ago I was stopped in my tracks – literally – by images of heaven. Here’s what I saw:
Continue...
I had lunch with Brian Sellers-Petersen of Episcopal Relief and Development and heard about ERD’s Abundant Life Garden Project. We are adapting that program along with the RENEW curriculum from the Lutheran Church for our Back to the Garden: Renewing God’s Earth Vacation Bible School this summer. The key to the whole thing is that we have a church garden.
How about you? Anything growing on your sacred plot of land? Nearly any church could reserve a small portion of their grounds for a demonstration garden that will kick some fresh produce into the food stream for their local foodbank. Setting aside such a space can be an important source of awareness of the hunger issues locally and around the world.
Continue reading...
When I saw Ephraim taking pictures of Ms. Scott, my heart just melted,” said Lisa, the organizer of my congregation’s second annual “Ginormous Flea Market.” We were standing by a tree in the small garden watching a neighborhood boy run the “Photo Booth.” Ms. Scott was an active parish leader in her day, but now shows up to church with her walker, home health aide, and a smile. Seeing her on the garden bench getting her portrait taken by Ephraim was a precious sight.
Running the photo booth was supposed to be my volunteer role for the day, but I couldn’t resist handing over the camera, printer, and money jar to a curious, eager kid who happened to show up on Saturday. We’d never met before, but Ephraim hung around by the craft tables for a while in the morning, asking lots of questions about how to make the beautiful paper bowls and recycled plastic tote bags. As I sat on the ground making a sign for the photo booth, he gave advice on design and shared his hope that mom would buy him a camera soon.
“Want to be my assistant photographer today?” I asked. “Sure!” he replied.
Continue reading...
Have you ever found yourself urgently needing cash assistance? Did you turn to your Episcopal Church?
Last week, I found myself wondering about the major forms of outreach ministries taking place in Episcopal congregations. After reviewing the
following report, I learned that the most prevalent form (89%) is cash assistance. Food pantries, soup kitchens, and home-bound services follow shortly after.
I must admit that I was surprised to learn that cash assistance is the most prevalent form. Although I’ve realized from time to time that the rector of my parish has provided monies to people in urgent need, as a lay person I’m largely shielded from the private conversations where people ask for financial help.
Since stumbling across this fact, I’ve done some basic online searches of what Episcopal congregations and dioceses are saying about this ministry.
Continue reading...
Each Eastertide I try to inject some fun and relaxation into the lives of parishioners. For the third year running, I will host “Joy Walks;” a four-mile trek around the glacial lake that gives our Green Lake neighborhood its name.
But the new big fun innovation for this year is “Lunch is on me.” Here is the blurb that ran in our newsletter, the Log:
A new Easter treat from Pete is “Lunch is on Me.” Pete is looking to meet you in your workplace and see your work setting then take you out for a free lunch near by. It is part of our year-long effort to honor the gifts each of us use in our daily lives. If lunch can’t work, Pete will meet you for coffee.
Continue reading...
Three months ago, I was awoken by the distant sound of a woman screaming for help. Shocked and partially asleep, I opened the window: where were those screams coming from? Fourteen floors above a busy Brooklyn neighborhood, it was impossible to tell. Soon I heard a chorus of dogs barking, and shortly thereafter, sirens. Within minutes, the sirens faded to silence and I found myself looking out the window, chilled, and wondering what had happened and who had been crying out for help.
So often, in cities and rural communities alike, we live more by the maxim of “Don’t talk to strangers” than “Love thy neighbor” – only to have the fragility of our communities exposed in moments like these.
How strong is the social fabric of your neighborhood? How can your Episcopal congregation help strengthen it? I’ve listed a few ideas and resources that I hope you will share with your congregational leadership, but I also hope you will share your own ideas in the section below.
Continue reading...
Maybe it was the lemon cake, but by the end of Friday’s dinner at
Julian House in Chicago the constant hand wringing about young adults and the future of the Episcopal Church seemed a distant memory. Where are young adults in the Episcopal Church? For a moment at least, eleven of us were seated around a dining room table eating delicious food and discussing the exciting new ways many young adults are partnering for peace, social justice, and discernment.
With
Peter Drucker’s insights in mind, here are two “unexpected successes” to consider when discussing the role of young adults in the Episcopal Church: Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s
Urban/Rural Pilgrimages and Episcopal Service Corps’
network of service internships. Both are growing, both are being led by and engage young adults, and both are equipping folks to go out and beyond the red doors in service, on behalf of social justice, and grounded in faith.
If you know of a young adult who might be interested in spending a week or a year exploring these issues, please share these opportunities with them.
Continue reading...
I say ‘yes.’
And so does Jennifer McNally. Her Episcopal Café post, “More Facebook for Lent!,” offers a well-reasoned and theologically sound alternative to ‘I’m giving up Facebook for Lent.’
Jennifer writes:
In the last year or so, my home church added our presence to Facebook. Church members joined in rapid succession and as a result I also gained new personal Facebook friends. These Facebook connections have brought much to our growth as a community. There is something about knowing someone only through Sunday morning worship that can be quite distancing. The older woman over there, the one in the matching pantsuit, carefully pressed, with pearls around her neck? I say hello to her every week, but I know I don’t have much in common with her. In fact, I know this so well, that I don’t make the time to engage in more than superficial conversation with her. Until Facebook. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I now know this woman and I both get stupidly excited on the nights Glee is on television. And we strike up a conversation about it one Sunday morning, which leads to coffee, which leads to the discovery that we also love the same books, and music, and guess what? A friendship is born. And the new mother over there? The one who always looks serene and put together? Thanks to Facebook, I know she was up all night with a sick baby, and I know I should offer to watch her daughter for an hour today so she can nap. Suddenly, I have made a small difference in someone’s life.”
Making a small difference in someone’s life. How huge is that?
Continue reading...
Roscoe doesn’t look like the rest of us.
Whatever word he had tattooed across his knuckles has faded into unrecognizable squiggles. His hair, though neatly combed, hangs over his ears, several months past a cut. He talks about Jesus and the end times quite a bit, sometimes a little more than this sedate Episcopal crowd knows how to handle.
Roscoe started coming to the Wednesday night Bible study after Christmas. He stays afterward for a recovery meeting.
Continue reading...
The Holy Spirit is a renewable resource. It’s been fueling Christian communities for over 2000 years, since the first great unleashing at Pentecost. Fossil fuels are not.
Although they’ve been fueling our modern society for about a hundred and fifty years, our consumption of them has skyrocketed in the last sixty. What took Creation millions of years to form we will use up in a few generations. We can’t replace them. A concern is growing that the global community has reached 'peak oil' – the point at which we’ve extracted the most we’ll ever get and hence begin a downward slope of production.
Most of us are familiar with the science and statistics of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide emissions, and the resulting pace of climate instability. Given current political struggles in the Middle East and the precarious situation of the nuclear reactor in Japan, news about energy insecurity is before us every day. If you’re anything like me, this can feel overwhelming to the point of despair and paralysis.
That’s why I’ve been excited to learn about Transition Towns, and I’ve been thinking about their relevance to our church communities.
Continue reading...
The question at our church is not who has a key to the building – but rather, who doesn’t?
We’ve joked that we can’t change the locks; we’d have to order enough keys for the entire town.
Our church facility is in constant use in its small, Midwestern county seat. Addiction recovery groups use it more than a dozen times each week, the Red Cross collects blood in the fellowship hall, gardening groups gather in the parlor, and Habitat for Humanity plans its next build in the music room.
Continue reading...
Our diocese just added a mobile phone app.
It’s not fancy – but it allows folks to have at their fingertips the key parts of our website: a news blog, upcoming events, directories of clergy and lay leaders, and a church finder with maps. We’re hoping to add the link to our Facebook page and Twitter accounts later this week.
I’m thrilled that we’re exploring the mobile arena. If we are going to attract new people and grow the church, then we need to communicate in ways people expect.
Continue reading...
When I think of food and the Episcopal Church, I believe we’re much more than just wine and cheese. Within just the past few months I’ve come across:
John Hornbeck’s work with Episcopal Community Services in the Dioceses of Kansas & West Missouri. As I noted in the
following post, Episcopal Community Services has made addressing domestic hunger their sole focus,
leading conversations on improving soup kitchens and food pantries in the Kansas City area.
Paul Clever of the Diocese of Southern Ohio whose farm work at the
Good Earth Farm is a new model of what Episcopal religious communities might look like in the 21 century.
The work of the
Community of the Holy Spirit at Bluestone Farm. While my colleague Anne Ditzler and I were immersed in putting together this website, we enjoyed their hospitality, homemade pizza, peppery preserves and wine. Amazing food from an inspiring community.
ECF Fellow Ellen Davis and Wendell Barry on Krista Tippett’s
Speaking of Faith. In this interview, Davis was drawing from her book
Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible.
Nancy Davidge’s concerns regarding
food deserts and the national campaign to address childhood obesity.
This doesn’t even begin to mention, of course, the many churches that are growing produce for soup kitchens and food pantries. Nor does it include many individuals like me whose faith & ethics shapes what we eat, what we don’t eat, and where we buy it.
Continue reading...
RSS Feed