Episcopal Life article from the Presiding Bishop featuring the Diocese of West Tennessee

[Episcopal Life] I've had several remarkable visits recently concerned with education and the Episcopal Church. I wrote in this column in February about the conversations going on in the Diocese of Mississippi around the role of Episcopalians in bringing justice to a functionally segregated educational system.

I visited the Diocese of Haiti late last fall and saw how that diocese serves 80,000 children and young people in elementary and secondary schools, a university, a music school (which started and maintains the only philharmonic orchestra in Haiti), a nursing school (graduating the first degreed nurses in the country this year) and vocational schools that focus on electronics, business, architectural design and mechanics.

The Diocese of Massachusetts participates in two remarkable schools that serve middle schoolers (fifth through eighth-graders), one just for girls (Esperanza Academy) and one (Epiphany) that serves 85 poor innercity children of color.

Epiphany recruits fifth-graders by lottery from the lowest-performing fifth of public-school students. Those incoming children test at second- or third-grade levels, but by the time they leave eighth grade, they are functioning at 10th-to 11th-grade levels. They do it by addressing the basic human dignity of students and their families in an intensive educational environment, 12 hours a day, five days a week, 11 months of the year.

I've just been in the Diocese of West Tennessee, where I learned about St. Mary's School and the Bridges youth center and visited Emmanuel Episcopal Center, all in Memphis. St. Mary's started in 1847 and today educates more than 800 girls, pre-K through high school, to high academic standards.

Emmanuel owes its roots to an African-American Episcopal Church of the same name, begun more than a century ago. Today, Emmanuel Center includes a worship space and a large gymnasium and serves more than 600 inner-city kids in focused after-school and summer programs. The main center is located in the middle of a public housing project and has grown from the only church that wasn't torn down when the project was built.

The center is 20 years old and continues to increase its service and effectiveness. Kids aged 5 to 19 participate, and in the last two years the center has seen 100 percent high school graduation rates for its seniors.

Last year, 80 percent of them went on to higher education. The Saturday afternoon we visited, the principal of the local elementary school turned up as well – many of her students participate, and they greeted her with open arms and hugs.

Bridges was begun by the Episcopal Church in the 1920s. Its primary focus today is leadership development in the areas of racial reconciliation, poverty, educational challenges and environmental advocacy. The center's building is the first "green" one in Memphis and has been constructed with several startling objectives, including that the building itself teach and that it be surprising.

One meeting room has an unusually shaped large table, built of all the different native woods of Tennessee and shaped so that no seat has an outsized claim to authority. The center's work continues to touch and transform thousands.

Why is education so foundational to our church? Certainly our worship depends on literacy, and early Anglican missionaries always worked to teach reading and writing so that converts would be able to read the Bible and prayer book.

That's only an outward sign, however, of a conviction that salvation includes the whole person. We believe that we serve God with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength.

We also believe that the whole community is the aim of our participation in God's reconciling mission – not just Episcopalians.

Bishop Catherine Roskam of New York and her team came to visit me recently to talk about All Our Children, a movement that seeks to enlist congregations and faith communities across this country to partner with local schools. Children – all of them – need the personal attention and love of adults. At the beginning of every school day at Epiphany School in Boston, the children have to look the director in the eye and shake his hand before they walk into the building. It's a reminder that each one is loved, has
dignity and will be expected to do the best of which she or he is capable.

A resolution concerning All Our Children likely will come to General Convention this summer. It's an invitation to put our baptismal covenant into action – to affirm the dignity of every young human being in the schools in our neighborhoods. Educators consider the involvement of unrelated adults to be an essential asset to children's development into effective and humane adults.

How can you and your congregation share the love of God with children, in a human form they can see and touch?

-- The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori is presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

From Episcopal Life Online

Lenten Series - Weeks 4 and 5 - The Episcopal Moment - Brian McLaren

Lenten Series - Weeks 4 and 5 - The Episcopal Moment - Brian McLaren


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Holy things for holy people

Episcopal Cafe recently posted this daily reading from St. Cyril of Jerusalem. It points to a part of the liturgy that we don't hear in our modern liturgical forms.

"After [the Lord’s Prayer] the Priest says, “Holy things to holy men.” (or holy things for holy people.) Holy are the gifts presented, having received the visitation of the Holy Ghost; holy are ye also, having been deemed worthy of the Holy Ghost; the holy things therefore correspond to the holy persons. Then ye say, “One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ.” For One is truly holy, by nature holy; we too are holy, but not by nature, only by participation, and discipline, and prayer." (read the rest here.)

This ancient announcement at the presentation of the gifts to the people, sometimes called the "Sancta Sanctis" is a portion of the Eucharistic liturgy that would be worth retention. In our modern Episcopal liturgy the Presider says, "The gifts of God for the people of God."

I have heard a priest or two over the years add a line from the Sancte Sanctis into the liturgy saying, "The gifts of God for the people of God: holy food for holy people." While I have serious reservations about adding an incomplete Sancta Sanctis, "holy things (food) for holy people," it is a potent reminder that God has made us holy. Holiness literally means "set apart." Our lives are set apart by God at our Baptisms, and God continues to set us apart as we receive Christ's body and blood, and live as Christ's body, the Church, in the world.

The Sancta Sanctis is utterly incomplete without the response of the people, “One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ.” While God has set us apart through grace in holy Baptism, holiness is not complete without our participation, discipline, and prayer. That's why we make baptismal promises, and disciplines by which we grow in faith. As Cyril so eloquently put it, "One is truly holy, by nature holy; we too are holy, but not by nature."

Gordon Lathrop's book Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology says it best, “Holy things for holy people,” sings the presider, summing up the history of the liturgy and condensing our own ritual attempts to say, in invitation and warning, something of the truth of God. “Neither we nor these things are holy,” sing the people. “God is holy by giving holiness away in the world. But these things and we are holy, by God’s great mercy, because of Jesus, because by his promise and presence are full of him, and only so.”

Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology By Gordon W. Lathrop Published by Fortress Press, 1998

Lenten Series Week 3 - The Emergent Church

Week 3 of the Lenten deals with the Emergent Church. While we have spoken at length about Phyllis Tickle's understanding of "The Great Emergence," this week deals with some of the churches that are intentionally blending Conservative, Renewalist, Liturgical, and Social Justice strains of Christianity. In many cases their worship looks foreign and their theology is fuzzy. That's okay. The intent of this class in the Lenten Series is not to make us an Emergent Church, but to become aware of the movement.

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly - the Emergent Church




Introduction to the Emerging Church - Part 1 - from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI



Introduction to the Emerging Church - Part 2 - from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI



Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on the strengths and weaknesses of the Emerging Church.



Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams discusses how is the Emerging Church viewed in the Church of England.




Church of the Apostles - Seattle, WA - an "Anglimergent" congregation - that is an Episcopal congregation that is a part of the emerging church phenomenon.

Lenten Series - Week Two - The Great Emergence - The New Rose - Phyllis Tickle

Phyllis Tickle explains the Great Emergence - a once every 500 year phenomenon within the Christian Church.

Church of Ireland grows by 50%

News from episcopalcafe.com

An almost unnoticed, but historically dramatic, social change has occurred in Ireland over the past few years: more and more Irish Catholics are joining the Church of Ireland according to the Independent.ie.

After a long decline ever since 1861, Irish Anglicanism is undergoing a quite remarkable period of growth.

In the early Nineties, there were 82,840 members of the Church of Ireland in the 26 counties. This has increased by 50per cent, to 121,229.

Some of this expansion is due to immigration. But a substantial amount is due to conversion -- cradle Catholics turning to the Reformed faith.


Read more here.

Hat tip: Deirdre Good.

Saint Luke's Episcopal Church Slideshow....

The 'emergent church'

The 'emergent church' – growing but hard to define

By Lisa B. Hamilton, March 09, 2009

[Episcopal Life] New ways of "being church" that developed in the past couple of decades are gathered under the term "emergent church."

It's also called a conversation, a movement, a phenomenon – and defining it is "like chasing mercury around a chemistry lab table," said Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why.

Although their emphasis on Scripture, the sacraments and their relationship to the established church vary widely, emergent churches are linked by their dedication to worship and ministry in the context of their location.

"A community in rural Iowa is going to be very different from the ones I've been involved with in Manhattan and Harlem because the places attract people with different stories and sensibilities in different environments," said Bowie Snodgrass, co-founder of New York's Faith House, described on its website as "an interdependent community." She recalled an Easter evening when more than 200 people attended a worship service honoring Mary Magdalene in a Manhattan club. She and a musician friend had developed the service with sex workers and artists who lived and worked in the neighborhood.

"We just do it," said the Rev. Jimmy Bartz, leader at Thad's, a mobile congregation under the authority of Bishop J. Jon Bruno of the Diocese of Los Angeles. "What we've leaned into is an ideal of creating a community of faith for people who wouldn't otherwise be attracted to traditional church," he said.

The Rev. Tom Brackett, church planting specialist for the Episcopal Church's Evangelism and Congregational Life Center, said most emergent church folk "answer the question, 'What kind of relationship would Jesus have with the institutional church?' with, 'He'd be out there on the steps, teasing people to serve in the world."

Read the rest at Episcopal Life Online.

Remorseful stranger's money gives East Dallas church a 'miracle month'

By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
samhodges@dallasnews.com

A mysterious stranger with a conscience left a cashier's check for $3,255 at Dallas' Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, explaining in a note that he was trying to atone for crimes of his past.

Two other times this year, the financially strapped church has had scatterings of $20 bills turn up unexplained in the vestibule, apparently stuffed through a gap in locked front doors.

Though no note came with those donations, the Rev. Canon Victoria Heard speculates they were from the same man.

Regardless, she's grateful.

"It was a godsend, especially in the middle of the winter when our fuel bills are the highest," said Heard, canon-in-residence at the Far East Dallas church.

An envelope containing the cashier's check, $13 in cash and the note was discovered in a back pew on Jan. 11.

The man signed his note with a barely legible "Michael." His last name was on the check, but Heard declined to share it, saying she could not violate a "confession situation."

Church leaders have searched membership rolls and asked former and current members, and no one knows anybody by the name on the check.

The handwritten note begins, "I paid every single debt I had in life but could not find or locate 14 of them or I wasn't sure."

Then it lists 14 crimes, including "White Rock robbery – $100," "Stolen car at woodmeadow – $800," "A set of knives from a fellow soldier in Iraq – $300" and "A lot of CD's in a velcro pouch from an ex-friend in Tyler Texas when I was a kid – $300."

Yet another crime mentioned is "Eckerd's (for stolen candy) – $25." The note adds that "Eckerd's is now CVS pharmacy."

The 14 listed amounts total $3,268 – equal to the cashier's check combined with the $13 found in the envelope.

Read the rest here...

Emptying our cups

“Once upon a time,” an ancient story tells, “the master had a visitor who came to inquire about Zen. But instead of listening, the visitor kept talking about his own concerns and giving his own thoughts. After a while, the master served tea. He poured tea into his visitor’s cup until it was full and then he kept on pouring. Finally the visitor could not bear it any longer. ‘Don’t you see that my cup is full?’ he said. ‘It’s not possible to get anymore in.’ ‘Just so,’ the master said, stopping at last. ‘And like this cup you are filled with your own ideas. How can you expect me to give you Zen unless you first empty your cup?’”

A monastic Lent is the process of emptying our cups. Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord we have the spiritual stamina to say yes to its twists and turns with faith and hope. . . . Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be.

From The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages by Joan Chittister (Crossroad, 1996).

From Episcopal Cafe

Ash Wednesday meditation

Ash Wednesday is a week past, but what a wonderful video meditation.

Lenten Series - Week One - An Introduction to the Great Emergence and the Emerging Church

Some scholars argue that we are in a period of great transition - a once every 500 year shift in the face and style of Christianity - the last being the Great Reformation. Phyllis Tickle discusses this shift in this first video.

The Great Emergence



Wolfhart Pannenburg has descriptively divided the Christian world into four segments - Conservatives (or Evangelicals), Renewalists (Pentecostals, neo-Pentecostals, Charismatics), Liturgicals (Liturgy oriented traditions), and Social Justice (The old Protestant Mainline). Phyllis Tickle suggests that as a part of the Great Emergence that the four types of Christians are merging.

The Gathering Center



We are in a time of great change. The changes of the last 130 years have given rise to the Great Emergence. Phyllis Tickle describes how the rapidly changing world is changing how Christians practice their faith.

20th Century Impact

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church talks about why one should be an Episcopalian

How Faith Engenders Doubt - from Andrew Sullivan

Richard Grant, a British post-doc, ponders:

The beauty of faith is that it’s not an intellectual exercise. Anyone can join in, at whatever level they like. It doesn’t require you to be clever—or rich, or middle-class, or college-educated. But it doesn’t have to stop there—faith can expand according to your ability. Indeed, as someone’s faith grows they will find that it permeates more and more of their life and outlook. In fact, they will probably find themselves becoming a sceptic.

A sceptic, despite what the internets tell you, isn’t necessarily an unbeliever. A sceptic is one who questions, one who doesn’t take anything on faith (and I must piss off my friends mightily because it’s naturally difficult for me to take what anyone says without wanting to verify it myself). Someone who, in fact, might make a reasonable scientist. Now, you might say that my definition negates the possibility of a sceptic having faith: but that would be because you misunderstand the nature of ‘faith’.

From andrewsullivan.com

A survey on technology and the church - Reposted from episcopalcafe.com

The Barna Group, best known for its surveys on faith attitudes, has a new survey that focuses on the use of technology by different generations, and the implications for churches:

While it’s no surprise that young adults are more tech-savvy than the older generation, a new study examines specific details of the differences that could help church leaders better understand how to get their messages to click with congregants.

Both young and old Americans are quite comfortable and dependent on technology, but to varying degrees, shows the latest study by The Barna Group, published this week. But the youngest American adults (ages 18 to 24), which Barna calls Mosaics, are the most likely to admit “gadget lust” than older adults.

More than one-fifth (22 percent) say they consider owning the latest technology to be a very high priority in life, compared to only one out of every 11 adults (9 percent) over the age of 25.

For the Mosaic generation, the study found that eight of the 14 tech activities they were surveyed about were used by 50 percent or more of this group. For the Buster generation (ages 25-43), only four of the digital activities were relied upon by half or more of them. Those four activities include email, search, text messaging and hosting a personal website or homepage (such as MySpace or Facebook).

. . .

Meanwhile, email and search are the only two digital activities that at least 50 percent of Elders (ages 63 and above) and Boomers (ages 44 to 62) rely upon.

“All Americans are increasingly dependent on new digital technologies to acquire entertainment, products, content, information and stimulation. However, older adults tend to use technology for information and convenience,” commented David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group.

“Younger adults rely on technology to facilitate their search for meaning and connection. These technologies have begun to rewire the ways in which people - especially the young - meet, express themselves, use content and stay connected.”

The study also highlighted certain technologies gaining notable popularity among Mosaics. These “emerging” technologies, those used by at least 20 to 49 percent of computer users, include online purchasing, listening to church podcasts, and visiting their church Web site.

“For church leaders, it is notable that a minority of churchgoing Mosaics and Busters are accessing their congregation’s podcasts and website,” Kinnaman said. “While technology keeps progressing and penetrating every aspect of life, churches have to work hard to keep pace with the way people access and use content, while also instructing churchgoers on the potency of electronic tools and techniques.”

Read it all here. How are you using technology at your church? In doing so, do you take the age of your audience into account?