epiScope

Papal dress code

When Pope Benedict XVI visits the U.S., what he wears could send a message to Catholics.
By Michael McGough
April 6, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States later this month has inspired speculation about what the pontiff will say to his sometimes restive American flock. Will he use a lecture at Catholic University in Washington to chastise Catholic colleges and universities for succumbing to secularism? Will he make more than an oblique reference to the pedophilia scandal that led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law as the archbishop of Boston (a city not on the pope's itinerary)?

And there's another interesting question for American Catholics on both the left and the right: What will the pope wear?

It’s all here …and very interesting in light of some Episcopalian choices of mitre and chasuble.

Wells remembered

'Great Debater' Wells remembered as spiritual, passionate
By JOHN PORRETTO
Associated Press
March 16, 2008

HOUSTON — Henrietta Bell Wells, the only woman on the 1930 Wiley College team that took part in the nation's first interracial collegiate debate, was remembered Sunday as a deeply spiritual person whose presence moved others to be quiet and listen.

Wells died Feb. 27 in Baytown. She was 95.

Wells was the last surviving member of the team portrayed in last year's movie, "The Great Debaters."

The movie, starring Denzel Washington, focused on Melvin Tolson's success leading an underdog debate team at a small, southern, historically black college in the mid-1930s. Founded in 1873, Wiley is in east Texas, about 40 miles from Shreveport, La.

It’s all here …

Changing of the guard?

Anglican maneuvers
by Sam Wells
The Christian Century
February 26, 2008

Review: Anglican Communion in Crisis: How Episcopalian Dissidents and Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism
by Miranda K. Hassett
Princeton University Press, 320 pp., $39.50

The opening in July 1998 of the 13th Lambeth Conference of 800 bishops of the Anglican Communion was an exuberant celebration of multiculturalism, a Eucharist of rejoicing in the many tongues and the crackling fire of a new Pentecost.

But all was not as it seemed. The conference can now be seen as a momentous changing of the guard, when an unlikely coalition emerged, a coalition whose cocktail of scriptural ingenuousness and political sophistication has since come to dominate global Anglicanism.

The story goes like this: Evangelical Anglicanism virtually died out in the Episcopal Church in the 19th century, but movements emphasizing personal conversion, biblical authority, evangelism, expository preaching and gifts of the Spirit reemerged in the 1960s and 1970s. The people involved in these movements found themselves out of sympathy with the Episcopal Church on a number of issues and viewed what they perceived as its progressive ethos with mounting dismay. It seemed that they had to choose between two unsatisfactory options: they could compromise their convictions and stay within an errant church or split off and become a small, officially unrecognized Anglican body. But in the mid-1990s a new strategy appeared: they could involve other Anglicans, particularly African bishops, in their effort to reform the Episcopal Church—and thus become the true Episcopal Church, recognized as such by the global Anglican Communion if not by most American Episcopalians.

It’s all here …

Church to honor other 'our father'

A church dinner will focus on the spiritual side of George Washington.
By Waveney Ann Moore
St. Petersburg Times
February 17, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - There'll be nary a cherry pie in sight Thursday when more than 200 people gather for a presidential dinner honoring George Washington at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.

The menu for what is being billed as a state dinner will include Mount Vernon garden salad, Independence Hall brown and wild rice, Valley Forge collard greens and President Washington's citrus-glazed salmon.

As befits such an occasion, guests in evening attire will be greeted by President George and first lady Martha Washington.

It's all here …and save some of those collard greens...we'll be right there!

Heritage

African-American Heritage trail highlights city’s history
By John Ramsey
The Fayetteville Observer
February 02, 2008

People looking for a piece of Fayetteville’s past have more to see than museums and the Market House.
…
The trail includes stops at Fayetteville State University, grave sites and old churches.

“This church is a time capsule,” Bruce Daws, the city’s historic properties manager, said of Saint Joseph’s Episcopal Church. “This is one of our most valuable architectural buildings in Fayetteville.”

The church was the site of many NAACP meetings in the 1960s and, according to Daws, has one of the oldest working pump organs in the country.

It’s all here …

Righting old wrongs

Episcopals [sic] discuss slavery role
By Adam Koob
The Natchez Democrat
January 26, 2008

NATCHEZ — Mississippi’s first Episcopal bishop was a part of slavery.

That was the bitter truth the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi had to discuss Friday at their 181st annual council at Trinity Episcopal Church in Natchez.

Bishop William Mercer Green had a somewhat skewed view of the church’s role in converting slaves to the Episcopal faith, Professor of History from the University of Mississippi Charles Reagan Wilson said Friday.

Wilson and church leaders gathered to fulfill a promise the church made to study their involvement with slavery.

It’s all here …

Long ago

Cleric took on Bible to stress humanity
Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle

(December 17, 2007) — On a Sunday evening in February 1905, the Rev. Algernon Crapsey stood at the pulpit of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Rochester to deliver the 12th and final lecture in a series that had proven very popular.

He chastised the illogical thinking of Protestants who criticized all the other alleged miracles of the world's religions except their own. He further suggested that: "A belief in the inerrancy of the Bible is no longer possible to an educated man, or for anyone in fact, who reads his Bible with reasonable intelligence and attention."

What he said next was, to the hierarchy of his church, utterly unthinkable.

He challenged the notion that the immaculate conception of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth and Christ's resurrection from the dead were literal, actual occurrences.

It's all here …

High in Ohio

Up high in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
By Kimberly Orsborn
Mount Vernon (OH) News
December 17, 2007

MOUNT VERNON — The twin-towered St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is the oldest church building in Mount Vernon. The property on which it stands, on the corner of East High and North Gay streets, was purchased in 1830 for $200, and the first annual congregational meeting was held that year.

The original church building, which faced Gay Street, was consecrated in 1833 and its bell was in use for 50 years. Unfortunately, the building deteriorated rapidly, possibly because of a poorly constructed foundation, and by 1838 congregation members were avoiding church services because of fear that the building would collapse around them.

That building was razed and a new one, facing High Street, was completed in 1839. It has the distinction of being the site of Daniel Decatur Emmett’s funeral in 1904. Fred Lorey, in his book, “St. Paul’s Church,” wrote, “The burial service was conducted in the church and a band led the funeral cortege to Mount View Cemetary [sic], where it played ‘Dixie’ at the grave.”

It's all here …

The opposite of Thanksgiving

The modern holiday would horrify the Puritans, who observed a tradition that was quiet, deeply religious, and concerned with betterment, not bounty
By Eve LaPlante
The Boston Globe
November 18, 2007

Another Thanksgiving approaches. It's that day when families across America gather to watch parades and competitive sports on television and to overindulge in stuffed turkeys, creamed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rich pies.

Every schoolchild in America knows the story of the original Thanksgiving. In 1621 in Plymouth, émigré English Calvinists struggled to make their way in the harsh climate of this New World. Wampanoag Indians helped them, teaching them to grow corn. In gratitude the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to join in their harvest feast. On this secular holiday, with our extended families around us at the Thanksgiving table, we may be moved to give thanks not only for the feast but also for our families, our country, and our many other gifts.

But this modern version of Thanksgiving would horrify the devout Pilgrims and Puritans who sailed to America in the 17th century. The holiday that gave rise to Thanksgiving - a "public day" that they observed regularly - was almost the precise opposite of today's celebration. It was not secular, but deeply religious. At its center was not an extravagant meal, but a long fast. And its chief concern was not bounty but redemption: to examine the faults in oneself - and one's community - with an eye toward spiritual improvement.

It’s all here …

Dispossession

Episcopalians vote to rescind 1496 charter
By Judy Harrison
Bangor (ME) Daily News
October 29, 2007

BANGOR - Maine Episcopalians passed a resolution at their annual convention Friday that calls for England to rescind a charter issued more than 500 years ago.

The resolution calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Queen of England to disavow the 1496 royal charter issued to John Cabot and his sons, according to information on the Web site for the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. It passed by a vote of 175 to 135.

The Maine diocese is the first in the nation to pass such a resolution, according to John Dieffenbacker-Krall, a member of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Old Town and the executive director of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission. He asked the diocesan Committee on Indian Relations to submit the resolution to the convention.

The charter authorized the Cabots "to find, discover, and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions, provinces of heathens and infidels ... which before this time were unknown to all Christians." The charter also says that "John and his sons or their heirs may conquer, occupy and possess, as our vassals and governors, lieutenants and deputies therein, acquiring for us the dominion, title and jurisdiction of the same towns, castles, cities, islands, and mainlands so discovered."

This Doctrine of Discovery, set forth by King Henry VII, was relied upon as justification for the dispossession of lands and the subjugation of non-Christian people, according to information on the Web site.

It’s all here …

Traditions and Transitions

The Lower East Side: Traditions and Transitions
A sign project shows the way life was and is lived
By Gerard Flynn
The Villager (NY)
October 18, 2007

“From the ‘slave galleries’ you are invisible. You can see but you can’t be seen. Black people, free and enslaved, were forced to sit in hidden, cramped rooms above the balcony of our church,” the Reverend Errol Harvey of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church told a small crowd gathered last month at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

Harvey was describing the segregated experiences African-Americans faced even in sacred spaces, and was quoting from a testimonial he had submitted, one of 28, which make up “Your Guide To The Lower East Side,” a sign project mapping memories of community life over the past century or so.

It’s all here …

Preservation

Archivists preserving church history
by Charlotte Ferrell Smith
Charleston (WV) Daily Mail
October 15, 2007

A new group is taking steps to help people of all faiths organize and preserve historical information.

The Religious Archivists of the Kanawha Valley includes about 40 active members from Charleston and surrounding areas interested in the history of area houses of worship.

"The majority are people interested in preserving the history of their congregation," said Betty Damewood of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston. "We also have historians from other organizations."

The idea for forming the group started at St. John's Episcopal Church, and the first meeting was held in the spring. The group now meets regularly and Damewood hopes membership continues to grow as word spreads.

It’s all here …

CCP

Groups Plan New Branch to Represent Anglicanism
By NEELA BANERJEE
New York Times
September 30, 2007

Bishops from 13 Anglican and Episcopal groups in North America announced Friday that they had formed a partnership as the first step to creating a rival to the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The announcement by the group, the Common Cause Partnership, marks a widening of the fissures within the Episcopal Church and in the greater communion over the church’s liberal stance on homosexuality.

Earlier in the week in New Orleans, the bishops of the Episcopal Church defied a directive by leaders of the Anglican Communion asking them to set up an alternate structure for conservative churches, to stop consecrating openly gay and lesbian bishops and to ban the blessing of same-sex unions.

It’s all here …

BeliefWatch: Anglican Angst
By Matthew Philips
Newsweek

Oct. 8, 2007 issue - What happens when the Archbishop of Canterbury and 150 Episcopal bishops meet in New Orleans to talk about gay rights? Predictably (temporizing is an Anglican hallmark), it's hard to tell. Despite heaps of press over a meeting last week in which the Episcopal House of Bishops was to clarify its views on homosexuality, the outcome remains fuzzy. Did they, as The New York Times reported, reject orders from conservatives to stop consecrating gay and lesbian bishops and blessing same-sex unions, thus sealing the fate of a fracturing church? Or did they, according to USA Today, make concessions to those demands and preserve the united of the worldwide Anglican Communion? It depends on whom you ask.

It’s all here … and a big epiScope Amen to Mr. Philips’ final sentence: “Doing the work of the Gospel, it seems safe to say, is more productive than debating it.”

Episcopalians plan to leave denomination
By Julia Duin
The Washington Times
September 29, 2007

Fifty-one Anglican and Episcopal bishops announced plans yesterday to form a separate Anglican province in North America within 15 months, giving disaffected Episcopalians a chance to flee their increasingly liberal denomination.

The Common Cause partnership, which includes bishops from several Episcopal dioceses and leaders of nine Anglican organizations, met yesterday in Pittsburgh. The leaders represent 600 congregations and more than 100,000 people.

The bishops said they will meet in December to put together an office staff for a 39th province of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

It’s all here …

INTERVIEW: Bishop Robert Duncan
September 28, 2007
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Episode no. 1104

Kim Lawton's September 27, 2007 interview with Bishop Robert Duncan of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh:

Q: What did you think of the final document the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans produced?

A: The final document from NO was very much what the HOB has said before, and it revealed the commitment of the American church to continue on its move forward in terms of the innovations in faith and order. It did acknowledge the trouble in the communion and the pain that the American church has caused. It did maybe slow things down a little bit, but it's not going to change the direction, and clearly in New Orleans as there has been for some while there really are two churches under one roof and those two churches are one that is moving in a way with the culture and with secular society, moving toward embrace of the culture itself, and the other is moving in a direction -- I mean we are trying to stand where we've always stood. That's the reality. So that's New Orleans, but that's old news.

It’s all here …

When splitting is right decision
Area churches weighing controversial issues
Johnstown (PA) Tribune-Democrat
September 28, 2007

On Oct. 31, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther posted on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church in Germany his list of 95 areas of disagreement with the Catholic church.

That act was a key moment in a division of the church in Europe that eventually led to the formation of Protestantism and new denominations of believers. Obviously, the Catholic church continued, even as groups splintered off and went their own way.

Religion can be a contentious and divisive undertaking. People sometimes disagree, quite passionately, about fundamental principles, or how those beliefs should be incorporated into lives and traditions.

That’s when changes happen.

It’s all here …

They could have called it an epiScope

Looking back: Newark priest paves way for movies
by Joe Ryan
September 13, 2007

On September 13, 1898, a Episcopal priest from Newark with a eye for photography and a knack for tinkering was granted a patent for flexible film, stored on a roll. Pictures were never the same again.

Rev. Hannibal Goodwin's invention became a crucial step toward the development of cinematography, or motion pictures. He had filed for the patent several years earlier. But before it was issued, George Eastman had appropriated the idea and was marketing it through his Eastman Kodak Company.

Goodwin sued. But he was injured in a streetcar accident and died before the case was settled. In 1914 a court awarded his heirs $5 million. The house where Goodwin lived, the rectory of the Episcopal House of Prayer, still stands at Broad and State streets.

It’s all here …

Semper reformanda

Tristram Hunt: The creed that leads from Bunyan to Bridget Jones
For 500 years, Protestantism has defined Britain. It still does, but in vibrant new forms of worship
Guardian Unlimited
September 9, 2007

By midday, the Sunday 'celebration service' at the Gospel Centre in Haringey in north London is in full swing. A young, family-friendly, multi-ethnic crowd sways to the music with hands aloft and palms outstretched. On the stage, a seven-piece band leads the congregation in a series of evangelical songs with lyrics projected overhead against a collage of corn fields and backlit crucifixes. Worshippers wave flags as prayers and music intensify. There are few familiar Protestant landmarks here, but this is the face of modern British Protestantism.

It’s all here …

A Little History of the English Country Church
By Roy Strong
Reviewed by Simon Jenkins
From The Sunday Times
September 9, 2007

In the heart of most English towns and villages is a hole. It is filled by a deserted meadow littered with incised stones and a large building, often gloomy, locked and unused except by a tiny fraternity of citizens for a couple of hours a week. Nowadays, most young people have little idea what it is for and many shudder when they pass it.

The English parish church has become the ghost in the machine of local Britain. It must be the ripest plum for a property-hungry government to pick, offering the parochial equivalent of the dissolution of the monasteries. I can hear the Treasury protesting that there are plenty of places for Christian worship, so why waste space on 20,000 underused properties?

It’s all here …

Ghosts From 1639

Yale Students Really Dig The Henry Whitfield House
By ADRIAN BRUNE
Hartford Courant
September 5, 2007

…
Digging around the Whitfield House has proved fruitful since the beginning, in discovering more about its purpose and inhabitants, and learning about their daily life. The weekly discovery excursions started in 2000 at the suggestion of Yale geophysics professor Robert Gordon. He is a member of the Council on Archaeological Studies, and his own home is down the street from the 17th-century site. Born in England about 1590 and educated at Oxford, Henry Whitfield, with his wife and seven children, came to Guilford during the 1630s after escaping the wrath of King Charles I, who had decided to crack down on the Puritan heretics within the Anglican Church. Because of his wealth and status as a minister, the burden of building and maintaining one of the town's four stone houses fell on Whitfield. Whitfield returned to England with all but two children and eventually sold his house to Robert Thompson, head of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (also called the New England Company), who rented the house to tenant farmers. The house changed hands several more times before the state of Connecticut bought it in 1899 and turned it into the first official state museum. The house is filled with furnishings from the 17th to 19th centuries.

It’s all here …

Back to school

As school year starts, McGreevey heads to seminary
By ANGELA DELLI SANTI
Newsday
September 1, 2007

TRENTON, N.J. - The nation's first openly gay governor is headed back to school Tuesday _ as a seminary student.

Jim McGreevey will begin full-time studies at General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in Manhattan, seminary spokesman Bruce Parker confirmed. McGreevey switched his religious affiliation from Roman Catholic to Episcopalian earlier this year and expressed interest in pursuing a call to ministry.

As a student in the non-degree program at the seminary, McGreevey has up to a year to choose a course of study. In the meantime, he can choose a broad array of courses in theology, liturgy, ministry and related topics that are available to students who are unsure of their educational and vocational goals, Parker said.

It’s all here …

Former NJ Governor's Wife Recalls Ordeal
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 1, 2007

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- Perhaps no one knows better than Dina Matos McGreevey how Suzanne Craig -- the wife of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig -- felt as her husband insisted he is not gay despite his guilty plea in a police sex sting.

Matos McGreevey once stood shellshocked next to her ex-husband, then-New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, as he announced before TV cameras that he was ''a gay American'' and would resign.

''I was watching his wife the other day standing next to him, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, that was me three years ago. Now here we go again,''' Matos McGreevey said in an interview at her home Friday evening. ''She's a victim of the choices he's made.''

It’s all here …

A Sting He Didn't Deserve
By Aaron Belkin
September 1, 2007

If Sen. Larry Craig is guilty of a serious crime, you'd never know it from listening to the audiotape of his arrest or from reading his arrest record.
…
Craig's case apparently was handled according to the book. But the use of everyday gestures that fall short of sex to mete out punishment for sexual misconduct illustrates a revealing departure from methods that investigators used to carry out sting operations nearly a century ago. Courts used to require a lot more than the tapping of a toe to sustain a conviction for a morals crime.

In 1919 the Navy hired "decoys" to frequent the lobby of the YMCA in Newport, R.I. Orchestrated by officers at the local Naval Training Station, the cleanup campaign sought to eliminate gay men from the ranks. Following an introduction, decoys would accompany their suspects to a hotel room and then have sex. At least three dozen sailors and civilians were arrested, and many ended up in jail.

According to conventions of the day, if men confined themselves to masculine behaviors and sex roles, they could engage in sex with other men without inviting accusations of being gay. Because perversion was seen primarily as a function of effeminate mannerisms and passive sexual tastes, government decoys could have sex with gay men with impunity as long as they assumed the active position during those encounters. Or so the Navy assumed.

When the 1919 sting operation ensnared a local minister, the Episcopal Church fought back, and what had been a local operation became a national scandal that almost ended the burgeoning political career of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was then assistant secretary of the Navy.

The church persuaded the Navy and the Senate to investigate the sting operation, and when it became apparent that the military had enlisted heterosexuals to engage in sex with other men, there was a public outcry.

It’s all here …

Bishop nixes Trinity Prep play
La Cage Aux Folles, c'est fini
Leslie Postal and Dave Weber
Orlando Sentinel
September 1, 2007

The school theater production aimed to "push the limits," and it did -- way too far for its conservative Episcopal bishop.

Trinity Preparatory School canceled its opening-night performance of La Cage aux Folles on Friday at the request of Bishop John Howe, head of the Diocese of Central Florida.

"His request was not to stage the production, and we decided to honor his request," said Headmaster Craig Maughan, who called off Friday's and tonight's planned performances. "I met with the cast and all the people involved in the production and announced the decision and explained it to them."

It’s all here …

Around the church

Tiny church steeped in tradition
By Lauren Wicks
Suffolk (VA) News Herald
August 31, 2007

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of four stories about North Suffolk churches.

Its history can be traced back three centuries.

But members of Glebe Episcopal Church do not buckle under the weight of their parish’s lineage. Instead, the congregation has spent its time of worship and fellowship working to solidify the church’s place in the North Suffolk community.

According to church publications, the Glebe Church was founded in 1642 for the Upper Norfolk County. The church building has been maintained and updated several times since it was first built in 1737.

Located at 4400 Nansemond Parkway, the church is on the outskirts of the growing Driver community. The Rev. Ross F. Keener, pastor of Glebe, says the church’s prime location brings in their membership, reflecting a shift in how people pick their churches.

“A lot of our people come from the Driver area,” said Keener. “It’s a modern day phenomenon.

“People use to look for the nearest Episcopal church, now they look for the closest building to them. They come, and if they don’t hear something that annoys them, they stay.”

It’s all here …

Episcopal church event gets down in the mud
By RHONDA REESE
Mandarin (FL) Sun
090107

Blue. That was the first thing visitors noticed at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour on Mandarin Road Aug. 26. As adults dined on shrimp and kids hopped on bouncy things, most every participant in the day's fun wore an indigo shirt sporting a "Come and See Sunday" logo.

The Rev. John Palarine, rector at Our Saviour, said the "muddy rally day" was a way to transition from summer to fall.

It’s all here …

Daughter Talks About Being Shot By Dad
By Tiffany Craig
WKRG-Pensacola (FL)
September 01 2007
…
Lacy Burch didn't have health insurance and is now stuck with more than 100-thousand dollars in medical bills. If you'd like to help, St. Mary's By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in Coden is taking donations.

It’s all here …

Judge grants restraining order on parking lot
Group hopes to get court to prevent construction of church parking lot
By Mike Hall
The Topeka Capital-Journal
August 31, 2007

Any further work to clear land for a new parking lot for Grace Episcopal Cathedral, S.W. 8th and Polk, is to stop until the validity of the project can be established in court, according to Pedro Irigonegaray, attorney for The Friends of Bethany Place.

The group is opposed to the construction of the parking lot, which will remove a 20 by 200 foot portion — 4 percent of the total space on the church's grounds — of the green space along the west side of Polk.

Irigonegaray said Shawnee County District Judge Franklin Theis signed the group's request for a temporary restraining order late Wednesday, not long after the paper work for the challenge was filed with the court.

It’s all here …

Mission and ministry

Clergy in New Orleans Need Counseling
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 31, 2007

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.

The sight of misery all around them -- and the combined burden of helping others put their lives back together while repairing their own homes and places of worship -- are taking a spiritual and psychological toll on the city's ministers, priests and rabbis, many of whom are in counseling two years after Hurricane Katrina.

Almost every local Episcopal minister is in counseling, including Bishop Charles Jenkins himself, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jenkins, whose home in suburban Slidell was so badly damaged by Katrina that it was 10 months before he and his wife could move back in, said he has suffered from depression, faulty short-term memory, and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.

It’s all here …

Becoming a priest: an occupation and a calling
by Vickie Evans-Nash
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
8/29/2007

Local woman recounts her road to ministry

Mildred Cox came to the Twin Cities in 1966 after her husband received a job transfer while working with the Red Cross. They brought their family for what was intended to be a two-year stay. Now, almost 40 years later, they have become permanent fixtures to the Twin Cities area. On June 1, Cox completed a doctoral program at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and became an ordained priest.

It’s all here …

Deacon: Walk on my prayer path
by DENISE FORD-MITCHELL
The Saginaw (MI) News
August 31, 2007

Donna L. Kusky has a prayer labyrinth in the backyard of her Birch Run Township home, and she's inviting guests to check it out.

Kusky said she designed the seven-circle Kusky Labyrinth to enlighten, not to confuse.

The 64-year-old is a deacon at St. Mark Episcopal Church, 3060 Williamson in Bridgeport Township.

It’s all here …

Oakerhater Center dedication set for Sept. 8 in Watonga
Oakerhater Episcopal Center dedication, honor dance
By Carla Hinton
The Oklahoman
September 1, 2007

WATONGA — St. David Pendleton Oakerhater's beloved Whirlwind Church and Mission will soon get a new, permanent home.

Despite some wind damage from recent storms, Oklahoma Episcopal leaders are moving forward with the planned dedication of the Oakerhater Episcopal Center in Watonga.

The center, named after the revered Cheyenne Indian Episcopal clergyman, is to be dedicated at 2 p.m. Sept. 8.

The Rev. Jim Kee-Rees said activities will include a dinner and the Whirlwind Church's annual honor dance in recognition of Oakerhater. In 1895, Oakerhater (1847-1931) became the first American Indian to be recognized in the Calendar of Saints of the Episcopal Church.

It’s all here …

Time travel

Popham — Prayers, then and now
Rachel_Ganong
Brunswick (ME) Times-Record
08/27/2007

BRUNSWICK — A lot has changed on the shores of Popham village in the 400 years since a colony of Englishmen settled there, but not the Lord's Prayer.

At least, that's according to a Sunday church service outside Popham Beach Chapel, one of the last events in the four-day celebration of the 400 anniversary of Popham Colony.

Taken from the English Book of Common Prayer of 1559 that was revised slightly in 1604, the service aimed to typify how 17th century church-goers worshipped.

It’s all here …

Flower power

BBC Dahlia Competition

A new dahlia has been developed, as yet unnamed. It's pillar-box red with dark green leaves and Sunday listeners have a unique opportunity to decide what it is to be called.
Vote for your favourite name below. Voting ends on Friday 6 July at noon.

And on the short list is…

Rev'd Florence Li Tim-Oi
    "The first Anglican woman priest, ordained in Hong Kong in 1944."

Vote for your favourite name. You can also add the reason for your choice.

First Anglican service in New World is marked

Hundreds join in celebrations at Jamestown Island where "Protestant worship took hold."
BY AMY JOHNSON
Hampton Roads Daily Press
June 25, 2007

JAMESTOWN -- Close to 1,000 people withstood the heat Sunday morning on Jamestown Island to join the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first Anglican Holy Communion in the New World.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, led the ceremony.

Men, women and children listened to lessons in Scripture, worshiped, and participated in Holy Communion.

The event was sponsored by four Episcopal dioceses in Virginia and drew people from across the state. The event began Sunday morning at 11 with members of the Virginia Indian Tribe drummers and dancers and lasted until 6 p.m.

It’s all here …

Church's new leader tells of her mission
By JOEL CONNELLY
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As an aspiring oceanographer, Katharine Jefferts Schori took time off with her future husband to climb 9,415-foot Mount Stuart, second-highest non-volcanic peak in the Cascade Range.

The balance and footwork required on that climb pales in comparison with what's needed in her present job. Schori, 53, is the first woman to be presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

It’s all here …

Cuban happenings

A female bishop for Cuba's Anglicans
by Anthony Boadle
Reuters
Monday, June 11, 2007

The Episcopal Church broke new ground in Cuba yesterday by ordaining its first female bishop in the developing world at a ceremony that mixed incense with Caribbean music.

Rev. Nerva Cot said she will bring a feminine touch to leadership of her church's small but growing congregation in communist Cuba, where religious worship was freed a decade ago.

It's all here...

Rescue the perishing

The Bergson Group vs. the Holocaust - and Jewish Leaders vs. Bergson
By: Dr. Rafael Medoff
The Jewish Press
June 6, 2007

At the height of the Holocaust, Jewish leaders urged U.S. officials to "draft or deport" rescue activist Peter Bergson. Yet later this month, Jewish leaders from across the political and religious spectrum will co-sponsor a conference acknowledging Bergson’s role in promoting the rescue of Jews from Hitler.
…
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Henry St. George Tucker, spoke at the conference despite Stephen Wise’s plea to him to withdraw. The involvement of Tucker and other public figures demonstrated the Bergson Group’s success in building an ecumenical coalition for rescue.

It's all here ...a fascinating look into history.

Quadricentennial hoopla

PORT ROYAL EVENT HONORS JAMESTOWN
By CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star
4/26/2007

Communities all across Virginia are busy preparing to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the Jamestown settlement.

But in the Fredericksburg area, the spirit of America's founding burns brightest in Port Royal. The historic hamlet is pulling out all the stops to honor the intrepid colonists and native peoples who met, cooperated with one another and later clashed in eastern Virginia.

It’s all here …

Blessing of the Fleet to signal start of fishing season
Rappahannock (VA) Record
Thursday, April 26 , 2006

The community is invited to participate in the annual Blessing of the Fleet May 6 in Reedville.

An ancient tradition celebrated each spring all over the world, this ceremony marks the opening of the fishing season on Chesapeake Bay and asks God’s blessing on the fishermen and their boats, and for a fruitful season.

At 3:30 p.m., a parade of boats will progress up Cockrell’s Creek to the old Morris-Fisher factory tall stack property where the ceremony will begin at 4 p.m.

Sponsored by St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Fleeton and Omega Protein Inc., the Reedville celebration has evolved over the last 35 years to include crab potters, fish trappers, the menhaden fleet, and pleasure craft. The Rev. Edward A. Tulis, Rector of St. Mary’s Church, invites all boaters to participate in the parade and all well-wishers to gather on shore at the old tall stack property at Omega Protein off Fleeton Road.

It’s all here …

Battle for the Bible

epiScope loves PBS' Secrets of the Dead, and they're going to run a program our British cousins saw a couple of weeks ago, for which Diarmaid MacCulloch was the historical consultant. It's called "Battle for the Bible." Check it out here... and a hat tip to Thinking Anglicans' Simon Sarmiento.

Upjohn church goes up again

Auburn students reconstruct St. Luke's Episcopal Church
MONDAY MARCH 19, 2007
By Tammy Leytham
The Selma (AL) Times-Journal

A more than 150-year-old church will soon be rebuilt on the grounds of Old Cahawba Historical Park.

The reconstruction of the St. Luke's Episcopal Church is a project of the Rural Studio of Auburn University.

"We're real excited about it," said Jason Coomes, an instructor of second year students in Auburn's Rural Studio program. "The church has been disassembled by the students."

The St. Luke's Episcopal Church, built in 1854, was based on a design by renowned architect Richard Upjohn. It had been moved in 1876 to Martin's Station, about 15 miles from Old Cahawba.

It’s all here …

Wait--wait--don't tell me

Good on Get Religion for catching this case of mistaken identity from last month, in the Rocky Mountain News:

In short, the denomination that launched the Reformation 500 years ago has become a microcosm of modern cultural change and spiritual angst. Its roots, the Church of England, were replanted in America in the 1700s.

BAAAANNH! No, I'm sorry, contestant, but the denomination that launched the Reformation became known as the Lutheran Church, and by the way, neither of them was "founded" by Henry VIII...

Good old days

Anglican Church, Beset by New Rift, Has Deep Roots in Loudoun
washingtonpost.com
By Eugene Scheel
Sunday, March 4, 2007; PW03

Fifteen Anglican congregations in Northern Virginia have broken ties with the Episcopal Church in the past year to align with the provinces of Nigeria or Uganda in the Anglican Communion. Four of the congregations are in Loudoun County and five in Prince William County. All left the Episcopal fold because of differences over the meaning of scripture.

Virginia's first settlers were of the Anglican faith, though it was not the evangelical and charismatic brand of the religion adhered to by many of today's Anglicans. That strain was introduced by Englishman clergyman and member of Parliament William Wilberforce in the 1780s.

The Anglican denomination was established by the English Parliament's Act of Supremacy in 1534. Virginia's first General Assembly of 1619 dictated that the faith was to be the "state" religion, though the assembly's edicts regarding the church were often modified or ignored.

It’s all here …

Ex-slave's bequest built chapel

St. James Episcopal Church on Grosse Ile rose thanks to an African-American landowner
Detroit Free Press
February 25, 2007

It's an amazing story -- a black woman born into slavery seeking and finding freedom, traveling to Europe, wowing the Parisians by making flapjacks in the U.S. Embassy, then amassing enough wealth to endow a church that serves white people in metro Detroit.

Elizabeth Denison Forth was born a slave in the 18th Century. She was known to everyone as Lisette, the same nickname as her grandmother's.

Lisette was the first black person to own property in Pontiac. A state historical marker in the city's Oak Hill Cemetery notes that "in 1825 Elizabeth Denison, 'a woman of colour,' purchased 48.5 acres of land from Pontiac's founder, Stephen Mack, agent of the Pontiac Company. She became Pontiac's first black property owner, but never lived on the property."

She put enough money aside from her investments at the time of her death in 1866 to leave $1,500 towards the construction of an Episcopal church on Grosse Ile. The money was used in 1867-68 to build St. James Episcopal chapel.

It's all here ...

Lest we forget

Pioneering priest fought race, sex bias all her life
Back Story: Frederick N. Rasmussen
The Baltimore Sun
February 24, 2007

Pauli Murray, a Baltimorean, made history in 1977, when she was ordained the Episcopal Church's first African-American female priest during services held in Washington.

The year of her ordination, she connected with her personal past when she celebrated her first Holy Eucharist at the Chapel of the Cross on the University of North Carolina campus, where her grandmother, a slave, had been baptized 122 years earlier.

She brought with her two items that day. She had a purple ribbon from a box of flowers that Eleanor Roosevelt had sent to her years, and she carried her grandmother's worn Bible.

It's all here ...including this thought-provoking statement.

"The one place I can proclaim it is a universal struggle is in the church, which proclaims it is a universal church," she said in the 1977 interview. "I didn't decide to become a priest in order to do this. God decided this. Why is it that national recognition comes to me only when I am ordained a priest? If you can answer that question, you'll know why I became a priest."