epiScope

Mission to serve

A commitment to community
James Goodman
Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle
April 1, 2008

Soon after he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester more than eight years ago, the Rt. Rev. Jack McKelvey made clear that he wanted deacons whose mission is to serve the community.

On Saturday, the Episcopal Diocese ordained seven vocational deacons — the first time in recent years that the diocese has had deacons with this type of long-term commitment.

"There's a need to be involved in the world in a way we haven't been before," said McKelvey.

More than 500 people attended Saturday's ordination of deacons at St. Peter's Memorial Episcopal Church in Geneva, Ontario County.

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New faces

St. John's welcomes The Rev. Jim
By: JODY McNICHOL
Oneida (NY) Dispatch
01/21/2008

ONEIDA - St. John's Episcopal Church was peaceful but a little cold last Thursday.

The Rev. James K. Heidt or "The Rev. Jim," as he likes to be called, flipped a switch and with a chuckle said, "Let there be light," with a twinkle in his eye.
…
Ordained last December, Heidt didn't waste any time and went right to work at St. John's Episcopal Church.

"Here's the keys, drive the car," was the way he described it.

Heidt, 54, said when he was 15 years old, he was approached by a pastor who suggested this might be a calling for him. "I was like, whoa, no way!" he said. "I was too young to think about going to a seminary. It didn't call to me at the time, but I never forgot what he said. Ministry is for everyone. That's the great emphasis of the Episcopalian [sic] Church.

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New Staff at Grace Church
Norwood (MA) Bulletin
Jan 21, 2008

Norwood - New faces have appeared at Grace Episcopal Church.

Reena Linke is the new music and choir director. Linke graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Church Music from Concordia University in Minnesota. While leading the music program at Grace Church, Linke will continue her studies in the Master of Sacred Music program at Boston University. In addition to her previous position as organist and children’s choir director at University Lutheran Chapel in Minneapolis, Linke has worked as a self-employed piano teacher.

The Rev. Dr. Katherine Mitchell, a Deacon with the Diocese, has been assigned to Grace Church. She also is a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s and has been at the hospital for the past 17 years.

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Answering God's call

Priest's journey answers call of need
By Michael Paulson
The Boston Globe
September 24, 2007

BILOXI, Miss. - The Rev. Jane Bearden has lived in Massachusetts for 23 years, but when Hurricane Katrina swept through the region of her birth, she felt the tug of her childhood home.

So earlier this year, Bearden sold her house in Georgetown, bid farewell to the parish in Methuen she had been overseeing, and moved to Biloxi to attempt an unusual experiment in hurricane relief - the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is employing her for at least two years to work as a priest at a historic parish whose seaside building was one of six Episcopal churches along the Mississippi coast that were demolished by the devastating storm of August 2005.

Bearden's move is the most visible sign of an intensive effort by the Massachusetts diocese to pour resources into this region; the diocese says it has sent several hundred volunteers to work repairing houses here, it has raised $250,000 for the region, and a Boston-based bishop, Roy F. "Bud" Cederholm Jr., has visited six times. One Massachusetts parish, in Winchester, held a shrimp boil to raise money for the hurting shrimping industry here; others have purchased Home Depot and Wal-Mart gift cards to send to people trying to rebuild their homes; and the Massachusetts diocese has launched an organization, Samaritans Now, made up of healthcare workers to provide medical relief.

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There's no rushing God's work
Deacon of Buckeystown church to be ordained
Frederick (MD) News Post    
September 24, 2007

The Rev. Anjel Scarborough believes God's work takes time, but is worth the wait.

In February, Scarborough, deacon of Gathered by Christ Episcopal Church in Buckeystown, will be ordained an Episcopal priest. She has been preparing for the ceremony and this honor much of her life.

"Trust in the slow work of God," she said. "If you're impatient, you don't see the big picture. God's work is slow, gentle."

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Alone or together, Christ is here

Sudanese baptisms make a big splash at Holy Trinity
By BOB REEVES
Lincoln (NE) Journal Star
Sep 10, 2007

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church is an older congregation, so it doesn’t have a lot of baptisms.

But what happened on Sunday would be pretty unusual for any church: 10 children being baptized at the same worship service.

The children, ranging in age from a few months to five years, were all from the community of Sudanese refugees that have made Holy Trinity their church home.

“We thought it would be better organized to have them all baptized at the same time,” said Malith Ayui (also known as John Nyok). He and his wife, Achol Amol, proudly presented their nine-month-old daughter, Ayak Malith Ayiu, for baptism by the Rev. Sam Boman, who led the ceremony Sunday.

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Tang Soo Do and the Holy Spirit
Blackbelt clergyman teaches Christianity through martial arts.
By ADAM TOWNSEND
The Orange County Register
September 10, 2007

PLACENTIA — Some churches have Sunday school or confirmation classes. Others have adult Bible studies or women's prayer groups.

Placentia Episcopal Church has that stuff, but they also have classes in the ancient martial art of Tang Soo Do, which the church's black-belt rector teaches to achieve the same ends.

"The old traditions in martial arts – it was a religious pursuit," said the Rev. David Baumann, sitting in the church office before his Tuesday night class. "Only in the past couple of decades was it viewed as a sport. We have taken the traditional style of martial arts and turned it into a Christian discipline."

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A spiritual journey: O'Connor finds home at St. Andrew's
By Jean Gordon
Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger
September 8, 2007

After the birth of his first child, Edward O'Connor agreed to have her baptized because it was something he thought young parents were supposed to do.

"It didn't have a whole lot of meaning to me," said O'Connor, adding he joined the church begrudgingly because it was important to his wife. "I didn't see the value in faith."

But once he heard the priest at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hattiesburg talk during that Sunday service about how his little girl was being washed and reborn, the young father started to weep.

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Schedule guides faithful
Priest aims to make scripture reading less intimidating
Trevis R. Badeaux
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser -
September 10, 2007   

Reading the Bible. It should be a fundamental task for any Christian, yet so many feel it a daunting, laborious step in the development of their faith.

It doesn't have to be.

The Rev. Mark McDonald, rector for the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in New Iberia, recently adapted a schedule of readings from the 1978 edition of the National Association of Episcopal Schools Worship Manual.

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Ancient prayer path new again
Labyrinth draws seekers to Birch Run Twp. site
By George Jaksa
THE FLINT JOURNAL
September 08, 2007

BIRCH RUN TWP. - In the quiet of the early morning, the Rev. Donna Kusky often follows a passage through the thicket about 200 yards behind her home to a place of peace.

There, Kusky slowly walks along an interwoven circular pebble path outlined in stones that eventually brings her back to where she started. In doing so, Kusky is following an ancient prayer tool called a labyrinth.

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Clark: Female pastors are beginning to see economic justice
Connie Clark
Salt Lake (UT) Tribune
September 10, 2007

Women are earning more money than men these days -- well, a few women are anyway. The magazine Christianity Today recently surveyed 5,750 people working in churches. Remarkably, they found that female solo pastors earn 10.4 percent more than their male counterparts.
    Of course, as the survey notes, 93.7 percent of solo pastors are men, so chances are good that only a handful of female pastors are enjoying that 10 percent bump over the brothers in the pulpit. Still, as a female clergy person, I was pleased to see that some of my sisters are doing OK for themselves, because it's been a tough road for many of us.

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Episcopal church to tap suffragan bishop soon
Candidates gather here for ‘walkabout'
GREG GARRISON
The Birmingham News
September 09, 2007

These are volatile, contentious times in the Episcopal Church, enough to make the process of electing a bishop potentially fraught with political overtones.

The Episcopal Diocese of Alabama plans to elect a suffragan, or assistant, bishop this month. On Saturday, the candidates gathered at St. Luke's Episcopal Church for a "walkabout," a chance to meet Episcopalians from across the state.

The pressing issue seems to be the looming showdown between the U.S. Episcopal Church and Anglican archbishops in other parts of the world who want the U.S. church to renounce its acceptance of openly gay New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

"It's always in the conversations these days," said the Rev. Marc Burnette, rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, one of six candidates for suffragan bishop. "It's what Episcopalians and Anglicans are talking about."

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My Life as a Hermit
By EDWARD LEWINE
New York Times
September 9, 2007

Mary Kathryn S. is a hermit, officially recognized by the Catholic Church. She used to live alone in an apartment in Omaha, Neb. Then the rent went up to $450, and Mary Kathryn, 60, was forced to move into her ailing 91-year-old mother’s two-bedroom house in Bartlesville, Okla.

“The move to Oklahoma was because Mother needed me,” said Mary Kathryn, who now prays alone in her bedroom and didn’t want her last name used in order to preserve her anonymous hermit’s life. “But I needed a place to go.”

It’s no picnic being a modern-day hermit. Beyond the loneliness and poverty common to the eremitic life in any era, the contemporary hermit struggles with an issue less vexing to hermits of old: finding a way to withdraw while earning enough to pay the rent.

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Island's historic churches feeling empty
By Leigh Jones
Galveston (TX) Daily News    
September 9, 2007

GALVESTON — The sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church echoed with near emptiness during the early worship service last Sunday.

Blame it on the college football season opening weekend, when University of Texas and Texas A&M University alumni christen their season tickets.

But even without the pigskin temptation, the pews are usually comfortably empty — meaning each worshipper would have enough room to lay down comfortably on his or her own bench.

The same scene is repeated each weekend in almost every mainline church on the island.

The institutions that were once the center of Galveston’s community are feeling the pinch of the population’s inland migration.

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Church celebrates centennial
Looking forward to many more years of giving and community support
Melissa LaFlamme
Claremont (NH) Eagle Times
September 10, 2007

NEWPORT - Parishoners of the Episcopal Church of Ephipany celebrated their faith and fellowship Saturday, on the church's 100th anniversary.

"We're just delighted that we've been able to continue and thrive in a quiet way in our church," said the Rev. Dan Ferry, who has presided over the church for the past five and a half years.

Finished in 1909 with money donated to the congregation for a place to worship, the church has expanded its services and added handicapped accessible walkways.

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U2charists combine U2 music and worship in Wellington church
By Stephanie Horvath
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 10, 2007

Wellington - It started one Sunday when Deacon Charles Cannon noticed the iPods and Sidekicks coming out in church.

"I realized pretty quickly that the kids were disconnected during the service," Cannon said of the teenagers in his youth group at St. David's Episcopal Church. "I learned they didn't know what was going on in the service and the music didn't reach them."

So on Aug. 19, Cannon brought in Bono to lead worship and made Where the Streets Have No Name the offertory song at St. David's. It was the first U2charist at an Episcopal church in Palm Beach County.

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Your House of Worship: Christ Episcopal Church
Philadelphia Inquirer
Sep 10, 2007

Who we are: Hope, the parish cat, is a regular. Every Sunday morning she greets parishioners, one at a time, as they take their places for worship. During the service she threads her way through the congregation, deftly avoiding being sat or kneeled upon, until she has visited everyone.

Hope came to be the "church cat" when she turned up at the door of the parish hall as a hungry stray. We fed her and named her Hope, with the hope that she would find a real home soon. One Sunday morning, however, the Altar Guild opened the church to find that Hope had been closed inside for two days without making any kind of mess. The grateful parishioners took that as a sign that she was meant for us; from then on she has lived the soft life in the parish hall.

The saga of Hope is indicative of the spirit that guides the congregation of this small church. Our total membership hovers around 100, while the number of two-legged regulars is about 30. Several families have multiple generations in attendance and trace their family's affiliation back over a half-century. Within the congregation, however, everyone is treated as family.

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Church celebrates 175th
In Elmira, Trinity starts 10 months of observances linked to founding.
By Jeff Murray
Elmira/Corning (NY) Star-Gazette
September 10, 2007

Elmira's Trinity Episcopal Church was only 97 years old when James Callas of Elmira started attending services there.

That was 78 years ago, and Callas still comes to church on a regular basis.

He was on hand again Sunday when the church kicked off a months-long celebration of its 175th anniversary.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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In mission

Episcopal bishop hopes for healing
Aug 14, 2007
By Carol Reeves
Corvallis (OR) Gazette-Times

A year after her controversial election as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Katharine Jefferts Schori is still hopeful tensions within the denomination and the worldwide Anglican Communion can be resolved.

“I think as a Christian you have to live in hope of reconciliation always,” Jefferts Schori said during a brief stop in Corvallis at the beginning of a weeklong vacation.

“If we can get people to get out of a face-saving mode and refocus on the mission of the church, I think we can learn to live together and stay one body.”

Jefferts Schori, an Oregon State University graduate and former assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, was elected in June of 2006 as the first woman to serve as the national leader, or primate, of one of the 38 provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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Freedom of flight
Air show draws plane enthusiasts, young and old
By AMY ROBINSON
The Pueblo Chieftain - Star Journal
August 12, 2007

While some people like books and others enjoy cars, Jack Wilson is a self-proclaimed airplane enthusiast.

"If it's flying, I'm interested in it," he said during the 'Pueblo In Their Honor Air Show' Saturday afternoon. "I'm simply infected with the flying disease."

Wilson, who was a senior pilot in the Air Force Auxiliary (now the Civil Air Patrol), works as an Episcopal priest and psychologist, in addition to writing a Pueblo Chieftain weekly column.

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St. Stephen’s deacon begins new career
Kristin Edwards
The Huntsville (TX) Item

The Rev. Bonnie Edwards always felt called to the ministry, but for some reason she had to wait until she was “old enough to have some life experience.”

While awaiting the Episcopal church’s decision to ordain women, Edwards pursued a career in photography and started her own business, but never forgot what she considered to be the calling she was meant for.

After a lengthy process that started in 2001, she was ordained as a deacon on June 23 and is now happily working as an assistant to the Rev. Jim Morgan at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

“I started here on July 1, and I love it here,” she said. “I love this church, I love the windows, and I love that we’re a part of God’s creation in this way.”

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Deacon puts belief into actions
Column by Kevin Eigelbach
Cincinnati (OH) Post
8/9/2007

Last month, when local janitors celebrated an historic contract that raised their wages and gave them more hours, Tim Borah was there.

"It appears they negotiated a fairly decent contract," Borah said. "I felt really good."

For more than a year, Borah had supported the janitors' struggle to organize, including standing with them on informational pickets outside Cincinnati's biggest buildings.

It's the kind of thing the Latonia, Ky., resident will be doing more of as a deacon for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio.

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Finding faithful leaders
Sherri Richards
Fargo (ND) Forum

…
The Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota is also encouraging church members to take on leadership roles.

This summer, 18 deacons were ordained, the first class of the two-year North Dakota School of Ministry, a program initiated by Bishop Michael Smith. They now are able to minister at congregations throughout the state.

The Rev. Jamie Parsley, assistant to the bishop for communications, sees the deacons as a bridge between the lay members and the priesthood, and a way for rural Episcopal churches to continue.

“Without ordained ministry, they don’t have potential to grow,” Parsley said.

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The Very Rev. Cavanaugh dies
By HELEN T. GRAY
The Kansas City Star

The Very Rev. J. Earl Cavanaugh, dean emeritus of Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, died Thursday afternoon at his home at Bishop Spencer Place.

Cavanaugh, 77, served at the cathedral at 13th Street and Broadway from 1976 to 1995 and until recently celebrated the Friday noon Eucharist.

He was known as a big man with a big heart for people, the community and the church, all of which have reaped benefits from his life.

Bishop Barry Howe of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri said Kansas City has lost a strong national figure, clergy and lay people have lost a wonderful spiritual mentor, and he has lost a loyal friend.

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Callings

Jaeger now in service to next calling ... helping kids
By Douglas Robson, special for USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Andrea Jaeger darts around the fourth floor of Childrens Hospital like she once sprinted along the baseline when she tore up the women's tennis tour in the early 1980s.

Instead of Wimbledon whites, Jaeger is sporting a religious habit. The former prodigy in pigtails became an Episcopal nun last fall — officially Sister Andrea.

"Kelleeeee!" she yells, hugging Kelley Coco, 23, a long-term survivor of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma whom Jaeger knows from her camps for children with cancer.

"Hi there!" Jaeger cries as she bursts into the room of 2-year-old Daisy Antunez in the oncology unit during an afternoon of greeting patients and handing out gifts.

A preternaturally gifted ball-striker, Jaeger made the 1982 French Open and '83 Wimbledon finals and rose to No. 2 in the world. After injuries derailed her tennis career, she devoted her life to helping kids by visiting hospitals worldwide and running camps for sick, abused or at-risk children in Colorado.

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Episcopal leader trains on the job
By SHERRI DAY
St. Petersburg Times
Published March 9, 2007

SARASOTA - On Saturday, the Rev. Dabney T. Smith will be consescrated as the bishop who will eventually lead the 33,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida.

Smith will succeed Bishop John B. Lipscomb, who plans to retire soon but has been on medical leave since December. Delegates elected Smith, 53, in December.

Smith, who grew up in Daytona Beach and most recently served as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans, has been on the job since Feb. 1 as the incoming bishop coadjutor. He talked to the Times on the eve of his consecration, which will take place at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg.

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Lessons in faith healing
By Sandra Lawson
Leominster (MA) Champion

Giving yourself to others brings people together, said Raul Quesada. It expands your extended family, diminishes the edge sometimes forged by personal differences, and opens us to genuinely care about others' wellbeing.

Quesada recently completed the Level I course in Healing Prayer at the St. Marks Episcopal Church in Leominster. He said it changed his life.

"Faith healing is an adjunct to the work I do professionally." Educated as a school psychologist and family therapist, Faith Healing enhances his holistic approach to caring for his clients and those he serves in his community.

Quesada has been a member of his church for forty years, a Sunday school teacher, trustee, deacon, and historian. Now he is a member of the Prayer and Faith Healing Team providing individual care at every service.

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