July-August - The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

Transcription

Ne
wly rebuilt
Newly
St. Da
vid’s
David’s
welcomes
wor
shipper
orshipper
shipperss
Inside The Harvest
From the Bishop
Bishop Wolfe says in a sermon at the
Washington National Cathedral that in its
150 years, the Diocese of Kansas has
exemplified the state’s motto. Page 2
Canon s
teps do
wn
steps
down
Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Mary
Siegmund is stepping down, effective
Aug. 31. Page 3
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
ECW annual gathering
A
The Rev. Mary Earle will be
the keynote speaker at this
year’s Episcopal Church
Women annual gathering
Oct. 3 at St. Thomas in
Overland Park. Page 4
Sla
ver
ye
xplored in film
Slav
ery
explored
The Emmy-nominated documentary
“Traces of the Trade,” which explores the
role of northern states in the slave trade,
will be shown in Wichita Sept. 17.
Page 4
Saf
ec
hurc
h guidelines
Safe
churc
hurch
New guidelines for background checks
on and training for those who work with
youth and children in the diocese have
been adopted. Page 4
Feeding kids in Cla
y Center
Clay
The people of St. Paul’s, Clay Center,
have spent two years doing all they can to
feed hungry children in their community.
Now they’re serving adults, too. Page 5
Habit
at house ready to go
Habitat
Ground was broken Aug.
15 on the Habitat for
Humanity house to be paid
for and built in Coffeyville
by members of the Diocese of Kansas.
Page 6
Kansas to K
en
ya
Ken
eny
Three teams of people from
the diocese engaged in mission
trips this summer in Kenya,
providing ministry in a variety
of needed areas. Pages 6-7
Baptisms in Blue Rapids
Even small congregations can grow
when, like St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids, you
add eight new members by baptism.
Page 8
People notes
Lots of people in the diocese
have news to share, including a
teen from Grace Cathedral,
Topeka, who won a full scholarship with her History Day documentary.
Page 9
General Con
vention
Conv
Lots of important things happened at the
76th General Convention in Anaheim,
Calif., in July. But many actions didn’t
make the news, so Kansas deputies
describe some of them. Pages 10-11
Photo by Melodie Woerman
The Rev. Don Davidson (center) celebrates the Eucharist Aug. 16 in the
newly rebuilt nave of St. David’s, Topeka, where he is rector. The church’s
previous building was destroyed in a November 2006 arson fire, and the
first services in the new facility took place Aug. 15 and 16. Standing with
Davidson are Deacon Harry Craig (left) and Deacon Annie Hedquist.
s they watched their church building go up
in flames from an arson fire in the morning
hours of Nov. 10, 2006, the congregation
of St. David’s, Topeka, vowed to rebuild. That promise was fulfilled the weekend of Aug. 15 and 16 as
nearly 350 people attended the first services in the
parish’s new worship space.
Many wore special T-shirts featuring a drawing
of the new building and a single acclamation: “Hallelujah!”
The Rev. Don Davidson, the parish’s rector, joked
at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday service that had he only
known, he’d have taken a course in seminary called
“What to do when your church burns down.”
More seriously, he said that St. David’s had
learned what it truly meant to be the church. “The
building is where the church comes to worship,” he
said, “not the other way around. I don’t want us to
be the church where the fire happened. I want us to
be the church that learned what it is to be church.”
The congregation had crowded into the old parish hall for worship since December 2007, so they
were accustomed to being back on their own property after many months of conducting services in a
variety of other locations. But it was something special to have the actual church space finished.
Senior warden Wendy Bair-Loehr said “This is
very exciting, and we have worked so hard. You
watch all the things we’ve saved for and planned for
and worked for just come together.”
Margaret Telthorst was senior warden at the time
of the fire. She called the move to the new church
“amazing” and said, “I really can’t believe we are
Please see Church, page 3
Con
eatures
Convvention ffeatures
Presiding Bishop
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
P
residing Bishop Katharine
Jefferts Schori will make
her first visit to the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas in October, and there will be several
opportunities to hear her speak.
She will be in Topeka for the
150th Diocesan Convention Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23-24, and
Presiding Bishop
then will be at St. Michael’s, MisKatharine
sion, on Sunday morning.
Jefferts Schori
Bishop Dean Wolfe said, “It
will be a joy to have Bishop Katharine with us to celebrate our sesquicentennial anniversary and an even
greater joy to welcome her as our Presiding Bishop and
chief pastor for a time of learning, fun and fellowship.”
Bishop Jefferts Schori will be the celebrant and
preacher at the festive 150th convention Eucharist on
Saturday, Oct. 24, at 10:45 a.m. at Grace Cathedral,
Please see PB, page 5
Photo by the Rev. Jerry Adinolfi
Ground broken for Coffeyville house
Char DeWitt (right), diocesan director of development and stewardship,
helps break ground Aug. 15 for a Habitat for Humanity house being
built by the Diocese of Kansas in Coffeyville. With her are Habitat
volunteers Ken White (left) and Robert DeMott. See story on page 6.
2 • The Harvest • July/August 2009
From the Bishop
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe
To the star
ough dif
starss thr
through
diffficulty
Publisher: The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, Bishop
Editor: Melodie Woerman
A member of Episcopal News Service and Episcopal Communicators, The Harvest is published six times a year by the Office
of Communications of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas: February, April, June, August, October and December.
Stories, letters and photos are welcome. They will be used on a
space-available basis and are subject to editing. Send all material (preferably in electronic format or by e-mail) to:
Melodie Woerman, editor
The Harvest
835 SW Polk St.
Topeka, KS 66612-1688
phone: (800) 473-3563
fax: (785) 235-2449
mwoerman@episcopal-ks.org
Send address changes to:
Receptionist
835 SW Polk St., Topeka, KS 66612-1688
receptionist@episcopal-ks.org
Upcoming deadlines:
September/October issue: Sept. 15
November/December issue: Nov. 15
Subscription rate:
$1.50 annually
Third class mailing
Permit No. 601, Topeka, Kansas
POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to
Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
835 SW Polk St.
Topeka, KS 66612-1688
The Anglican Communion
A global community of 70 million Anglicans
in 38 member churches/provinces in more than
160 countries.
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Most Reverend and Right Honorable Rowan Williams
Lambeth Palace, London WE1 7JU, United Kingdom
www.anglicancommunion.org
Episcopal seat: Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England
The Episcopal Church
A community of more than 2.1 million members in 110 dioceses in 16 countries in the
Americas and abroad.
Presiding Bishop
The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori
815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017
(800) 334-7626
www.episcopalchurch.org
Episcopal seat: Washington National Cathedral,
Washington, D.C.
The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
A community of 12,000 members in
44 parishes, two diocesan institutions and
one school in eastern Kansas.
Bishop
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe
835 SW Polk Street, Topeka, KS 66612-1688
(785) 235-9255
(800) 473-3563
www.episcopal-ks.org
Episcopal seat: Grace Episcopal Cathedral, Topeka
Note: This is an excerpt of a sermon preached by
Bishop Wolfe Aug. 2 at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as part of a special
trip in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the
founding of the Diocese of Kansas on Aug. 12, 1859.
T
his weekend, the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas celebrates its 150th anniversary, and I,
along with more than 40 pilgrims, have come
from Kansas to this amazing cathedral in our nation’s
capital to offer thanks to God for blessing us with
the presence of Christ and the strength of the Christian faith within the Anglican tradition.
There is something profound in the Latin motto
of the State of Kansas, Ad Astra per Aspera, “to the
stars through difficulty.” As a civic motto, it captures our aspirations perfectly. It’s uplifting, yet
grounded; grand, yet practical. It bids its citizens to
strive beyond human limitation and reach toward a
future beyond the laws of gravity and the natural
boundaries that govern our fragile earth.
What the motto doesn’t attempt to minimize is
the strain that inevitably is involved in striving for
something great. No great thing is ever achieved
without struggle.
Greatness thr
ough dif
through
diffficulty
Nothing great comes without difficulty, and no
one understood this better than the tough pioneers
who journeyed westward and established the Episcopal Church where the wide prairie meets the Great
Plains.
Those early pioneers went to ensure a moral imperative, that Kansas would not be a slave state but
a free state, a state where every human being would
have the opportunity to live into God’s purpose for
their life.
Of course, recent historians remind us that highmindedness was not a universal attribute among
these first pioneers. Racism, greed, petty rivalries,
savagery and selfish individualism — all the sins
you would expect to find in any human settlement
— were all present in abundance. Even the taking
of the land itself from the Native Americans, who
saw the earth as holy and beyond human possession, is a reminder that our sins are never far from
us. But at the root of it, at its very base, there was
this incredible hope, a holy hunger, that embedded
itself in the dreams of those Christian pioneers who
believed if they worked hard, very hard, and lived
lives of honesty and purpose, if they tried to become
the people God created them to be, then God would
bless them abundantly.
Well, God kept God’s end of the bargain. And
out of the wilderness, churches, schools, hospitals
and orphanages — helping organizations of every
kind — grew and flourished. These extraordinary
people, and we who are their legacy, were extraordinarily blessed with crops and businesses, scientific and educational advances, and economic gains
that have never been paralleled in the history of all
the world.
Blessings require gener
osity
generosity
The United States of America, with Kansas at its
heart, has become the richest and most powerful
nation ever in the history of the world. Not ancient
Greece or Rome at their apex, not the British Empire at the height of its power, nor any Middle Eastern entity, nor any power from the Far East, exceeds
the height and depth and breath of this modern
empire.
But to what end? To what end? “To whom much
has been given, much is required.” We who have
been so amazingly blessed are to be reminded that
we are called to be good and generous stewards of
these gifts. To provide food for the poor, care for
the sick, compassion for the elderly and justice for
the weakest among us is the minimal standard
against which we will be judged. A national health
care plan is actually too small an accomplishment
Photo by Duke DuTeil
Bishop Dean Wolfe preaches from the pulpit of the
Washington National Cathedral on Aug. 2.
for people who have been so richly blessed. But if
we were to provide all these things and fail to offer
Christ to those desperate for the true bread of life,
we would have failed our forefathers and mothers
who knew dearly the preciousness of that bread come
down from heaven.
Kansas Episcopalians endure
For 150 years, Episcopalians in Kansas have endured droughts and pestilence, tornadoes and floods,
searing heat and freezing cold, economic depression
and recessions great and small. We’ve overcome
indifference, endured scandal, triumphed over enemies foreign and domestic, risen above theological
disagreement, outlasted mediocre leadership,
bridged racial and political divides, and struggled
against fundamentalisms of all every sort, any one
of which could have bested us and thwarted our work
for Christ at the heart of our nation. But God had a
purpose for us! God had a reason for us to be. And I
believe God has a purpose for all of us, for every
single one of us!
Just after I had been elected the Bishop of Kansas, I was in a small coffee shop outside Coffeyville,
Kan. I was in my full episcopal glory, wearing a dark
suit, purple shirt and a very large cross given to me
by my former parishioners from Dallas, Texas. The
waitress asked me for my order, and after looking at
me said, “My, that is some kind of cross!” And I
said, “Well, thank you, ma’am.” And then, trying to
offer some kind of explanation, I added, “You see,
I’m the Episcopal Bishop of Kansas.” To which she
looked over her glasses and said, “Well, la-dee-da!”
There haven’t been a lot of “la-dee-da” moments
in the Episcopal Church in recent years, not in Kansas and not in Washington, D.C. In recent years, our
critics have been more vociferous than our defenders. But I believe the best years of this church are
not behind us but in front of us, and this tradition is
too precious, and too important, to let it go.
Yes, our appetites can betray us. That we tend to
fill our holy hungers with bread that perishes while
starving for the true bread of life is one of the great
paradoxes of this life. But in the end our appetites
can save us, too, because in them we’ve been given
a desire for the sacred things that are essential for
our life and our salvation. God endows us with a
hunger for the holy, and through God’s Son, we are
truly fed. Y
July/August 2009 • The Harvest • 3
Photo by Barry Worley
Worshippers gather in the new nave at St. David’s, Topeka, before the start of the 8 a.m. service Aug. 16.
Services that weekend were the first in the new space.
Chur
Churcch: Altar includes stone
from Wales cathedral
Continued from page 1
here, after all we’ve had to accomplish. It’s good to be back.”
Eucharist minister Anne Hesse
said she felt “emotional, happy,
joyous” and called the return to a
permanent worship space “a sigh
of relief.”
A light-f
illed na
light-filled
navve
The new church is nothing like
the old one, in part because it’s
not in the same location. The
church and the parish hall have
flip-flopped spaces. People now
enter the worship space directly
from the parking lot on the west
side of the property, walking
through doors in a 70-foot, crosstopped tower. The parish hall
takes over space on the east side,
occupying the footprint of the old
nave.
The 7,500-square-foot new
nave is flooded with light, filtered
through opaque panels that also
help control temperature fluctuations.
There is seating for 350 people
in pew chairs that face three sides
of the altar, a square structure that
sits atop a round chancel platform.
The altar top is made from the
four corners of the large altar in
worshipped for
the old church, each
nearly a year right
inscribed with a
after the fire.
Greek cross.
The church has
In the center is a
purchased an organ
stone from St.
from an Episcopal
David’s Cathedral in
church in ConnectiWales. It was supcut to replace the
posed to be part of
one lost in the fire.
the original 1961 alLike the one lost in
tar but instead ended
the fire, it was built
up in a seldom-used
by Helmuth Wolff,
closet. It was disan organ builder in
covered after the
fire and now is in- A T-shirt describes Quebec, Canada,
and also is a tracker,
cluded in the altar as being back home.
meaning it operates
a link to the cathedral namesake of the parish’s pa- with mechanical levers and pulleys, not with electronics.
tron saint.
Wolff is refurbishing the instruA 15-foot statue of Christus
Rex, or Christ the King — which ment and will be on hand when it
has been St. David’s signature is delivered in late September.
since the old church was built in After two weeks to install it and
1961 — has been fully restored another two weeks to voice the
and now hangs off to one side be- pipes, it will be ready to accomhind the altar area. A new tracker pany congregational singing.
The construction schedule
organ still to be installed will sit
called for the new parish hall to
opposite it.
be finished Sept. 4. It will be
Gif
om the TTemple
emple
Giftt fr
from
nearly twice as large as the nave
In place of a traditional lectern and will feature room to gather the
stands a wooden bimah, or Jew- congregation for events, along
ish reading desk, that is decorated with a large kitchen.
with small, carved stars of David.
The old parish hall wing alIt was a gift from nearby Temple ready is undergoing renovations
Beth Shalom, where St. David’s to turn it into new parish offices
A construction worker secures the Christus Rex statue to the
wall in the newly rebuilt St. David’s, Topeka.
Christus Rex comes home
A
15-foot statue of
Christ known as the
Christus Rex —
Christ the King — that suffered significant damage in
the St. David’s arson fire has
been fully restored and newly
installed.
It was hoisted into place
by four men using a hydraulic lift on July 25, while final
construction took place on
the new church building
The statue had become the
parish’s signature, hanging
prominently behind the massive altar in the church built
in 1961. It was created by
artist Lester Raymer of
Lindsborg, Kan.
and a choir room. That section
was the first structure to house the
St. David’s congregation, which
was founded in 1952.
Davidson said the $5.5 million
price tag for the complete project
is being paid largely by the $4.2
million in insurance proceeds.
After it was removed from
the church in January 2007, the
metal work restoration was
done by Jim Bass of Topeka.
Almost all the colored mosaic tiles that decorated the
statue were damaged by the
fire’s extreme heat.
The 15 tile panels were recreated by Jenta Unruh, a
Lindsborg artist, using photographs and Raymer’s original
drawings.
The drawings called for
many of the sections to be
edged in gold tiles, but
Raymer’s work didn’t include
that. Unruh added the gold
tiles to her restoration.
— Melodie Woerman Y
The congregation pledged $1.1
million in a capital campaign, with
more than half that already in
hand. A gift from the Diocese of
Kansas, along with donations
from parishes and individuals
across the diocese, will cover the
remaining costs. Y
Canon to the ordinary steps down, plans to write a book
T
he
Rev.
Mary
She plans to write a book
Siegmund has anabout the ministry of canons
nounced that she is
to the ordinary, who are the
stepping down as Canon to the
primary clergy assistants to diOrdinary for the Episcopal
ocesan bishops. That’s the
Diocese of Kansas, a post she
book she wishes she’d had
has held since March 2006.
when she took the job and one
Her last day in the office
her fellow canons across the
was Aug. 31, although she will
country have championed, she
finalize some work on two onsaid, noting that talks with
going projects during SeptemChurch Publishing about the
The Rev.
ber.
project are very encouraging.
Mary Siegmund
After more than three years
Bishop Dean Wolfe said he
of a grueling schedule that had her logging respects Siegmund’s desire to take this new
thousands of miles on the road, Siegmund direction. “Mary has served wonderfully
said after some time to relax and play with and well and now has new goals for her
a new grandchild, she wants to take her ministry,” he said.
ministry in a new direction.
He praised her work with parishes
searching for new rectors, noting her work
has resulted in very successful leadership
choices for those congregations. “She also
has been instrumental in helping us focus
on the discernment process for Holy Orders and the renewal of the Kansas School
for Ministry,” he said, “and she has responded with great pastoral sensitivity to a
number of difficult situations with clergy
and their families.”
Siegmund said, “I am a big supporter of
this bishop and this diocese. I have enjoyed
my work in the field tremendously, especially collaborating with parish rectors and
working with congregations in their search
processes.”
Bishop Wolfe said, “Mary has been
embraced by people with whom she has
worked most closely. She is deeply respected.”
He also noted the long hours Siegmund
and other members of the diocesan staff put
in, and the toll that takes. “We have asked
a tremendous amount of the canon in terms
of hours spent,” he said. “There is a sacrificial quality to the work of those on our
diocesan staff. These are not just jobs, but
true callings. “
Bishop Wolfe said a process is underway to examine the current job description
and to call a new canon.
“Mary leaves a good foundation upon
which a new canon will build,” he said,
“and I am excited about the fresh possibilities that lie ahead for both Mary and
the diocese.” Y
Film on U.S. sla
slavver
eryy se
sett Chur
omen speak
er will
Churcch W
Women
speaker
for Wic
hita screening
Wichita
discuss Celtic w
omen saints
women
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
S
t. James’, Wichita, will be
one site in September where
an Episcopalian will discuss her documentary film that
explores the role her New England
family played in the slave trade.
“Traces of the Trade,” an
Emmy-nominated documentary,
will be screened in Wichita as part
of the Tallgrass Film Festival on
Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Warren
Theatre-West, 9150 W. 21st St.
Tickets are $9 ($7 for seniors
and students).
St. James’ is hosting a potluck
supper on Sept. 16 with filmmaker
Katrina Browne, herself an Episcopalian, and the film’s producer,
Juanita Brown.
Browne began in 2001 to trace
the northern United States’ role in
the slave trade and that of her family — the DeWolfs of Rhode Island — in it. She discovered that
they were the largest slave-trading family in early America.
Over three generations, from
1769 to 1820, 47 ships brought
more than 10,000 Africans to the
United States as slaves, helping to
build the family’s fortunes.
Members of the family later
included two Episcopal bishops:
Mark Anthony deWolfe Howe,
the first bishop of the Diocese of
Central Pennsylvania (18711895) and James DeWolf Perry,
the seventh bishop of Rhode Island (1911-1946). Perry also
served as Presiding Bishop of the
Episcopal Church in the 1930s.
Early screenings of the film at
the 2006 General Convention
helped lead to the passage of a
number of resolutions about the
church and racism.
In one the Episcopal Church
apologized for its complicity in
the slave trade and the injury
caused by it and its aftermath and
called on dioceses to document
and study their own complicity.
Kansas no
nott immune
Jay Price, a professor of his-
PUBLIC EVENTS
Sept. 16
6:30 p.m., St. James, 3750
E. Douglas. A community
potluck, followed by a
panel discussion featuring
Katrina Browne
Sept. 17
7 p.m. Warren-West, 9150
W. 21st St. Screening of
“Traces of the Trade,”
followed by a panel
discussion with the filmmaker and area historians
tory at Wichita State University
and a member of St. James, said
Kansans often feel they are immune from these discussions,
since the state was founded in
opposition to slavery.
But they’d be wrong if they
think Kansas has always supported political and civil liberties
for African-Americans.
“Historic events such as Brown
v. Board of Education and the
Dockum sit-in tell us otherwise,”
he said.
In the Brown case, filed against
the Topeka school board, the U.S.
Supreme Court ordered schools
to be desegregated. Wichita’s
Dockum Drugstore was the site in
July 1958 of the first organized
lunch-counter sit-in in the U.S. for
the purpose of integrating a segregated establishment.
Film ge
ts critical praise
gets
“Traces of the Trade” recently
was nominated for an Emmy in
Research. It had aired on PBS as
part of public broadcasting’s
“POV” documentary series.
It also was screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in
January 2008, one of only 16 of
953 documentaries selected.
For more information about
the Wichita screening, contact
Price at (316) 978-7792 or
jay.price@wsu.edu.
Mary Frances Schjonberg of
Episcopal Life Online also contributed to this report. Y
Duk
e pr
of’s address will ffocus
ocus
Duke
prof’s
on spirituality and the TTrinity
rinity
Annual Tocher Lecture set for Sept. 25
N
oted professor and author
Dr. Lauren Winner, Assistant Professor of
Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School, will deliver the
2009 Tocher Lecture Friday, Sept.
25 at 7 p.m. at St. James’, 3750
E. Douglas in Wichita. The event
is free and open to the public.
Her topic will be “God with
Us: the Trinity and Christian Spirituality.” Winner intends to explore
the practical ramifications of the
doctrine of the Trinity and what
the confession of a distinctly
Trinitarian faith means for one’s
experience of worship, prayer and
service to the world.
Winner is author of Real Sex:
the Naked Truth about Chastity
(2006), Mudhouse Sabbath: an
Invitation to a Life of Spiritual
Disciplines (2003) and Girl Meets
God: a Memoir (2002).
She has been a Visiting Fellow
at Princeton University’s Center
for the Study of Religion, has appeared on the PBS show “Religion
& Ethics Newsweekly,” and travels extensively as a lecturer. More
information about Winner is available at her website, www.
laurenwinner.net.
The Tocher Lecture is named
for the Rev. George Tocher, a
priest who served in the Diocese
of Kansas in the 1960s and 1970s.
An endowment in his name is designated for clergy continuing education. Y
Annual gathering to be Oct. 3 in Overland Park
T
he annual gathering of
Earle is a writer, poet and rethe Episcopal Church
treat leader, as well as an EpisWomen of the Diocese
copal priest. Her ministry foof Kansas will take place Saturcuses on spiritual direction, conday, Oct. 3 at St. Thomas the
templative prayer and interfaith
Apostle Church, 12251 Antioch
dialogue.
in Overland Park.
Her most recent book, Days
The guest speaker will be the
of Grace: Meditations and
Rev. Mary C. Earle, a member
Practices for Living with Illness,
of the associated faculty at the
was just published by
Episcopal Seminary of the
Morehouse Publishing. The
Southwest in Austin, Texas, and
meditations are inspired by the
Author in Residence at The
Psalms and are accompanied by
Workshop, a ministry of St.
suggested spiritual practices.
Mark’s Episcopal Church in San
She is the author of a number
Antonio.
of other books on spiritual pracThe Rev. Mary Earle
She will make a presentation
tices and spiritual perspectives
on “Women Celtic Saints.”
on coping with illnesses.
Registration is at 9 a.m., followed by Earle’s
In September 2003 Earle readdress, worship, lunch and the annual business ceived the Durstan R. McDonald Award for Excelmeeting. Earle also will close the day’s activities lence in Teaching by the Episcopal Theological
at 3 p.m.
Seminary of the Southwest. In February 2010 she
The cost to attend the gathering is $20, and will be teaching a seven week online course for the
childcare will be available with prior arrange- seminary, “Holy Companions: Spiritual Practices
ments.
from the Celtic Saints.”
Registration flyers have been mailed to all parMore information on Earle and her ministry is
ish offices.
on her website, www.marycearle.org. Y
New diocesan safe church policy
adopted by Council of Trustees
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
T
he Council of Trustees at
its May meeting adopted
a new policy for the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas that
seeks to prevent child sexual
abuse and to help parishes spot
instances when it might occur.
The policy includes guidelines for parish leaders and
people who work with children
and youth, and it identifies those
who must undergo background
checks as well as special training in spotting child sexual abuse
or adult sexual exploitation.
A copy of the policy was sent
by mail to every clergyperson responsible for a parish in the diocese or to the senior warden in
parishes without clergy leadership. It also is posted on the diocesan website, www.episcopalks.org, under the “Resources”
tab.
Copies of the policy, notably
the section having to do with alleged sexual misconduct, are required to be posted in each
church.
Bac
kgr
ound cchec
hec
ks
Back
ground
hecks
The policy calls for two levels of background checks for
people working with children in
parishes. Parish employees who
work directly with children
(those 12 and under) or youth
(those 18 or younger) must undergo an extensive background
check through the diocese’s provider, Oxford Document services.
All other parish employees, as
well as volunteers who work
regularly and directly with children and youth, must undergo a
SUMMARY OF POLICY GUIDELINES
Parish children/youth employees: Oxford background check
and Safeguarding God’s Children in-person training.
Other parish employees and regular child/youth volunteers:
Congregational background check and online SGC training
Sunday school teachers and occasional child/youth volunteers: Parish screening and SGC, either in-person or online
Other parish lay leaders: SGC, either in-person or online
congregational background
screening that looks for a criminal record, credit history and any
sexual offenses.
This can be done at a lower
cost through LifeWay, a Christian
resource retailer affiliated with
the Southern Baptist Convention
that provides screenings of this
nature.
The parish is to pay the costs
of both types of checks.
Sunday school teachers and
those who work occasionally
with children and youth (normally, three or fewer times a
year) do not have to undergo a
background check but must supply references that will be
checked by the parish, and undergo an interview with the rector or the children’s or youth ministry director.
In addition, all volunteers
working with children and youth
must be known in the parish for
at least six months before they
begin their work.
Training also mandat
ed
mandated
Diocesan Safeguarding God’s
Children training also is required
for all parish employees and for
volunteers who work regularly
with children and youth. Training events are scheduled periodically around the diocese throughout the year. The new policy re-
quires that training take place
within six months.
Sunday school teachers and
occasional volunteers can take
the training online — requiring
about 45 minutes — with a follow-up discussion with the rector or ministry director.
Other lay leaders in parishes,
including senior and junior wardens, Eucharistic visitors, pastoral visitors, Stephen ministers,
and mentors in the Education for
Ministry program also are required to be trained and can use
the online option.
Online or in-person training
must be completed within six
months.
Misconduct pr
ocedures
procedures
The new policy also spells out
the procedures to be followed
when an allegation of sexual misconduct is made against anyone
“placed in positions of trust by
the church,” normally members
of the clergy.
It calls for the bishop to appoint an investigator to look into
the matter and a response team
to attend to the needs of the person making the allegation. Pastoral care is to be provided to all
parties. From there, canons governing the discipline of clergy
who have been accused of misconduct also come into play. Y
Cla
er cchur
hur
or
k: ffeeds
eeds the hungr
Clayy Cent
Center
hurcch does the Lord’s w
wor
ork:
hungryy
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
WHAT IS
HARVESTERS?
M
embers of St. Paul’s,
Clay Center, have
turned a concern for
kids at the local swimming pool
into a major program of feeding
hungry children in their community. And thanks to the efforts of
the Harvesters food bank in Kansas City, their efforts now have
expanded to help feed adults.
Two years ago Rhonda Lloyd,
a parish member who serves as
manager of the local pool, noticed
that the only thing youngsters
could purchase during long afternoons swimming was candy.
She mentioned that to her sister and fellow parishioner,
Carolyn Garwood, and together
they organized what Garwood
called “Episcopal hot dogs.” They
served hot dogs, along with chips
and some juice, free of charge one
Thursday a month at 4 p.m., basing their operations at the shelter
house next door to the pool.
Harvesters is a food bank,
a centralized food collection
and distribution facility that
provides food and household
products to agencies serving
people in need. It is located in
Kansas City, Mo.
Among the programs it
offers are those utilized by St.
Paul’s, Clay Center:
BackSnack provides a
backpack filled with nutritious,
child-friendly
food
for
schoolchildren to take home at
the end of the week.
Kids Cafe provides
nutritious meals for children
after school and during the
summer.
Mobile Food Pantry
involves the direct delivery of
fresh produce and other foods
on a regular basis to
designated agencies around
Greater Kansas City.
150 kids ffor
or lunc
h
lunch
Dozens of kids responded that
first summer, which prompted the
parish to offer it again in 2008,
this time substituting tacos for hot
dogs and providing the substantial snack every two weeks instead
of once a month.
The numbers continued to
grow to as many as 150 children
every time they served.
And that got folks at the 90member parish thinking. “We
thought there ought to be more
that we could do,” said parish
member Donna Long. So some
people contacted Harvesters to
learn about the BackSnack program that had been spreading
across the Diocese of Kansas,
which provides a weekend of
snacks to needy elementary children in ready-to-eat packages.
Garwood said principals in city
schools were thrilled to have this
service, and soon St. Paul’s was
distributing weekend snacks for
about 150 students.
Kids ge
h
gett daily lunc
lunch
But those long lines for tacos
Photo courtesy St. Paul’s, Clay Center
Members of St. Paul’s, Clay Center (standing behind table) serve ready-to-eat lunches to youngsters
participating in the Kids Cafe program. The church helped start the effort this summer to provide lunch
daily to any child in town who needed one, in conjunctino with the Harvesters food bank.
at the swimming pool got parishioners thinking again. “There had
to be more we could do in the
summer, not just every two
weeks,” Long said.
And then they heard about yet
another Harvesters’ program,
Kids Café, which provides prepackaged lunches for children
every weekday throughout the
summer.
Long and fellow parishioner
Gary Griffiths asked Harvesters to
bring the effort to Clay Center,
and they found a volunteer coordinator in another parishioner,
Sandy Ruthstrom. Long and
Griffiths secured a grant from the
Clay County Trust to pay
Ruthstrom a modest stipend, and
they set out to find the 50 volunteers needed.
More than 30 fellow members
We’re doing the Lord’s work. I believe this
is something we’ve been called to do.
— Donna Long, St. Paul’s, Clay Center
of St. Paul’s responded, and augmented with community volunteers the program opened from the
time school was out, in the same
shelter house near the pool where
parishioners serve tacos.
Long said they served any
child under age 18 who stopped
by, numbering usually 40 to 50 a
day. “A lot of kids got a healthy
lunch all summer long,” she said.
Kids Café didn’t put the taco
servers out of business, though,
since by late afternoon swimmers
still craved a snack. That meant
that twice a month St. Paul’s members were feeding up to 50 kids at
lunch and another 150 at 4 p.m.
Fruit and vveggies
eggies ffor
or adults
And then Harvesters came to
St. Paul’s with yet another proposal to feed the hungry. The Rural Mobile Food Pantry would
bring a refrigerated truck from the
food bank warehouse in Kansas
City the 140 miles to Clay Center
to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to augment the diets of
people in the county, no questions
asked. A local grocery store provided distribution space.
The first monthly distributed
food to 134 households, which
will feed the 370 people in those
households.
Long said members of her parish have responded naturally to
the call to help feed the hungry.
“We’re doing the Lord’s work,”
she said. “I believe this is something we’ve been called to do.”
She said it gives members a
good feeling, too, and it’s provided them a concrete mission.
“I can’t tell you how good it
feels to do this for our community,” she said. “We are thrilled to
be able to provide this food. Our
mission is to provide food wherever it’s needed in our community.” Y
PB: October appearances set for Topeka, Mission
Continued from page 1
701 SW 8th, in Topeka.
All in the diocese are invited to attend
this service, which will be the culmination
of a yearlong sesquicentennial celebration
of the founding of the diocese in 1859.
The presiding bishop also will attend a
reception in the cathedral’s Great Hall after the service, with photo opportunities
available.
The presiding bishop also will offer a
keynote address to clergy and convention
delegates at 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23 during
the business portion of convention.
That will take place in the Sunflower
Ballroom of the Maner Conference Center, 17th and Topeka Blvd., in Topeka.
Members of the public who wish to attend
this may do so, with special visitor seating
provided.
Bishop Jefferts Schori will answer questions after Friday night’s convention banquet, also in the Sunflower Ballroom. Dinner tickets for non-delegates are available
for $25 from the diocesan office.
She also will preach at two services on
Sunday morning at St. Michael and All
Angels, 6630 Nall Ave., in Mission, a Kansas City suburb. Services times there are
8:45 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.; she also will
speak at a forum after the later service.
Elect
ed in 2006
Elected
Bishop Jefferts Schori was elected presiding bishop in Columbus, Ohio, during
General Convention in 2006. She took office Nov. 1 of that year. She previously had
spent six years as Bishop of Nevada. Before her ordination to the priesthood in
1994, she was an oceanographer, and she
remains an active, instrument-rated pilot.
PRESIDING BISHOP JEFFERTS SCHORI IN KANSAS
Friday, Oct. 23, Maner Conference Center, Capitol Plaza Hotel, Topeka
9 a.m.– Keynote address
8:30 p.m. – Q&A after dinner ($25 for banquet tickets)
Saturday, Oct. 24, Grace Cathedral, Topeka
10:45 a.m. – Convention Eucharist (celebrant and preacher)
Sunday, Oct. 25, St. Michael and All Angels, Mission
8:45 and 10:45 a.m. – Eucharists, with forum after late service
As presiding bishop, she serves as chief
pastor to the Episcopal Church’s 2.4 million members in 110 dioceses in 16 countries.
Ho
ooms going fast
Hottel rrooms
The block of hotel rooms reserved at the
Capitol Plaza Hotel next door to the Maner
Conference Center are going fast, according to diocesan convention coordinator
Michele Moss.
The special convention rate of $99 for
double occupancy is guaranteed until Oct.
1, if rooms are still available at that time.
Moss encouraged people to book early,
with the possibility that more rooms might
be available if the demand is heavy.
Reservations can be made directly with
the hotel by calling (800) 579-7937 and
using booking code ED09. Y
Sherry
Freeman
(center) and
her son, Shawn
(left), await the
groundbreaking
on the Habitat
for Humanity
house they will
buy and which
they will help
build. At right is
Habitat
volunteer Ken
White.
Photo by the
Rev. Jerry
Adinolfi
Construction tto
o star
startt
soon on Cof
Cofffeyville
Habitat house
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
T
he dream of having the
entire Diocese of Kansas
help build a house in
Coffeyville through Habitat for
Humanity soon will become a
reality. Groundbreaking on the
house took place Aug. 15, and
construction likely will start in
early September.
At the special ceremony, the
Very Rev. Jerry Adinolfi, rector
of St. Paul’s, Coffeyville,
blessed the site of the new home
for Sherry Freeman and her son,
Shawn, the partner family who
will help build the house and
purchase it with a no-interest
loan from the local Habitat
chapter.
Char DeWitt, diocesan director of development and stewardship, also participated. DeWitt
helped spearhead efforts to raise
the money necessary to cover
the costs of construction, which
will amount to about $45,000.
Generous donations from parishes and individuals across the
diocese resulted in contributions
of more than $60,000.
Plans call for the extra diocesan money to be pooled with
payments by other Habitat
homeowners in the Coffeyville
area to finance construction of
another house.
Joe Miller, a member of St.
Paul’s, Coffeyville, who is liaison to the diocese for this
project, also participated in the
ceremony, which was attended
by Coffeyville’s mayor and
members of the local Chamber
of Commerce.
Also on hand were members
of the family of Stephen Rench,
who originally had owned the
property on which the Habitat
house will be built. The family
donated the lot and paid to have
the existing structure removed,
making way for construction.
One other piece of the construction puzzle was solved
when a local Coffeyville contractor, Jerry Marnell, volunteered to be the project superintendent. He had overseen construction of a previous Habitat
house in Coffeyville and will
TO VOLUNTEER
Information on volunteering will be
posted on the diocesan website,
www.episcopal-ks.org/habitat
handle duties on the Freeman
house as well.
Plenty of w
or
k
wor
ork
Miller said as soon as a work
plan is designed, volunteers will
be called on to help build the
house.
Some of that work will require people with some skills,
he said, but there are lots of jobs
that can be done by anyone who
wants to volunteer.
Children under 16 are welcome, too, but they can’t be anywhere near power tools.
He said anyone who can
“hammer, nail, hold, carry, sand,
paint, clean up trash on the job
site and provide food for volunteers” will be put to work.
Lisa Adams, co-chair of the
diocesan Outreach and Ministry
Committee, said her group will
be working with diocesan officials to coordinate volunteers
once a schedule has been developed.
Miller said that work likely
will be concentrated on Fridays
and Saturdays, with Saturday
being the ideal day. And if it
rains, work is postponed. Crews
of about 10-12 people work
best, he said.
Information about volunteer
opportunities will be posted on
the diocesan website once needs
are known.
Two yyear
ear
earss of plans
For two years Bishop Dean
Wolfe and other leaders in the
diocese have been making plans
to build a Habitat house in
Coffeyville, the scene of massive flooding in June 2007 that
wiped out nearly 600 homes and
left the area badly in need of affordable housing.
The project is being built in
part as an ongoing remembrance
of the 150th anniversary of the
founding of the diocese, on Aug.
12, 1859. Y
Kansas to K
Three groups of Kansans traveled this sum
to the people of Kenya. Here are some o
Text by Melodie Woerman
Submitted photos
Medical team
A variety of medical
professionals — doctors of
many specialties, dentists,
nurses, a pharmacist — 23 in
all, spent a week providing
medical treatment to 785
patients in Kenya.
Leading that team was
Deacon Steve Segebrecht, an
otolaryngologist from
Lawrence.
They saw patients among
the Masai warrior tribe, as
well as residents of Maai
Mahiu, a town of 30,000
people on the AIDS highway
between Nairobi and
Kampala, Uganda. As many
as 30 percent of the residents
are HIV-positive, and an
orphanage there is filled with
those whose parents died of
AIDS.
One of the people the team
saw was Rahab.
Rahab lost two daughters
to AIDS and another to
suicide, leaving her to raise
eight grandchildren on her
own. Feeling ill, she made
her way to the Kansans’
clinic. There she was diagnosed with “morbid hypertension” — blood pressure so
high that Segebrecht said it
could have killed her at any
moment.
When more Kansans
arrived as part of a development team (see accompanying information), they were
able to take her to a hospital
in nearby Kijabe, where she
received the medication she
needed to get her blood
pressure under control.
Alice Johnston, part of the
development team, had
brought with her prayer
shawls made by people in her
home parish, St. David’s,
Rahab, a Kenyan woman aided by Kansas doctors, wears a prayer shawl made by St. David’s
Dentist Dr. Patrick Lucaci (left) and dental student Anne Atha,
a member of Grace Cathedral, examine the teeth of a Kenyan
man as part of the Kansas medical mission team.
Topeka. As the shawls were
crafted, prayers were said
over them, knowing they
would be given to people in
need of comfort.
Johnston presented one
of the shawls to Rahab,
along with the St. David’s
prayer translated into
Swahili.
She wrapped it around
herself, Johnston said,
stunned to receive the gift
and the accompanying
prayers from strangers half
a world away.
to Kenya
The Kansas
college team
(including the
Rev. Craig
Loya, intern
Kiera Evans
and five
students)
pause with
Kenyan
workers in
front of Ngeya
Primary
School in
Maai Mahiu,
where they
replaced a dirt
floor with
concrete.
eled this summer to minister
e are some of their stories.
College team
Following an initial trip of
Kansas college students to Kenya
two years ago, Campus Missioner
the Rev. Craig Loya took five
students and one campus intern
back to Kenya this summer to
provide some much-needed work
in aid of children.
The team spent three days at the
Ngeya School in Maai Mahiu. It’s
the main primary school in town
serving about 2,000 students,
crammed into classrooms serving up
to 100 students at a time.
The need was to replace dirt
floors in the classrooms with concrete ones, and the Kansas students
helped finish one classroom.
They then took their efforts to the
nearby Good Shepherd Orphanage,
where a development team from
Kansas last summer planted a garden to help provide nutritious food
for the children living there.
The orphanage houses as many
as 25 children, most of whom either
College
student
Alexandra
Connors plants
spinach in the
garden started
last year by the
Kansas
development
team to
enhance the
diet of children
at the Good
Shepherd
Orphanage.
lost parents to AIDS or whose
families are no longer able to
care for them.
The Kansas college team
Bill Hargrove (in cap,
back row, far right)
stands with students
from the Ngeya School
and the compost pile
started there to help
fertilize a community
garden. Fresh
vegetables from the
garden mean the
students now eat more
than just rice and
beans as they did
before the garden was
planted. It now provides
tomatoes, greens,
onions and potatoes.
ayer shawl made by St. David’s, Topeka.
Development team
A second annual trip to
Kenya by a group of agricultural development experts
expanded work in community
gardens, nutrition education
and small business development.
Community gardens had
been planted last year — one
at Ngeya School, another at
the Good Shepherd Orphanage and another, “Shosho
Shamba,” or Grandmothers’
Garden, in Maai Mahiu.
The school garden has
produced a bountiful crop of
vegetables, meaning students
no longer have to eat only
beans and rice but have
access to healthy fresh
planted kale and spinach to
continue to enhance the diets
of the children who live in the
orphanage.
produce. Students in the
school’s Environmental Club
help tend a large compost
pile to fertilize their garden.
Those on the trip observed
that the children there were
noticeably healthier, thanks
to the produce that augments
the diet of the children living
there.
The team also started a
compost pile and drip garden
to aid that garden.
Grandmothers who are
raising grandchildren left
orphaned by AIDS tend a
large garden to provide lowcost, nutritious food to help
them feed their families.
Nutrition experts on the
team worked with school
staff to create improved
menus for the school children
and assisted the grandmoth-
ers in ongoing menu planning
to maximum the food available to them.
The team was able to
deliver four electric sewing
machines to the Maliki
Moms, a group of mothers
who make canvas shopping
bags. Funding for two of the
machines was provided by St.
David’s, Topeka.
Previously all the sewing
was done on machines
powered by foot treadles.
The women are mothers of
disabled children, who
traditionally are shunned by
Kenyan culture and kept
away from school. “Maliki”
means “angel” in Swahili,
and these women are considered angels for caring for
their disabled children.
While their mothers sew
Alice Johnston (right) of St. David’s, Topeka, shows a woman
the electric sewing machine the parish provided to replace a
treadle machine. The sewers, women who care for disabled
children, use the machines to make canvas shopping bags.
products to sell to support
them, the children attend
school and are allowed a
greater sense of personal
development.
Bill Hargrove, Alice
Johnston, Steve Segebrecht,
Craig Loya and Jan Saab of
the Kansas to Kenya teams
contributed to these stories.
Around the diocese
St. John’s, Abilene encouraged members “Going Green in
Abilene” by participating in
communitywide curbside recycling.
Epiphany, Independence
women in the St. Martha’s Guild
have added jewelry and Prayer
Books to their gift shop in the parish hall.
Trinity, Arkansas City distributed multi-colored pinwheels
to children on Pentecost, using
their flame-painted blades to symbolize ’s tongues of flame.
St. Timothy’s, Iola is helping
outfit local elementary students
going back to school by stuffing
and delivering backpacks.
St. Paul’s, Clay Center has
begun using nametags for all
members on Sunday morning to
make the ministry of greeting
newcomers easier. That was just
one bit of advice the parish is using from its participation in this
spring’s “Magnetic Church” conference sponsored by the diocese.
St. Paul’s, Coffeyville member Bev Winston offers helpful information as a parish nurse in the
monthly newsletter, including a
recent checklist to help people
make the most of doctor visits.
St. Andrew’s, Derby offered
Vacation Bible School for the first
time in several years. The evening
program offered educational opportunities for a week in July for
all ages, including adults.
St. Martin’s, Edwardsville
has a new organ, replacing the previous 40-year-old model that no
longer could be repaired. Deacon
Deborah Burns made contact with
an employee of Reuter Organ
Company in Lawrence, who supplied the new-to-them Allen
model electronic instrument.
Trinity, El Dorado celebrated
its 120th anniversary with two
special service on Trinity Sunday,
June 7, that used the 1789 Book
of Common Prayer, which was the
version that would have been used
by at the parish’s founding.
St. Andrew’s, Emporia continued to offer its Wednesday
evening Eucharist and supper
group through the summer. It’s
geared to students at nearby Emporia State University but has attracted parishioners, too.
St. Thomas, Holton collects
canned food every month for distribution by the local county food
bank.
Covenant, Junction City has
refurbished its Children’s Room
with new paint and carpet. Painting was done by Jeremy Sutton,
grandson of parishioner Lil Drew.
St. Paul’s, Kansas City hosted
a parish meeting July 19, followed
by a potluck lunch featuring favorite foods and parish fellowship.
St. Margaret’s, Lawrence has
monthly lunch groups for men and
women. The informal gatherings
in area restaurants featured fellowship with no reservations required.
Trinity, Lawrence participated in a virtual food drive to
help restock area pantries, including the Trinity Interfaith Food
Pantry. Online financial contributions allowed pantries to purchase
food at steeply discounted prices
from the Harvesters food bank in
Kansas City, making donations go
even farther.
St. Paul’s, Leavenworth had
its First Annual BBQ Supper this
summer, featured slow-cooked
pulled pork (with homemade dry
rub and barbecue sauce) and a
variety of desserts. The event
raised more than $1,300.
St. Paul’s, Manhattan dedicated its new Lindsey Memorial
Foyer in May. The new construction allows the building to be fully
accessible, including an elevator
to the parish hall in the basement.
St. Michael’s, Mission Outreach Commission has awarded
$7,600 to programs that applied
for grants. Seven programs that
focused on the needs of children
received funding, including local
services and outreach in Haiti and
Kenya.
St. Matthew’s, Newton asked
Episcopal shield stickers raise
funds for St. David’s rebuilding
M
embers of St. David’s, Topeka, are hoping to raise
additional funds for the parish rebuilding project while offering
Episcopalians the chance to show
some church pride.
They are selling round vinyl
stickers, 4 inches in diameter, with
the Episcopal shield in the center
surrounded by the words “Faithful Episcopalian.”
The removable stickers adhere
to the inside of glass surfaces with
static cling and are suitable for the
inside of car or building windows
They sell for $5 each, plus 44
cents for postage, if they are to be
mailed.
Checks should be sent to the
St. David’s church office at 2033
SW McAlister, Topeka, KS
66604. Please indicate the number of stickers being ordered and
to whom they should be mailed.
More information about the
stickers is available by calling the
St. David’s office at (785) 2725144. Y
Photo courtesy St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids
Eight baptisms in Blue Rapids
Eight people were baptized June 21 at St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids, during the annual visitation by
Bishop Dean Wolfe. They were presented by the parish’s new vicar, the Rev. Art Rathbun.
They are (from left) Kinsley Claycamp (held by her mother, Kelly), MacKenzie Dornbusch, Christian
Martin, Raegan Beckley, Bishop Wolfe, Rhys Martin, Dakota Tormondson, Miranda Tormondson,
Jennifer Beckman and Rathbun.
Rathbun, who was named vicar on May 1, said these eight people, along with two people baptized
earlier this spring and other half dozen still preparing, have been associated with the congregation
for some time but never were baptized.
He said, “We bought 100 baptismal candles, and the only way to get rid of them is to have 100
baptisms.” Bishop Wolfe said, “It is wonderful to have one or two baptisms, but to have eight is
certainly awesome and a glorious day.”
The June baptisms represent a nearly 20 percent increase in membership for St. Mark’s, which
reported 46 members at the end of 2008. Y
members for their favorite hymns,
to be incorporated into worship in
the summer months.
St. Aidan’s, Olathe celebrated
the graduation this spring from
Education for Ministry of two
members, who join six other
graduates in the parish.
Grace, Ottawa has ordered a
banner to help advertise the parish. It will be placed on the corner of Fifth and Locust to help
make the church more visible to
those who pass by.
St. Thomas, Overland Park
again is helping collect school
supplies for students at
Commanche Elementary School.
A list of needed supplies was
posted, making shopping easier.
A packing party took place in late
July, so items could be delivered
to the school in plenty of time for
student use.
St. John’s, Parsons celebrated
its 135th anniversary Aug. 29-30
with a stained glass tour and open
house on Saturday and confirmation and a visitation by Bishop
Wolfe on Sunday, followed by a
catered lunch.
Epiphany, Sedan asked parishioners to help with needed donations to the local food pantry by
placing food items and household
supplies in a specially designated
basket in church.
St. Luke’s, Shawnee hosts
gardening members of the congregation on the third Saturday of the
month, although green-thumb
members were encouraged to tend
to any of the garden areas around
the church at any time.
Grace Cathedral, Topeka
had about 750 people attend its
annual Independence Day celebration. The red, white and blue
event featured lots of patriotic
music and youth handbell ringers
from a local Methodist church.
St. David’s, Topeka youth
Abby Fulton and Daniel
Mangiaracino spent part of their
summer at artistic events. Abby,
12, participated in a professional
ballet company in Jackson, Miss.,
and Daniel, 9, played piano at
“Interlochen” at the National
Music Conference in Michigan.
St. Luke’s, Wamego helped
four youth attend MissionPalooza
by paying a third of the costs.
MissionPalooza is an urban mission experience for teens in Kansas City sponsored by the Dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri.
St. Jude’s, Wellington handed
out free, refreshing lemonade to
people attending the city’s Wheat
Festival craft fair. They distributed more than 10 gallons of the
beverage in a little more than two
hours. They also offered prayers
for festival-goers.
Good Shepherd, Wichita has
a new roof, after 10 years of leaks
caused by hail and other difficulties. Junior Warden Paul Childers
negotiated with the insurance
company, netting a new roof and
repair of interior water damage.
St. Christopher’s, Wichita
hosted an all-parish picnic in the
education building after the noon
service on July 26. Barbecue was
provided; diners brought desserts.
St. James’, Wichita ECW announced they had netted more
than $6,000 in profits from the
spring’s annual Old English Tea.
Members met over the summer to
decide how to disperse the money
to charities in the Wichita area.
St. John’s, Wichita celebrated
the 10th anniversary of service to
the parish of Director of Music Dr.
Dean Roush. The observance included a special hymn by the choir
sung to their unsuspecting director, and a reception after church.
Roush is Director of Musicology
and Professor of Music Theory at
Wichita State University.
St. Stephen’s, Wichita hosted
the largest crowd to date in its
annual neighborhood ice cream
social, when about 130 people
joined in the fun. Participants enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs,
The event raised more than
$1,000, which will purchase new
cabinets for the parish kitchen.
Grace, Winfield again hosted
monthly summer salad luncheons
for Church Women United, an
ecumenical Christian women’s organization. Proceeds were designated for a variety of local charities and scholarships to CWU
events. Y
People
Campus int
erns star
or
k
interns
startt w
wor
ork
at K.U., K
-S
tat
e
K-S
-Stat
tate
By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest
sity of Arizona in Tempe but spent
part of the spring semester and summer in Arequipa, Peru, where he aswo recent college graduates
sisted with two Episcopal Churchalready are hard at work as
related orphanages.
diocesan campus interns for
He previously had spent time in
the 2009-2010 academic year.
Arequipa as an intern with the South
Cortney Dale is living at St.
American Missionary Society, an
Francis Canterbury House at Kansas
Anglican missionary outreach orgaState University in Manhattan, and
nization.
Joel McAlister is in residence at St.
He also spent the spring semester
Anselm Canterbury House at the
2007 and two months in 2008 studyCortney Dale, K-State
University of Kansas in Lawrence.
ing in Queretaro, Mexico. McAlister
campus intern
The two will work with campus
is fluent in Spanish.
missioners the Revs. Craig Loya and
Both interns will serve as mentors
Susan Terry, assisting with a variety
to the undergraduate peer ministers
of campus ministry programs across
living in each Canterbury house and
the diocese.
will help oversee their work. They
Dale is a 2008 graduate of
also will work with peer ministers
Bellarmine University of Louisville,
working on other campuses across the
Ky. For the past year she worked in
diocese.
South Africa as a member of the
They will help organize events
Young Adult Service Corps, an overspecifically for students on the camseas mission program sponsored by
puses where they will work and will
the Episcopal Church that matches
help create service projects for peer
young adults with ministry needs
ministers and other students on camacross the Anglican Communion.
pus.
Joel McAlister, K.U.
While in South Africa she assisted
Dale and McAlister together will
campus intern
with an after-school program operorganize a national mission trip for
ated by an Order of the Holy Cross Anglican mon- college students during the coming year.
astery in Grahamstown.
This is the third year the Diocese of Kansas has
In 2007 Dale was an intern in the Communica- hired graduate campus interns. They are paid a modtions Office of the Diocese of Kentucky.
est stipend for the year and are provided housing at
Joel McAlister just graduated from the Univer- one of the Canterbury houses. Y
T
Seminarian tto
o study faith, en
vir
onment
envir
vironment
P
atrick Funston, a secondyear seminarian at Virginia
Theological Seminary, has
been named a GreenFaith Fellow
for the 2009-2011 session.
The GreenFaith Fellowship
program is the first comprehensive education and training program in the United States to prepare lay and ordained leaders
from diverse religious traditions
for religiously based environmental leadership.
The program provides Fellows
the opportunity to expand their
understanding of religion and the
environment through retreats, web
seminars and conference calls,
mentoring and professional coaching,
networking, and opportunities to mentor future religious
and environmental
leaders.
As part of the
program Funston
will undertake an
environmental
project during his
Patrick
senior (third) year at
VTS.
“Right now I’m thinking I will
try to plant a vegetable garden,”
he said. “Not only would a vegetable garden on campus reduce
the transportation
costs to the seminary, but it would
also give faculty
and students an opportunity to work
with the soil, engaging creation in a
way lost to many of
us.”
Funston said that
after he is ordained
Funston
he hopes to be an
example of how the church can
respond to environmental issues.
GreenFaith is a New Jerseybased interfaith environmental
coalition. Y
Clergy news
The Rev Andrew T. O’Connor is the new rector of Good Shepherd, Wichita, beginning Sept. 26.
He has served as assistant rector of All Saints-ByThe-Sea in Santa Barbara, Calif., since his ordination in 2005. He and his wife, Heather, have four
young children.
The Rev. Gary Goldacker concluded his ministry as interim rector at Good Shepherd, Wichita,
on Sept. 6. He served there for the past year.
The Rev. Ronald D. Pogue is the new interim
rector at Trinity, Lawrence, beginning Aug. 5. For
the past 10 years he has been rector of Trinity Church
in Galveston, Texas.
The Rev. William Breedlove is the new assistant rector at St. Michael’s, Mission. He was ordained as a transitional deacon May 28 in his home
diocese, South Carolina, after graduating this spring
from Nashotah House seminary. Plans call for him
to be ordained to the priesthood in December.
The Rev. Laurie Lewis now is serving as curate
at St. Stephen’s, Wichita, beginning July 1. She has
spent the past year as curate at Trinity, El Dorado.
Lewis and her husband, Tom, are the proud parents of a baby boy, Alexander Ray, born on Aug. 10.
He weighed 8 lbs. and was 19.5 inches long.
Alexander also has a 4-year-old brother, T.J.
The Rev. Matt Zimmermann will celebrate his
first services as rector of St. Margaret’s, Lawrence,
on Sunday, Sept. 13.
The Rev. Ron Peak has retired as rector of Trinity, El Dorado, effective Aug. 1. He had served the
parish since 2004. He and his wife, Sheila, will be
moving soon to Oklahoma.
Two priests now are assisting in Kansas City-area
parishes after transferring to the Diocese of Kansas
from the Diocese of Western Kansas.
The Rev. Dennis R. Gilhousen is serving as an
associated priest at St. Michael’s, Mission. The Rev.
Kevin Schmidt is assisting at St. Thomas, Overland
Park. Y
Photo by Jenelle Carkhuff
Cathedral centennial
Grace Cathedral, Topeka, wished member Noelle Drechsel a happy
100th birthday Aug. 2 with a special party after church.
This was the second 100th birthday celebrated at the parish this
year. Eldon Sloan reached that milestone in March. Y
NAMES AND NOTES
S
jobor Hammer, a member of Grace
Cathedral, Topeka, recently won the
top prize at the National History Day
competition at the University of Maryland. As the winner of the David Van Tassel Founder’s Award, Hammer will receive a full scholarship to Case Western
University in Cleveland.
Her topic in the senior documentary
division was “With Dignity and Purpose:
Ron Walters and the Dockum Drug Store
Sit-in.” It explored the first civil rights
Sjobor Hammer
sit-in, which took place at a Wichita drugstore in July 1958.
This isn’t Hammer’s first win at History Day, however. She took
first place in the senior documentary division in 2008 and placed second and first, respectively, as a seventh and eight grader with her documentary partner, Anna Hamilton, also a Cathedral member.
Hammer is a senior at Topeka High School. Y
T
he Rev. Herman Page, pastoral associate at St. David’s, Topeka, has
written a book about two of his passions:
trains and Martha’s Vineyard. The result
is Rails Across Martha’s Vineyard: Steam
Narrow Gauge and Troller Lines.
Page’s family for several generations
has spent extended summer vacations on
the south Massachusetts island. He and
his wife, Mary, continue to visit there for
periods of each year.
Page has spent the past decade collecting photographs and information for
The Rev. Herman Page
the book, which looks at the little-known
histories of both the island’s steam narrow-gauge railroad and what
grew to be a seven-mile electric streetcar system. Vineyard narrow
gauge ended service in 1895, followed by the trolley lines in 1918.
The book is published by South Platte Press and sells for $19.95
from the publisher (www.southplattepress.com) or from some local
sellers, including Hobby Depot in Topeka. Y
D
eacon Patty Minx has received a
special assignment by Bishop Dean
Wolfe to focus on environmental efforts
in the diocese. She will be working
closely with members of the Trinity Environmental Stewardship Team from
Trinity, Lawrence, to help empower Kansas Episcopalians to become involved
with the environment, and she hopes to
develop a diocesan environmental stewardship committee.
A non-parochial deacon, Minx previDeacon Patty Minx
ously was a hospice chaplain and served
as a deacon at St. Luke’s, Shawnee, from 2003-2006. Y
National and international news
Anglican news briefs
Episcopal News Service and other reports
Lutheran Churchwide Assembly adopts statement on sexuality — The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) by a two-thirds majority Aug. 19
approved a theological statement addressing human sexuality, and
two days later approved opening the ministry of the church to
pastors and other professional workers living in committed samegender relationships. The statement attempts to create a theological framework for disagreements within the ELCA over homosexuality and other scriptural matters relating to human sexuality. It also approved a resolution committing the church to respect the differences of opinions on the matter and honor the
“bound consciences” of those who disagree.
Thew Forrester fails to get consents – On July 27 Presiding
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced that the Rev. Kevin
Thew Forrester failed to receive the required consents to serve as
bishop of Northern Michigan. He had been chosen Feb. 21 to
succeed James Kelsey, who died in June, 2007. Thew Forrester
had been criticized by some because of his Buddhist meditation
practices, and sermons and writings posted online that caused
some to question his theology. Supporters had pointed to his involvement in Northern Michigan’s commitment to mutual ministry and called him a person of strong Christian faith and a thoughtful theologian.
Theologian and author Marion Hatchett dies at 82 — The
Rev. Marion Josiah Hatchett, who served with distinction as professor of liturgy and church music for 30 years from 1969 to
1999 at the School of Theology of the University of the South in
Sewanee, died Aug. 7 in Sewanee, Tenn. He was 82. A founding
member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, Hatchett
was a prolific scholar, writing 13 books and numerous articles on
the history and practice of liturgy and church music. Chief among
his written works is his “Commentary on the American Prayer
Book,” the definitive guide to the history and theology of the
1979 Book of Common Prayer.
Taiwanese Episcopalians assist with typhoon relief efforts
— All church buildings, clergy and members of the Episcopal
Diocese of Taiwan were safe after a typhoon pummeled Taiwan
and the coast of China Aug. 8-9, causing the worst flooding in
half a century. Torrential rain triggered mudslides that destroyed
villages, roads and bridges. Bishop David Lai contacted all the
clergy in the Diocese of Taiwan and let them know that financial
help was available to them and their church members who were
affected.
Institute executive travels through ‘Pirate Alley’ — Douglas B. Stevenson of the Seamen’s Church Institute undertook an
eight-day journey that took him through “Pirate Alley,” the pirate
infested waters off the coast of Somalia, as a guest aboard the
cargo ship, Maersk Idaho. As the director of SCI’s Center for
Seafarers’ Rights, the world’s only full-time, free legal-aid program for merchant mariners, Stevenson made this journey to learn
firsthand about the experience of sailors who routinely travel pirate-infested waters.
Cape Town diocese requests pastoral guidelines for gay
members — The synod of the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town
on Aug. 22 supported a resolution asking the bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa to provide pastoral guidelines
for gay and lesbian members living in “covenanted partnerships,”
whilst “taking due regard of the mind of the Anglican Communion.” The synod also resolved to ask Archbishop Thabo Makgoba
to appoint a working group, representing church members of varying perspectives, to engage in a “process of dialogue and listening” on issues of human sexuality.
Tutu, O’Connor receive Medal of Freedom — Anglican
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and retired Supreme Court justice and
Episcopalian Sanda Day O’Connor were among 16 people who
President Obama honored Aug. 12 with the Presidential Medal
of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The annual award
was created after World War II when President Truman wanted
to honor civilian service during the war. Y
Con
hec
k
Convvention of
offfer
erss reality cchec
heck
Deputies, bishops deal with a shrinking budget
and the role of gays and lesbians in the church’s life
By Solange De Santis
Editor, Episcopal Life
T
he Episcopal Church gathered for the 76th time in
General Convention, this
time in Anaheim, Calif., July 817, and spoke with a clear voice.
From opening addresses from
Presiding Bishop Katharine
Jefferts Schori and House of
Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, the 1,200 clergy and lay
deputies and 200 bishops focused
on mission.
They considered mission in a
time of economic scarcity, mission to all the baptized, mission
to the “least” among us.
Archbishop of Canterbury
Rowan Williams visited for two
days and engaged with Episcopalians, from leaders to kids in a local church program.
As in recent conventions, this
gathering addressed questions of
human sexuality. While the interpretation and effects of its decisions are varied, convention unambiguously stated that gay and
lesbian people may be called to
ordination at all levels.
It also said that God’s call to
ordination is a mystery that the
church discerns through the process outlined in the Constitution
and Canons of the church.
The resolution also reaffirmed
the Episcopal Church’s participation in the Anglican Communion,
while noting that the communion
and the Episcopal Church are not
of one mind on this matter.
It acknowledged that times are
changing, with same-gender marriage, civil unions and domestic
partnerships legal or about to become legal in some states, and
authorized the church to collect
and develop resources for blessing same-gender couples.
It acknowledged economic reality by passing a budget that reflected lower givings by dioceses,
hit with financial woes of their
own. The decision resulted in the
layoff of about 30 people out of a
staff of 180 in New York and regional offices.
The budget did, however, recommit the church to the UN’s
Millennium Development Goals,
with money designated for
NetsforLife, the Episcopal Relief
and Development program that
supplies insecticide-treated bed
nets to prevent malaria.
It also endorsed and provided
some money — though about 10
percent of what was requested —
for a strategic vision that is aimed
at evangelizing in fast-growing
Hispanic/Latino communities.
Convention encouraged the art
of story-telling, scheduling three
“mission conversation” sessions
during which people learned to
tell their personal stories of faith.
Photo by Jim DeLa
Deputies speak one-on-one about issues of human sexuality during a
special discussion time set aside early in General Convention.
General Convention also approved the expansion or affirmation of relationships with
Moravians, Presbyterians, United
Methodists, African Methodists
and others.
As always, convention encompassed much more than legislation. The host diocese, Los Angeles, started building a Habitat for
Humanity house at the convention
site. It hosted a multimedia “emergent church” service and a
U2charist featuring the music of
the rock band, U2.
Perhaps the most vibrant parts
of convention involved young
people. Los Angeles hosted a
lively children’s program for parents working long hours. Older
counterparts, from teenagers to
young adults, were seen on the
floor of convention speaking to
the issues, advocating for peace
and justice, and getting comfortable with leadership roles.
Let’s hope they were inspired
enough to be back in 2012 when
the 77th General Convention
meets in Indianapolis and again
decides how this church will address its faith and its time. Y
Budget, sexuality issues addressed
Reduced budge
budgett
Convention adopted a $141 million budget for 2010-2012 that asks
for less money from dioceses and cuts churchwide spending by $23
million. The formula for asking the 110 dioceses to contribute to the
cost of funding the wider church will change. The current 21 percent
of income asking remains for 2010, but it will drop annually by 1
percent in 2011 and 2012. The $100,000 income exemption will rise
to $120,000, thus leaving more money in dioceses.
At least 30 of the 180 people employed by the Episcopal Church in
its New York and regional offices are losing their jobs, and some
churchwide programs will be eliminated, including anti-racism work,
diocesan services, evangelism, women’s ministry, lay and ordained
ministry, and worship and spirituality.
Inclusiv
e ordination, same-gender resour
ces
Inclusive
resources
General Convention adopted two resolutions that reaffirmed the
inclusive nature of the Episcopal Church’s ordination process and
agreed to spend the next three years developing resources that could
be used for blessing same-gender relationships.
Resolution D025 says that the Episcopal Church is committed to
its relationships in the Anglican Communion; recognizes the contributions of both its lay and ordained gay and lesbian members and that
many of those members live in committed relationships; affirms that
access to the church’s discernment and ordination process is open to
all baptized members according to the Constitution and Canons; and
notes that members of the church disagree faithfully and conscientiously about issues of human sexuality.
Resolution C056 calls for the Standing Commission on Liturgy and
Music, in conjunction with the House of Bishops, to invite churchwide participation in collecting and developing theological resources
and liturgies for blessing same-gender relationships. The commission
is to report on its efforts to General Convention 2012.
The resolution also says that bishops, “particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil
unions or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.”
— Mary Frances Schjonberg, Episcopal Life Online Y
Deputies describe GC actions yyou
ou might ha
havve missed
Editor’s note: Lots happened
at General Convention that didn’t
make the news. Kansas deputies
describe some of those actions.
The V
er
ev. Jerr
Ver
eryy R
Re
Jerryy
Adinolf
dinolfii
Two resolutions in the areas of
Evangelism and World Mission
(my two areas at General Convention) are of particular note.
D038, “Strategic Vision for
Reaching Latinos/Hispanics,” offers a strategy toward becoming
an inviting church for Latinos/
Hispanics and for igniting the
evangelistic mission of our
church. It requested $3,565,000 to
implement this vision in the next
three year, but it actually received
only about 10 percent of that
amount.
D027, “the Five Marks of Mission,” spoke directly to our Presiding Bishop’s charge that mission is the heartbeat of the church.
The marks of mission articulated
by the Anglican Consultative
Council are: to proclaim the Good
News of the Kingdom; to teach,
baptize and nurture new believers;
to respond to human need by loving service; to seek to transform
unjust structures of society; and
to strive to safeguard the integrity
of creation and sustain and renew
the life of the earth.
It also recommends that the
Five Marks of Mission be used as
budget priorities when the triennial budget for 2013-2015 is
drafted.
Larr
Larryy Bingham
D055 reaffirms the tithe as the
minimum standard of individual
giving for members of the Episcopal Church. Deputies were
given the opportunity to sign a
tithing pledge, stating that they
currently are tithing or are firmly
committed to reaching the tithe
within the next five years.
This tithing statement has been
adopted by multiple General Conventions, beginning in 1982. I
signed such a pledge at my first
Convention in 1994.
In the 1980s it was a standard
practice in the Diocese of Kansas
for all members of diocesan leadership to sign this pledge. I remember committing to the tithe as
a member of the diocesan Stewardship Committee and the Council of Trustees.
I believe the tithe is a stewardship principle that has been quietly ignored in many parishes during the past decade, and I would
like to see a revival take place.
The tithe has been an important
part of my spiritual life and discipline.
I urge you to consider this discipline, and if you are in a parish
leadership position, consider a
frank and honest discussion of the
tithe in your year-round stewardship program.
The R
ev. Matthe
w Cobb
Re
Matthew
Public narrative is a new process for dialogue in The Episcopal Church first unveiled at General Convention. I was so enthusiastic about this process that I
Diocese of Kansas members gather on the floor of the House of Deputies. Pictured (from left) are Larry
Bingham, the Very Rev. Kate Moorehead, Bishop Dean Wolfe, the Rev. Lisa Senuta, Bob Skaggs, Mike
Morrow, Frank Connizzo, the Rev. Juli Sifers, Harriet Duff and the Very Rev. Jerry Adinolfi.
underwent training to become a
coach. I learned how to tell a story
of self, a story of us, and a story
of now, within three minutes or
less. Good salesmen, evangelists
and church planters might call this
“the elevator” speech.
During General Convention
the eight people I coached through
four different sessions all felt we
shared a common beauty and
goodness without a preconceived
agenda or prejudice. We were sincerely motivated to hear and be
heard.
Five of the eight people were
from different dioceses and held
a variety of opinions about the
current direction of the Episcopal
Church.
I highly commend this new
process to our diocesan leadership
and Council of Trustees.
Frank Connizzo
The legislative committee on
the Church in Small Communities
deals primarily with concerns of
small congregations, those with an
average Sunday attendance of
fewer than 70.
Three key resolutions from that
area were adopted:
A113, “Strengthening Small
Congregations,” calls on church
agencies to distribute information
on effective ministry practices that
come from small churches and
dioceses.
A148, “Doing Justice and Alleviating Poverty; Identifying and
Growing Congregations,” asked
that funding to three aided dioceses (South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska) and to the
Navajoland Area Mission increase by 25 percent
B030, “Companion Dioceses,”
encourages companion domestic
mission relationship among dioceses and congregations within
the Episcopal Church.
How can we, as members of the
Diocese of Kansas, form domestic mission partnerships with other
congregations and dioceses?
Harrie
Harriett Duf
Dufff
The Standing Commission on
Ecumenical and Interreligious
Relations developed a guiding
theological statement for dioceses
and congregations as they form
relationships with other religious
traditions in their communities.
This statement, resolution AO74,
was adopted by General Convention.
The statement provides a background for developing dialogue
and offers an understanding of
how to reach out with love and
respect while remaining grounded
in Christ’s teachings.
It commends “dialogue for
building relationships, the sharing
of information on religious education, and celebration with
people of other religions as part
of Christian life.”
This document has been commended for use by dioceses and
congregations.
The V
er
ev. K
at
e
Ver
eryy R
Re
Kat
ate
Moorehead
General Convention approved
two new liturgical resources for
trial use. The first is a series of
prayers for pregnancy and childbirth issues, Rachel’s Tears,
Hannah’s Hopes. Years of research went into creating this
document, which brings the pain
of miscarriage, the fear of pregnancy, birth and other reproductive issues before God in prayer.
A new book of Episcopal
saints, Holy Women, Holy Men:
A Celebration of Sainthood, has
been adopted for a three-year trial
use. If adopted in 2012, it would
replace Lesser Feasts and Fasts.
Many new saints have been
added, particularly women, African-Americans and people from
the developing world. While most
seem appropriate to me, I think
some are not saints but luminaries, people whose work speaks of
God’s greatness but whose lives
might not necessarily be considered saintly. Examples include
environmentalist John Muir and
composer J.S. Bach.
A committee at my parish, St.
James, Wichita, will research new
inclusions in the book and will
share their findings. I hope our
diocese will be able to give concrete feedback about this book’s
trial use before a final draft is created.
Mik
e Morr
ow
Mike
Morro
A185 was a complete revision
of Title IV, the disciplinary canons for clergy. It goes into effect
July 1, 2011, giving dioceses time
to adopt new diocesan canons to
conform to its requirements.
The new Title IV moves from a
punishment-based model to promote healing, repentance, forgiveness, restitution, justice, amendment of life and reconciliation.
Although the new Title IV is
designed to be more responsive
and sensitive to the needs of victims, it also provides necessary
protections for clergy charged
with an offense. The burden of
proof for finding that someone has
violated the disciplinary canons
remains “clear and convincing
evidence.”
Hearing panels will decide the
credibility of testimony offered,
which should provide protection
against the use of unreliable hearsay evidence to depose a member
of the clergy. Clergy will not be
required to self-report their own
violations, because such an admission could be used against them
in potential criminal proceedings.
The R
ev. Julianne Sif
er
Re
Sifer
erss
Three resolutions considered
by the Legislative Committees for
Ministry and Education are of
particular note because they encourage action at the diocesan and
congregational level.
AO82, “Christian Formation
Charter for Lifelong Christian
Formation,” offers a 13-point call
to all Episcopalians to participate
fully in lifelong Christian formation.
AO83, “Christian Formation
Directive for Dioceses to Formulate a Strategy for Lifelong Christian Formation in the Next Triennium,” calls on dioceses to create
a strategy that is suitable for persons of various ages, languages
and abilities, reflect diocesan and
societal contexts, and address the
current education and formation
status.
A079, “Substance Abuse,” requires that every course of education for ministry in the church
include education in the nature of
addiction, and requires each diocese to continue to address substance abuse issues with congregations, clergy, laity and employees.
Bob Sk
aggs
Skaggs
General Convention adopted a
Denominational Health Plan
(DHP), but what does it mean for
us in Kansas? The DHP:
1. Is mandatory for all clergy
and lay employees who work at
least 1,500 hours annually in domestic dioceses, parishes and missions.
2. Gives each diocese the right
to decide what plans it will offer,
as well as any cost-sharing guidelines. Dioceses also will decide if
diocesan institutions will be included.
3. Will provide benefits comparable in coverage to those currently provided.
4. Will provide equal access to
health care benefits for eligible
clergy and lay employees.
5. Will be implemented no later
than the end of 2012.
DHP cost savings will come
primarily from a larger pool of
employees. For our diocese, savings over the current plan will be
5 percent or less, and savings for
individual parishes will vary according to family situations and
the plans selected by the Council
of Trustees.
The DHP also offers parity
between lay and clergy employees, and transportability of health
care within the Episcopal Church,
regardless of preexisting conditions.
The Council of Trustees will
have to decide what plans to offer, but the stated intent of adopting the DHP was to provide equal
or better coverage at the same or
lower cost. Y
GC resolutions available online
The text of all resolutions submitted to General Convention, along
with final action on each proposal, is available online at:
http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation/
Reflections on faith and life
Sharing the Good News
Chur
oung adults seek
Churcch has what yyoung
By the Rev. Craig Loya
E
Resour
ces tto
o giv
e
esources
give
Every church in the Diocese
of Kansas is engaged in telling
these stories, and living and
teaching these habits, week after
week after week. The church has
a wealth of spiritual and
relational resources to offer, and
the young adults I observe
almost daily have a deep hunger
for those very things.
That means every congregation in this diocese has a
valuable gift to offer the young
adults in our midst who long for
the spiritual food of rich and
meaningful worship, deep
companionship with adults older
than themselves, and authentic,
loving community.
The good news about sharing
the Good News with young
adults is that it could not be
simpler, and it costs almost
nothing.
Just ask
The best gift the church can
give to young adults is our
attention and our love. One of
the easiest and most effective
ways we can keep our promise
to support someone in their life
in Christ is just to ask them how
they are doing. What are they
interested in? What do they
struggle with? What are they
looking for?
Often a simple conversation
at coffee hour, or an invitation to
lunch or a meal in your home,
can be a life-changing entry into
Christian community.
Try striking up a conversation with a college student you
know. Talk to them at coffee
hour, write them a note, invite
them to lunch, send them a care
package, cook them a meal, or
just pray for them daily and let
them know it.
I’ve been told by countless
lay leaders, deacons, priests and
bishops that one small gesture
like this at a critical time in their
life made all the difference.
When I was in college and
visited an Episcopal church for
the first time, I stood by myself
at coffee hour, feeling foolish
and unwelcome, and I almost
didn’t go back.
So if you see someone who’s
been brave enough to walk
through the doors of your church
for the first time, at the very
least introduce yourself, and tell
them you’re glad they came.
Don’t giv
e up on them
give
And for God’s sake, don’t
give up on them. Even when
someone stops attending for
awhile, even if they move away
to college and don’t attend
church there, stay in touch.
When human beings moved
away from God, God pursued us
with an endless love. That God
stayed in touch with us, even
when we moved away, is the
basis for our mission of pursuing
the world with that same love.
Offering our love, our
wisdom, our companionship and
our community to the young
adult — in or outside our church
walls — is a key part of that
mission, and an indispensable
investment in the present and
future of Christ’s church.
The Rev. Craig Loya is one of
two campus missioners for the
Diocese of Kansas, based at
Kansas State University. Y
September 2009
October 2009
7
9
Diocesan Office is closed
for Labor Day
10 Community Life Committee meeting, Bethany
Place Conference
Center, Topeka
11 Kansas School for
Ministry class (through
Sept. 12), Bethany Place
Conference Center,
Topeka
12 Southeast Convocation
board meeting, 10 a.m.,
St. John’s, 1801 Corning,
Parsons
Kansas School for
Ministry class (through
Oct. 10), Bethany Place
Conference Center,
Topeka
10 Safeguarding God’s
Children and Adult
Sexual Awareness
training, St. John’s, 1801
Corning, Parsons
23 150th Diocesan Convention (through Oct. 24),
Maner Conference
Center and Grace
Cathedral, Topeka
Southwest Convocation
board meeting, 2 p.m.,
Trinity, 400 W. Ash, El
Dorado
14 Safeguarding God’s
Children training, Trinity,
1011 Vermont, Lawrence
15 Council of Trustees
meeting, Grace Cathedral, Topeka
19 Northeast Convocation
board meeting, 9 a.m.,
St. Margaret’s, 5700 W.
6th St., Lawrence
For the latest news of the
diocese, full calendar
listings and more,
visit the diocesan website,
www.episcopal-ks.org.
Northwest Convocation
board meeting, 1 p.m.,
Grace Cathedral, 701
SW 8th Ave., Topeka
25 Tocher Lecture with Dr.
Lauren Winner, 7 p.m.,
St. James’, Wichita
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
835 S.W. Polk Street
Topeka, KS 66612
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit No.601
Topeka, KS
very time a new Christian is baptized, all who
are present pledge to do
“all in our power to support this
person in their life in Christ.”
As recent high school
graduates move away from their
home parishes to attend college,
and as students return to our
churches in college towns, we
are invited to ask ourselves: how
are we keeping that promise?
In an excellent article
recently written for the news
blog Episcopal Café, Amy
McCreath, Episcopal chaplain at
MIT, writes that “the folks who
study developmental psychology
and spiritual development have
been telling us for years that late
adolescence and early adulthood
are critical times for establishing
personal identity [and] probing
personal faith commitments….
They also tell us that having a
‘mentoring community’ makes
all the difference.”
Between the ages of about 18
and 30, young adults go through
what may be the most critical
stage in their personal and faith
development, and the college
years are a particularly intense
time of formation and discernment.
This is when one’s most
important habits and ways of
thinking are firmly cemented. It
is also when a person’s most
influential, and often longest
lasting, relationships are formed.
The church is in a unique
position to serve as a “mentoring community” that can make
all the difference to these young
people.
Over the centuries, Christians
have developed stories and ways
of thinking, praying, living
together and caring for each
other — holy habits — to help
us deal with questions of
vocation, relationships, finances,
friendships, life in community
and other issues that make up
the complex world of adulthood.
We believe that God calls us to
shape these areas of our life in
ways that reflect and witness to
God’s truth and love.
Diocesan Calendar
The mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
is to gather, equip and send disciples of Jesus Christ
to witness to God’s reconciling love.

July-August - The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

Transcription

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